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Main case

Changing the Fortunes of E.ON’s Corporate Customer Business (A)

By Michael Jacobides, Adrian Merrick

2011

This case details UK energy supplier E.ON’s business turnaround from 2008. The company operated generation, distribution and retail businesses, with separately run sales and customer service operations. Following the departure of the heads of the sales and the customer service divisions, Adrian Merrick was tasked with bringing the two areas of the business together, running corporates as an end-to-end business and dealing with the issues faced by the business as a whole. In essence, this entailed resolving three key questions: What was the right strategy for E.ON in the corporates market? How could profitability be improved in the short term? How could the steady increase in debt be stopped?

Learning objectives

  1. Explore the style of leadership during and post-announcement.
  2. Consider what could have been done differently.
  3. Explore the areas that would be tough on a personal level for a leader in this type of situation.
  4. Understand how this journey ended."

Details

Publication Date: February 2011
LBS Case Code: CS-11-041
Topic:
Subjects: , , ,
Industry:
Geography:
Pages: 19
Format: pdf