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In more and more industries it becomes true that value creating networks compete against each other with relatively stable relations between suppliers inside the network. Managers all over the world are searching for the most efficient and effective coordinative forms for their relations with OEM's or suppliers within such a value-creating networks. This paper gives a normative guideline to decide if or if not a partnership is the right coordinative form for OEM-supplier relations within a value-creating network. Based on the existing mainly positivistic research in this field, two aspects are highlighted as the main drivers for the suitability of a partnership as a well working governance mechanism for value-creating networks: (i) individualization vs. standardization of the delivered components combined with the potential of the end customers to identify quality differences or not and (ii) the possibilities to allocate the revenues made by the value-creating network on the several 'partners' within the network. All aspects were integrated in a decision model for managers to find out if partnership as the coordinative form is really the best choice in a given situation.

With permission of Elsevier

The New Europe brings both great expectations and considerable anxiety for organizations and their members. Seen as both an opportunity to develop a powerful economic entity and a danger of diluted national identities and incompatible work practices, it calls for a new type of European leadership. In this article we argue that European organizations face an unprecedented challenge of diversity along the dimensions of culture, language, religion, values, education, political systems, socio-economic experience, and early family and socialization practices. These differences can lead to a plethora of varying and often conflicting preconceptions and attitudes that organizational members bring to work. If the differences are ignored, the development of successful truly European organizations will remain an illusion. To deal with these challenges, executives have to develop a new, "global" approach to leading companies that will combine the features of global and local leadership. This article offers suggestions for corporate executives on how they can develop themselves for the new European leadership roles and successfully deal with the leadership challenges of the New Old World.

With permission of Elsevier

This is the first of a two-case series (306-135-1 and 306-136-1). Fiat's construction equipment (CE) business was extremely weak during the 1990s, and it had considered divesting the entire division (CNH Global, which was then called Fiat New Holland). With very little US market share, no heavy excavators (which accounted for 50% of the total CE market) and no hydraulics technology (crucial for excavators), Fiat's CE business appeared dismal. Ten years later, CNH Global had become one of the world's leading CE manufacturers, with nearly US$4 billion in annual revenues and a complete CE product portfolio, ranking first in light and medium CE, and third in heavy excavators, and was number three in overall market share. It had achieved growth through a series of global acquisitions, joint ventures and alliances on a major scale, involving players on the European, North American and Japanese markets. This enabled it to leverage synergies with its agricultural equipment business, access to key hydraulics technology, an improved market position in Europe and the US, and greater market access for its full range of CE products. Case (A) describes these acquisitions, as well as the development of CNH Global's CE 'Multi-Brand and Multi-Channel' strategy, and makes sense of its mix of multiple brands, national and corporate cultures, customer groups, organisational functions and geographies. Product differentiation was central to its strategy, enabling it to maintain distinct brands and retain market share.

In the space of a few years, CNH Global's revenues, profits and economic value added in the construction equipment (CE) increased significantly, despite particularly challenging market conditions. These results reflected a series of unprecedented execution efforts at CNH Global. The new matrix organization needed to be operational in a very short time.

This case study examines the sustainable development project at Good Health a disguised name for a research-based international pharmaceutical company. The project was developed in 2003 aimed at showing a way to increase the integration of sustainability principles within Good Health business units and to respond to the company's commitment to transform the Firm into a sustainable enterprise and contribute to promote a sustainable future-oriented society. The case study takes a close look on how the project was developed and carried out by the project team and the various internal consultants chosen for their input. The project outline as well as the organizational structure are analyzed and the differing organizational perspectives on the 'right' approach towards sustainability examined.

After three years in business, HTMa, a German enterprise grown from a partnership between Baxter Germany, and run by entrepreneur Andreas Rudolph, had achieved an increase of 80% in growth with profits up by 300%. The case concentrates on how a customer focused strategy and implementation led to this success. The enterprise creates a new market healthcare space namely "a new way of managing post operative health for patients". The case shows the various challenges associated with this new venture and the initiatives taken to get the final payoff. Central to this is how it embraced innovation on a proactive and ongoing basis to create new wealth and a sustainable competitive advantage. For the conservative Baxter there had been a host of internal issues to deal with - like getting top management's support, and training employees to do things very differently from the past. External issues were equally challenging, like working with partners in a completely new way, sharing knowledge and relationships to get a win-win for all. Andreas Rudolph who saw and sensed the new market opportunity (as he had done in the past and continues to do), has to learn to work with partners like Baxter as well as inspire and build confidence with his team and customer groups so they would take the idea up and make it into a reality.