The “new” Chrysler officially launched yesterday as most of the transition of ownership from Daimler to the private Cerberus has been wrapped up. A day earlier, though, the company unveiled a blog prominently accessible from the company’s business home page.
Called “Voices of Chrysler,” the blog has featured several senior-level posts, including a welcome from Vice Chairman and President Tom Lasorda who wrote:
We will continue our strong tradition of communicating with our stakeholders, employees, dealers, suppliers, community leaders, and most importantly, our customers. That’s one of the reasons for this blog…We also want to start a conversation with you and keep it going, so please feel free to add your two cents in the comment section.
The invitation was greeted by 22 comments to date, including a few wishes for success along with some concerns. One noted that the new CEO, Bob Nartelli, was removed from his position at Home Depot where his leadership had led to demoralization of the workforce and customer base. “Please tell me that things will be different at Chrysler LLC. I am a lifetime Mopar fan and do not want to see a hacksaw job done on my favorite car company. Just worried, that’s all.” Another complained about the lack of lifetime warranties in Canada.
(The new CEO’s name is spelled Nardelli, but I left the spelling as it was in the comment.)
Other posts have addressed innovation and a look back at the design of the Chrysler logo (by its original creator). There’s also an introductory note from Jackie Headapohl, the editor of the blog. Headapohl spoke to Toby Bloomberg and told her the blog’s goal is to “share the many voices associated with Chrysler that give it its unique “mojo” and provide customers a behind-the scenes look at our company.” Toby promises a full-blown interview with Headapohl soon.
So far, comments have appeared with each post and it doesn’t appear that there’s any effort by the company to filter out the negative. I may have missed it, but I haven’t seen any of the blog authors participating in the comments section. So far, the writing is a bit stilted and the topics are fairly broad—not unexpected for a brand new corporate blog launched to coincide with the launch of a new company. The blog should find its footing right alongside the organization.
Overall, though, launching a blog along with the company is a smart move, providing that window inside and the opportunity for the authentic voices of company leaders to be heard and for them to engage with customers (and other constituents).
One interesting note: Accompanying the RSS feed for the blog is a link that reads, “Podcast feed.” This leads to a 404/page-not-found, but suggests that a podcast is in the works.
