Case Studies

Ford Motor Company: Chimney Breaking for Strategic Intent

FORD MOTOR COMPANY entered the 1980s in a tenuous position. With a shrinking market share, the worst financial performance in the company's history, and little cause for optimism, Ford began to transform itself. Quality became "Job One,” and employees on the factory floor began to participate in the improvement process. But significant improvement was blocked by Ford's organizational structure and autocratic culture. Ford had to break down its strong, functional "chimneys" in order to ...

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Global Procurement Team Impacts World-Wide Operations (Inco Limited)

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW This case study describes how a cross-functional team of middle-level managers was commissioned to bring creative procurement thinking to areas of their organization, previously managed in silos. The team produced CDN $80-90 million in sustainable cost reductions and cost avoidances over a two-year period and, when retired, left a legacy of best practices in cross-divisional interventions that have inspired other such teams to be launched in succeeding years. ...

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The Transformation of MacMillan Bloedel, Ltd.

Tom Stephens came out of a short-lived retirement from Manville Corporation to join MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. on September 29, 1997. The British Columbia forestry company had reported four consecutive quarterly losses, and the shareholders were looking for a “turnaround guy.” Stephens had done just that as president, CEO, and, eventually, chairman at Manville. Not only had he successfully guided the company out of bankruptcy protection, he had navigated the choppy waters of asbestos-related ...

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Union Management Co-Design™ Yields High-Speed Transformation in the Face of Sudden Market Collapse MacMillan Bloedel, Ltd.

“Co-Design™ is a people mobilization strategy in which the workforce redesigns a production site’s entire operation in order to meet or exceed performance standards and results required for viability.” In 1999, Tom Stephens, CEO of MacMillan Bloedel, Ltd. (MB), a British Columbia forest products company, prepared the papers for selling MB to Weyerhaeuser, an American company. Looking back over the massive efforts of the previous two years that turned the faltering company around, Stephens ...

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Labor/Management Transformation: Magma Copper Company

MAGMA COPPER COMPANY teetered in 1989 on the edge of survival. Between 1986 and 1989, copper prices had gone down and costs had shot up. Ensuing financial problems had caused lost bonuses for employees, which in turn, had inflamed the long-term bitter relationship between Magma's management and its unions. In 1989, as contract negotiations approached, violence erupted and a strike loomed, threatening the very survival of the company. Although the unions and management achieved an agreement ...

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Manville Corporation Plant Breakthroughs for Competitive Strategy

Given the velocity of change in today's business environment, the need for companies in all industries to re-evaluate/reform their competitive strategy and implement that strategy through the production function is imperative. The manufacturing facilities in most companies were the core of meeting consumer demands from the late 1940's through the 1970's. Now, as competitive pressures, governmental regulations and environmental concerns increase, the need for a management breakthrough in ...

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Multifaceted Consulting Services Support an Executive’s Strategy at F&G Marketing

One of the nation's leading marketing services firms had a clear corporate directive to move toward expanded and more customer-focused information services. But significant obstacles had to be overcome. The immediate challenge was to stop huge customer losses, increase new sales, improve cost effectiveness, and meet the changing needs of customers in the packaged goods and grocery industry. A closer look would reveal the organizational issues that lay at the root of the obvious ...

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