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RESTRUCTURING OF DAIMLER-BENZ

Summary:
Daimler-Benz is an organization with 300,00 employees worldwide and consists of 4 groups: Mercedez Benz : By far their biggest and most successful group with 200,000 employees. Deals in passenger cars and commercial vehicles. AEG-Daimler Benz : Deals in rail systems, micro electronics, automation, heavy diesel engines. Aerospace Group: Its a part of the aircraft business. Deals in space, defence, civil and propulsion systems. InterServices: Provides financial services, insurance brokerage, real estate, mobile communications, marketing and trading.

In 1995-1996 there was a need to refocus on what the company could do best. It was clear that their strengths were in car manufacturing, truck business and railroad sector. Mercedez benz had a strong competitive position with its cars and trucks in Europe, North America and Latin America. While the vans were doing well in Europe and buses, in Latin America. After this analysis, they decided that globalization and development of new product segments would help them grow. In 1995, they went

through huge losses due to currency fluctuations and blurring of the companys image due to diversification. All of this ate into profits. Therefore, the unprofitable arms of Daimler-Benz, AEG and Fokker, were cut off. Hence, they now aimed at maximizing medium and long term profitability instead of short term profitability. To achieve this aim of reduced costs and increased profitability, the organizational structure was decentralized and simplified so that decisions could be made faster. It was also designed to promote cooperation. In 1997, the board was restructured. Mercedez-Benz was integrated into Daimler-Benz and chief Helmut Werner resigned from the company.

Problem Areas:
After reading the case, one will realize that the main problem area had to be an overdose of diversification. This is what actually led to the losses. The minor problem was exposure to currency fluctuations.

Analysis:
The company wanted to be leaders in every sphere of the manufacturing business but were completely let down. It was difficult for them to focus on the important areas of the organization. The loss making units were pulling the whole organization down. Diversification into the world is good, but this reduces the ability to focus on every unit. The reasons could be many. Like no link between each sub-division, weak link of the business gets unnoticed, shortterm profitability leading to long term loss. One cannot diversify overnight. The organization should find its profit making entity, extract as much profit as it can, create a strong base for itself and then diversify. Daimler-Benz lost its market share as it was doing too many things at one time. Daimler-Benz realized from the mistakes made in the past and chose to correct its mistakes. Their organization structure was centralized. It seemed like one head unit couldnt keep a tab of the operations of its other entities spread across the globe. Hence, they approached a decentralized structure. Every unit would work on its own and behave like Daimler-Benz and not as a branch. Therefore the various groups must work autonomously so that Daimler-Benz makes a name for itself worldwide. Even though theyve adopted a decentralized approach, the head office must keep a tab on the happenings of the different branches. Its finances and reports should be looked into, on a periodical basis. Daimler-Benz never wanted to restrict itself only to manufacturing. AEG was into robotics, automation, rails, etc. Daimler-Benz wanted to capture these

markets also and emerge as a leader. Also, maybe since all other companies were venturing into Aerospace, Daimler-Benz wanted to acquire superiority in that field too. Daimler-Benz also ventured into the finance sector with its InterServices arm. The reasons as to why they ventured into the finance sector could be because they could now get a regular inflow of cash. They had a ready made customer base to deal with; the clients from their other groups. The various decisions that Jurgen Schrempp can take are as follows: Decentralization is a key decision that can help save Daimler-Benz. Each unit should have their own goals and targets. Promotion of entrepreneurial spirit is important. Every employee should be accountable to himself. Reward and recognition programs should be followed. They should try tapping markets other than Europe and America. They could head to Asia; China and Japan, set an industry there and make Mercedes-Benz affordable to the nationals. Globalization will help them grow in terms of sales and profitability.

New Organisation Structure:

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