Winning Through Innovation

CHAPTER 4

MANAGERIAL PROBLEM SOLVING: A CONGRUENCE APPROACH

KURT HUBER IS A LEAN, INTENSE MANAGER WITH a doctorate in chemistry and 18 years of experience managing within Ciba-Geigy. In 1993, he was transferred as head of Ciba’s U.K. chemical plant to general manager of its plant in Grenzach, Germany. The Grenzach plant was a large facility located on the Rhine River bordering Switzerland. Originally established in 1898, it was one of Ciba’s oldest plants, a traditional chemical manufacturing site with a long-service, highly skilled work force; formal union-management relations; a seven-level formal hierarchy; a functional structure; and rigid work rules. The facility had four separate production lines and manufactured a variety of chemical compounds ...