Oil and Wasser (HBR Case Study)

It was supposed to be an amicable "merger of equals," an example of European togetherness, a synergistic deal that would create the world's second-largest consumer foods company out of two former competitors. But the marriage of entrepreneurial powerhouse Royal Biscuit and the conservative, family-owned Edeling GmbH is beginning to look overly ambitious. Integration planning is way behind schedule. Investors seem wary. But for Royal Biscuit HR head Michael Brighton, the most immediate problem is that he can't get his German counterpart, Dieter Wallach, to collaborate on a workable leadership development plan for the merged company's executives. And stockholders have been promised details of the new organizational structure, including a precise timetable, in less than a month. The CEO of the British company--and of the postmerger Royal Edeling--is furious. It's partly a culture clash, but the problems may run deeper than that. Commenting on the fictional case study in R0405A and R0405Z are Robert F. Bruner, the executive director of the Batten Institute at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration in Charlottesville; Leda Cosmides and John Tooby, the codirectors of the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at UC Santa Barbara; Michael Pragnell, the CEO and director of the board for the agribusiness firm Syngenta, based in Basel, Switzerland; and David Schweiger, the president of the Columbia, South Carolina-based management consulting firm Schweiger and Associates. For teaching purposes, this is the case-only version of the HBR case study. The commentary-only version is reprint R0405Z. The complete case study and commentary is reprint R0405A.