structured policies in chosen target segments of the market, namely multiple stores and supermarkets; the establishment of category account management in target markets; product development and management aimed at target markets. These policies would be driven by appropriate sales forecasting and planning, financial planning and control, order processing and distribution.
The meeting agreed to review the stock situation over the next twelve months and look at combining ranges of items with Belgium and the rest of Parteisch International before the end of two years.
Jan Straaten expressed his pleasure with both the pace and direction of progress. Ronald van Strek left the room for another meeting. Jan Straaten told Tom Eden that he was looking forward to working more closely with him and that it was important to start making progress towards achieving a more profitable route because apart from anything else, there was a need to deal with the high stock levels and concentrate on a core range and a common catalogue for the European market and possibly the US market. This would give huge cost savings in almost all areas of company activity as well as recognizing the changing nature of the market.
The agreed plans are consistent with those of Belgium and the ideas of Jan Straaten. It is plain that Jan Straaten conceives an integrated company plan across Europe that embraces differentiated and cost lead- ership strategies for identified and selected markets. He wants a com- mon core range for the European market at least if not the US market but he is taking a long-term view of the implementation of change within the company.
Parteisch International and Parteisch UK 147 Republic over the previous four years, and the unexpected attendance of her father Christoph Posten and two members of the Supervisory Board.
The presence of the owner and two Supervisory Board members had the immediate, and perhaps understandable, effect of inhibiting the participants who were less vocal than may have been normally expected. The hour prior to lunch was scheduled for presentation and discussion about the new Belgian and Dutch range. This was the moment when a significant and unexpected exchange took place between Jan Straaten and Teresa Posten, the daughter of the owner. Teresa questioned the content of the new range of products and whether they would sell. Jan Straaten described conversations and meetings with the buyers of the larger multiples and independent stores whilst Teresa claimed that conversations and meetings amounted to nothing more or less than words. Jan persisted that Parteisch had to supply what the market wanted and Teresa insisted that the company had to sell exist- ing stock. She laboured the point that Jan had already authorized the write-down of a large section of stock at a cost of many millions of Euros to the company. Jan said that it was not good sense to leave unsold stock in the warehouses in the hope that one day it might sell even though the market did not want it. Teresa again and again empha- sized the need to keep selling certain items of stock because factories would have nothing to make if their products did not sell and claimed that write-down of stock amounted to wasting money.
Jan was calm but determined in his response and insisted that if it was necessary to close down an unprofitable factory then this was part of the solution for Parteisch International. It had been estimated that it would take more than another ninety years to sell all the stock in ware- houses at the present rate of sale and it was important not to stand still in a fast changing market. Teresa was resolute that the company could not simply scrap stock on a large scale and there was nothing wrong with the stock. It was important to sell the old stock first before embarking on new developments that would cost more money in a market that was new to Parteisch. She pointed out that they knew the present customers and they would not buy the new range of products. The dialogue finished at Jan Straaten’s insistence and the session ended at lunchtime. There was a brief private discussion between Christoph Posten and Teresa Posten.
Then Christoph and his Supervisory Board colleagues left the meeting.
An inside view
Jan Straaten departed in October 2002. Two weeks after the meeting in Germany, an email was sent to all senior managers in Parteisch
International noting that Jan Straaten had left the business. No further explanation was given. A private meeting with Jan Straaten at Hotel Tot Ziens, Boxhoven in February 2003 after he had left Parteisch Inter- national, revealed some interesting insights. He took the view that Christoph Posten wished to avoid a firm commitment to an unfamiliar structure and strategy within his organization that he did not under- stand and in which he did not have an active role. Jan wryly observed that Christoph Posten never really wanted to change the organization to allow other people to make decisions, found it impossible to let go, and never understood what the consultant’s report really meant or what the new team was trying to achieve. In that sense, he felt that he and his colleagues had failed. However, he never thought that he would be dismissed.
Jan said that he had not known in advance of the attendance of Christoph Posten and the Supervisory Board members. He agreed that the arrangement and the disagreement with daughter Teresa Posten had probably been prearranged. His surprise at his dismissal had been compounded by the fact that it appeared CEO Ronald van Strek had known nothing in advance of his departure or the reasons for his departure. Ronald had been instructed to dismiss Jan by the owner.
Ronald told Jan that he felt he could do nothing to intervene in the owner’s wish because Teresa did not agree with the expressed direction of the business. Jan believed that his dismissal had been brought about because several long-service sales personnel, ‘friends of Christoph’, did not like the proposed changes. They had petitioned Christoph Posten on the grounds that newly recruited ‘outsiders’, and Jan Straaten in par- ticular, did not understand either the company or the product. The company was being changed and their way of working was expected to change as well. Jan believed that Christoph did not like to be seen as remote and wanted to be involved in everything. He could not let go and he liked to be seen as the man-in-charge of everything that happened.
Jan said that it was important to realize that the Postens were Parteisch, and Parteisch was the Postens. The company could only go as far as they wanted it to go and they feared change because at that moment there did not seem to be a reason to change. Jan predicted that would soon come to an end and then they would find some one else to blame for their misfortune or lack of earlier action. Christoph could not understand that the ways of the past are not necessarily the ways of the future and moreover, ‘friends’ would agree out of loyalty and possibly in pursuit of their own interests.
Parteisch International and Parteisch UK 149 Jan Straaten said that he had been engaged in discussions with a major US distributor of allied products with twice the turnover of Parteisch International. They had been looking at areas of common sales and distribution to common target customers as well as the opportunity of wider global sales. When discussions became more formal and involved, Christoph Posten had forbidden further contact without formal and binding agreement that the other company had no interest in a merger or takeover discussions. Jan said that Christoph did not like the idea that they might be equal partners in any strategic or more formal arrangement, and he had told the distributor that if there was any interest, Parteisch International would buy them, but not the other way round.
The dismissal of Jan Straaten was a surprise. He was employed by Parteisch International in Belgium for only twenty-five months and he was beginning to make long-term changes to the marketing approach of the business. The owner, possibly influenced by his daughter as well as his sales personnel, wanted him to be removed and presumably sought the agreement of his colleagues on the Supervisory Board hence explaining the presence of the two members at the meeting.
Jan Straaten’s belief was that the owner was not prepared to lose con- trol of his business and he did not understand the need for change. The way that the company operated and saw the market was plainly linked to the beliefs and attitudes of the owner with the future of the company clearly in the hands of the owner rather than the Board of Directors.
Ronald van Strek dutifully allowed the dismissal to happen apparently without a whimper – it might be assumed that Ronald had done largely what he was told by the owner since taking up his position as CEO.
There may be an element of pride in relation to the response to an approach by employees. Christoph Posten wanted to be seen to be in control and he presumably felt that he knew better than Jan Straaten and the members of the Board. His reaction to discussions with another distributor may seem childish but once again pride, past practice and indeed success dictated that he wanted to continue controlling the direction of the company. He was not ready to let go – or not at least to an outsider – and, of course, it is his company and he has been unques- tionably successful in his business career.