IHC Holland

              IHC
Holland
In 1965 IHC-Holland had a good thing going. Then they fooled with it.
Now they have a better thing going.
What IHC had was a loosely organized group of six shipbuilders—who frequently cooperated to build dredg-ers—that had a net profit of more than F 3.7 million (Dutch guilders—$1 million).
Now they have a successfully merged company—one of the world's leading constructors of dredging materials —with a net profit increase of more than 70 percent in five years.
What made the directors of IHC-Holtand tamper with a proven organization? They realized that, although they
were growing and making profits in 1965, they might not continue to do so,
A number of countries had recently stepped up their subsidies on imports. There was a wage explosion in Holland, forcing wages up some 15 percent in one year alone.
And IHC directors wanted to concentrate their efforts in an area that they knew would continue to be a money maker; shipbuilding was not one of them. They decided instead to concentrate in the area that had brought them together—construction of dredgers and dredging ma-terials—and to expand their then-fledgling offshore drill-ing operation.