Former CEO Juergen Schrempp is perhaps the only person who could possibly be pleased over the DaimlerChrysler debacle. Schrempp, once celebrated as the architect of a DaimlerChrysler global conglomerate, ought to be a defeated man today. Indeed, he is widely ridiculed as the personification of mismanagement and as someone who has frittered away billions. Any legacy Schrempp might have had was destroyed once and for all last Monday when his successor, Dieter Zetsche, decided to break up the company and sell Chrysler to Cerberus, a private equity firm.

But anyone who encountered Schrempp last week as he was riding the glass-enclosed elevator to his office on the thirteenth floor of Mercedes-Benz's Munich office would have seen a happy, relaxed, semi-retired man. The 62-year-old Schrempp's good spirits were probably due in part to the fact that he still has plenty to do. He serves on the boards of directors at Vodafone, luxury goods manufacturer Richemont and an energy company, and he is an advisor to the South African president.

DaimlerChrysler is still paying for his office, secretary and an office manager who, conveniently enough happens to be Schrempp's wife Lydia, who apparently takes home an annual salary of about