ABB THE DANCING GIANT CREATING THE GLOBALLY CONNECTED CORPORATION BARHAM K. HEIMER C. Księgarnia

In June 1987, Beat Hess, head of the legal department of the world-famous Swiss electro-technical firm BBC Brown Boveri, was about to take his family on a well-earned week's holiday to Italy. He was suddenly told by BBC's chairman Fritz Leutwiler and chief executive Thomas Gasser, to prepare a full draft agreement for the 'unthinkable' - negotiations for a merger with long-time rival ASEA, the Swedish power engineering firm that had been gaining ground on Brown Boveri ever since a new CEO, Percy Barnevik, had taken over in 1980. If it came off, this would be me largest cross-border merger in history.

Hess was told to go ahead with his holiday if he wanted to. but that me agreement had to be completed by the first week in July. The handwritten draft with its coffee and suntan lotion stains that Hess brought back from Italy was to be the basis for what has now become a legend of corporate history.

ABB has grown to be a world-beating engineering business, but more than that, it has become one of me most venerated companies in the world of business.

There is almost an ABB doctrine that fascinates business leaders and scholars around the world. Why is ABB so interesting to managers and management gurus alike? And why has It become the world's favourite case study?

ABB's success, in a fiercely competitive industry, is remarkable because the company has pioneered a new

have stumbled, this giant has learned to dance. ABB scope and local focus, between size and speed, and between competition and co-operation. For many it has become the role model for me entrepreneurial, globally connected corporation of the future.

ABB: The Dancing Giant combines an illuminating corporate story with the first Insightful analysis of the strategies and structures that have shaped this

Heimer take you inside Europe's most admired company and unravel the decisive factors in its success. Granted unparalleled access to the key players in this story - Percy Barnevik and Goran Lindahl - the authors show how a visionary business can refine the rules for an entire industry, and pioneer the shape of our corporate futures.

"A deeply insightful, comprehensive examination of one of the world's leading examples of the globally connected corporation. Barham and Heimer have unlocked an important mystery for international managers from around the world. ABB: The Dancing Giant will be must-reading for years to come" - Douglas A. Ready, President, International Consortium for Executive Development Research (ICEDR), Lexington, Massachusetts

"I think it is true to say that there is no company that is more widely admired for its business success than ABB ... above all, ABB appears to have developed a different corporate nervous system. In true Darwinian spirit, ABB has responded in its own unique way to the environment of global competition ... This account, drawn together by Kevin Barham and Claudia Heimer, is certain to have wide appeal" - Sir David Barnes, Chief Executive, ZENECA plc

"ABB is a fascinating company, but is prone to over-simplified adulation. Barham and Heimer provide a deeper and more comprehensive analysis, with a masterful breadth of perspective as well as depth of detail" - Marcus Alexander, Director, Ashridge Management Centre

"ABB: The Dancing Giant is a genuinely stimulating account of the creation and evolution of ABB under the charismatic vision and Napoleonic energy of Percy Barnevik. The description of ABS's sweep into the Polish market after the collapse of the socialist system is a notably fine piece of management writing" - Professor Nigel J. Holden, Copenhagen Business School

"I am incredibly impressed with the scope of this work. For anyone using ABB as a business school case, or as an exemplar in redesigning their own organization, the detail and richness of description in this book breathe life into this icon of modem strategic management" - Stephen Tallman, PhD, Senior Lecturer, Cranfield School of Management

"In the world of management education, ABB is one of the most frequently quoted companies. Now we have an accessible and fascinating account of how this uniquely innovative multinational developed. This book contains detailed, valuable information for all those interested in international business, as analyst or practitioner" - Chris Brewster, Professor of International HRM, Cranfield School of Management, UK.

ISBN 0-273-62861-5; 382 PAGES

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