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Strategies & Market Trends : ahhaha's ahs -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: GraceZ who wrote (1288)	2/27/2001 6:58:03 PM
From: Elsewhere	Respond to of 24758

More on the trapped cat A Barron's title story: Shake-Up Artist Daimler-Benz Chairman Juergen Schrempp has knocked the dust off Mercedes, restoring hope for European manufacturers By Jay Palmer Barron's Online Monday, March 23, 1998 interactive.wsj.com Juergen Schrempp is not afraid to take chances. For nearly the past three years, he has served as chairman of Daimler Benz, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz, and during that time he has repeatedly stood conventional wisdom on its head, generally coming out a winner in the process. ... some of Schrempp's bold maneuvers have come a cropper. In the early 1990s, as head of Daimler Aerospace, he backed the company's effort to save the Dutch airplane maker Fokker, which foundered in 1995 and contributed to that year's $3 billion loss, the biggest in German history. There was also a smaller setback when early versions of the A Class car flipped during sharp turns at full speed. The problem has since been fixed with design changes. Still, Daimler was stung by the blow to its design prowess. None of this is slowing Schrempp down. He understands that being in business means taking risks, and taking risks means making mistakes. GE's exalted chieftain Jack Welch makes them, and so does any other CEO worth his salt. The secret to success, Schrempp will tell you, is to keep innovating, keep cutting costs, and keep coming out with new and improved products. ... When Schrempp moved up to the chairman's spot in 1995, the aerospace unit he left behind was a royal mess. Fokker, to be fair, was only part of it. The main cause of the unit's problems was U.S. airline deregulation, which had a ripple effect, first through the U.S. and then across the world. Airlines, straining to reduce fares to remain competitive, cut their spending, including spending on new planes. ... So for now, Schrempp, Germany's answer to Jack Welch, continues to rule Daimler. His vision for the company continues to push the boundaries of conventional wisdom, whether that means further forays into the mass car market, a new car brand for Asia or even the almost heretical idea of getting Airbus and Boeing to cooperate on building a supersonic jet that would get passengers from New York to Tokyo in four hours. Despite all these dreams, Schrempp still keeps a place in his mind for stockholders.