Tài liệu KRONE REPORT No. 3 docx

23

3
E
DITION
2000
R
EPORT
Information for the staff of
the KRONE Group
Pioneering work with TrueNet
KRONE India, established in 1989 as
a joint venture between the then
KRONE AG and the Keonics company,
looks back over eleven successful years.
We distributed the LSA-Plus system in
such an effective manner that it is now
the standard system in India.
As early as at the beginning of the
1990s, we specialised in the manufacture
of certain connection components in the
AccessNET and PremisNET area. After
initial successes, such as the orders for
distribution boxes in the cities of New
Delhi and Mumbai, KRONE India now
exports Multicom Plus and High Density
MDF world-wide.
Our factory at Peenya in southern
India has a highly qualified and educated
workforce. KRONE India abandons the
country’s traditional training methods and

replaces them with advanced, tailor-
made opportunities. Teamwork is a
particularly important form of
organisation for the 120 people who
work there.
KRONE is particularly successful in the
market because our seven distributors in
the country co-operate with each other,
selling our products throughout the entire
country.
Starting in January 2001, our new
factory will enable us to increase our
production capacity tenfold at times of
peak load.
KRONE India was the company’s first
subsidiary to be awarded by Rheinisch-
Westfälischer TÜV (German auditors)
the ISO 9002 certificate as evidence of
the company’s excellence in manu-
facturing and distributing systems for voice
and data networks.
We were also one of the first countries
within the KRONE Group to introduce
TrueNet in November 1999.
38 percent of KRONE India is traded
on Indian stock exchanges today - a clear
sign of our success. In June 2000, we
celebrated our 11
th
anniversary in the

presence of Mr. Manfred Schneider.
S. Sivandan
KRONE India
Cinemascope on the PC
KRONE has a new Internet presence
Creative in London
ISAN group seeking strategies
Small teams in Berlin
New products through innovation days
Dear colleagues,
You were already informed that agreement
was reached for the premature termination of
my work for the company. Effective as of the
end of August 2000, I will resign from office as
a member of the management of KRONE GmbH
and take up new challenges outside the KRO-
NE Group.
Over the past two years, the company
underwent tremendous change and had to
overcome many problems. Through your
personal efforts, you contributed towards the
success in restoring a sound and attractive
revenue basis for the KRONE Group and in
launching new, future-oriented activities. I would
like to personally thank you for this and for the
trust which you placed in me in this respect.
I am confident that you will successfully
pursue this course - supported by the positive
impetus from our parent company, GenTek - and
continue to develop KRONE’s position in this

highly attractive market environment.
Wishing you all the best for you professional
and private future, I remain
Your
( Dr. Kay Michel, Managing Director )
E
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3-2000 / P
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-2- KRONE R
EPORT
Running to full capacity
Mr. Apel, how is the current
production performance and the
capacity utilisation rate?
Production performance rose more than
20 percent compared to the first six months
of 1999. Capacity is fully utilised, particularly
for automatic assembly lines (3 shifts a day,
5 days a week). However, a significant
increase in production is also felt in the field
of manual assembly.
Which are the consequences of this?
A high availability of technical facilities
and plants as well as qualified staff are
indispensable. The workforce is responding
to the current challenges in an exemplary
manner, and immediately handling new
tasks with a great deal of self-initiative.
Utilisation rates due to customer

demand are anti-cyclic when compared
to the labour market. What kind of
problems does this cause?
Today’s market demands products at
ever-shorter notice. New priorities must be
set virtually every day. Without long-term
framework agreements, however, it is
difficult to guarantee the availability of raw
materials, and that’s our problem.
What sort of difficulties arise when
it comes to reforming production
processes?
Our task in this field is to motivate the
workforce who have to implement and
support change. The complex requirements
of advanced machinery require an ongoing
education and further training effort for
staff.
Which plans and strategic projects
were developed in the International
Operations fields, also in co-operation
with GenTek?
Co-operation with GenTek is excellent.
A uniform costing system was introduced
for the production sites during the first half
of the year, improving the flow of
information and the working climate in the
relations with KRONE representatives
world-wide.
Wilfried Apel was interviewed by

Dr. Bernd Buhmann.
Personal brief:
Mr. Wilfried Apel
joined KRONE
in 1971 as a me-
thods engineer. As
a “genuine” Berli-
ner, he can look
back over an
almost 30-year
career during
which he was also
technical director
of operating equipment design and tool
construction before becoming head of
production for various sectors. Since 1994, he
has been director of the production and
logistics division. He is married and has one
son.
Lost without PC and Internet
Networking via intranet, the Internet and
new media has changed work at KRONE.
Employees have faster access to
information. “But this also
means”, notes Mr. Erhard
Lipinski, the company IT
manager, “that people have
to organise themselves
more and that they must be
more flexible, accept more

responsibility and make
decisions independently”.
Take, for example,
development: the PC is used there as a
time-saving and cost-saving tool for
designers. The PC reduces the error
frequency when designing samples and
patterns, when making prototypes and
when calculating production and machine
control programs.
Mr. Uwe Hanelt, sales engineer, handles
almost all of his communications via the PC:
“Our customers are located on the other
side of the globe. Personal organisation via
Outlook and e-mail enables me to
communicate with them in a simple, quick
and cost-effective manner. In this way, many
problems can be settled directly in Berlin.
Trusting the PC, however, is also risky.
Mr. Ekkehard Schenk from the accounts-
payable unit describes his greatest concern:
“Without IT, there would be no information,
evaluation or posting - a hardware or
software strike brings the entire information
system to a halt.” Mr. Michael Schlüter (In-
ternational Innovation / Ma-
nagement Connectivity)
confirms this rising flood of
information: “Too much
information can be a burden

for creativity, all the more so
if people are unable to
evaluate and reasonably use
information with the help of
the PC and the Intranet / Internet.”
Lipinski is certain: “The future will bring
global networking, and hence world-wide
internal and external communications with
advanced information and communication
technology.”
Technology will become more complex
on the one hand, but easier to use on the
other. Data and voice will grow together to
form a single technical medium. Computer
Telephony Integration (CIT) is the name of
a system which will soon link telephone and
computer. At KRONE, e-commerce will play
an important role in the future. A team has
already been set up for this new task.
Sascha Ersel
Contacts for the north
The marketing campaign “Connectivity
for the New Millennium” is designed to
develop KRONE’s market presence in the
Baltic states, in Scandinavia and the Bene-
lux countries. For six months, Mr. Andreas
Baitz, sales engineer for the Nordic
countries in the EMEA profit centre, has
been demonstrating our solutions to major
network operators in co-operation with our

agents and the subsidiary, KRONE Norway.
The aim is to replace the traditional LSA-
PLUS connection system (particularly the 2
series) with new connection equipment.
“We are determined not to respond to the
market, but to drive the market instead in
order to stand out against competitors and
copiers”, stresses Andreas Baitz.
“Customers are eager to have made-to-
measure applications, and that’s where our
opportunities are.”
Mr. Baitz has abs strips with him, the LSA-
PLUS NT product series and the HIGHBAND
series; these are the three pillars on which
the campaign is based. First success has
already been achieved; together with
Latvian network operator LatTelecom, the
use of HIGHBAND for xDSL applications is
currently undergoing field testing. HIGH-
BAND modules are already installed in the
field for Tampere Telecom, a network
operator belonging to the Finnet group. Telia
from Sweden and Sonera from Finland also
showed keen interest on condition that the
HIGHBAND module is modified to withstand
the outdoor temperatures prevailing in the
far north. Flexibility and prompt response
to customer requirements are needed here.
LSA-PLUS NT is the focal point of interest
in the Benelux countries. In Belgium, for

instance, work is underway on integrating
NT modules into Alcatel PABX systems. The
biggest success so far was recorded in the
Netherlands: shipments of NT-modules to
the Dutch telecom, KPN, for specially
adapted coaxial cable distributors started
this year in June.
Further demonstrations in Scandinavia
are scheduled for this autumn. One of the
aims is to have HIGHBAND modules and
their accessories included in the framework
agreements with network operators for the
year 2001.
in
Working in the future at KRONE
The editorial team
Dr. Bernd Buhmann has been head of
corporate communications since January
2000. He holds a doctorate in media sciences
and previously headed the media and PR
division of Berlin Tourismus Marketing GmbH.
Mr. Buhmann’s responsibilities include external
communications, media contacts, the Internet
relaunch of the KRONE Group, KRONE.COM
and the production of a new image brochure.
Volker Röseler has been working for the
company since 1979. He started in the
development department and has been
working there in the optical-fibre technology
unit since 1983. Since 1993, he has been

product manager with a focus on optical-fibre
technology and closures. Mr. Röseler is a
member of the works council and is the works
council’s delegate to the editorial team in his
capacity as spokesman for PR work.
cd
Germany
Europe
KRONE R
EPORT
E
DTION
3-2000 / P
AGE
-3-
a 51 percent share in GenTek which he also heads
as Chairman of the Board. Deputy Chairman is
Mr. Paul Meister who is also a member of KRONE’s
Supervisory Board, as well as Mr. Richard Russell,
President and Chief Executive Officer of GenTek.
The telecommunications business,
represented principally by the KRONE group, is a
cornerstone of the holding which is increasingly
gaining importance thanks to good performance
and positive industry trends. In this field, GenTek’s
senior management became interested in
telecommunications through its affiliation with
Prestolite Wire, another company controlled by
Mr. Montrone. Prestolite Wire specializes in the
development, manufacture and distribution of

copper and fiber-optic cable systems for the
telecommunications and automotive industries.
Recently, it was announced that GenTek will
acquire Prestolite Digital Communications, the
division producing cable systems for
telecommunication applications, and integrate it
with the KRONE group.
GenTek, a technology-
driven manufacturer of
telecom equipment and
other products, was
established in April 1999. It
originally belonged to the
General Chemical Group,
which has a 100-year
corporate history. GenTek was spun off in order
to allow the company’s management to focus
on the activities of General Chemical’s faster
growing segments and to ensure maximum
operational flexibility.
GenTek’s business focuses on three primary
sectors: telecommunications, industrial
manufacturing and performance chemicals. The
holding has its corporate headquarters in
Hampton, New Hampshire (near Boston - we
reported in our Quick View Christmas edition last
year), USA.
Mr. Paul Montrone who recently visited KRO-
NE GmbH (we reported in our last edition) holds
GenTek – structure and activities

News!
Following a six-month term, the highly
motivated participants in the seminar on
“project-oriented and team-based
leadership” made their final demonstration to
management, the 1
st
and 2
nd
management
levels and the works council of KRONE GmbH.
The Human Resources Department has
been offering this seminar since 1996 within
the scope of its strategic promotion
programme for young executives. It aims at
preparing participants for new challenges
resulting from changed organization, customer
and production structures. They develop a
clear view of leadership. Participants master
the changes in their own fields of responsibility
on the basis of a project. The seminar
strengthens the ability to question things, to
work in teams and to develop solutions. The
results of the seminar are used for future
planning by the different departments.
The training seminar on “Leadership -
leading - coaching” is based on the experience
previously gained and addresses executives of
the 2
nd

and 3d management levels, as well as
project and technical leaders. The training is
aimed at enabling people to re-design their
leadership role, to get to know the
organization and the people living in it in an
experience-oriented manner, and to develop
trust and openness.
The experience-oriented training is carried
out in group of 10 to 12 members and focuses
on handling their personal experience from
everyday life at KRONE. This seminar will once
again take place in September because of
strong interest therein. A new, experience-
oriented seminar which took place for the first
time in June was titled “Fit for change”. On
the basis of “Guiding - leading - coaching”, a
comparable target group is given the
opportunity to take up challenges which
strengthen their personal capacities and hence
make them “fit” to successfully shape
organizational change. In order to handle their
tasks, participants need a great deal of
creativity, ideas, the ability to think and act in
networks, as well as the courage and
determination to accept new situations.
Participants successfully solve problems, for
example, getting a free three-course dinner
for twelve people and to have this publicised
in the local press. This seminar aims at
handling situations which require people to

abandon customary forms of thinking.
KRONE’s future executives need this new way
of thinking and acting. The crucial concept of
all three seminars is to generate synergies and
networks. This means that participants come
from different hierarchies and departments.
This creates interfaces which enable people
to widen their line of vision. Candidates for
the seminars are proposed by Human
Resources after consultation with the heads
of units.
Martina Kubitz
New careers for young executives
Personal - News
■ Mr. Manfred Schneider was elected
member of the Supervisory Board of the
Business and Economy Promotion Council
at the request of the Society of the
Company Associations of Berlin/
Brandenburg, as well as the Berlin Senate.
■ Ms. Andrea Freitag, Mr. Dirk Beckmann
(product manager PremisNET) and Mr.
Jochen Bendixen, Mr. Andreas
Hochstädt and Mr. Carsten Preßler (area
sales manager) are new colleagues at the
Berlin location.
■ Mr. Thomas Glockemann is the new head
of the AccessNET components and systems
department.
■ Corporate Communications in Berlin has

its first webmaster: Mr. Thomas Schulte.
The second business is the industrial
manufacturing business. This division produces
industrial components for various markets,
including the automotive and appliance and
electronic industries, and provides component
testing services to other manufacturing
companies, principally in the automotive industry.
The third business is the manufacture and
distribution of performance chemical products.
This division’s diverse product portfolio serves
customers in many industries, including
pharmaceutical and personal care, environmen-
tal services, technology and chemical processing.
Including the acquisition of Prestolite Digital
Communications, GenTek operates over 90
manufacturing and production facilities located
in the US, Canada, Australia, Austria, China,
Great Britain, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Ireland
and Germany. GenTek employs a workforce of
around 10,500 world-wide, and recorded total
sales of over US$ 1.3 billion.
cd, Matt Murphy (GenTek)
Rejoice, users
An experience like in the cinema: 16:9
broadscreen format. Contents like a library:
more than 150 pages of information.
Access: the world of KRONE. A globe with
a graphic 3D effect so realistic that one
believes it will leave the website - this

is what users experience when they
access the re-launched
www.krone. com
homepage.
After months of planning, collecting
material and implementing, KRONE now
offers the up-to-date and attractive Internet
presence which one can expect of a
telecommunications company.
Besides the web page of the KRONE
Group, corporate communications has
completely re-designed the KRONE
Germany and additionally the EMEA
presence. Our partner in implementing
these pages was the Plenum New Media
firm which a newspaper recently rated as
one of the 20 most creative agencies. Apart
from a new concept and new contents,
many sub-items were given a much larger
content. The graphic layout and the
possibility to access even the fifth sub-level
by a mouse click are brand new features.
The new web-
master enables us to
update, improve and
amend contents at
any time. The next
steps to come in-
clude the presen-
tation of a large

portion of our pro-
ducts from the digital library, as well as
integration of an e-commerce solution.
ape
■ The Ministry of
Communications,
Information Tech-
nology and Arts
has honoured KRO-
NE Australia. This
award is given to
companies with
outstanding achievements in the IT
sector.
■ KRONE France won a LambdaNET
contract for optical-fibre, copper
and coaxial cables for First Mark’s
transport network with a contract
volume of around DM 1.8 million.
Germany
E
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3-2000 / P
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EPORT
Junior on the top
The monthly profit of JUNI-
OR KRONE rose 274%. When
the 1999 annual accounts were

presented, it became clear that
the junior company has become
an important service company
which recorded revenue of some DM 4,000
for product sales and DM 14,600 for
services. Sales increased because the KRO-
NE GmbH departments recognised the fact
that JUNIOR KRONE is a cost-effective
supplier (DM 18 to 25 per hour).
The market for products already on offer
for some time - such as the “Berlin clock” -
is saturated, whilst new products - such as
“Roll a 6” - turned out to be best-sellers. 16
games were sold within four months. The
enormous demand could be satisfied only
in part, because the top priority of the
trainees is “Education counts more than the
Junior Company”.
Sebastian Lehmann
Our closure production at Gladbeck was
shut down at the end of June. This
unfortunately meant that many colleagues
lost their jobs because the new owner of
the production facilities at Gladbeck is not
planning any further production activities
there.
KRONE will nevertheless continue
to offer closures because they are
an inseparable part of a
complete supplier’s

product range.
Closures are
the connecting
elements for
outdoor cables and will from
now on be offered from the RXS/Corning
Cable product range as shrinkage or
mechanical closures bearing the KRONE
logo.
Shrinkage closures, which are almost
exclusively used for copper cables, as well
as mechanical closures protect and cover
the wires once splicing has been completed.
The physical and chemical properties of the
material must be comparable to
those of the cable
sheath.
Mechanical closures
are used in copper
networks primarily for
high-pair (several thousand
pairs) cable connections and
branches. They are increasingly used in
optical-fibre networks which are becoming
more and more dominant as this application
forbids the use of shrinkage closures
because of the high temperature exposure
due to the gas flame during the shrinking
process.
Parallel to these two closure types, we

will offer our mechanical ECCON
®
closures,
particularly for optical-fibre applications.
The new owner of the plant will act as an
OEM supplier [Official End Manufacture] of
the necessary parts which will then be
completed to marketable closures under
KRONE’s control. This is currently already
done for a bulk order by TELMEX in Mexico.
In Berlin, 3000 ECCON
®
-SMPC 1-OF
closures will be assembled and completed.
Future orders of this type can be handled in
the same way.
vr
In July, the first of a regular series of
innovation days was held in Berlin. Mr. Axel
Kahsnitz reported on the situation of
markets, on strategies and visions for the
profit centre Germany. Mr. Ulrich Winkler
explained the use of an innovation map for
selecting and shaping ideas or integration
in the existing “ENP” (introduction of new
products) development process.
Thereafter, teams with around twelve
members each from all areas of the factory
in Berlin were set up for the AccessNET
(copper), PremisNET (copper) and Fiber Optic

areas. These teams are to convene for furt-
her meetings and are expected to present
work results. This pool is to help evaluate
and find product ideas. Market prospects,
customer benefits and implementation are
discussed at the same time.
The results will be presented to and
discussed in a larger circle at quarterly
innovation meetings.
A strategy check was carried out already
in 1999 during a two-day innovation
meeting. As a result of this, a strategy room
was set up in the future factory last autumn
based on the KRONE UK model and
supported by KRONE UK. This room is
divided into the AccessNET, PremisNET,
Fiber Optic and Services areas and serves
as a methodological aid for the strategic
orientation of the next four years.
uw
Think tank for
new products
Strategies for AccessNET
■
KRONE UK is to
equip the cor-
porate headquar-
ters of Glaxo
SmithKline where
3,000 people are

located with the
largest TrueNet
installation world-
wide so far. The
order value to-
tals around DM
10 million.
Closures for Mexico
News!
Masterhead
KRONE Report
Information for the staff
Publihed by:
KRONE GmbH,
Corporate Communication
Beeskowdamm 3-11
D – 14167 Berlin, Germany
Fon: +49-30-84 53 1701
Fax: +49-30-84 53 1355

Redaktion:
Arne Petersen, Internal Communications,
and the editorial team
International Sales AccessNET (ISAN) was
founded in 1999 and is headed by Heinz Treudler,
who in turn is supported by Colin Oakey.
However, in reality, every person within the
KRONE Group, who participates in the sale of
AccessNET solutions, is by right, part of ISAN.
The role of the function is part strategic, and

part operational support. As an international
function ISAN relies heavily on the commitment
and ongoing support of its regional co-ordinators
who are: Bill Mills (America), Dave Anderson (Asia
Pacific), Uwe Hanelt (EMEA), Werner Grimm
(Germany), Mike Parker and Mike Williams (UK).
From a corporate sales standpoint ISAN
contributes to strategic issues such as: Product
Migration, Key Account Management,
integration of Automatic Cross-connection
systems and Cable & Wire Activities. The
objective of which is to position KRONE more
effectively in the Global Market place, along with
a more comprehensive portfolio of AccessNET
solutions.
From an operational position ISAN provides a
platform, and forum for discussion, for the Inter-
national KRONE community. This extends itself
to harnessing the collective competence and
expertise of KRONE in a focussed manner, thus
ensuring that customer focus is maintained at all
times - the credo of ISAN is to ‘Think Global, but
to Act Focal’!
ISAN as a working group meets on a ‘need
to meet’ basis to discuss issues of importance.
The most recent meeting was held in the UK
during June of this year. Participants were the
co-ordinators mentioned above, representatives
from Marketing and Product Management, KRO-
NE GmbH, Berlin, and a number of guest

speakers from British Telecom, and Con-X Cor-
poration. Meetings are structured so as to
maintain a balance of content, with tangible result
being the main priority.
The next ISAN meeting will be held in Sep-
tember of this year. The main topic of discussion
will be the strategic and tactical approach for
dealing with the management of Global Key
Accounts.
Colin Oakey
Germany
■
KRONE Indonesia and
PT Telkom agreed upon a
concerted education pro-
gram in the first instance
for one year. KRONE will
equip eight trainee center
with the necessary
technics.
News!