I will first of all present to you the main elements of the strategy that was developed to relaunch the European Community - primarily an economic relaunch strategy. I will then tell you a few words of the present political problems. And lastly, I will try to draw a picture of where we are : of what has been achieved, but also, with a more prospective outlook perhaps, of the tensions characterizing the Community at the present moment. I am stressing the word "tensions" because, contrary to other political systems, the Community only makes progress from and through tensions. It may sound paradoxical, but that is the way it is.
In this paper I will attempt to describe the organisation of human resources management in European companies, and the impact of the building of Europe in that area, today and in the future. I will speak particularly of multinational companies, but many of the aspects of human resources management which I will mention here can be applied to smaller companies.
Within the Single European market programme of the Commission the insurance industry, too, is confronted with structural changes within the years to come. As the EEC-Commission intends to open up the market without prior harmonization, every member state has to check its own legal order with a view to possible competitive dis- advantages to the domestic companies. Particularly countries like the Federal Republic of Germany who dispose of a strong state supervision system have most to loose in this respect.
We can speak meaningfully about the European Automobile Industry only by placing it in its world context. After a brief glance at the automobile industry and the automobile market in Europe today, we will analyze some probable influences on this sector in the future, particularly those related to the creation of the single European market. And finally we will attempt to identify, albeit only tentatively, some consequences of the creation of the unique market and of a strengthening of competition throughout the world.
The development of air traffic in the 1990's is a constant factor in the future foreseen by airlines and the organizations that represent them. Already developing markets (such as Europe and the Asian Pacific), together with new markets that are ripe for development (such as those of Eastern Europe), are giving rise to an unprecedented increase in the demand for new aircrafts. Ordering a 747 or a MD11 today means taking delivery no less than five years from now. Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Airbus and Fokker - the leading producers of commercial aircraft will have no trouble meeting their sales target for the next ten years. This increase in air traffic has been boosted not only by the growth of the world's economy and by increasing international economic exchanges but also by changing lifestyles and by the fact that mankind's age-old dream of discovering and visiting never-before-seen places has become a real possibility. A fast growing market and intensified competition generate a need for a different approach to business on the part of an airline - a review of its mission of its positioning on the market and of strategies for staying on top of a changing market.
Acquisitions are a principal way in which companies grow and expand. Therefore, the strategic implications of them are of considerable importance. However, reasons for acquisition are not always strategic in nature. The decision to acquire a company should result from a well-developed Acquisition Strategy integrated with the whole Corporate Strategy. Moreover Acquisition Strategy is Just a tool of the Corporate Strategy. The combination of acquisitions being based on motives of a non-strategic nature, together with payment of a substantial premium for the acquired company, most often under time pressure, has in many cases led to unsuccessful acquisition results. We will suggest in this lecture to approach company acquisition from the Corporate Strategy perspective. At one side this should greatly enhance, but not guarantee success in either an individual acquisition or in an acquisition program, at the other side this will underline the important role of the marketing function in the initial steps of the acquisition process.
Structural changes in Europe and in the environment of the firm are affecting European marketing strategies and the need for information. Information will have to be future-oriented, will have to predict consequences, will have to cover the European market and will be needed within a tight time-frame. Apart from the changes on the demand side, the European market research industry will also be affected by technological changes. Given a changing cost structure, a changing demand and new entrants on the market, the European research firms, like their clients, will have to find an answer to the question of "How to Compete?". The clients (defining an integrated European marketing strategy), new technologies, and industrialization of the European research industry will force European researchers to standardize. Actually, implementation of new technologies has already started all over Europe, as has standardization of research design and questionnaires. The really significant changes in the research industry are still to take place. The clients are moving towards an integrated European approach, there are no really integrated European research firms and the European research industry is still domestic and, as such, heterogeneous. However, the opportunities for fulfilling the need for information of the new European client are there, as are the opportunities for changing the cost structure. I have drawn the contours of the future European research industry. On our way to the future, European research will be characterized by: complex relational networks; tight schedules (which also applies to the clients); testing of questionnaires in all countries involved in a study, and, above all, by standardized questionnaires programmed to demonstrate the effects of possible strategies in all countries involved separately as well as the effects in Europe as a whole.
Researchers and retail companies continue to spend considerable resources on identifying geographic growth opportunities within the European Community for their retail formats. At the most general level, these are increasingly well known and retailers from the north European states are moving quickly to establish themselves in, for example, Spain, Portugal and Italy. Less well understood are the costs associated with exploiting these trading opportunities. The total cost environment for retailers is the sum of a large number of individual start-up and operating cost components, each of which vary widely between the Member States. This is illustrated in this paper by reference to shop rental levels and labour costs. There are, in addition, less apparent difficulties to developing a trading presence in each of the EC Member States and there are costs associated with researching and overcoming these difficulties. The paper reports on some of these 'hidden' costs. To avoid some of the expensive mistakes which continue to be made by retailers seeking to internationalise their trading presence, retailers must understand both the size of the opportunity and the costs of exploiting that opportunity prior to entering a new market in the EC.
For La Redoute, 1992 Europe is a process in which the group has already engaged itself. Irrespective of the measures taken at Community level, La Redoute has to ask itself two fundamental questions: our trade at European level, can it be standardised? which options are open? Then it is obvious that some of the community decisions will weigh on our business and on our operations: in particular, the decisions being prepared on the levels of VAT rates have deep influence on the mail order market. Those three aspects will be dealt with in this paper.
This paper talks about what Canadean are, what we mean by operational databases and then draw on those databases to show you what is happening in the European Beverage Industry. Mostly, however, I want to talk about beer and in particular try to answer the question : is there a single market for beer?
MIRBIS has almost thirty people (25 from USSR and 5 from Italy) working on different business lines: 1) Training top and middle Soviet public administration and company management. 2) Economic research aimed at finding new development strategies for Soviet Industrial enterprises. 3) consultant services with the aim of promoting the exchange of economic, technical and scientific information; and encouraging cooperation between companies of the Soviet Union, Italy and other countries in order to provide western operators with an integrated approach to soviet society and its institutions. In two years of existence MIRBIS has already trained almost 120 industry top managers coming from many Soviet Republics. In particular the industries covered have been: car production; light mechanics; chemical; banking and Mining. In the short future the business development will be focused on adding new activities inside the three business lines mentioned above. As far education is concerned it is starting ad experimental course on industrial policy exclusively devoted to local administrators. Furthermore we are planning to start a master course program. In the service business MIRBIS has already set up an agreement with TASS News Service for the realization of a weekly digest of practical Business information of which. Number Zero is already available. The entire range of activities carried out by MIRBIS in the Soviet Union are the results of research which was done in order to learn the real requirements of Soviet Union in the field of management training. As in any other kind of activity, both in manufacturing and in the service industry MIRBIS activity is based on a well identified business-idea and on a resulting business definition. The ultimate goal, therefore, is to enable soviet industrial enterprises to operate on international markets, promote cooperation between Soviet companies and western enterprises and to stimulate the setting up of mixed companies.
In times of great technological change of market evolution, mergers and acquisition, the issue of human resource management would seem to be a very low profile activity. Traditionally in-fact, human resource management has never been considered a strategic issue, but something to be dealt with only when necessary and possibly delegated to managers of lower levels. Of course, executives and CEO are too busy with market shares globalization, the achievement of financial objectives, return on investments. Why then bother such high and concrete thinking with trivial matters such as motivation and "strokes", education and training?