Are You Modular Or Integral? Be Sure Your Supply Chain Knows

Two of the most successful automobile companies of the 1990s were Daimler-Benz and Chrysler. Each entered the decade on somewhat shaky ground, each prospered enormously during the decade, and each mastered a very different business model. Unfortunately, when Daimler-Benz acquired Chrysler for $36 billion in 1998, their two business models proved incompatible. The new company, DaimlerChrysler AG, has suffered since then; its share price has dropped nearly in half and annual profits, more than $7 billion just after the merger, are now around $562 million.