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Old 10-27-2007, 11:12 PM
mercmad6.3 mercmad6.3 is offline
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Location: brisbane,Qld.Australia
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The greatest Era in mercedes benz History?

Any time before the mill stone of Chrysler was tied to the neck of Daimler -Benz.
Consider the present scene of devastation. Chrysler, quite recently the most profitable US carmaker by far, is bleeding millions so fast that its purchaser, Daimler-Benz, was buckling at the knees. Daimler not only overpaid ridiculously, but compounded this sin by heavy-handed and typically unsuccessful long-distance interference.
The conceit is compounded by a second major fault, autocracy. The Western industry was originally created by all-powerful entrepreneurs. Their heirs can't match their genius, but grasp for their power. A bitter boardroom battle at Daimler thus ousted the company's top car man and left total control to Former chairman Jurgen Schrempp, the mastermind (if that's the word) of the Chrysler fiasco. It's unfair to blame Schrempp for other flops, like the original instability of the A-cars or sluggish sales of the unsmart Smart car. But he's certainly responsible for the halved share price and the sadly reduced reputation.

The misfiring of Mercedes is a textbook study in top-down management. Because of the autocratic traditions, Western car firms have lagged behind the general management trend towards self-managed teams whose leaders have genuine autonomy. When the new approach has prevailed - as when Ford launched the Taurus in the US - the results have been spectacular. But the industry reverts to past form at the drop of a hat. Even Ford forgot the Taurus lessons, rediscovering them in the 1990s with, of course, renewed success.

The success of the W111 through to the W124 was a direct result of autonomous teams developing products independently of top management who were left to the running of the company.
Names like Waxenburger,Uhlenhuat ,Geiger ,Bella Berenji et al can be linked to the teams that not only produced supeior products but have gone down in history as true innovators and leaders in automotive technology.
name one such person at Daimler AG today.....
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