Wolfgang Keller Case Analysis
MBA-6120
Abstract
Wolfgang Keller is a 34 year old graduate of the Harvard Business School. After a fast moving career building a reputation for turning around failing businesses, Wolfgang Keller once again found himself facing the challenge of turning around a losing business. This time it was as managing director of the Ukrainian subsidy of the Konigsbrau Brewery. The company was experiencing €2.9 million per year with annual sales of €116 million, (Gabarro, 2008). Even though this was a bigger company that he was used to dealing with, he seemed to be well on his way to success after just three years. Sales had increased to €145 million and the company was finally turning a €7 million
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Keller’s predecessor was replaced due to his inability to get along with Vladimir Antinov, the companies Ukrainian partner and for all intents and purposes, Keller’s counterpart who handled many of the local relationships with banks, trade associations and government agencies. In fact, Keller’s ability to relate to people may have been a large part of why he was chosen for the position.
Keller introduced an aggressive marketing strategy that was heavily dependent on developing and maintaining personal relationships with Konigsbrau’s distributers all the way down to the retail level. Because there was not much differentiation among premium beers, it was important that Konigsbrau stands out from the competition. Keller believed that the close relationship with their distributors and sales team was just what they needed. He felt that the upper management needed to be seen out in the field with the sales force supporting them at all times.
Dmitri Brodsky, Konigsbrau’s commercial director, did not share Keller’s enthusiasm for developing close relationships with the sales force and the distributors. He was more of an analytical type who preferred an arms-length relationship. Brodsky was extremely thorough and had excellent technical skills. He was very good at organizing and developing controls. He had recently redesigned the sales force organization and the information and control systems. However, Keller felt he took much too long to do it, and that it only got
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