個案資料

In 2006, Hermann Gudmundsson (the chief executive officer [CEO] of Bilanaust, an Icelandic automotive spare parts retailer) was part of a group of partners that had purchased Esso Iceland. He had subsequently been appointed to the CEO position at Esso Iceland. The two companies were quite different: Bilanaust dealt with real-time customer needs, carried a wide range of products, and enjoyed a rising market share and profits. Esso Iceland was 12 times the size of Bilanaust, skilled at developing and executing medium- to long-term strategies, and was operating in a stagnated market. Gudmundsson evaluated the opportunities in front of him: could a successful merger be wrought from the two companies or would it be better to maintain two separate entities? He determined that a lot of work would need to be done to gain consensus around the right strategic direction for the future. Careful thought identified three areas of initial focus: 1) improving staff morale; 2) creating a sense of optimism; 3) placing effective leaders at key points in the organization.

This case series has three general objectives:<ul><li>To examine the cross-enterprise challenges involved in merging two companies that compete in different industries with different product and customer strategies and different cultures.</li><li>To explore how organizational leaders can actively shape organizational cultures over a period of time in order to foster high performance.</li><li>To examine the response of a company to a major business-threatening external shock (the global economic crisis).</li></ul>

• Communications
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Leadership
• Corporate Culture
• Strategy Development
• Branding
• Strategic Planning
• Financial Crisis