Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Summary
Rona KG is a family-owned business in the machine tools industry in Germany. The company
has engineering plants in Britain, Spain, the United States of America and Brazil. Sales and
engineering offices are located in many countries around the world. A total of 15,000 people are
employed world-wide. A sales and engineering office was started in Portugal during the 1960's.
The office is located in Porto, and employed 30 people when the case study was written. The
case describes the history of the relation between Rona and its Portuguese office. It discusses the
influence of the differences in culture between Germans and Portuguese on the operations of the
company.
1. Corporate History
Rona KG is a small family-owned company in the machine tools business. The company was
founded after World War II by a young entrepreneur who had ideas for improved tools and new
applications. The first machines used for production were old lathes, which had been
safeguarded through the War. During the 'miracle' years of German economic growth, the
company increased dramatically from a few hundred to a few thousand employees. The original
plant and headquarters are situated near the city of Nuremberg in Bavaria, south
Germany. The company first expanded, by building a few other plants in Germany, and it located
sales and engineering offices in almost all big German cities. The firm was very innovative and
became one of the world leaders in specialized tools for textile machines and other mechanical
products, such as linear-movement technology products, gears and bearings for the automobile
industry. World-wide there were only three other competitors in the same specialized branch.
Export markets became more important, and in the late fifties and beginning of the sixties the
president and owner of Rona decided to expand to other European countries and overseas. The
expansion was mainly through greenfield operations and partially also through acquisitions.
Today the firm has plants in France, Great Britain, Spain, the United States and Brazil. Sales and
Engineering offices are located in many other countries and cities around the world. The total
number of employees is about 15,000 world-wide.
Questions
1. Based on the information in this case, how would you characterize the German and
Portuguese cultures?
2. Which typical German and Portuguese values best fit the new business environment of the
machine tool manufacturing industry?
3. Is a synergy of values at the inter-cultural level possible in the business world?
4. If your answer to the previous question is "Yes", how would you go about creating this
synergy?
5. Explore the potential of the synergetic integration of cultural differences as a source of a
sustainable competitive advantage at Rona KG.