FIAT HEAT: You could almost whistle the operatic theme tune. Set amid the rolling hills of northern Italy, it's a story of power, pomp, money, massive egos and internecine rivalry. It has a cast of thousands but at its heart is a dynasty struggling to hold on amid an orgy of bloodletting by its lieutenants.
First we have the apparent sibling rivalry between the suave, jet-setting playboy, Giovanni Agnelli, and his younger, more retiring law graduate brother, Umberto. Giovanni took the front seat at Fiat, while Umberto, despite major roles in the company and several suggestions that he was promised the chairmanship, remained in his elder brother's shadow.
Umberto's hope of taking control faded and attention focused on grooming his son, Giovannino, to take over. Tragically he died of a rare cancer in 1997.
Eventually, after 40 years in his brother's shadow, Umberto does get to the top - for a fleeting moment. Just a year after the death of the charismatic Giovanni, the new chairman dies of cancer leaving the throne empty.
The only real hope for the Agnelli dynasty holding its grip on the Fiat empire lies with John Elkann, Giovanni's 28-year-old grandson. Elkann is regarded as a rising star, but too young to tackle the immense problems facing Fiat at present. Yesterday he was appointed vice-chairman.
While the boardroom drama is played out, the company has gone from one financial crisis to the next. Then, 15 months ago, it appointed the no-nonsense outsider, Giuseppe Morchio, as chief executive to put the company's business in order.
While Fiat can boast a turnover in excess of €50 billion, it has had to do with less help from the government - and competition from international car makers gets ever tougher. Times have been particularly trying in Turin.
In 2000, Fiat struck a deal with General Motors, selling 20 per cent of its vehicle operations to the Detroit-based car maker with an option to sell the remaining share by 2005. In 2002 Fiat's car unit - which includes Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo - had lost more than €570 million, while its share price had lost about 80 per cent since a high in 1998. Yet Morchio's plans seemed to be working and investors reckoned on break-even this year.
However, despite the successful start to his four-year plan and pulling the colossus back from its gravest crisis since its founding in 1899, Morchio was not "family". With Umberto's passing last Friday, the family closed ranks and decided not to reward the "outsider" with the chairmanship. Instead it chose the closest thing to a blood relative - Luca Cordero di Montezemolo.
The debonair Montezemolo enjoys sports-star status for reviving Ferrari fortunes on the Formula One race tracks and in the showroom. He has worked for nearly 30 years with or near Fiat.
He likes to say that Giovanni Agnelli was "like a father to me". The announcement of his rise to the chairmanship came less than 24 hours after Umberto's funeral.
A furious Morchio stormed out of Fiat upon hearing the announcement. He had spent all the previous day standing by Umberto Agnelli's coffin, alongside Gianluigi Gabetti, the family's long-time lawyer, and Daniel John Winteler, the young chief executive of Ifil, the family holding company which owns 30 per cent of Fiat and has stakes in numerous other companies.
Morchio, an ambitious and aggressive executive, had hoped his ability to rapidly restructure the group and to calm angry trade unions would have earned him enough trust from the family to merit the chair. Although Fiat still loses money, most investors believe it can break even by the end of the year.
Things are not so certain now. There's no doubting Montezemolo's talents. He turned Ferrari into the powerhouse it is today - always an icon of sporting glory, it now has the financial and business respect that it once earned on the racetracks. It seemingly can do no wrong.
While Fiat was quick to name Sergio Marchionne as its fifth chief executive in the past two years, it will take him at least six months to read himself into the job. That's on top of the time it took Morchio to do the same and come up with his four-year plan.
It all adds up to a lot of time with the Fiat group suspended in animation, awaiting the latest grand scheme to turn things around. Stability, it seems, is an unknown in Turin.
Meanwhile, there's another actor in this opera who must look upon Marchionne's appointment with conspiratorial glee. At the time of Giovanni's death, Ford's Martin Leach was tipped for the job.
Amid rumours of his imminent appointment, Ford and Leach parted company, with the American car giant warning that, if he went to Fiat, he would be breaking a non-compete clause in his contract. The legal wrangles between Leach and his former employers continued as Morchio took up the chief executive position.
Leach finally won his case against Ford, and was welcomed into the Fiat fold earlier this year, in the more niche position as head of Maserati, answering to Montezemolo at Ferrari.
With the Ferrari job now vacant, could Leach be taking the reigns at the prancing horse? Cue theme tune and titles.
