1 The deal
Holcim, a swiss based Cement company that grew through aggressive markets acquisitions became one of the leader worldwide in cement industry. Over time, potential for growth has shown to be on the developing markets with a CAGR of 5.5% versus 0.3% in developed countries.
In a merger and acquisition dynamic where Argentina through its growth potential was favored by many foreign companies, Holcim through a progressive process acquired the majority stake in Cocemar, and merged it with Minetti, giving birth to a new Player in Argentina, and in particular in Buenos Aires aree where 50% of the country sales were concentrated in that sole zone, led by Loma Negra.
2 Which actions were taken by Carlos Bruehler
2.1 The management team
The strategic directions set by Minetti top management targeted to maximize cash flow by focusing on key improvements areas such as cliens, emplyees, CSR, procurement and profitability. This could be achievered by driving a merger in an optimize way.
Carlos Bruehler, appointed to lead that merger mandated a a top management team to develop and implement the strategic plan. The newly formed team was a mix of representatives from both families as well as others, with lower interaction with local practices and culture (e.g expatriate from Switzerlan). Carlos expected to move at the same speed as other mergers, where the aggressive and fast pace built the success of Holcim.
Although the decision to buil the senior management team around a good reprentation of key families and interests, it would have made sence to consider the cultural aspect and local specifities of Argenitan, historically used to work in a “family” mode, and siloed. As such expecting that newly formed team to provide a coherent, well though and consistent execution strategy raised concerns and risks.
I would have considered that local cultural specificities