BMW

Bayerische Motoren Werke AG  (BMW), (literally English: Bavarian Motor

Works) is a German automobile, motorcycle and engine manufacturing
company founded in 1916. It also owns and produces the MINI brand, and
is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces
motorcycles under BMW Motorrad and Husqvarna brands. BMW is known
for its performance and luxury vehicles.

The circular blue and white BMW logo or roundel is portrayed by BMW as
the movement of an aircraft propeller, to signify the white blades cutting
through the blue sky – an interpretation that BMW adopted for convenience
in 1929, twelve years after the roundel was created. The emblem evolved
from the circular Rapp Motorenwerke company logo, from which the BMW
company grew, combined with the white and blue colors of the flag
of Bavaria, reversed to produce the BMW roundel. However, the origin of
the logo being based on the movement of a propeller is in dispute,
according to an article recently posted by the New York times, quoting "At
the BMW Museum in Munich, Anne Schmidt-Possiwal, explained that the
blue-and-white company logo did not represent a spinning propeller, but
was meant to show the colors of the Free State of Bavaria.

BMW's first significant aircraft engine was the BMW Ia inline-six liquid-
cooled engine of 1918, much preferred for its high-altitude
performance.] With German rearmament in the 1930s, the company again
began producing aircraft engines for the Luftwaffe. Among its
successful World War II engine designs were the BMW 132 and BMW
801 air-cooled radial engines, and the pioneering BMW 003 axial-
flow turbojet, which powered the tiny, 1944-1945-era jet-powered
"emergency fighter", the Heinkel He 162 Salamander. The BMW 003 jet
engine was tested in the A-1b version of the world's first jet fighter, the
Messerschmitt Me 262, but BMW engines failed on takeoff, a major
setback for the jet fighter program until successful testing with Junkers
engines.
By 1959 the automotive division of BMW was in financial difficulties and a
shareholders meeting was held to decide whether to go into liquidation or
find a way of carrying on. It was decided to carry on and to try to cash in on
the current economy car boom enjoyed so successfully by some of
Germany's ex-aircraft manufacturers such as Messerschmitt and Heinkel.
The rights to manufacture the Italian Iso Isetta were bought, the tiny cars
themselves were to be powered by a modified form of BMW's own
motorcycle engine. This was moderately successful and helped the
company get back on its feet. The controlling majority shareholder of the
BMW Aktiengesellschaft since 1959 is the Quandt family, which owns
about 46% of the stock. The rest is in public float.
In 1992, BMW acquired a large stake in Californian-based industrial
design studio Design works USA, which they fully acquired in 1995. In
1994, BMW bought the British Rover Group (which at the time consisted of
the Rover, Land Rover and MG brands as well as the rights to defunct
brands including Austin and Morris), and owned it for six years. By 2000,
Rover was making huge losses and BMW decided to sell the combine. The
MG and Rover brands were sold to the Phoenix Consortium to form MG
Rover, while Land Rover was taken over by Ford. BMW, meanwhile,
retained the rights to build the new MINI, which was launched in 2001.
Chief designer Chris Bangle announced his departure from BMW in
February 2009, after serving on the design team for nearly seventeen
years. He was replaced by Adrian van Hooydonk, Bangle's former right
hand man. Bangle was famously (or infamously) known for his radical
designs such as the 2002 7-Series and the 2002 Z4. In July 2007, the
production rights for Husqvarna Motorcycles was purchased by BMW for a
reported 93 million euros. BMW Motorrad plans to continue operating
Husqvarna Motorcycles as a separate enterprise. All development, sales
and production activities, as well as the current workforce, have remained
in place at its present location at Varese.
BMW Culture
With over 90 years in the industry the culture at BMW is an anomaly in the
car manufacturing business. BMW teaches their employees the history of
the company and their mission from day one. Problem times from years
past are also told to the new employees. For example when the company
was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1959 and was saved by a local business
man, these mishaps are used as learning tools to stop history from
repeating itself. Regardless of your job title all levels work together to
create ideas to better the brand and product. The regular hierarchy that you
see within a company is not an obstacle when voicing your thoughts and
ideas.   Team brainstorming is done on a regular basis and everyone’s
input is valued. BMW was one of the first companies to offer profit sharing
in Germany to its employees. 
The leadership at BMW is one the values the employees and listens to their
ideas. The type of open door leadership BMW allows for employees to feel
as if they have value to the company and its achievements. Informal
powwows are used to brainstorm for ideas with all levels of employees. It is
sometimes referred to as a freewheeling idea factory. Employees from all
different departments are known to get together and work on a single
project. This culture allows for employees to feel as if they are valued and
that their ideas are appreciated.   No one is looked down upon when they
present an idea even if they are not as “high up” as the other people in the
room. This allows for great ideas to be given and fostered. The work
environment at BMW is so highly sought after that over 200,000
applications are received annually. 
The job characteristics model involves increasing the amount of skill
variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback in a job.
Three critical psychological states: (1) experienced meaningfulness of the
tasks performed, (2) experience personal responsibility for tasks outcomes,
and (3) knowledge of the tasks performed.
The BMW International Open is an annual men's
professional golf tournament on the European Tour. Founded in 1989, it
has always been held in and around BMW's home city
of Munich, Germany, and since 2001 has been played at the Golfclub
München Eichenried.
The event is one of three on the Tour currently played in Germany, the
other two being the Deutsche Bank Players Championship of Europe and
the Mercedes-Benz Championship. In 2010 the prize fund was €2 million,
which is mid-range for a European Tour event.

The yearly BMW Group Intercultural Commitment Award has been

honoring projects that promote intercultural dialogue since 1997.
The award allows the BMW Group to establish partnerships with the
winning projects, and is a testimony to BMW’s stated commitment to
fostering peaceful and successful interactions between people from
different cultures and backgrounds.
What makes an interaction successful? Can you always distinguish
between one that is and one that is not? This is often a harder
question to answer than you would expect.

Each party may approach an interaction with different expectations

as to how it should unfold and they may then leave it with different
perceptions as to how it unfolded. In a business environment, you
could argue that success is measured in terms of making a profit, of
sealing a contract or of establishing a partnership. Yet these are end
results, the final objective of an often longer process, each stage of
which requires interactions such as negotiations, conversations and
exchanges between individuals.

When interactions span different cultures, uncertainty increases as

shared customs, communication styles and attitudes give way to
rising cross cultural differences. Given the element of risk generated
by cross cultural differences, no matter how technically able a
business person or organisation is international success will depend
on their levels of intercultural competence.
Intercultural competence is really important for any individual or
organisation working globally. Anyone wishing to be considered for
BMW’s Intercultural Commitment award should be able to show a
high level of intercultural competence. In other words, they should
have a mix of the personal characteristics and skills required to
develop and maintain relationships and communicate effectively
across cultures, attaining compliance and cooperation.

Intercultural competence is particularly important to consider when

selecting expatriates for international assignments or appointing
managers of international projects or teams. Given the ever
increasing global dimension of business, however, you could argue
that intercultural competence is a skill all employees of an
ambitious, competitive and interculturally committed company
should have. The question therefore becomes: can intercultural
competence be taught, or does it only come through repeated
exposure to intercultural interactions?

The answer is both. While intercultural awareness and competence

can certainly be achieved by having repeated exposure to
intercultural interactions and through trial and error, it is undeniably
better to undertake specialist training designed to develop cross-
cultural communication skills and awareness before working
internationally. Once a misunderstanding has happened, it might be
too late or difficult to rectify it, which in turn may cause a break in
communication altogether and loss of a profitable deal.

The cultural knowledge gained and skills developed

through intercultural training courses such as Developing Global
Competence will provide a strong foundation from which to start a
global role on the right track. By using all the tools and skills
acquired through Communicaid’s cross cultural awareness training
programmes, you and your company will be better equipped to deal
with international colleagues and show a high level of intercultural
commitment, perhaps warranting consideration from BMW’s
Intercultural Commitment Award!

Strengths-
BMW is a well-known company with a high status branding that has a very
high recognition factor. The company has been strengths in both research
and development and design as well as in marketing.   For example when it
comes to marketing it was a BMW advertisement that was the first e-
advertisement that made it to Campaigns 'Pick of the Week' (Doman).
However, in a long-term purchase such as this there is a need for moire
substance than just marketing, otherwise the life of the company would be
relatively short due to the nature of the purchase. It is in these longer-term
systems and strategies that we can see many of the strengths of BMW, we
can consider these by starting with the market position of the company. 
BMW as well as Mercedes' and a few other companies have managed too
successful attain m a market position where they have a focus on a narrow
range of exclusive cars. These can be seen as aimed at the market place
that is not also sensitive to price, and as such we must argue that the
market positioning may be seen as a strength as there will not be such a
reaction if the economic conditions change. The customers that are in the
target group are happy to pay a premium price for what they perceive as a
premium product (Thompson). 
This may not be so true of the subsidiary companies that have had different
problems, such as the ill-fated Rover group. However, the core product has
remained strong (Thompson). This may be seen as diversification, and
some of the diversification may also be seen as a strength, for example the
purchase of Rolls Royce where there is a similar strategy, however the
range and target market are even more focused
and exclusive. 
The strategy of BMW is designed to be defensive against other car
manufactures, and as we will see when it comes to the section on threats
this is a defensive strategy that BMW have adopted after learning the need
for defensive as well as aggressive marketing and strategies.
BMW Success Qualities-

BMW Global did a study several years ago to look at what the four major
sales success qualities as determined by BMW Global are:
• Motivation
• Precision
• Direction, and
• Flexibility
Motivation
The successful salesperson who is motivated:
• desires to be the best.
• is competitive by nature.
• has the edge through customer service.
• turns problems into opportunities.
• moves, stands, and talks in a positive way.
• refrains from negative, pessimistic statements, and ignores those made
by other
people.
Following is a break-down of these success qualities:
Precision
The successful salesperson is precise, focused and detail-oriented:
a) Focused:
• The ability to decide what is important
• The willingness to tackle unpleasant jobs
• The willingness to spend time convincing the prospective client that the
car is right for them—therefore price may not be such an important issue
b) Detail-oriented:
• Doing the job consistently and systematically
• Planning and organizing
• Keeping notes of appointments, actions, reminders, and deadlines
Direction
The successful salesperson has positive direction.
a) Assertive:
• Tough-minded and confident in negotiation
• Believes in themselves and believes in the product and an ability to show
it
• Handles negatives and insults well
b) Relationship:
• Builds rapport with prospects, customers and colleagues
• Understands that people buy from people
• Focuses 100% on prospects by listening and maintaining an acceptable
level of eye contact
• Praises service staff and reception staff internally and externally
Flexibility
The successful salesperson is flexible. They possess the ability to:
• read people and situations and to adapt their behavior.
• get excited when the customer gets excited or be business-like when the
customer is business-like.
• adjust their posture, volume, and tone of voice to match their client.