KEMET's Chinese Integration Team (D): Some Surprises

This case series tells a story about how KEMET, an American company, dispatched in 2011 a Chinese integration team to Indonesia to complete the mission of integrating the Batam plant acquired four years before. The (A) case describes that Richard Lou, KEMET’s Director of China Operations, received an order from the U.S. headquarters to integrate the Batam plant after he and his Chinese team had successfully integrated the Shanghai plant and the Nantong plant respectively. The order caused mixed feelings in him, for he was aware that the task of integrating the Batam plant, which had a very complex background and continued to lose for many years, would be nothing but a double-edged sword – a make-or-break moment of his career. Whether to rest on his laurels or rise to the challenge? Richard had to make a critical decision. The (B) case relates that Richard decided to accept the great challenge, and thus formed an integration team of experts in different functions, and got well prepared in every aspect as far as possible. However, when the integration team arrived in Singapore on their journey to Indonesia, Richard suddenly received a death-threat email from the Batam plant. Should he put himself and his team at risk to fulfill the task? The (C) case elaborates how after arriving in Indonesia Richard Lou, the integration team leader, and Jack Chen, the newly-appointed general manager of the Batam plant, and other team members implemented the reform initiatives, such as conducting comprehensive communications, adjusting the organizational structure, making the plant operations more efficient and controllable, training the leadership of the local team, dealing with the business crisis caused by the strikes of the trade unions, etc. And the (D) case tells about some surprises in the integration, revealing some unexpected but interesting stories behind the whole story.