Abstract

Gerdau is the world’s 14th largest steelmaker, the leader in the segment of long steel in the Americas and one of the main suppliers of special long steel in the world. The company has growth thought acquisitions and has its management capabilities as the differentiation factor and main strength. The scenario changed since 2007-2008 with the global crisis: increasingly competitive environment, rising costs of raw materials, etc. leading Gerdau to decrease acquisitions and focus in innovative solutions to overcome difficulties and provide new ways to deliver even more competitive costs and value to its clients. This case will present business strategic topics related to post merger integration. The main issue is the “dilemma” about the compliance at the expense of innovation. As we will see in the case while the GBS facilitates the transfer of best practices from HQ to the acquired units and thus expedites the integration, it also constrains the innovation and flexibility.

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