Abstract
When Orkla purchased Elkem in 2005, one of Norway’s five largest companies bought one of Norway’s twenty largest.2 A Norwegian company with a strong footing in Sweden bought another Norwegian company with an equally strong Swedish footing, but there the similarity ends. Orkla, a conglomerate with strong sales in food and branded consumer goods that prided itself on being “a moderately diversified company”, bought an outright metallurgical company and thus became even more diversified.
This paper is based on two recent books: Sogner, K. (2003). Skaperkraft. Elkem gjennom 100 år 1904–2004, Oslo: Messel forlag and Bergh, T., Espeli, H. and Sogner, K. Brytningstider. Storselskapet Orkla 1654–2004, Oslo: Orion forlag. My colleagues Trond Bergh and Harald Espeli wrote about the period from 1974 to the present.
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References
See Bergh et al. and Sogner 2003.
Gasslander, O. (1956–59). Bank och industriellt genombrott. Stockholms Enskilda Bank kring sekelskiftet 1900, I–II, Stockholm: Centraltryckeriet/Esselte Aktiebolag. Sejersted, F. (1993). Demokratisk kapitalisme, Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
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For introduction of the divisional model in three large Norwegian companies, see Gammelsæter, H. (1991). Organisasjonsendring gjennom generasjoner av ledere, Molde: Møreforskning.
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See Harvey, C. (1981). The Rio Tinto Company. An economic history of a leading international mining concern 1873–1954, Cornwall: Alison Hodge. About Rio Tinto and the Orkla-process, see Bergh et al. for more extended information.
Bergh et al. and Sogner 2003. For macro-trends in the after-war industrial policy, see Hanisch, T.J and Lange, E. (1986). Veien til velstand. Industriens utvikling i Norge gjennom 50 år, Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, Tromsø: Universitetsforlaget.
Smith, G.D. (1988). From Monopoly to Competition. The transformation of Alcoa, 1888–1986, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Also Sogner 2003.
Elkem’s CEO from 1959 had spent the whole of World War II in USA and had personal relations with the leadership of Alcoa. See Sogner 2003.
See Sogner 2003 as well as Espeli’s account of Orkla in Bergh et al.
Conversation with Finn Jebsen June 18 and August 22, 2003.
Bergh et al.,p. 321.
Womack, J.P., Jones, D.T & Roos, D. (1990). The Machine that Changed the World, New York etc.: Rawson Associates etc.; Spear, S. and Bowen, H.K (1999). Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System, Harvard Business Review, September–October 1999.
Hax, A.C. and Majluf, N.S. (1984). Strategic Management. An integrative perspective, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
See Lazonick, W. (1991). Business Organization and the Myth of the Market Economy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Chap. 1.
See Bergh’s account in Bergh et al., p. 264.
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Sogner, K. (2008). Changing Transnational Affections. Orkla, Elkem and Norwegian Big Business, 1960–2004. In: Schröter, H.G. (eds) The European Enterprise. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-74038-4_18
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