Bachelor Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - Supply, Production, Logistics, grade: 1,9, Hogeschool Zeeland (Economics), language: English, abstract: Inhaltsangabe: Abstract: The story of the automobile manufacturer production can not be told without the story of Henry Ford, who was one of the pioneers constructing his first horseless carriage in 1896. He incorporated the Ford Motor Company in 1903, proclaiming I will build a car for the great multitude. As predicted he did so in 1908 offering a Model T for $ 950. This model heralds the beginning of the motor age. The car evolved from a former luxury item for the well-to-do to essential transportation for the ordinary man. Ford also revolutionized automobile manufacturing, in 1914 the Ford plant used innovation production techniques and was able to turn out a complete chassis every 95 minutes. That was a revolution in the automobile manufacturing at the time, because the former production time took about 730 minutes to turn out a complete chassis Ford achieved that fast production time by using a constantly moving assembly line, subdivision of labor, careful coordination of operations and he began to pay nearly double the wages offered by their competitors. His innovations made him an international celebrity in the industrial revolution and he was one of the first who thought about effective organization to achieve a higher productivity. Ford's methods that changed the automobile production were perhaps not mainly the introduction of the assembly line, his goal was also to constantly standardizing the use of craftsmen. That firstly resulted in a high product variety despite in fact that they had been made using the same drawing. Secondly a lot of time was spent in fitting the parts together. These facts influenced major loss in productivity and under such circumstances a real mass-production was not possible. But by standardizing components and developing work routines was the first sc

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2002 in the subject Business economics - Trade and Distribution, grade: 1,9, Hogeschool Zeeland (Economics), language: English, abstract: Inhaltsangabe: Abstract: The target of this case study is to present and analyse the drastic false estimations made by BMW in planning and realising the Rover transition as well as its consequences. The worked out mistakes should be generalized in order to give opportunities of their avoidance for future M&A cases. After working out the M&A basics in the 1st chapter, the 2nd chapter deals with the reasons of BMW Management to buy another international manufacturer and gives a clue why the choice fell just on Rover. It opens with an overview of the economic development during the 6 years time period of the Rover takeover. After this, the economic and political environment is shown, also the market situation in the automobile segment in the year of the takeover, followed by the business course and goals of BMW as well as their alternatives. This chapter closes with the strategy and enterprise philosophy of BMW and with a list of the of the Rover Group's assets in 1994. In the 3rd and 4th chapters of this case study the mistakes of the BMW management attempting to integrate Rover into the BMW portfolio are shown and analysed, as well as its consequences for BMW and Rover. The 5th chapter will end with the conclusion, why the Rover takeover went wrong. Zusammenfassung: Ziel der Arbeit ist es, die strategischen Ziele, die Tragweite und die moglichen Folgen von M&A-Transaktionen in den Bereichen Finanzen (Investitionen und operatives Geschaft), Unternehmensfuhrung- und Organisation sowie der Unternehmenskultur anhand dieses Unternehmenskaufes zu untersuchen. Dazu wurde die Arbeit in 6 Teile untergliedert. Im 1. Teil werden die allgemeinen M&A-Grundlagen beleuchtet, insbesondere die Ziele, Erscheinungsformen, rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen als auch die Vor- und Nachteile von M&A-Transaktionen. Im 2. Te

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2004 in the subject Business economics - Supply, Production, Logistics, grade: 1,6, Hogeschool Zeeland (Economics), language: English, abstract: Inhaltsangabe: Abstract: This case study deals with an important financial aspect of multinational companies, i.e. their obligation of accounting. Until the year 2000, BMW used to prepare its annual external audits under German Commercial Code Standards (HGB). This tradition ended in 2000, when BMW accounted under International Accounting Standards (IAS) for the first time. 7 years before, Mercedes-Benz was the first German automotive manufacturer adopting international Standards in 1993. But in Mercedes' case US-Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US-GAAP) were chosen, because the objective was to become listed at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). At this time US-GAAP were not accepted outside the North American Free Trade Association (NAFTA), esp. not by the EU Commission, but the US-Principles were applied in the largest and most important stock market worldwide. On the other hand, US organizations like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) did not accept any other accounting standards in these days. Accordingly, Mercedes-Benz had to prepare two annual audits: one under US-GAAP and the other under HGB. This treatment, obviously, was highly inefficient, providing lots of encumbrances to US-capital-seeking European companies: accounting and auditing took too much time, personnel resources and money. Another negative effect was that many US companies hesitated with urgently required investments in Europe. But nevertheless, multinational groups seemed to have several advantages by using international accounting standards, even if they had to prepare more than one audit annually. Within the 1st part, this case study provides basic information dealing with accounting standards, in particular reasons and objectives, organizational patterns and the process of IAS becoming in

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2003 in the subject Business economics - Supply, Production, Logistics, grade: 1,5, Hogeschool Zeeland (Economics), language: English, abstract: Inhaltsangabe: Abstract: In the pursuit of success, higher profit, gaining market share and dealing with the challenges of day to day business. The big national companies, wherever they may be, have dreams and aspirations. As a CEO or General Manager of a big company; there is several objectives to achieve and strive for. Among them, on the top of any list, these will be some of them. Get the most of the revenues and provide for the shareholders, it has in the recent years become more and more apparent, that the big companies seem to focus on shareholder value. This is often found in the US and is finding its way to the European continent. Another primary aim is to expand and become bigger or at least as big the main competitor. There is several reasons and valid objectives; one being the natural instinct of any CEO or General Manager; to achieve success and become an even bigger share of the global market. Other reasons may be the search for new markets, for whatever reason, the need for cutting the production costs, to be closer to the customers or even to have access to new technologies or raw materials. In this case study, we will deal with the issue of BMW AG's decision in the mid 90's to go abroad. To settle on the US market, starting up a manufacturing facility. There is a wide range of reasons, concerns and objectives to be dealt with prior to make that certain move, settling on foreign shores and setting up business. In order to understand what we are dealing with, we need to define multinational: Companies operating in multiple countries, but responding to local product-markets through more customized approaches In order to deal and operate in that environment, that company is expected to have highly qualified resources and access to a wide range of information's; such as pricing

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2004 in the subject Business economics - Marketing, Corporate Communication, CRM, Market Research, Social Media, grade: 1,7, Hogeschool Zeeland (Economics), language: English, abstract: Inhaltsangabe: Abstract: The word marketing is always appearing in most articles and books dealing with selling, the word has been watered down and in many cases lost its true value and sense. Most people mistakenly identify marketing with selling and promotion - but selling is only the tip of the marketing iceberg. It is simply one of several marketing functions, and often not the most important one. If the marketer does a good job of identifying consumer needs, developing appropriate products, and pricing, distributing, and promoting them effectively, these goods will sell very easily. Companies have to search for buyers, identify their needs, design appropriate products, promote them, store and transport them, negotiate, and so on. Such activities as product development, search, communication, distribution, pricing, and service constitute core marketing activities. We have defined the core marketing activities; supporting the sales force in their pursuit of revenues and profit. The marketing department have to focus multiple tasks ranging from product development to pricing. Often the marketing department is so intertwined in the sales processes that the marketing and sales division is one division, in order to maintain the direction required in order to achieve the objectives set up by the management. In the first part of this case we will look at the general term; strategic marketing and set up fictitious examples of how a company in the automotive industry would deal with strategic marketing and look at the tools available to the marketing department and how they are implemented. Being a multinational company like BMW you need a strategy for virtually prior to make a decision and this applies to marketing as well. The company has the past two deca