Comments

MT/Arcelor was a reminder to me that with the ever-increasing amount of cross-border mergers a company's long held (perhaps) idea of 'the customer' can dramatically change overnight. The customer is always right globally, but how to market-to, understand and target a company's newly expanded customer base must be intensely considered as companies combine both balance sheets and cultures.

Posted by Collins Dunn at June 27, 2006 11:05 AM

Friedan Business Measure Health YES - Gates & Buffet Business Concept Based Philanthropy YES - Racism NOT Victim Mentality Yes ala Mittal.

Posted by Sean at June 27, 2006 2:11 PM

Touche' Collins. As a veteran of many cross-border mergers/acquisitions I can tell you that few of these folks really understand the impact of the cultural combinations.

Posted by Kate at June 27, 2006 3:03 PM

Tom, need to ask...I would be interested in why a "merger" of 2 USD30 billion organizations is a WOW when you feel it is 100% crazy in 100% of all other cases.

Personally, the redistribution of such wealth for the general good is a huge WOW in my book, and I mean no criticism of those involved. It is amazing. Nevertheless, here are my concerns with so much of the charitable dollar in one place...in no particular order:

1. good guys/gals running the ship today. What if that changes?

2. the Gates Foundation seems focused on healthcare and education. Entirely admirable and I can't think of two better causes, but would some distribution across several organizations with more diverse interest areas be better? Disaster relief, breakdown of dual parent households, drug abuse, etc. Are "all the eggs in one basket"?

3. can one organization properly manage $3B a year in distributions properly. Not just give it away, but ensure it is managed properly by the receivers. We humans don't manage power or money very well.....corruption abounds whenever it is in abundance. Can't you just see the future newspaper articles on waste/fraud/corruption? Does the Gates Foundation need an audit organization/partner?

Why is bigger better in this case once you take the famous names out of the picture?

Posted by Jeff at June 27, 2006 3:06 PM

Click on the below link to view the webcast

http://www.rawcoms.com/content/corporate/arcelor/060626_uk/index.html

Posted by K.Sriram at June 27, 2006 10:27 PM

Jeff, well said. To be sure the thought crossed my mind. I was too tired after Botswana-SAfrica-London to follow it. But: Touche!! Yup, decentralization works here too. (Thanks.)

Posted by tom peters at June 27, 2006 11:32 PM

The Mittal Arcelor deal. Stop thinking of deals on that level/size being about customer/product/culture... it's about POWER/SHAREHOLDERS/SIZE... for sure a company has to think about it's shareholders and revenue and profit and ... but today in a lot of (big) organisations that gets to much attention.

Posted by Ray at June 28, 2006 6:50 AM

Tom, thanks for the reply......no "Touche" needed. Just thought I missed a different spin with non-profits.

Hard to complain about a combined $60+ billion or so going to charity.

Posted by Jeff at June 28, 2006 7:25 AM

Dr Thomas Frieden sounds like my kind of guy - I would work for him :-)

Common sense, saying the things we all need to hear about smoking and public health issues - send him over here next please!

Posted by Trevor Gay at June 28, 2006 10:29 AM

tom - with all respect, isn't calling the arcelor ceo a "racist pig" going too far? didn't somebody say one's character is displayed by the words he uses to critisise others? i hope a person of your stature would use better words/

Posted by anon at July 5, 2006 8:46 PM