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Abstract
After the end of the Second World War, American companies with a highly efficient industrial management system prepared the way for globalisation. To understand how ‘global players’ evolved, this paper investigates the influence of US companies on the internationalisation of German firms between 1945 and the early 1970s and the consequences on German corporate management and competitive strategies. To withstand the so-called ‘American challenge’, to recapture those markets which had been lost during the war and to enter new geographic markets, German companies resorted to new management strategies. In this context, the adoption of American know-how led to a process of catching up, which finally contributed to globalised corporate growth in German companies.
Notes
1. Bracken, Citation1997, Cf. also CitationHutton and Giddens. “Is Globalization Americanization?” Cf. CitationBeck et al., eds. Global America, 19.
2. CitationTrommler, “Aufstieg und Fall,” 675. Trommler considers “Americanization” as ‘a broad attempt to modernise in order to transform economic structures, institutions and sociocultural practices’.
3. CitationWellhöner, “Wirtschaftswunder,” 30.
4. Schröter, Americanization. Ibid., “Amerikanisierung nach 1970.”
5. A globalised company can be measured by the share of employees, sales and profits at home and abroad. ‘Global players” have to obtain an internationally leading role particularly in their core competences. This means they must perform in foreign markets exactly like a domestic company. Globalisation is not only possible because of an adequate institutional and legal basis, the deregulation of markets or the implementation of a worldwide communication technology but also because of the abolition of cultural barriers and by the implementation of a ‘global’ system of values.
6. CitationSchriewer, “Problemdimensionen sozialwissenschaftlicher Komparatistik,” 39.
7. Cf. CitationO'Rourke and Williamson, Globalization and History.
8. The dimension of this input becomes clear with the term ‘American challenge’, which had been penned from the French author CitationJean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber: Servan-Schreiber, Amerikanische Herausforderung.
9. Cf. recently: Citationde Grazia, Irresistible Empire.
10. CitationBerghoff, Wirtschaftsgeschichte als Kulturgeschichte.
11. Schröter, Americanization, 5.
12. CitationOsterhammel, “Transferanalyse und Vergleich im Fernverhältnis,” 448–50.
13. So CitationGuillén, Models of Management, 140. Cf. e.g. CitationWilkins, Emergence. Recently CitationJones, Multinationals and Global Capitalism from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-first Century. Cf. Mazlish and Chandler, “Introduction,” in Mazlish and Buultjens, eds. Conceptualizing Global History. CitationBordo et al., eds. Globalization in Historical Perspective.
14. Cf. CitationKleinschmidt, “Vom ‘Land der unbegrenzten Möglichkeiten’ ins ‘Land der Nachahmer und Billiganbieter’.”
15. Henkel Archives (HA) 451/16, Sinner/Harder, Washing machines in the USA, 9.5.–10.6.1961. HA 153/11, minutes, 6.9.1955, on the US travel of K. Henkel and H.J. Wulff. Ibd., minutes, 7.11.1955.
16. Cf. CitationMcKenna, Origins. CitationKipping, “American Management Consulting Companies in Western Europe, 1920 to 1990.”
17. Hartmann, Amerikanische Firmen, 11.
18. CitationHartmann, Amerikanische Firmen, 185.
19. CitationDIVO Institute, ed. American Subsidiaries in the Federal Republic of Germany, 59.
20. CitationEichengreen, Globalizing Capital. CitationBordo and Eichengreen, eds, Retroperspective. CitationJames, Monetary Cooperation.
21. CitationHellmann, Weltunternehmen, 12. Cf. recently CitationQuinlan, Drifting Apart or Growing Together?, 7.
22. On US direct investment in West Germany, CitationKiesewetter, “Amerikanische Unternehmen,” 73, 76. CitationReichel, Direktinvestitionen, 39. CitationScharrer and Müller-Neuhof, “Von der staatlichen Wiederaufbauhilfe zur privaten Kapitalverflechtung,” 525.
23. Hellmann, Weltunternehmen, 44. Kiesewetter, “Unternehmen,” 80.
24. CitationStandke, Investitionspolitik, 27.
25. CitationHilger, “Der Zwang zur Größe.”
26. CitationAbelshauser, Kulturkampf.
27. HA 153/16, report, 24.1.1961. Cf. CitationBerger, How We Compete.
28. GE in 1929 developed into the most important shareholder of AEG, while Siemens maintained its cooperation with Westinghouse. The agreement on the exchange of patent, which was ratified in 1924, led to the division of spheres of interest and markets. Feldenkirchen, “Beziehungen,” 332. The friendly relationship between Procter & Gamble and Henkel before the Second World War based on a licence agreement on the manufacturing of fatty alcohols from 1932. HA 0 22, undated report for the British Alliied Military Government. HA 333/1, Wohlthat, note ‘on the relationship to P&G’, 23.12.1953. HA unsign. stock, Kobold, Detergents abroad, 1.7.1955.
29. German firms called the American price policy a means of ‘raptorial competition’. CitationPlettner, Elektrotechnik, 245. Also HA 314/130, report SRI, vol. 1, July 1966, p. 66. SRI described P&G as a company, which was known ‘for … its ruthless forging ahead’.
30. Bracken, “American Challenge,” 11.
31. HA 333/1, Malitz, Debus, note on P&G, 21.4.1958. HA 314/130, report SRI, Vol. 1, July 1966, 66.
32. HA 333/1, Malitz, Debus, note on P&G, 21.4.1958. HA 314/130, report SRI, Vol. 1, July 1966, 66.
33. CitationHilger, Amerikanisierung, 141.
34. HA 251/2b, SRI, Long-term planning for Persil/Henkel, phase II: Strategic planning, Vol. 2, July 1968, pp. 320.
35. Hellmann, Weltunternehmen, 191
36. Cf. CitationPförtner, “Amerikanische ‘Business Administration’,” 226. On the contemporary discussion, CitationHartmann, “The Transfer of Managerial Know-how between Advanced Economies.” Also CitationAbromeit, Amerikanische Betriebswirtschaftslehre.
37. On the tendencies to professionalisation: CitationHagemann, “Der amerikanische Einfluß auf das deutsche Wirtschaftsdenken.”
38. CitationDjelic, American Model, 203f.
39. Cf. for example CitationHounshell, From the American System to Mass Production.
40. CitationFriedrichs, “Technischer Fortschritt und Beschäftigung in Deutschland,” 81.
41. CitationKaiser, “Technisierung,” 410–11. NC machines were initially used from the late 1940s onwards for the manufacturing of bombs and rotor blades. In 1953 the US aircraft manufacturer Lockheed was first to use a nc-driven milling machine.
42. CitationSchelsky, Die sozialen Folgen der Automatisierung, 38. CitationBittorf, Automation. Die zweite industrielle Revolution. Cf. CitationHounshell, Automation, Transfer Machinery, and Mass Production in the US Automobile Industry in the Post-World War II Era.
43. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, TA report 1956/57, Nallinger, Uhlenhaut, and Wilfert on US travel, Autumn 1956.
44. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, TA report 1956/57, Nallinger, Uhlenhaut, and Wilfert on US travel, Autumn 1956.
45. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Nallinger, Uhlenhaut, and Wilfert on US travel, Autumn 1956. CitationGempt, Zukunftsperspektiven, 29–31. CitationStahlmann, Die Erste Revolution in der Autoindustrie.
46. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Braun, Amerika 1955.
47. CitationBusch, Strukturwandlungen, 121–2. On the German quality standards: CitationDienel, “Deutsche Vorbehalte.”
48. Cf. CitationHilger, “Maßschneiderei.”
49. Busch, Strukturwandlungen, 134–5.
50. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Zahn/HS, Langheck 383, Prinz to Zahn, 14.4.76.
51. CitationRadkau, “Wirtschaftswunder”, 132. Stahlmann, Erste Revolution, 32.
52. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Zahn, HS 6, Raue, Raue to Burneleit, 21.10.1968.
53. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Sifi, Huppenbauer 271–5, Müller, Breitschwerdt and Knapp, “Gedanken zu den in Amerika gewonnenen Erkenntnissen”, 31.7.1963.
54. CitationPriess, Global operierende Konzerne, 23. Busch, Strukturwandlungen, 121–2.
55. Quoted CitationBingmann, “Einflüsse,” 238.
56. CitationBarthel and Lingnau, 100 Jahre Daimler-Benz, 182.
57. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Hitzinger 14/Nallinger, Nallinger, Developing program for passenger cars of Daimler-Benz AG up to 1970, 15.5.1963.
58. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Zahn/HS 6, Raue, 9.5.1968. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Hitzinger 10/Langheck, Langheck, Manufacturing of Daimler-Benz trucks, 15.11.1962.
59. Feldenkirchen, “ Vom Guten das Beste”, 269.
60. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Zahn/HS 6, Raue, Questions of rationalization, 15.3.1967.
61. CitationWilliamson, Corporate Control, 382. CitationWhittington et al., “Chandlerism,” 529. Also CitationZunz, Making America Corporate. CitationChandler, Strategy and Structure.
62. Alfred Chandler calls these strategies ‘the American style of industrial groups’. Chandler, “M-Form,” 10. CitationKogut and Parkinson, “Adoption of the Multidivisional Structure.”
63. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Sifi, Huppenbauer 271–5, Müller, Breitschwerdt and Knapp, US travel, 9.5.1963. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Scherenberg, USA 1963, Langheck, US travel, 31.3.–21.4.1963. Lamoreaux and Raff, eds. Coordination and Information: Historical Perspectives on the Organization of Enterprise.
64. Servan-Schreiber, Amerikanische Herausforderung, 194.
65. CitationChandler, “M-Form,” 10. Also CitationDrucker, The Concept of the Corporation.
66. Whittington et al., “Chandlerism,” 543. Cf. Djelic, American Model, 6–7. Guillén, Models, 149.
67. Tacke, Beitrag, 226.
68. CitationFeldenkirchen, Siemens, 295–7.
69. Tacke, Beitrag, 225.
70. Siemens Corporate Archives (SAA) S 10, report, 31.7.1969. Ibid., report, 1.10.1969.
71. HA 252/25, Henkel & Cie GmbH, annual report 1968. HA 252/20, Henkel GmbH, annual report 1969. Also HA 153/36, minutes, 22.10.1968.
72. CitationEglau, “Weniger Clan – mehr Elan”, 28.
73. HA 153/42, minutes, 9.1.1968.
74. HA 314/96, Persil GmbH, note, 17.10.1968. HA 153/42, note, 16.10.1968. Cf. CitationHilger, “American Consultants.”
75. HA 314/96, K. Henkel/Stapf, 27.6.1968.
76. See CitationPrevits et al., A History of Accounting in America. An Historical Interpretation of the Cultural Significance of Accounting. Citation Fligstein , The Transformation of Corporate Control. CitationLevenstein, Accounting for Growth. CitationBoyns, “Recent Developments in Anglo-Saxon (Management) Accounting History.” CitationKleinschmidt, “Vom betrieblichen Rechnungswesen zum Controlling.” CitationVahs, Controlling-Konzeptionen in deutschen Industrieunternehmungen.
77. CitationMännel, “Art. Rechnungswesen,” 465. Also CitationHenning, “Externe Unternehmensprüfung in Deutschland,” 23–28.
78. CitationHahn, “Konzepte und Beispiele zur Organisation des Controlling in der Industrie,” 5.
79. Abromeit, Amerikanische Betriebswirtschaft, 172.
80. Hartmann, “Firmen,” 102–4. Also CitationVoröß, “Begriff, Stellung und Aufgaben des Kontrollers in den USA und bei uns,” 15–17.
81. Tacke, Beitrag, 224.
82. Tacke, Beitrag, 224.
83. Cf. CitationHorvath, Controlling, 69. According to CitationKleinschmidt ‘German entrepreneurs up to the 1960s did not see any necessity to implement a controlling unit’, because the supervisory board was seen as a ‘sufficient controlling instance’. CitationKleinschmidt, “Rechnungswesen,” 11.
84. DIVO Institute, ed. American Subsidiaries in the Federal Republic of Germany, 97–8.
85. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Zahn/HS 6, Raue, Questions of rationalisation, 15.3.1967.
86. Horvath, Controlling, 26.
87. HA 252/57, Guidelines for external and internal accounting, 10.1.1968.
88. HA 252/57, Guidelines for external and internal accounting, 10.1.1968.
89. SAA 16.Ll 409, report, 25.7.1972.
90. Tacke, Beitrag, 224.
91. Tacke, Beitrag, 277.
92. HA 314/96, Persil GmbH, note, 17.10.1968. Ibid., Stapf, 18.7.1968. Also HA 314/133, SRI, Phase III, final report. HA 153/42, SRI, 16.10.1968. HA 153/42, R.O. Shreve, memorandum, 11.7.1968.
93. CitationBerghahn, Unternehmer, 228–30.
94. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Scherenberg, USA 1960–1962, Dr. Funke, Report, Travel to the USA, 2.12.–22.12.1960.
95. CitationMaslow, Motivation and Personality.
96. Bramesfeld et al., Human Relations in Industry, 13, 58–9.
97. Antoni, “Personalmanagement,” 853. On the traditions of the German ‘Arbeitswissenschaften’ and industrial sociology see CitationSchuster, Industrie und Sozialwissenschaften.
98. Hartmann, Amerikanische Firmen, 113–14.
99. CitationAntoni, “Personalmanagement,” 856.
100. DIVO Institute, ed. American Subsidiaries in the Federal Republic of Germany, 99–101.
101. , “Anmerkung,” 111. Ibid., Handbuch der Personalführung.
102. Quot. CitationKaste, Humanisierung der Arbeit, 19. For Germany: CitationCampbell, Joy at Work.
103. CitationBreisig, Skizzen zur historischen Genese betrieblicher Führungs- und Sozialtechniken, 133.
104. CitationBramesfeld et al., Human Relations, 25.
105. CitationWinschuh, Unternehmerbild, S. 52.
106. Winschuh, Unternehmerbild, 53, 237. Cf. Guillén, Models of Management, 135–7. Kaste, Humanisierung der Arbeit, 27–9.
107. Winschuh, Unternehmerbild, S. 12.
108. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Sifi and Huppenbauer 271–5, Müller, Breitschwerdt and Knapp, 31.7.1963.
109. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Sifi and Huppenbauer 271–5, Müller, Breitschwerdt and Knapp, 31.7.1963.
110. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Sifi and Huppenbauer 271–275, Müller, Breitschwerdt and Knapp, 31.7.1963. Cf. CitationSchleyer, Das soziale Modell.
111. “Nur leistungsbereite und hochqualifizierte Mitarbeiter bringen uns weiter auf dem Weg zur Spitzenfirma.” “Ziele für jeden von uns”, in: Henkel-Blick 2/90, S. 1, 8.
112. HA K1, H. Rüggenberg, 20, 17.10.1975.
113. Quot. CitationOsswald, Arbeitswelt, 32, 172–173.
114. In the mid-1960s this kind of work organisation in the American industry had been called the ‘General Motors method’, which was based on ‘one engineer, one stylist and three or four model makers working together on a single model’. Kaste, Humanisierung der Arbeit, 94–6. CitationGentz, “Arbeitsgestaltung in der deutschen Automobilindustrie,” 45–46. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Scherenberg, USA 1965, Landmann to Wilfert, 9.9.1965.
115. CitationSchlitzberger, “Erfahrungen mit der Arbeitsstrukturierung,” 103. Kaste, Humanisierung der Arbeit, 157–8.
116. CitationDale, Organisatoren, 194–195. Hartmann, Amerikanische Firmen, 150–1.
117. Winschuh, Unternehmerbild, 52. Bramesfeld, Human Relations, 25.
118. CitationHöhn, ed. Das Harzburger Modell in der Praxis, 21.
119. Kaste, Humanisierung der Arbeit, 65. CitationSlusher and Sims, “Das Zielsetzungsgespräch in MbO-Systemen.”
120. Breisig, Skizze, 133.
121. CitationWitte, “Unternehmensführung,” 140.
122. Guillén, Models, 148–9.
123. Tacke, Beitrag, 131.
124. Tacke, Beitrag, 222.
125. Tacke, Beitrag, 221. SAA 16.Lh 263, Siemens AG, report, executive board, 28./29.6.1971. The members of the board of executives were convinced that one had to learn ‘to delegate’.
126. Osswald, Arbeitswelt, 94–5, 226–8, 230–1, 234–7. Gentz, “Arbeitsgestaltung,” 48. Cf. CitationTöpfer, Restrukturierung des Daimler-Benz Konzerns 1995–1997, 16, 40–2.
127. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Hitzinger 14/Nallinger, Nallinger to Hitzinger, 22.5.1963.
128. HA 251/1, SRI, Implementation of a long-term corporate planning within the Henkel group, 25.11.1970, p. 53. HA 251/2b, SRI, Long-term planning for Persil/Henkel, Phase II, Vol. 2, Juli 1968, 311–12. HA K 10, Henkel's Personnal policy, 1975.
129. CitationNieschlag et al., Marketing. CitationTedlow, New and Improved. CitationWalker Laird, Advertising Progress.
130. CitationMcCarthy, Basic Marketing.
131. CitationMeffert, “Marketing-Geschichte,” 663–5. Also Nieschlag et al., Marketing.
132. See also DIVO Institute, ed., American Subsidiaries in the Federal Republic of Germany, 134: ‘Advertising is the field that has been Americanised to the greatest degree’.
133. DIVO Institute, ed. American Subsidiaries in the Federal Republic of Germany, 110–39.
134. Schröter, “Amerikanisierung der Werbung,” 104. Servan-Schreiber, Amerikanische Herausforderung, 32. Hartmann, Amerikanische Firmen, 109. CitationBubik, Marketing-Theorie, 149–52. CitationLang, “Von der Reklame zur modernen Marketing-Agentur,” 303.
135. Bubik, Marketing-Theorie, 134–6. Schröter, “Amerikanisierung der Werbung,” 93–4.
136. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Scherenberg, USA 1963, Langheck, Report on my travel to the US, 31.3.–21.4.1963.
137. HA 153/30, minutes, 27.6.1966. HA 153/31, minutes, 20.9.1966.
138. HA 455/8, A. Thorbecke to K. Henkel, 28.11.1955. HA 455/7, Sales planning, 30.5.1958. Ibid., Kobold/Stapf to Thompsonwerke, 6.6.1958. Ibid., Memorandum, 24.10.1957. Henkel's subsidiary Thompsonwerke started the toilet cleaner ‘bif” in Germany not before 1961.
139. HA O22, WIO Wettbewerbsbeobachtung, Werkszeitung Mitbewerber, P&G 30 Jahre Deutschland, 11.9.1990, 32–34.
140. Langfristplanung im Gespräch.” Interview with Erwin Stapf, in: BvH 8, 1967, 16.
141. Hundert Jahre Henkel, 77. Schröter, “Amerikanisierung der Werbung,” 105–6. Ibid., “Erfolgsfaktor Marketing.”
142. “CitationKurz vorm Ziel.” In Manager-Magazin 2/79, 8. “From products to advertising” for Sihler the 1960s was ‘the century of the United States’. “Interview mit Prof. Dr. Helmut Sihler,” 91, 94. Also Tedlow, New and Improved, XVIII–XXX.
143. HA 455/55, Administrative report No. 3/1968, Persil GmbH, 4. April 1968.
144. HA 455/55, Administrative report No. 3/1968, Persil GmbH, 4. April 1968.
145. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Fellbach, Presse, B10, Göring/Naumann, Study trip to the US, 2.6. to 26.6.1964.
146. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Hitzinger 26, Customers’ survey 1963, 7.8.1963. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Hitzinger 26, Measures of sales promotion. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Scherenberg, USA 1965, H. Schmidt to Scherenberg, 5.2.1965.
147. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Scherenberg, USA 1965, Wychodil, Report on my travel to the US and Canada, 28.11.–3.12.1965. DaimlerChrysler Corporate Archives, Scherenberg, USA 1965, Report on Daimler-Benz's business in North America, 17.1.–22.1.1965.
148. HA A26, “Henkel blickt über die Grenzen des heimischen deutschen Markts hinaus.” In International Management (February 1972), S. 4, 6. HA 455/23, Report, 6.3.1972. HA 455/79, Memorandum, 29.5.1972. Ibid., Szymczak to K. Henkel, 27.7.1972.
149. HA 153/22, minutes, 10.9. and 29.10.1963. Also HA 153/42, minutes, 9.1.1968.
150. Hartmann, Amerikanische Firmen, 139. CitationHaese, “Amerikanisierte Werbung?,” 7.
151. CitationWeiher and Goetzeler, Weg und Wirken der Siemens-Werke im Fortschritt der Elektrotechnik, 41. Lang, “Reklame,” 302–3.
152. CitationMundhenke, “75 Jahre Henkel-Werbung,” 236.
153. HA H 20, Report on the study travel for advertising managers to the US, 21.3.–8.4.1954. Cf. CitationGries, Produkte als Medien.
154. HA H 20, Report on the study travel for advertising managers to the US, 21.3.–8.4.1954.
155. Schröter, “Amerikanisierung der Werbung,” 98–99.
156. HA 153/22, minutes, 10.9.1963.
157. HA 333/2, note, 23.1.1955.
158. HA 333/2, note, 23.1.1955.
159. HA 153/23, minutes, 4.2.1964. HA 455/19, Dieter Schneider, “Millionen für einen Waschmittelkrieg.” In Welt der Arbeit, 21.2.1964. P&G thought, that ‘the German market first of all had to get used to the aggressive American advertising’.
160. HA 153/27, minutes, 18.5.1965. Also HA 153/30, minutes, 3.5.1966. HA 455/19, Henkel & Cie GmbH, Economic report, 17.8.1964.