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Bucyrus International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BUCY) designs, manufactures and markets surface and underground mining equipment. Founded in Bucyrus, Ohio, in 1880, the headquarters were moved to its current location in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 1893. In its early history, the company produced steam shovels; its products now include large electric rope shovels, walking draglines and rotary blasthole drills for the surface mining industry.


The company was an early producer of steam shovels, moving its operations to South Milwaukee in 1893.[5] In 1904 Bucyrus supplied 77 of the 102 steam shovels used to dig the Panama Canal. The concern became Bucyrus-Erie in 1927 with its merger with the Erie Steam Shovel Company, then the country's leading manufacturer of small excavators.

In 1930 Bucyrus joined with the English firm of Ruston & Hornsby Ltd Lincoln, England, to form the Ruston-Bucyrus Ltd firm in England. Ruston & Hornsby Ltd were the pre-eminent manufactures of Steam excavators at the time, having started in 1874; the merger gave the company access to previously unavailable world markets. Ruston & Hornsby Ltd sold their share in Ruston-Bucyrus in 1985, during a period of recession and consolidation in the Mining industry, as they divested themselves of non-core businesses to survive.

For a time in the 1980s the company was known as Becor Western following its merger with Western Gear. On February 22, 1993, Bucyrus-Erie filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and then emerged from Chapter 11 on December 14, 1994 [6]. It later became Bucyrus International. It built hundreds of large mining machines, as well as construction equipment, in an intense competition against competitor Marion Power Shovel. Bucyrus acquired Marion Power Shovel in 1997.

Bucyrus markets equipment under the brands Bucyrus, Bucyrus-Erie, Marion, and Ransomes & Rapier of Ipswich, England. Well-known as a national and international concern,[7] Bucyrus is noted for the long service of many of its employees. On May 4, 2007, Bucyrus announced it had completed the acquisition of the DBT Group from the RAG Group of Herne, Germany. Based in Lunen, Germany, DBT manufactures underground mining equipment that complements the current surface machinery line. In February 2010, Bucyrus International completed a US $1.3 billion acquisition of the mining equipment division of Terex Corporation.


„The concept of the Cultural Web is a representation of the taken-for-granted assumptions, or paradigm, of an organisation and the physical manifestations of organisational structure (Johnson, G. and Scholes, K., 2002, p.230).” It is composed of the following elements: stories, symbols, power structures, organisational structures, control systems, rituals and routines as well as the paradigm.

The origins of the companies lay approximately 100 years back in time. However, each business has its individual paradigm which guarantees either helpfulness or low prices. Therefore, their business strategies are very similar to each other and represent the overall same goal – ‘low prices for good value’.

Even the companies’ rituals and routines do not show any differentiation from one another. They all like to help the community with special donations and funds, as well as they give money to special charities.

However, one may has to mention that Tesco with its policy ‘No one sells for less’ may be seen as the ‘winner’ for consumers in the food retailing industry, due to the award of best reputation in November 2003. Moreover, Asda following on 2nd place was then awarded for best management (Simpson, P., November 28th 2003), p.2). In fact, these leads to result that Asda and Tesco may be seen as the major competitors with offering the lowest prices in the food retailing industry. On the other hand Morrison’s new offer for Safeway will create the 3rd largest supermarket in the UK and therefore an immense threat for Asda and Tesco (Voyle, S., December 16th 2003, p.15).

Nowadays, one may believe that through the remaining and dominant pricing strategies, big companies can only succeed with better and quicker availability/value of products, so that the smaller supermarkets will not take over their position.


The main problem is that internal analysts have a subjective point of view of a company’s culture and therefore, they often take rituals and structures for granted. Hence, external consultants would be more suitable to undertake such an analysis, but on the other hand they often do not have access to all of the necessary information.



The Cultural Web offered a good opportunity to gain useful insights in the characteristics of the companies, contributing to coherence in their cultures. The analysis points out that every employee of an organisation, supported by several organisational and control systems, should work towards a single common goal – in this case towards the paradigm “The very best for less” – Morrison; “Always happy to help” – Asda; “Every little help” – Tesco and “” – Sainsbury’s.
 
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