Strategic Thought Transformation - The IIPM Think Tank

E X E C U T I V E S U M M E R Y
Donald to roll the wheels
Motorcycle giant Harley-Davidson Inc. has agreed to acquire a major portion of the assets of Australia-based Castalloy. Castalloy has been
the sole supplier of cast motorcycle wheels and hubs to Harley-Davidson for the past 20 years. Post the acquisition of assets, a new wing will
be formed in Adelaide called New Castalloy. This new wing will be a wholly owned operation of Harley-Davidson and will primarily focus
on manufacturing. Donald Gogan, who has been with the Milwaukee-based motorcycle manufacturer since 1992, has been appointed as
the Managing Director of this new venture.
Santa’s bag to carry Microsoft Zune
Toshiba is going to help Microsoft battle the Apple iPod. Microsoft’s Zune, a portable media player that is likely to hit the shelves by the end
of this year (just before the American holiday season), will be manufactured by Toshiba. The device that flaunts of a 30 giga byte memory
space will enable users to share songs, photographs and other media content using a network referred to as “Pyxis.” Different from Apple
iPod, Zune will be able to stream music to up to four other devices.
Delayed justice adds further cost
Just when a lawsuit that had been lingering for the past nine years approached settlement, it encountered fresh opposition.
Television broadcaster EchoStar Communications Corp. was caught in a dispute of programming with its associates ABC, NBC
and CBS stations. The media partner had agreed to pay $100 million to resolve the looming dispute, but resistance by a group
of Fox Network stations has staggered the process. EchoStar was found guilty of violating payments pertaining to the programming
of local sports that the channel airs to several subscribers. The court ruling could ask EchoStar to discontinue serving about
800,000 subscribers, which in turn implies much lower revenues for EchoStar.
HP Chairwoman’s Dunn by pretexting!
She is often referred to as being charismatic and an expert at whatever she does. She pursued a course in journalism at the University
of California working along side as a part-time reporter. Her skill for handling people got her recognised and eventually
paved way for her successive promotions at Wells Fargo Investment Advisers. Plagued by breast cancer, she stepped down as
the CEO of Barclays Global Investors. Yes, we are talking about none other than Patricia Dunn, who came to be associated with
HP in 1998 as a board member and soon rose to the post of the Executive Chairman. But January 2007 will see Dunn stepping
out, only to be succeeded by the current CEO Mark Hurd. This down turn in her career comes in the wake of a scandal where the
board members were spied on to find out who was responsible for disclosing information from board meetings to the press.
And all this is known to have taken place with Dunn’s approval. It was revealed that, a firm hired by HP resorted to pretexting
(lying about one’s identity) to get their hands on the personal phone records of nine journalists, directors and employees of HP.
Pretexting is actually unlawful in California. There are also chances that Dunn may be tried by the law.
Time to get focussed
New York Times Co. has new plans to dispose-off its group of nine network TV stations. Although all the stations are profit
generating, the move will help the company focus better on its newspaper and digital businesses. In 2005, the nine media
channels contributed 4% to the company’s total revenue. This year, the company anticipates the group to deliver total revenue
of $150 million and an operating profit of about $33 million. Goldman, Sachs & Co. is the advisory to the sale.
Nationwide dreams of building a dream!
Nationwide Building Society, the largest mutual organisation among building societies in the UK, has disclosed its intentions to
acquire its smaller rival Portman Building Society for about $938.35 million. The merged society will be christened Nationwide
Building Society and is expected to be the UK’s second largest mortgage lender and the second largest retail savings provider.
All Portman ventures will shed their old names to take up the Nationwide identity. The gross value of total new assets is expected
to exceed $281.50 billion.
104 STRATEGIC INNOVATORS
An IIPM Intelligence Unit Publication