Case studies abound.
A.B.B. is routinely decorated with corporate baubles as Europe's most admired company. Dr. Barham, who is director of the Ashridge Centre for Management and Organisation Learning at Ashridge College in Britain, and Dr. Heimer, who is business director and a member of the management team at Ashridge Consulting, succeed in producing a balanced, accurate and carefully argued response to the hyperbole. First come the facts. Asea, a Swedish company founded in 1883, and B.B.C. Brown Boveri Ltd., a Swiss company founded in 1891, created A.B.B. Asea Brown Boveri Ltd. in 1987. With the ink of this 50-50 merger hardly dry, the new company acquired 15 companies.