History and organization of Mercedes-Benz
The history of Mercedes-Benz started with two different ideas from two different men with two different cars. Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz each created their own companies, manufacturing their own cars. The invention in the 1880s of the high-speed engine and the automobile enabled Daimler and Benz, independently of one another, to lay the foundations for the motorization of road transport.
With the help of financial backers and partners, they both invested their development projects in their own private businesses – in Mannheim, Benz founded the firm Benz & Cie. in October 1883, and Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft (DMG) was formed in November 1890. By 1879/80, eight years after his company was founded, Karl Benz had developed his first working two-stroke engine. The birth of the first motor vehicle in the world was in 1885. One year later Daimler invented his first motor vehicle.
The Name
The first Mercedes was build by Gottlieb Daimler and Wilhelm Maybach. They made the car for Emil Jellinek, who took part in the Nice-Magagnon-Nice rally under the pseudonym Mercedes, his daughter's name. Mercedes is a Spanish girls' name meaning "grace". He won the race in a Daimler Phoenix, but he wanted more. He asked Daimler and Maybach to build a faster and better car. The first vehicle to be fitted with the new engine, a 35 hp racing car, was delivered to Jellinek by DMG on December 22, 1900.
Mercedes Jellinek
The birth of Daimler-Benz
The period of inflation after the First World War meant a difficult time for sales, especially of luxury goods such as passenger cars, and had serious repercussions on the automobile industry. Only financially strong companies with well-established models were able to survive, although even these were forced into mergers and cooperative ventures. It was in this way that the former rivals, DMG and Benz & Cie., formed a syndicate in 1924 in order to standardize design and production, as well as purchasing, sales and advertising, and thereby remain competitive.
During this period, the two firms generally marketed their products jointly, although still under
2 separate trademarks. Two years later, in June 1926, the two motor manufacturers merged to the firm Daimler-Benz AG (Aktiengesellschaft)
The trademark
The suggestion to use the star as a trademark came from Gottlieb Daimler's sons. Their father had once sent his wife a postcard with a star marking out the house where he was living in Deutz. "One day this star will shine down
on my work", he said. In 1909 a trademark was taken out on the star. Its three points symbolizes the three branches of motorization: on land, on water and in the air. When Daimler-Benz AG arose they choose the three-pointed star belonging to Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft surrounded with its trade name ‘Mercedes’ as well as that of the equally famous name ‘Benz’ as the trademark. Nowadays the words ‘Mercedes Benz’ are not found in the trademark anymore.
DaimlerChrysler
In 1998, Daimler-Benz AG and Chrysler Corporation entered into a business combination agreement.
Chrysler and Daimler-Benz merged into DaimlerChrysler AG. The Headquarters of DaimlerChrysler are placed in Stuttgart, Germany (former Daimler-Benz) and Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA (former Chrysler). (Securities and exchange commission DaimlerChrysler AG, 2001) The DaimlerChrysler group is, after Ford and General Motors, the biggest car and truck manufacturer in the world.
DaimlerChrysler has 5 business units, as they are shown below (figure A.1), with the major brands/activities.
3 Figure A.1 Organization structure of DaimlerChrysler
The business units Mercedes Car Group and the Chrysler group together are responsible for all the passenger cars. DaimlerChrysler has two strategic partners in Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and Hyundai Motor Corporation.
Mercedes-Benz USA
Mercedes-Benz USA was founded in 1965 with headquarters in Fort Lee, New Jersey and moved to its current headquarters in Montvale, New Jersey in 1972. Prior to the founding of Mercedes-Benz North America (former name of Mercedes-Benz USA), Mercedes-Benz cars were sold in the United States from 1957 to 1964 by Mercedes-Benz Sales Inc., a subsidiary of the Studebaker-Packard Corporation. Max Hoffman was the first importer and retailer of Mercedes-Benz cars in the United States from 1952-1957.
Mercedes-Benz USA is responsible for the sales, service and marketing of Mercedes-Benz products in the United States, not the production of cars. Mercedes-Benz USA is a wholly owned subsidiary of DaimlerChrysler and part of the business unit Mercedes Passengers Cars. Smart is not imported in the
DaimlerChrysler Group
Commercial Vehicles
Services
MTU Aero Engines EADS Mercedes-Benz
Freightliner Sterling Setra
Detroit Diesel MTU/Diesel Eng.
Mercedes Car Group
Chrysler Group
Mercedes-Benz Smart
Maybach
Chrysler Dodge Jeep Passenger Cars
Daimler-Chrysler Services
Dc Bank
Participations
4 USA by Mercedes. That is why the two car brands MBUSA has to deal with are Mercedes-Benz and Maybach.
Mercedes-Benz USA has about 1200 employees. There are 313 MB centers (dealers), including one owned by Mercedes-Benz USA. This is the dealer in Manhattan. The organization structure is contains under the president 4 Vice Presidents (Marketing, Customer Services, Sales and Finance and Controlling), 5 General Managers and 4 department managers. For this research the IT department is most important. The IT department is build out of 10 sub-departments. Figure A.2 shows the organizational structure.
5 Figure A.2 Organization structure of Mercedes-Benz USA
President and CEO Paul Halata
GM Corp.
Comm.
Scott Keogh
GM HR &
Training Glenn Shagena
General Counsel Tracy Matura
GM Info.
Technology Astrid Fontaine
GM Strat Ret.
Devel.
Gregg Goolsby 4 vice
presidents Presidents (Marketing, Customer Services, Sales and Finance and Controlling)
4 Dept.
Mangers (Quality Assurance, Executive Support, Corporate Developme nt and Marketing Resources Systems Dev - Vehicles J. Bersig
Service & Parts Support J. Schultz Corporate Systems C. Doyle Strat. Marketing & Customer Sys. J. Morin Network Operations E. Schaub
ITM Research J. Idone
Data Center Operations K. O’Connell Strategic Retail Systems M. Brajczewski ITM Administration A. Fontaine Web Operations Center R. Arts
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Appendix B
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Appendix C
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Appendix D
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