Product Description

This is the inside story of the BMW/Rover saga, from purchase to sale.   The 8 year story of BMW's ownership of Rover encapsulates virtually every aspect of the business game. It kicked off with an ill-thought through M&A and misplaced strategy, taking place on the last big battleground for the old-style unions. Then followed a clash of the titans - Germany versus Germany in the BMW boardroom; and on the larger playing field, Germany versus England. The disastrous decisions, clash of cultures, and ultimately European Union meddling led to the eventual downfall of the relationship.Andrew Lorenz was commissioned by BMW to write the official history of Rover. As the story unfolded, he and Chris Brady had unparalleled, officially sanctioned access to all the key players. They bring together all the interwoven threads, and the result is spellbinding. KEY PREDICTION:The authors conclude that MG Rover will probably ditch the Rover brand in the medium term and concentrate on MG - the only untainted brand they have. Find out why.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1270294 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Dr. Chris Brady is currently the Director of Studies for the General and Strategic Management MBA at the City University Business School, London, and Head Business Coach at Cape Consulting. He has published on topics as varied as US foreign policy, Cabinet government, teamwork, education, the environment, intelligence failures and the United Nations. Andrew Lorenz, former Business Editor of the Sunday Times, is currently the Director of Financial Dynamics, Business Communications. His previous roles have included Deputy City Editor of the Sunday Telegraph, City correspondent on The Scotsman as well as Industrial Editor at The Journal, Newcastle. Andrew has published many articles and columns, and has had contributions broadcast on BBC Radio and ITV television.

Customer Reviews

A riveting summary of the Rover/BMW debacle
This is a highly readable tale of the purchase of Rover by BMW and the ensuing fiasco, climaxing in the sell out to Phoenix. There are some fascinating insights into the behind the scenes machinations of BMW, the unions, the government and Alchemy at the time of BMW's attempts to get rid of Rover. Funnily enough - Alchemy who were cast as the villains of the piece by the British press are practically the only players who come out the whole mess smelling of roses.

My only criticism is that this is quite a high level strategic view and there is not much detail on what went wrong at the operational level - I would have liked to have known more!

Fascinating review of the acquisition of Rover by BMW
This book covers the strategic and management issues surrounding the acquisition of Rover by BMW starting from the initial approach to British Aerospace. The book considers in detail how the BMW management handeled the acquisition and explains some of the background to the approach addopted. The approach was revised as time progressed but in spite of this the success was hampered by a number of external issues. Ultimately the effect of these was going to be greater than the benifits from the revised strategy to manage the two organisations as one. A timely approach by a british company specialising in corporate turn-around provided an opportunity for BMW to extracate itself from a situation which would otherwise have had long standing effects on the viability of the entire company. Ultimately the Rover business was sold to the Pheonix consortium lead by John Towers.
The set-up of MG-Rover by Pheonix and the strategy of the new management is also covered. The book closes with a view on the long term viability of MG-Rover as seen in late 2001.

This book makes excelent reading for anyone wishing to gain an understanding of the management strategy behind the news headlines which rocked the British Motor industry for most of the year 2000

An Opportunity Missed
For starters this isn't good value for money. I think £ for such a thin book is a bit steep - I'd finished the book within 2 days and I'm not a fast reader!

Secondly it skims over the surface of the issues, it feels like an extended newspaper article rather than an in-depth study. The authors stick to the rather few (albeit very important) people that they spoke to, and treat one or two of them to (unjustified, in my view) hero-worship. They could have added far more interest, colour and drama, if they had perhaps talked to some more operational people to get a feel for what it was like 'on the ground'; (It would also have added a bit more material).

If you're looking for a far more interesting book on a car industry merger gone wrong then buy "Taken for a Ride" on the Daimler Chrysler merger. It's a far more interesting and entertaining read than this, rather unsatisfying book.

If you're looking for a better or comparible history of Rover and BMW then stick to reading the newspapers ...