Sergio Marchionne likes to be at the centre of attention and he got his wish in Detroit this week.
塞尔焦•马尔基翁内(Sergio Marchionne)喜欢成为关注的焦点。上周在底特律，他实现了自己的愿望。
When I first came across the chief executive of Chrysler and Fiat at the auto show, he was surrounded by photographers and was showing off a Fiat 500 to Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives.
我第一次在车展上遇到克莱斯勒-菲亚特(Chrysler-Fiat)首席执行官马尔基翁内时，他正在向美国众议院发言人南希•佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)展示菲亚特500，周围都是摄影师。
Mrs Pelosi had good reason to pay attention since the US government has staked $12bn (€8.3bn, £7.4bn) on his ability to resurrect a company that Barack Obama's auto task force decided was unviable on its own. Without him, it might not have paid for the smallest of the Big Three to travel through Chapter 11.
佩洛西完全有理由关注， 因为美国政府拿出了120亿美元，押注马尔基翁内有能力让克莱斯勒起死回生。克莱斯勒是美国汽车业三巨头中最小的一家，巴拉克•奥巴马(Barack Obama)的汽车特别工作组认定其无法独立生存。如果没有马尔基翁内，美国政府可能不会掏钱让它走出破产保护。
A lot rides on whether he can repeat his trick at Fiat, where he restored a failing company to stability, if not to parity with global rivals. “Our reputation and credibility is at stake. We've put the whole damn thing on the line, including my life,” he told me.
克莱斯勒的重振，在很大程度上取决于马尔基翁内能否重现他在菲亚特展示的技巧——即使不能和国际对手势均力敌，他至少让菲亚特恢复了稳定。他告诉我：“我们的声望和信誉处于危险之中。我们已经投入了一切，包括我的生命。”
The jumper-wearing Mr Marchionne is not given to self-doubt. In a recent speech, he quoted Machiavelli's precept that “a return to first principles in a republic is sometimes caused by the simple virtues of one man”. He regards himself as that man.
身穿套头衫的马尔基翁内不喜欢自我怀疑。在最近的一次演讲中，他引述了马基雅弗利(Machiavelli)的格言：“共和国恢复最高原则有时就是由一个人的简单美德造成的。”他认为自己就是那样一个人。
His chances of success, however, depend on how you define the target. If it is to stabilise Chrysler, refurbish its line-up, repay $7bn of government money and refloat it with an initial public offering in, say, 2011 (none of them trivial achievements), I reckon he will probably manage it.
然而，他能否取得成功取决于你如何界定目标。如果目标是让克莱斯勒恢复稳定、重整生产线、偿还70亿美元政府资金以及在，比如说2011年，通过首次公开发行(IPO)重新上市（这些成就没有一件是微不足道的），我认为他可能会实现目标。
If, however, success is defined in his own terms – promoting Chrysler-Fiat into the premier league of global volume carmakers alongside Ford, Toyota, Volkswagen and others – I doubt it. His empire is too much of a mish-mash of domestic brands to conquer the world.
不过，如果用他自己的话来定义成功——将克莱斯勒-菲亚特发展成与福特(Ford)、丰田(Toyota)、大众(Volkswagen)等公司比肩的全球量产汽车制造商超级联盟中的一员，那么我对他的成功表示怀疑。他的王国是一个本国品牌大杂烩，难以征服世界。
Mr Marchionne has altered the mood at Chrysler, whose share of the US car market has been declining since the late 1990s, battered first by a disastrous takeover by Daimler and then a period owned by Cerberus Capital, a private equity firm, which he calls “the Twilight Zone”.
马尔基翁内已改变了克莱斯勒的气氛。上世纪90年代末以来，克莱斯勒的美国汽车市场份额一直在下滑——打击接踵而至，先是受到戴姆勒(Daimler) 灾难性收购，然后又有一段时间为私人股本公司赛伯乐资产管理公司(Cerberus Capital Management)所拥有——他称之为“模糊地带”。
It has a bad product portfolio, with not only the Chrysler brand but Dodge skewed towards the US, and trucks and vans. Its passenger cars suffer from poor design and quality problems, none being recommended by Consumer Reports, although Jeep is still a good property.
克莱斯勒的产品组合很糟糕——克莱斯勒品牌和道奇(Dodge)都向美国倾斜，还有卡车和货车。它的乘用车设计拙劣，质量低下，没有一款车型得到了《消费者报告》(Consumer Reports)的推荐，不过吉普(Jeep)品牌仍然是一项优良的资产。
Meanwhile, Ford in particular is showing signs of a revival, having based its new Focus car on design and technology from its European arm, and selling the model across the world. Even the accident-prone General Motors has much stronger international reach and is bringing out a global range of cars, including its Aveo and Cruze models.
与此同时，福特尤其显示出复兴的迹象，新款福克斯(Focus)车型采用了来自欧洲部门的设计和技术，在全球销售。即使是命运 多舛的通用汽车(General Motors)，国际化程度也比克莱斯勒高很多，并在全球推出了一系列车型，包括雪佛兰乐聘(Aveo)和科鲁兹(Cruze)。
The Obama administration's auto task force wavered over whether to put Chrysler out of its misery, which would have been braver and better for an industry suffering from huge over-capacity, but lost its nerve.
奥巴马政府的汽车特别工作组摇摆不定，不知道是否要让克莱斯勒破产。对于一个产能严重过剩、不知何去何从的产业，这本来是一个更大胆、更好的举措。
Inside, morale was as low as you would expect at a company making poor cars with cheap interiors, such as the Sebring. “We have engineers who have been biting their tongues until they were bleeding, saying this car could be better,” says Ralph Gilles, the head of Dodge.
在克莱斯勒内部，士气非常低迷，就像你在赛百灵(Sebring)等生产品质低劣、内饰廉价的汽车的公司会看到的那样。道奇品牌主管拉尔夫•吉尔斯(Ralph Gilles)表示：“我们的工程师一直紧咬牙关直到流出血来，说这辆车会做得更好。”
The two dozen executives who form Mr Marchionne's court at Chrysler now look energised, if a bit scared (those who do not measure up are soon fired). They hang on his every word, which can be hard since he mumbles, and are hard at work on his five-year plan.
马尔基翁内在克莱斯勒的管理团队有24名高管，他们目前看上去干劲十足，但也有点惶恐（那些不合格的高管很快遭到了解雇）。他们紧记马尔基翁内的每一个字——由于他说话含糊，这可能有些困难——努力完成他提出的5年计划。
It looks like he did a smart deal, taking advantage of the US government's weak bargaining position and Chapter 11 to gain control of a distressed asset for free. In return for technology and his time, Fiat will probably end up with 35 per cent of Chrysler by 2011.
看起来马尔基翁内做了一次精明的交易，他利用美国政府不利的谈判地位和破产保护法，免费获得了一项廉价资产的控制权。作为技术和他所花费时间的回报，到2011年，菲亚特最终可能获得克莱斯勒35%的股份。
He can put together Lancia and Chrysler, using the latter as the group's main brand with technology from the former, build on Jeep's potential and figure out something for Dodge. With a revival under way in US car sales, he needs only to squeeze a few points of market share, and an IPO beckons.
他可以把蓝旗亚(Lancia)和克莱斯勒整合在一起，利用蓝旗亚的技术让克莱斯勒成为集团主打品牌，依赖吉普的潜力并研究出道奇的解决办法。随着在美国汽车销售的复苏，他只需要将市场份额提高几个百分点，而且上市正在向他招手。
Short-term recovery is, however, not the same as long-term prosperity, and Fiat-Chrysler's prospects of achieving the latter look dim. Mr Marchionne may be an expert player, but his cards are weak.
不过，短期复苏不同于长期繁荣，而菲亚特-克莱斯勒实现长期繁荣的前景看起来很渺茫。马尔基翁内可能是个打牌高手，但他的牌不好。
The Chrysler and Fiat stands at the Detroit show were instructive to observe. Compared with the focus on fewer models and brands at other companies, it looked like a collection of small enterprises – Chrysler, Dodge, Fiat, Lancia, Alfa Romeo, Maserati and Ferrari.
观察克莱斯勒和菲亚特在底 特律车展上的展台颇有启发意义。相比于只关注较少车型和品牌的其它公司，菲亚特-克莱斯勒看起来就像小企业的集合——克莱斯勒、道奇、菲亚特、蓝旗亚、阿 尔法-罗密欧 (Alfa romeo)、马莎拉蒂(Maserati)和法拉利(Ferrari)。
Dodge is an ageing blue-collar name with only one strong model – the Ram truck – which is being turned into a separate brand. Mr Marchionne admits that Dodge has value only in the US, and the reason he did not shut it was “volume” – it was too big to fail.
道奇是一个日渐老化的蓝领品牌，只有一个正在转变为独立品牌的强大车型——公羊(Ram)卡车。马尔基翁内承认，道奇只在美国有价值，他没有关闭道奇的理由在于其“规模”——太大而不能倒闭。
Meanwhile, Chrysler has enough of a challenge on its hands to do better in its domestic market. Expanding it into Asia, or making Lancia and Fiat into broader European brands to rival Volkswagen, Renault or Opel would be extremely hard.
与此同时，克莱斯勒改善国内市场表现就已经遇到了不少挑战。如果让克莱斯勒向亚洲扩张，或者让蓝旗亚和菲亚特成为更广泛的欧洲品牌，与大众、雷诺(Renault)或欧宝(Opel)竞争，将是一项极其艰巨的任务。
Mr Marchionne insists that he can deploy his brands around the world by sharing common platforms, rather than needing a single marque like Ford or Toyota. “Brand proliferation is not a novelty, and it is profitable if you execute it well,” he says.
马尔基翁内坚称，他可以通过共享平台，在全球范围内配置旗下品牌，而不像福特或丰田那样需要单独的车型。他表示：“品牌扩散并不新鲜，如果执行得好，它是会带来盈利的。”
Perhaps, but Machiavelli would not have advised his prince to rely upon it. If and when Mr Marchionne fixes Chrysler and repays the US, he will need to think again.
或许吧。但马基雅弗利不会建议他的君王依赖这种策略。万一马尔基翁内修理好克莱斯勒，偿还了美国政府资金，他将需要重新考虑。