Integrating regional and functional plans at Henkel

The article describes the planning system of the Henkel KGaA. The company is completely family owned. It is the fourth largest chemical company in Germany with affiliated companies nearly all over the world. The product range consists of consumer good articles such as detergents, cosmetics, household cleaners and adhesives and a wide range of chemical specialities which are sold to industry. The turnover world-wide is nearly DM7bn. The planning system of the Henkel KGaA is constructed in such a way that despite the necessity of short-term control the longer-term perspective still remains the basis for decision making. The planning structure and process throughout the company are explained in detail. The authors show that this system is an investment in managerial information processing.     

A process model of establishing knowledge management: Insights from a longitudinal field study

This paper contributes to the discussion on how to manage knowledge in organizations. Taking a perspective which acknowledges the importance of, but does not privilege, IT as the decisive element, it reports the results of a study investigating the process of establishing as opposed to conducting knowledge management. Based on a grounded theory approach to the analysis of the empirical data, a model of establishing knowledge management in organizations is developed. The model emphasizes how the organizational members make sense of the action and behavior of management, and how this understanding influences their own perceptions and actions in the process of establishing knowledge management. This leads to an understanding of knowledge management as an autonomous venturing process. The model is then used to suggest an explanation of why establishing knowledge management was not successful in the case which was investigated. Conclusions are provided on how the model can be further exploited for studying and improving the practice of knowledge management.     

An investigation of the spatial correlations for relative purchasing power in Baden–Württemberg

The relative purchasing power—i.e., the purchasing power per inhabitant—is one of the key characteristics for businesses deciding on site selection. Apart from that it also plays a major role in regional planning, pricing policy and market research. In this study we investigate the spatial correlations for relative purchasing power of the townships in Baden–Württemberg. In particular, changes in relative purchasing power are analysed for three different time intervals, 1987–1993, 1993–1998 and 1998–2004, by means of distance-dependent characteristics like the mark–correlation function, the Simpson indices α(r) and β(r) and by tests on random labelling. It is shown that there are positive correlations for small distances between different townships but that these positive correlations become weaker over the years until they are almost nonexistent (in the sense that hypotheses of random labelling are no longer rejected). A conclusion from this loss of spatial correlations with time is that the relative purchasing power might become more and more purely random. This means that the relative purchasing power in a township is less and less influenced by the relative purchasing power of townships nearby. We further analysed these changes in the Bodensee–Oberschwaben and Stuttgart regions to compare the development of the relative purchasing power in both urban and rural environments. This analysis was done in close cooperation with W. Brachat–Schwarz and W. Walla of the Statistical Office of Baden–Württemberg. S.E. is supported by a grant of the graduate college 1100 at Ulm University.