End of the Road: BMW and Rover - A Brand Too Far: Amazon.co.uk: Prof Chris Brady, Dr Andrew Lorenz: Books

Product Description

The thriller begins with the ill-thought through merger and acquisition , and implementation of a misplaced strategy, taking place on the last big battleground for the old-style British unions. Then followed a clash of the titans - Germany versus Germany in the BMW boardroom; and Germany versus England on the larger playing field. The disastrous decisions, clash of cultures, and ultimately the European Union meddling which led to the eventual downfall of the relationship. The book is based on unparalleled and officiallly sanctioned access to all the major players including: Berndt PishetsriederFormer chairman of the management board Wolgang ReitzleFormer deputy chairman of the management board. Tony WoodleyChief negotiator for the T&GWU Manfred SchochDeputy chairman of the supervisory board Von KuhnheimFormer chairman of the supervisory board Walter HasselkusFormer CEO of Rover John TowersFormer CEO of Rover Tom BowersFormer personnel director of Rover An insider at the DTI Joachim MilbergCurrent chairman of the management board "I hope that, by the time I leave, Rover s success will have made it the focus of a Harvard Buisness School case study. Of course, if we fail I suppose we will also be the subject of a cast study." Walter Hasselkus, former CEO, Rover End of the Road is the case study. But it is far more than that. This is the definitive untold story of the entire eight year saga of BMW s ownership of Rover from acquisition to sale and subsequent aftermath. Andrew Lorenz was commissioned by BMW to write the official history of Rover. As the story unfolded, he and Chris Brady had unparalleled, officially sanctioned access to all the key players both at BMW and Rover. Together they interviewed virtually all the major names in the BMW and Rover camps, plus other involved individuals including an exclusive interview with Jon Moulton. In this book, Brady and Lorenz bring together all the interwoven threads and reveal the full story. Witness the clash of cultures, battle of executive egos, disastrous decisions and boardroom bloodshed. The BMW purchase of Rover was seen as the end of a great British Industry. It was also the start of a great British drama.

About the Author

DR Chris Brady

is currently the Director of Studies for the General and Strategic Management MBA at the City University Business School, London and Head Business Coach at Cape Consulting. He previously served in an intelligance capacity as a Royal Naval officer during the Falkland and Gulf conflicts as well as more recently in the Balkans. He has also worked in the gambling and construction industries, as well as working for Chrysler in Detroit during his teens. Dr Brady is a qualified UEFA a licenced football coach. He played football to semi-professional level, which he considers to have been his greatest managerial challenge.

He has published on topics as varied as US foreign policy, Cabinet government, teamwork, education, the environment, intelligence failures and the United Nations.

Chris Brady is also a visiting lecturer and advisor on decision making issues at the Joint Services and Staff College, the Military’s senior staff college. He lectures to the senior staff of the Kuwaiti Staff College and is a Research Fellow of the Institute of Contemporary History.

Chris interviewed virtually all the major players in the BMW and Rover camps.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

A riveting summary of the Rover/BMW debacle 2 Jan 2001

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

This is a highly readable tale of the purchase of Rover by BMW and the ensuing fiasco, climaxing in the sell out to Phoenix. There are some fascinating insights into the behind the scenes machinations of BMW, the unions, the government and Alchemy at the time of BMW's attempts to get rid of Rover. Funnily enough - Alchemy who were cast as the villains of the piece by the British press are practically the only players who come out the whole mess smelling of roses.

My only criticism is that this is quite a high level strategic view and there is not much detail on what went wrong at the operational level - I would have liked to have known more!

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

'The best laid plans..' 11 Dec 2011

By A. McGrath

Format:Paperback

When BMW went shopping for a volume car manufacturer to enhance its product range, it found the only one available, the ailing and troubled Rover Group. This book describes the M & A nightmare that was to follow. All the main characters are included, Pischetsrieder, Reitzle, Woodley, Kuhnheim, Bowers, Hasselkus and Towers to name a few. It follows the hopes and good intentions, but mostly the litany of failures and errors on all sides, (too many to mention, but include, exchange rate, culture, historic underinvestment, mismanagement, etc), to secure the future of Rover. A sad time for all those affected but an interesting read for anyone who wants some insight into corporate strategy and thinking or answers to - why? One small point however, on page 13 it states in my copy, 'almost 90 years after William Morris had begun making cars at Longbridge' - I didn't know he had!?

Fascinating review of the acquisition of Rover by BMW 23 Dec 2001

This book covers the strategic and management issues surrounding the acquisition of Rover by BMW starting from the initial approach to British Aerospace. The book considers in detail how the BMW management handeled the acquisition and explains some of the background to the approach addopted. The approach was revised as time progressed but in spite of this the success was hampered by a number of external issues. Ultimately the effect of these was going to be greater than the benifits from the revised strategy to manage the two organisations as one. A timely approach by a british company specialising in corporate turn-around provided an opportunity for BMW to extracate itself from a situation which would otherwise have had long standing effects on the viability of the entire company. Ultimately the Rover business was sold to the Pheonix consortium lead by John Towers.
The set-up of MG-Rover by Pheonix and the strategy of the new management is also covered. The book closes with a view on the long term viability of MG-Rover as seen in late 2001.

This book makes excelent reading for anyone wishing to gain an understanding of the management strategy behind the news headlines which rocked the British Motor industry for most of the year 2000