Daimler AG is a vehicle manufacturer. But there is a great story about this company and its (brand) name.
The current business unit of Daimler AG consists of four divisions: Mercedes Benz cars, Daimler Trucks, Daimler Services and the last division produces vans and buses.
Interestingly, the Daimler brand dedicated to automobiles has never been included in the company. That brand led a separate life as part of a first British company, then part of Ford, and recently the Daimler car brand was transferred to Tata Motor in India.
Daimler is also the company of “the” merger with Chrysler. People often criticize mergers, but you have to see it as a marriage; the two candidates often break their vows. That shouldn’t be a problem. However, when the Chrysler sale was announced last year, DaimlerChrysler shares rose; the market was glad the relationship was over.
On the Daimler AG website there is an investment report dating back to 1979 “when the 84th shareholders meeting was held”. The most interesting are the reports from 1998 – that of the merger – 2006 and 2007 to understand the changes.
The 2007 annual report shows Daimler’s corporate values: passion, respect, integrity and discipline. I was wondering where they came from: Daimler or Chrysler. The values were not new, they existed in 2006 also when both companies were still together. But on Chrysler’s new website, which does not offer an annual report, there is no reference to those values.
Chrysler was said to be more profitable, DaimlerBenz was bigger … But that was at the beginning.
More than just a marriage, a merger “between equals” is more than a challenge. In this case, the cultural differences between the United States and Germany are numerous. It started by flying from the US to Germany and vice versa. A special Airbus was purchased to serve the traffic of this company (1).
It goes beyond this short article to assess the differences, although one was fairly elementary: “Titles are important in America, too,” Chrysler’s Eaton says at one point. Showing the difference in how both companies value status. Eaton was the “practical and pragmatic engineer”, Schremp the champion of shareholder value (1).
But let’s get back to values: corporate values are not new to the Daimler company, values - passion, respect, integrity and discipline – where before. Most likely, these values were designed by the German leadership and have not been fully accepted in the US.
Interesting about these values is their presentation. Daimler AG is one of the few companies that has visibly linked its values to strategy (see pyramid of the annual report).
(1) – [http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/9323/dc.htm#time]
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