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Excerpts from:

Fiat's ambitions

The Italian solution

Fiat’s chief executive, Sergio Marchionne,
has gone merger mad

HIS company is among the smallest of the global volume carmakers. But right now Sergio Marchionne is without question the most talked-about car executive in the world. The chief executive of Fiat Group has been alone in seeing an extraordinary opportunity in the meltdown in Detroit. By seeking to take over the running of both Chrysler and Opel, the European arm of General Motors (GM), Mr Marchionne is attempting not only to transform Fiat into a car group almost of the scale of mighty Toyota and Volkswagen (VW), but also to change the face of a perennially troubled industry.

Last December Mr Marchionne said of his stricken industry: “What we are seeing is unprecedented. I have never seen the failure of so many systems at once.” Fiat was in a fight for survival. “We’re just going to slam the brakes on, use as many temporary lay-offs as needed, cut everything back to essentials.” He added an apocalyptic forecast. “By the time we finish with this in the next 24 months, as far as mass producers are concerned, we’re going to end up with one American house [Ford or GM, you presume]; one German of size [VW Group]; one French-Japanese, maybe with an extension in the US [the Renault-Nissan alliance]; one in Japan [Toyota], one in China [several possible candidates] and one potential European player [either Fiat or PSA Peugeot Citroën].”

The details of this vision may be wrong. Despite its present travails and imminent bankruptcy, few believe that GM will vanish and leave Ford as the sole American-owned champion. France’s PSA Peugeot Citroën, though unwieldy, is not about to disappear either. The strength of Hyundai- Kia in emerging markets and North America should ensure that the South Korean producer makes the cut. And in Japan, however great the cull of smaller outfits such as Mitsubishi and Suzuki, Honda and perhaps Mazda will still be around to challenge the dominance of Toyota in its home market. So will Renault’s partner, Nissan.

(…)

Having presided over a near-miraculous turnaround at Fiat since being appointed in 2004, Mr Marchionne saw in Chrysler an opportunity to apply the same lessons. At Fiat he saw a sluggish organisation that lacked leadership and had become accustomed to management by committee. But he also saw, buried within the company, a new generation of leaders.

“The single most important thing was to dismantle the organisational structure,” he recalls. “We tore it apart in 60 days, removing a large number of leaders who had been there a long time and who represented an operating style that lay outside any proper understanding of market dynamics.” In their place he promoted a group of younger executives, many with a background in consumer marketing, who understood and could provide what he wanted: accountability, openness, rapid communication and impatience with hierarchy and internal politics.

Some doubt that Fiat’s lean management has the resources to spread itself across Chrysler, let alone Opel too. Mr Marchionne understands the concern, but rejects it. He believes he already knows who the new leaders at Chrysler will be. He is confident that the same will apply to Opel, should that too fall into his lap.

(…)

(From The Economist print edition, May 7th 2009)

According to the text:

Item 3 - Chrysler and Opel are the American arm of General Motors;

Julgue a afirmativa:

Item 4 - !$ \sum_{n=1}^{ \infty} { \Large { sen^2n+ 3 \over n}} !$ é convergente.

Seja !$ a_n !$ uma sequência de números positivos e !$ S = \left \{ n\,\in\,N | a_n\,\ge 1 \right \} !$ . Julgue o item abaixo:

Item 2 - Se !$ \sum_{n=1}^{ \infty} a_n !$ converge, então as séries !$ \sum_{n=1}^{ \infty} a_n^2 !$ e !$ \sum_{n=1}^{ \infty} a_n^2 / ( 1 +a_n^2) !$ convergem;

Suponha que X e Y sejam variáveis aleatórias independentes, com distribuições de Bernoulli com parâmetros p e q, isto é,

!$ X = { \begin{cases} 1\,\,com\,probabilidade\,\,\,\,p\\0\,\,\,com\,probabilidade\,\,\,1-p \end{cases}} !$

e

!$ Y = { \begin{cases} 1\,\,com\,probabilidade\,\,\,\,q\\0\,\,\,com\,probabilidade\,\,\,1-p \end{cases}} !$

Defina Z = aY + bX, para a e b constantes.

E[ ] e V[ ] representam, respectivamente, expectativa e variância. Julgue a afirmativa abaixo:

Item 2 - Se p = q, o coeficiente de correlação entre Z e X é igual a !$ { \Large { b \over \sqrt{ (a^2 + b^2)}}} !$;

Com relação à classificação dos bens (em normal, de luxo, necessário, inferior, comum e de Giffen) e às demandas por esses bens, julgue a questão a seguir:

Item 0 - Se um bem é normal, então ele não pode ser um bem de Giffen;

Considere o seguinte modelo de equações simultâneas:

!$ q_d = a1p + a2z + a2z + a3y + \varepsilon_1\,\,\,\,(demanda),\\q_S= \beta1p + \varepsilon_2\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,(oferta)\,e\\qd=qs= q\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,\,(equilíbrio) !$,

com

!$ E[ \varepsilon_1| z,y] = E [ \varepsilon_2 |z,y]= 0\\E[ \varepsilon_1^2 | z,y] \sigma_1^2,\,\,\,\,E[ \varepsilon_2^2 |z,y] = \sigma_2^2,\,\,\,E[ \varepsilon_1\,\,\varepsilon_2 |z,y] = \sigma_{12} \neq 0 !$

É correto afirmar que:

Item 3 - O estimador de mínimos quadrados de dois estágios de β₁ coincide com o estimador de variáveis instrumentais de β₁, quando y não for observado;

Sobre Números-Índices podemos dizer que:

Item 0- O índice de preços de Paasche para uma data t é igual à média harmônica ponderada dos preços relativos, utilizando o valor de vendas de cada produto no período t como fator de ponderação;

Denote X e Y variáveis aleatórias, cuja função densidade conjunta avaliada em (x,y) é f(x,y)=c(x,y), 0<x<1 e 0<y<1, onde c é uma constante. A função de distribuição acumulada de X avaliada em x é F(x).

Item 3 - E(X|Y=y) não depende de y;

Responda se verdadeiro ou falso:

Item 0 - A diferença entre as medianas de uma distribuição F_(a,b) e de uma distribuição !$ X_a^2 !$ diminui à medida que !$ b \rightarrow \infty !$;

Julgue a seguinte afirmativa:

Item 2 - Considere uma pequena economia aberta sob regime de câmbio flexível, em que valem a Teoria Quantitativa da Moeda e a Paridade do Poder de Compra. Mantidos constantes o produto real, a velocidade renda de circulação da moeda e a inflação externa, um aumento de 1 ponto percentual na taxa de expansão monetária levará a um aumento de igual magnitude na taxa de depreciação nominal da moeda doméstica;