take-off... - Ing. Milan KOUDELKA

Chronicle of a success storyas time goes onA contribution byJohannes AblerLiebherr-Verzahntechnik GmbH70 % of all strategic alliances runinto serious difficulties andturmoil within the first four years,generally followed by ruefuldissolution. With that not exactlyoptimistic forecast delivered bymany experts, we sallied forth in1992 to create a partnership"around the gear".In the early 1990´s, the machinetool industry suffered a number ofdramatic setbacks. The reunitedGermany was especially hard-hit:From the once around 100,000employees in the Federal Republicand 50,000 in the former DDR, thelevel of employment throughoutGermany today has stabilised atapprox. 66,000. Yet productivitywas substantially increased overthis same period. With a productionvolume of 18,000 billion DMin 2000, the record level of 1991was surpassed for the first time.That this respectable performanceincrease is achieved today withfewer than half the number ofemployees gives a fair idea of thedrastic structural changes whichhave taken place in recent years.Yet we all know that difficultsituations frequently have theirpositive side:Astonishing energies are mobilisedwhen a company’s verysurvival is at stake.Profound modifications ofcorporate structures and theimplementation of developmentprogrammes often succeed in a160.000150.000140.000130.000120.000110.000100.00090.00080.00070.00060.00050.000Westdeutschland / west germanyOstdeutschland / east germany89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00great deal better under massivepressure.Against this background, Klingelnberg,Liebherr, Lorenz and Oerlikon1992 set themselves theobjective of working togetherclosely in all functional areas,expanding and constantly strengtheningtheir international marketpresence. The preconditions forthe partnership were virtually ideal:Our family-owned companiesare all medium-sized, and they allhave a proven ability to plan andact on a long term base.Quelle/Source: VDW, LVTEntwicklung derBeschäftigten inder deutschenWerkzeugmaschinenindustrie.Developmentof the employeesin the Germanmachine toolindustry.5