FIAT AND BMW; A TALE OF TWO DYNASTIES

摘要

This is the decade for centennial party time across the car industry. The celebrations for the combination of four wheels and an internal combustion engine, however, have been muted. A business that began about 100 years ago in Europe as a cottage industry often run by families is now run by consolidated multinationals, most of which suffer from the problem of global oversupply. Yet two of Europe's major car manufacturers remain under family control: BMW, an athletic stripling of only 86, and Fiat, which is really feeling every one of its 104 years. The Quandt and Agnelli clans control two middling producers on the world scene, punching out about a million (BMW) and two million (Fiat) cars respectively. In Europe, Fiat has about 7.4% of the car market and BMW 4.3 %. Size is no guarantee of success, though. Whereas BMW, now with Rolls Royce on stream, may be at its zenith in terms of the success of its products, Fiat is in severe distress. BMW posted its biggest ever profit of Eu3.3 billion in 2002 (and is on target for new record profits, and sales, in 2003), while Fiat recorded a loss of Eu4.3 billion in 2002, the year its patriarchal boss died. The broader picture in Turin is grim. Since 1990, Fiat's share of the European market has halved and, worse, its share of the vital home market has plummeted from well over 50% in its heyday to less than 30% last year. What has gone right and wrong for these two dynasties, and how have they ended up in such contrasting states?