The challenges were many: technological ones (especially how to switch to the production of radial tires pioneered by Michelin), marketing ones (most notably how to counteract a tremendous increase in competition from American firms), and ones in labor relations. Next, Erker takes four chapters to examine how Continental’s officers perceived and dealt with crises their firm encountered between 19. Erker concludes, however, that Continental’s promising growth in the 1920s and early 1930s was cut short by the Nazi regime he states that “As a result of the developments under National Socialism and in WW II, however, they were so lastingly weakened and retarded in their development that even in the 1950s and 1960s it was no longer possible for them to regain lost momentum” (p. Generally skeptical of the Nazi government–a topic about which I would liked to have learned more in this volume–Continental’s managers, nonetheless, led their firm into an intensified period of research, especially on synthetic rubber, lasting into 19. Recovering fairly quickly from Germany’s defeat in World War I, Continental took part in a rationalization movement that swept through parts of German industry during the 1920s and 1930s. Established in 1871 in Germany, the firm moved ahead through a combination of entrepreneurship, technological expertise in making rubber products (Erker’s examination of the firm’s early research efforts will be of special interest to historians of technology), and good marketing in and beyond its native land. In his first three chapters, Erker sets the stage by looking at Continental’s first one hundred years of development. As Erker states in his introduction, “the central focus” is on “the analysis of internal company processes–which can often be personalized whether they be R&D activities, marketing strategy, financial management or streamlining measures” (p. Using corporate records to good account, Erker dissects the decisions and actions of its officers. Erker’s history is primarily a study in the internal dynamics of Continental. Well over half of the text deals with events since 1979. Instead, Erker focuses on the responses of Continental’s managers to a series of crises their company faced from the late 1960s into the mid-1990s. Erker gives short shrift to the company’s earlier years, passing over developments–from the founding of the firm in 1871, through its recovery from the ravages of World War II by 1968–in just fifty pages of text. In this very densely packed volume, Paul Erker presents a history of Continental AG, one the world’s largest makers of tires and industrial rubber products. Tables, notes, bibliography, illustrations, and index. Competition and Growth: A Contemporary History of the Continental AG. Competition and Growth: A Contemporary History of the Continental AG Author(s):
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