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Silvio Napoli at Schindler

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Introduction Schindler Holdings, Ltd., established in 1874, is an internationally renowned Swiss manufacturer of elevators and escalators employing some 38,000 individuals in 97 subsidiaries located throughout the world. Having been on the periphery of the Indian market since it first installed an elevator in 1925, Schindler executive leadership decided to create a 100% wholly owned subsidiary, after having some experience in the Indian market through a distribution partnership with ECE – a local Indian firm - from 1958 to 1985; and a technical agreement with BBL, a Mumbai based company to manufacture, market and sell Schindler elevators. Eventually, Schindler would acquire up to a 15% equity ownership of BBL; however, it would appear that Schindler did not leverage this equity stake by learning the intricacies of business ownership in India. The decision to create a 100% wholly owned subsidiary came at the behest of Silvio Napoli, Schindler’s Swiss head of corporate planning, based in no small part on an aggressive business plan Mr. Napoli developed specifically for the Indian market centered largely on selling “core, standardized products,” (models S001 and S300P) at low cost. Because of the highly economical cost of the sale of these models, no customization was allowed, and with the exception of some safety components, most of the manufacture and assembly would be completed in the Indian subsidiary. Mr. Napoli decided that the best course of action in India would be to improve the existing Swiss strategy of sales rather than re-inventing the strategy as a whole, and then ‘tweak’ their plans to make it more suitable for the Indian business environment. To implement this, Mr. Napoli employed 5 Indian nationals to act as leadership team, managers and department heads and assist with

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