Spearheading Growth

"I recommend that this book is read by everyone concerned with the future of European companies. It opens new perspectives." - Ulrich Grillo, Director Controlling, Rheinmetall AG. "This book delivers on a topic that is important for European industry. The case examples make its contents tangible. I strongly recommend it to all my peers." - Dr. Andrej Vizjak, Executive Vice President, Bertelsmann Book Corporation. Profit from restructuring lessons that others have already learned. The ability for any European company to restructure, grow and succeed in a global economy is crucial. Widespread deregulation, privatization and new market opportunities, coupled with more demanding customers and competitive invasions are forcing companies to adapt to new circumstances. The best restructurers are committed, fast and focused. This book takes a survey as its foundation, completed by more than two hundred top managers of European companies from all industries. This survey gives you access to the opinions and experiences of executives from companies such as Ansaldo, AGIV, BASF, Bayer, Du Pont de Nemours, Fiat, Philip Morris Europe, Thyssen, VEBA etc. The vast majority of restructuring obstacles described by survey respondents related to people issues. Spearheading Growth highlights the need for a talented, dedicated, people-oriented team that will lead the organization through any and all restructuring challenges: the Spearheaders. Learn how to choose and empower these people to ensure commitment to your restructuring plan. Through a combination of case-studies, concepts and comparisons, this book provides you with the ideas to develop strategic plans and the know-how to act on them. Use this book to ensure that your company will always be able to adapt confidently to repeated restructure. Find the strategy that will set you apart Restructure for growth: case-studies from British Airways, Daimler-Benz and Kvaerner. What Europe's top companies have taught us: case-studies from Borealis, ELIN EBG, Unilever. Leader, Spearheaders and the organization: including case-studies from AEG, Royal Dutch Shell, Siemens, Ikea, Philips and Oticon. Strategy demystified: including case-studies from Deutsche AG, Nokia, Skanska, Saatchi & Saatchi and L. M. Ericsson. Turning strategy into reality: including case-studies from Siemens, Telefonica and Iberian Airlines. Move on towards the future with Spearheading Growth Authors: Dr. Fritz Kroger has been working as a management consultant since 1976 in Europe, the USA and Japan. His main field is strategy. As a Vice President of A.T. Kearney Germany, he co-chairs the Global Strategy Initiative of A.T. Kearney. Dr. Michael Tram is also a Vice President at A.T. Kearney's German offices focused on strategy and restructuring. He has a law background and extensive experience with consulting projects all over Europe including the East. Marianne Vandenbosch is a Canadian citizen working as a researcher for IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. She has worked extensively on the European Restructuring Survey.