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Last time we saw Bob Nardelli the ex-G.E. star was getting pushed out of Home Depot for getting the board to pay him outrageous sums of money even as the stock fell. He had other issues, like refusing to address shareholders at annual meetings, but his pay was wayyyyy over the top and his refusal to take even a modest paycut to save face really summed up Nardelli’s entire tenure at Home Depot. (Not to worry, he did get a $210 million severance package)

Today, Cerebus Capital Management announced that Nardelli was going to take the reins at Chrysler from Tom LaSorda, the auto industry lifer who was running the company under Daimler.

I think this is a master stroke similar to Ford’s hiring of Alan Mulally. The fact is is that Nardelli completely overturned Home Depot from a consumer friendly company where each store was a fiefdom to a military-style top-down management structure that micromanaged every store from the top. That doesn’t work in the retail industry where the customer is (or at least used to be) king. But this is exactly the type of attitude that Chrysler needs to survive. Nardelli needs to impose discipline on an industry that is used to having top execs have little fiefdoms where nobody dared to tread.

The appointment is not sitting well with the UAW, who likes LaSorda because he has union ties and has been paying for his own health care according to the Wall Street Journal. They are worried about Nardelli’s compensation and how he will treat workers, which are very real concerns from his days at Home Depot. However, the UAW knows that it can negotiate with Mulally and Chrysler will basically have to accept whatever the other two companies hammer out (as has always been the case).  However, Mulally was not always kind to unions as head of Boeing’s commercial division. Now that 2 of the 3 top execs aren’t cushy with the unions is a step in the right direction for Detroit, but has to worry the unions.

For Nardelli, this is the perfect opportunity. From his public persona he seems to be someone that relishes the spotlight. He’ll get that as head of Chrysler and if he finds a way to save the company it will no doubt feed his ego. He doesn’t have any pesky shareholders to answer to and he will be expected to perform at a top level, a challenge he no doubt relishes from his days at GE.

Personally, I think this is a good fit for Nardelli and Chrysler (or at least Cerebus). The employees can’t be too happy and mid-level managers that are used to having their little fiefdoms probably aren’t too happy, but any short-term pain should alleviate some of the long-term downward spiral that Chrysler has experienced since the mid-70s.