The group hold is consolidated, 1990–1997 Storeide returns The Stokke group was formed from a number of spin-off companies and around 1990 it consisted of a conglomerate of companies with a low degree of horizontal integration. The group's subsidiaries were generally allowed to manage themselves. As previously mentioned, this was due to limited capacity in the group's administration department, but it was also the company's expressed policy that subsidiaries should be allowed to enjoy a large degree of autonomy. There are many witnesses to the fact that the management and employees in the company's various subsidiaries appreciated the confidence and freedom they were given. Some also attribute the good results they achieved to this very same freedom. “Everyone was given the freedom to do what they did best,” the employees at the Swiss sales office told Stokke in 1997. They maintained that the company's confidence in its employees was the main reason why no one had left their office since it was established in 1988.141 Wolfgang Krüssmann at Stokke GmbH in Germany, Ingemar Almgren at Tranås in Sweden, and Odd S lettaøyen and Terje Klauseth at Westnofa all shared the same views. As far as the latter two were concerned, their freedom of action could be justified both from a professional and a rational viewpoint. It was
the team in Åndalsnes that possessed the expertise required for both foam plastics and mattress production. To a limited extent, neither the owners of the group nor a group of commercial m anagers could have developed this production on a professional basis. Such a ttitudes were well anchored at all levels of the Stokke group up until the 1990s. This serves to illustrate a corporate culture which to a large extent was based on products and production. It also corresponds with a traditional founder culture and the drive to develop companies which would gradually manage to stand firmly on their own feet. If the company's focus had been directed more towards markets and customers, it could have paved the way for closer integration of companies. This perspective would gradually start to penetrate more deeply at a general group level, but a lready in 1990 measures were being taken that would give the group management the tools that had so far been lacking. Stokke Industri AS had been established as an overall group company in 1983. Stokke Industri was wholly owned by Kåre Stokke who was the only person in the group administration. Even though the legal group structure was in place in 1983, it did not result in operational consequences for the group's subsidiaries. When Kjell Storeide returned from his position at Sunnmørsbanken in 1989, the parent company was strengthened. Storeide took over new duties as
In August 1988, Stokke moved the bulk of its production and administration operations to Håhjem. It was then clear that the plant at Spjelkavik could be more profitable if it were adapted for commercial purposes.
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