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At 11:42 PM 6/4/01 +0200, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Hi all.<br>
I am having a dialogue with a (maybe) client. He would like to have
som<br>
examples of where OST has been used in merger situations. The
company<br>
concearned has recently merged with two other companies. So far I
only<br>
talked to the manager of the salesdepartment, about doing OST for the
three<br>
salesdepartments. We did however talk about the whole company (160<br>
employed)as well. The company is within
marketing/sales/e-business/customer<br>
relations and so on.</blockquote><br>
OS is wonderful in a merger situation. Two stories. <b>Corporate
Express</b> is an American company in the office supply business. When I
first met them (in September several years ago) they were doing
$100,000,000. By October it was $300 million, by November it was
$600, and by the first of the year, $1 Billion (actually a little
less -- but when you get that close you can exaggerate a
little.) All this was done by merger/acquisition and each time they
added a major piece, we did another Open Space with all the more or less
senior folks involved. In a couple days, they managed to deal with a lot
of nitty-gritty stuff like product rationalization, compensation,
regional advertising, etc. But most of all they established the
"people" network so they could really work together more
quickly. Second Story <b>The ACCOR Group</b> -- French hotel
company which started out as Novitel, Sofitel -- but they grew to include
Pullman, Motel 6, Wagon-lit and more. The issue was maintaining brand
identity while building corporate identity in a multi-cultural,
multi-national environment. And Open Space was a significant part of the
answer. Christopher Schoch was my partner in crime, and he tells the tale
in some detail in "Tales from Open Space." a copy of which you
may obtain for free by visiting
<a href="http://www.openspaceworld.com/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.com</a>
click on "papers" and scroll down to "Tales" -- It's
the whole book. Enjoy.<br>
<br>
Harrison<br>
<br>
<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite>Harrison Owen</blockquote>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<div align="center">
7808 River Falls Drive<br>
Potomac, MD 20854 USA<br>
phone 301-469-9269<br>
fax 301-983-9314<br>
Open Space Training
<a href="http://www.openspaceworld.com/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.com</a>
<br>
Open Space Institute <a href="http://www.openspaceworld.org/" eudora="autourl">www.openspaceworld.org</a><br>
Personal website <a href="http://www.mindspring.com/~owenhh" eudora="autourl">www.mindspring.com/~owenhh</a><br>
<br>
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