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Essay / Case study: Abb Deutschland - 1108
Asea of Sweden and BBC of Switzerland announced their merger in 1987 to form ABB. Each parent company will own 50 percent of the new company. The BBC was the third largest company in Switzerland and was very successful in the electricity sector. Its past successes are mainly due to the concentration strategy and geographical organization. BBC's focus on technology and quality has enabled it to strengthen its competitive advantage and achieve long-term success. In order to respond to the market environment of the times and the deep-rooted culture, it built a geographical organization. This organization emphasizes local autonomy because it believes that local management is the best place to negotiate with public services and that this structure can respond to strictly local competition. Furthermore, this results from the exchange restrictions imposed in a given historical era. The strategy and organizational structure have brought continued successes due to increasing demand. However, this has at the same time increased the risks. When the economy collapsed and demand declined in the 1980s, the company found itself in a stagnant situation. The organizational structure made decision-making much slower than market developments required. In 1987, the company once attempted to change its structure towards a divisional organization, but this was not implemented in reality. The BBC's corporate culture reflected the organizational tradition and characteristics of the company. Culture mainly includes the following aspects: 1. Focus on technology. This is the company's core competency, but at the same time it poses some challenges. This created a certain arrogance and neglected the evolution of the market and customers. 2. Perfectionism in problem solving. This can bring out precision and good solutions, but the real market often demands rapid action. When perfectionism is achieved, it often proves too late. 3. Specialization and compartmentalization of activities. This separation led to a lack of coordination. 3. Centralization in decision-making. Due to the characteristics of the sector and the targeted strategy, a centralized decision-making model was implemented. This directly led to bureaucracy within corporate headquarters. Additionally, the company has become political internally. 5. Prioritize the human dimension. This may include respect for employees, but too much will result in a lack of financial focus and a strong performance orientation. The organizational structure and corporate culture have caused local duplications and protections, and even serious internal conflicts, among which the relationship between Baden and Mannheim is quite obvious..