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Case Study

ABB Turbocharging (A): Leading change in certain times

By Winter Nie, Wolfgang Ulaga and Athanasios Kondis

8 pages

November 2014

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Reference: IMD-3-2430

It is 2007 and the president of ABB Turbocharging, a successful business unit with a strong performance record is considering introducing change in order to make his organization more sales-driven and proactive to customer needs. Case A provides an introduction to ABB Turbocharging back in 2007; its structure, business model and strategy. It also offers an overview of the market for turbochargers and the challenges involved in serving the different segments and customer groups. It concludes with the president of the organization questioning the sustainability of the current strategy and raising four key questions concerning the journey ahead.

Learning Objective

How do you change “the bicycle shop” mentality in a successful 100 years old industrial organization? What are the skills and capabilities that need to be developed in order to shift from a technical and reactive culture to a proactive sales-oriented one? What are the challenges and risks in such an endeavor? What are the changes required to take place at both HQ and local level?

Keywords

Organizational Change, Change Management, Business to Business, Marketing, Strategy, Automation Technology, Power Technology, Process Automation, Turbocharging System

Settings

World/global, Switzerland
Asea Brown Boveri
2007

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

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This case study is part of a series

ABB Turbocharging (A): Leading change in certain times
ABB Turbocharging (B): Implementing change in turbulent times

This case study is part of a series

ABB Turbocharging (A): Leading change in certain times
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