Tandem Computers Inc’s Santa Clara, California-headquartered Ungermann-Bass Inc networking products subsidiary has announced a plan to divide the company up into three autonomous divisions, namely Network Products, Network Applications and Network Services. The divisions have been given development and financial independence, with each running as a separate profit centre. Ungermann-Bass says that the shake-up is a result of a reappraisal of business organisation and strategy following the appointment of Roel Pieper as president and chief executive in September 1993. We have been fairly criticised for being too technology-driven, and the aim of the reorganisation is to become more responsive to the market, says a spokesman. Roel comes from a more market-driven environment and has applied this experience to the company. Although apparently not directly connected to Ungermann’s new drive into the high volume, mainstream network arena, the spokesman conceded that the restructure was another side of the same change in that each betokened the company’s greater willingness to focus on user needs. The restructuring will not entail the establishment of divisional headquarters, and the units are expecting to resolve any potential clashes resulting from their autonomy; each division will report ultimately to Pieper.
