In today’s Auto Ethnographer episode, the second of two parts, host John Stech dives deeper into his experience at DaimlerChrysler, covering his stay at the Chrysler side of the family.

John’s assignment at Chrysler International, a division of the company responsible for 120 non-NAFTA markets, was to revamp the volume planning system in time for a major new product offensive. In doing so he had to gain trust with an experienced Chrysler team and get their support in building a modernized approach to sales and production planning. This effort ended up impacting not only the International markets, but also caused the American, Canadian, and Mexican markets to change their approach to forecasting and vehicle ordering.

In the closing days of the merger, John had moved to Egypt (the topic of Episode 11) where he first strove to harmonize the frayed working relationship between Mercedes-Benz and Chrysler. This effort stopped short once DaimlerChrysler’s CEO, Dr. Dieter Zetsche announced the sale of Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management. Later John would have to begin the sales company wind-down process to separate the company into two new subsidiaries, Mercedes-Benz Egypt and Chrysler Egypt.

This is the second half of John’s personal story through nine years of experiences at DaimlerChrysler, as seen from the front row on both sides of the merged entity. He understands that his experience was different than that of others. While some viewed the merger positively, many derided one or the other merged partner.

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