How to organize

Extraction:

Enter Zetsche as top dog. After running Chrysler from 2000 to 2005, he took over DaimlerChrysler 14 months ago. Zetsche quickly set about slashing some 9,300 jobs by offering workers buyouts. More important, to shake up Mercedes' hidebound culture he kicked off a radical restructuring, organizing the company around functional elements of the car--motors, chassis, and electronics systems--instead of by model lines.

Comments: Organizing around functionality solves the problem of commonality across different platforms. Platform style organizing will generate overlaps among different platforms. Car and Truck platforms must both have brake departments. Platform should be existing above the egineering level, made up of heads of Engineering, Prodution, Marketing, Financing, Sales. It should focus on high-level strategy setting and process monitoring.