Bob Nardelli drives Chrysler for private equity

So, Bob Nardelli, the man last seen being marched out of Home Depot, the US retailer, with a cheque for $210 million (£105 milion) in his back pocket, has turned up at Chrysler, the car maker recently bought by Cereberus, the private equity outfit.

Let's set his management talents on one side for a moment, and what his departure from Home Depot might or might not say about his talents. Let's focus on why on earth he wants to do the job. How many people would do anything at all - apart from buy yachts and lie on beaches - with bank account bulging like Nardelli's?

According to reports, Nardelli is to draw only $1 a year for being the chief executive of the troubled car maker. He will get some unspecified incentives, which I assume are share options or similar, but money does not seem to be under the hood of the Chrysler Nardelli has just started driving. Is this a good thing? WIll it impair his judgement or enhance it? There is, surely, a place for a nice normal salary and perks package in the remuneration of any person working for a company which could with getting itself back in tuch with the harsh realities of car making.

Pyschology, as inferred by this intriguing piece from the Monday Memo, might be at the heart of this eye-catching snippet from the management annals.