Chrysler recently exited from the bankruptcy process, with U.S. government support and with Sergio Marchionne as CEO. Now was the time to work out how to create synergies with FIAT, how to improve the current manufacturing, product, and distribution-network configuration, and how to define the future product portfolio to compete over the long term. In 2004, Marchionne was appointed CEO of FIAT Group, headquartered in Turin, Italy, when the company had faced a near-hopeless crisis. He performed an extreme makeover and turned the company around. In 2008 the entire global automotive industry had entered a deep crisis; in response FIAT and Chrysler had forged a partnership, and Marchionne now found himself in the same situation again.

After the death of Umberto Agnelli in 2004, the Agnelli family, led by John Elkann, needs to decide whether to keep Fiat CEO Giuseppe Morchio. The Fiat Group is in a delicate financial position and John Elkann, the new family leader, is untested in this role. The stakes of this decision are high for both the family and the family business. The case describes the leadership and governance of the Fiat Group and raises questions on who should be involved in such decisions.