Word: fiat
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...Black. Fiat plants were bombed repeatedly, with losses running to an estimated $40 million. When Agnelli died in 1945, it looked as if Fiat might never recover. But it was able to rebuild with the help of $46 million in U.S. loans. Then the Fiat union, a member of Communist-controlled C.G.I.L. ( Confederazione Generale Italiana di Lavoro), formed "councils of management" to run the plants, virtually took over. The councils soon found the job too tough to handle, and gradually they were forced to let brilliant, little (5 ft. i in.) Professor Vittorio Valletta, who had succeeded Agnelli, take charge...
Valletta, a self-made man whose constant traveling and shrewd bargaining make him Fiat's best salesman, quickly got things humming again. By last week, Fiat was turning out 500 cars a day, twice its prewar peak, and its huge iron & steel works, including the biggest cold-rolling mill on the Continent, had doubled its prewar capacity. Last year Fiat reported a $4,000,000 net on $320 million sales...
Mice & Monopoly. As an automaker, Fiat specializes in small, low-horsepower models that can negotiate Europe's twisting roads and give good mileage on its expensive gasoline. Most Italians, however, find them too high-priced, complain that Fiat could afford to cut prices. They cite the fact that in Paris, where there is competition, the new Fiat "1100" sells for $235 less than in Italy. Even the Italians who can afford Fiat's two bestselling cars, the Topolino (Little Mouse) at $1,146, and the "1100" at $1,608, must be prepared to put down a $320 deposit...
Grip of Iron. So important is Fiat to the Italian economy that the government would hardly make a major economic decision without considering its effects on Fiat. In addition to the 117,000 cars, trucks and buses it turned out last year, Fiat made two-thirds of Italy's tractors, three-quarters of its refrigerators, and much of its diesel and railroad equipment. It has helped reconstruct Italy in other ways. After the war, Fiat kept more men on its payrolls than were needed, and only recently has had work for them all. Explains Valletta: "If we had discharged...
Such immense power has bothered more than one monopoly-hating American charged with helping rebuild Italy's economy for NATO defense. But most of them have come to accept Fiat's position. As one of Italy's economists has pointed out, no Italian government, however strong, would ever be able "to withstand the collapse of Fiat. Said he: "No matter how badly things were to go with Fiat, the government would be obliged ... to keep [it] going, even if this meant making refrigerators as Christmas presents to the Eskimos...