Organizational Change at Continental Ag
Executive summary
The tire industry is a very competitive industry with major players such as Bridgestone Corporation; The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin. Competing in this market with low margins has been hard for Continental AG before 1995. They have been losing money due to their high manufacturing costs and not able to compete against big competitors.
Von Grunberg was appointed as new CEO in 1991 and has implemented several changes for the continuity of Continental AG and growth. Cutting labor costs by shifting manufacturing processes to low labor cost countries and restructuring the organizational strategy through innovation and differentiation has been are the main changes implemented.
Continental AG has used different sets of theoretical change strategies and tools as a combination to become a learning organization. Models such as Kurt Lewin field forces, Kaizen, Michael Porter’s generic strategies and Liedtka’s thinking model have all been implanted over the years.
Building theoretical knowledge in practice is a good way of understanding that it is clearly in correlation with the practical side of management. Through the combination of historical models and looking to the internal and external factors is the key for revival.
Table of contents
Introduction
The initial change strategy
The underlying assumptions of strategic thinking
Change tool applied
The modification and development process of the change tools and solutions
Evaluation of alternative strategies
Evaluation of alternative change tools/solutions
Justification of the given intervention
Conclusion
Appendix
References
Introduction
This report has been created for the purpose of investigating an active company within the business environment that has had a change intervention authorized by Curtin Business School to get an insight on how theory can be applied into practice.
The tire industry is a very competitive industry with major players such as Bridgestone Corporation; The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and Compagnie Générale des Établissements Michelin. Competing in this market with low margins has been hard for Continental AG before 1995. They have been losing money due to their high manufacturing costs and not able to compete against big competitors.
Von Grunberg was appointed as new CEO in 1991 and has implemented several changes for the continuity of Continental AG and growth. Cutting labor costs by shifting manufacturing processes to low labor cost countries and restructuring the organizational strategy through innovation and differentiation has been are the main changes implemented.
Continental AG has used different sets of theoretical change strategies and tools as a combination to become a learning organization. Models such as Kurt Lewin field forces, Kaizen, Michael Porter’s generic strategies and Liedtka’s thinking model have all been implanted over the years.
Building theoretical knowledge in practice is a good way of understanding that it is clearly in correlation with the practical side of management. Through the combination of historical models and looking to the internal and external factors is the key for revival.
Table of contents
Introduction
The initial change strategy
The underlying assumptions of strategic thinking
Change tool applied
The modification and development process of the change tools and solutions
Evaluation of alternative strategies
Evaluation of alternative change tools/solutions
Justification of the given intervention
Conclusion
Appendix
References
Introduction
This report has been created for the purpose of investigating an active company within the business environment that has had a change intervention authorized by Curtin Business School to get an insight on how theory can be applied into practice.
References: Dibella J. September-December 2007. Critical Perceptions of Organisational Change, Journal of change management vol. 7 (3-4): 231-242. http://web.ebscohost.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/ Norwegian School of Economic and Business Administration. June 2007. Using Power to Install Strategy: The Relationships between Expert Power, Position Power, Influence Tactics and Implementation Success, Department of Strategy and Organization. Journal of change management vol. 7 (2): 143-170. http://web.ebscohost.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/ Collis D. J., and C. A. Montgomery. 2008. Competing on resources. Best of HBR: 140-150. Harvard Business Review. http://web.ebscohost.com.dbgw.lis.curtin.edu.au/ Kotler, P., V. Wong, A. Saunders and G. Armstrong. 2007. Principles of Marketing, 12th Edition. Europe: Pearson Prentice Hall Graetz, F., Rimmer, M., Lawrence, A. 2006, Managing Organizational Change, 2nd Edition, Wiley & Sons, Australia. – Chapter 3 – 5. Frederick, H. H., Kuratko, S.F. & Hodgetts, R.M. 2007, Entrepreneurship: Theory, process and practice, Asia-Pacific edition, Thomson Learning Australia, Melbourne. – Chapter 16 http://www.conti-online.com http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/history2/24/Continental-AG.html