Word: mergers
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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From the outset, the German obsession with planning has kept everyone on edge. No sooner was the merger announced last May than Schrempp's phalanx of strategic thinkers began issuing reams of organizational flow charts. Every phase was delineated with titles like "synergy tracking"; every group had its weekly meeting schedule, from last year until 2001, when the integration is to be complete. The process is directed by Rudiger Grube, the tireless tactician who helped Schrempp restructure Daimler-Benz...
...Grube, the company's best measure of success is whether his schedules are being met. He set up a "post-merger integration" (PMI) structure in which 12 "issue-resolution teams" are assigned to push and cajole their counterparts into combining everything from supplies to research. Every time there is disagreement, the integration process for that group is halted until a solution is found. Progress is tracked in the "war room," a nondescript office down a dark second-floor corridor in Daimler's imposing brown headquarters in Stuttgart...
...effect, Schrempp may have saved Chrysler. Even before the merger, Lutz and Castaing had resigned, and the camaraderie was fading. "We were in a transition that would have continued, in part because of Bob's age," concedes Stallkamp. "[The merger] gave us a very strong leader and solved the problem sooner rather than later...
Most important, the merger is now producing metal. In Graz, Austria, this month, Mercedes and Chrysler vehicles began rolling off the same assembly line--in auto manufacturing, this is akin to walking on water. The Graz plant originally made the Jeep Grand Cherokee. But when the merger talks began last year, Mercedes car chief Jurgen Hubbert spotted a golden opportunity to expand production of the new M-class suv without paying the exorbitant costs of a new factory. In an odd twist, Mercedes saves more than $70 million by shipping components from its plant in Tuscaloosa, Ala., back to Europe...
...cross-pollination would not have worked without American patience and flexibility. "Forget 'merger of equals,'" says Stallkamp. "We're one company now, and we're making it work." Despite the early arrogance of the Germans, Stallkamp and his band impressed them with technical prowess--the best auto-manufacturing operation in the world--and a willingness to bury differences and just get the job done...