ABSTRACT
The return to the matrix structures of old embodied in the switch to business streaming is aptly illustrated by the “class of market” approach taken by the Shell oil company. Its new-found emphasis on functionalization necessitated a separate manager for each business, with corresponding geographic responsibility on a regional – rather than domestic – scale. Under the company’s new chairman this restructuring of responsibilities was a key weapon in the corporation’s assault upon its ASEAN units. In a similar vein the Bayer chemicals group began to refocus its Southeast Asian structure, integrating domestically based subsidiaries in the provision of regionally focused operations. Key corporate services such as procurement, information systems, finance and accounting, control, personnel, and corporate communications were merged in line with the company’s global policy to streamline operations.
Such moves have been replicated by MNCs across the postcrisis industrial landscape, instanced by the “resynchronization” packages progressed by companies such as the US oil major Caltex and the French telecommunications giant Alcatel. These have almost always involved the restructuring of operations into new and distinct profit centers to enhance transparency and strengthen locally utilized accounting systems.
