Wolfgang Keller Case Analysis
Wolfgang Keller Case Analysis
MBA-6120
Abstract
Wolfgang Keller is a 34 year old graduate of the Harvard Business School. After a fast moving career building a reputation for turning around failing businesses, Wolfgang Keller once again found himself facing the challenge of turning around a losing business. This time it was as managing director of the Ukrainian subsidy of the Konigsbrau Brewery. The company was experiencing €2.9 million per year with annual sales of €116 million, (Gabarro, 2008). Even though this was a bigger company that he was used to dealing with, he seemed to be well on his way to success after just three years. Sales had increased to €145 million and the company was finally turning a €7 million profit, (Gabarro, 2008). Wolfgang Keller’s boss, Dr. Hans Haussler, appeared to have confidence in his abilities, but Keller was still new and needed to continually prove himself. To add to his confidence, the Haussler was sending him off to Brazil to head up a start-up task force for a joint venture between Konigsbrau and a Brazilian brewer. Still Wolgang Keller was smart enough to know that things were not quite right. There were still a few problems remaining that could derail the expansion of the Ukrainian Division. Not the least of which was Dmitri Brodsky, Konigsbrau’s commercial director. There were serious differences in philosophy between Keller and Brodsky that needed to be resolved before they damaged the company. Before Keller returned home from Brazil, he was going to have to decide how to handle this problem.
Situation Wolfgang Keller was a hands-on manager that was used to taking over small companies and making all of the decisions necessary to turn them around as fast as possible. He turned a failing German food products manufacturer into a profitable company and then saved another subsidy of the company in under two years. In less than three years Keller changed the marketing strategy, restructured the sales
MBA-6120
Abstract
Wolfgang Keller is a 34 year old graduate of the Harvard Business School. After a fast moving career building a reputation for turning around failing businesses, Wolfgang Keller once again found himself facing the challenge of turning around a losing business. This time it was as managing director of the Ukrainian subsidy of the Konigsbrau Brewery. The company was experiencing €2.9 million per year with annual sales of €116 million, (Gabarro, 2008). Even though this was a bigger company that he was used to dealing with, he seemed to be well on his way to success after just three years. Sales had increased to €145 million and the company was finally turning a €7 million profit, (Gabarro, 2008). Wolfgang Keller’s boss, Dr. Hans Haussler, appeared to have confidence in his abilities, but Keller was still new and needed to continually prove himself. To add to his confidence, the Haussler was sending him off to Brazil to head up a start-up task force for a joint venture between Konigsbrau and a Brazilian brewer. Still Wolgang Keller was smart enough to know that things were not quite right. There were still a few problems remaining that could derail the expansion of the Ukrainian Division. Not the least of which was Dmitri Brodsky, Konigsbrau’s commercial director. There were serious differences in philosophy between Keller and Brodsky that needed to be resolved before they damaged the company. Before Keller returned home from Brazil, he was going to have to decide how to handle this problem.
Situation Wolfgang Keller was a hands-on manager that was used to taking over small companies and making all of the decisions necessary to turn them around as fast as possible. He turned a failing German food products manufacturer into a profitable company and then saved another subsidy of the company in under two years. In less than three years Keller changed the marketing strategy, restructured the sales
References: Goleman, D. (2000). Leadership that gets results. Harvard Business Review, 78(2), 78-90. Thomas, K., Kilmann, R. (2007), The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, CPP Inc. Gabarro, Comings, & Suesse, (2008) Wolfgang Keller at Konigsbrau-TAK (A), Harvard Business Review, 1-18