Klaus Erich Agthe

Klaus Erich Agthe (born August 12, 1930 in Niederholzhausen ) is a German-American businessman and author .

Life

Youth and education

Klaus Agthe grew up in Apolda , attended grammar school in Weimar and studied business administration at the Humboldt University in Berlin under Professor Konrad Mellerowicz . Agthe had gone to Berlin without a university place and had auditioned directly with Professor Mellerowicz. He organized the matriculation , although he did not know Agthe personally beforehand. In the course of his studies, he followed Mellerowicz to the Technical University of Berlin, where he received his doctorate in 1958 with the thesis "The deviations in plan cost accounting: Their determination, analysis and accounting". The doctoral supervisor was again Konrad Mellerowicz.

In the meantime, Agthe spent a year at Indiana University in Bloomington , Indiana , USA . The experiences and impressions gathered there were formative for his further life.

Professional background

After completing his studies, Agthe first worked at Standard Elektrik Lorenz in Stuttgart , where he was decisively influenced by the then head of the ITT parent company , Harold Geneen . In 1966 he went to Schmalbach-Lubeca in Braunschweig , where he was promoted to the company's executive board. After Schmalbach-Lubeca was taken over by the American Continental Can Company, Agthe was called to the USA in 1976 and took on a leading role at Continental Can, with responsibility for business in the Middle East , Africa and Asia .

In 1983 Agthe left the company, now known as the Continental Group, and switched to the US subsidiary of Brown, Boveri & Cie. which he took over as Chief Executive Officer . Even after Brown Boveri's merger with ASEA , from which Asea Brown Boveri emerged , Agthe managed the US business. After the merger, ABB with Combustion Engineering to go Agthe considered retiring, was after the turn , however, asked ABB in transactions with the ABB trust company to represent. Agthe therefore moved to Berlin and spent the next two years acquiring various former state- owned companies .

In 1992 Agthe returned to the United States, where he completed his professional career as an independent consultant and member of various supervisory boards . Among other things, he was elected to the boards of directors of Yellow Freight Corporation and VIAG North America. Agthe has been retired since 2005. He has been an American citizen since 1984.

Activity as an author

Agthe is the author and co-author of various books and articles on budgeting and business administration , including the book “The deviations in budgeting: your determination, analysis, etc., published in 1958. Offsetting ”and“ Strategy and growth of the company: Practice d. long-term planning ”, published in 1974.

In business circles , the article “Gradual fixed cost coverage in the system of direct costing”, published in 1959 in the magazine for business administration , is still mentioned as groundbreaking.

In November 2008, an autobiography entitled Shadows of War: A German Life in the Century of Extremes was published in the USA.

Works

• The deviations in the planned cost calculation: their determination, analysis, etc. Offsetting . Haufe, Freiburg i. Br., 1958
• Gradual fixed cost coverage in the direct costing system , Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft, 29th year, 1959
• Cost planning and cost control in industrial operations , Verlag für Unternehmensführung Gehlen, Baden-Baden, 1963
• Business policy in line with economic conditions , Gehlen Company Management Publishing House, Baden-Baden, 1969
• Strategy and growth of the company: practice d. long-term planning . Publishing house for corporate management Gehlen, Baden-Baden, Bad Homburg (vor der Höhe), 1972
• From Communism to Capitalism: A Businessman's Diary of the Changes in East Germany , Indiana University International Business Forum, Bloomington, Indiana 1992
• Shadows of War: A German Life in the Century of Extremes . Booksurge Publishing, 2008, ISBN 978-1-4196-9235-2

Awards

1978: Admission to the "Academy of Alumni Fellows" at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University , Bloomington, Indiana, USA

Web links

• Biography at ZoomInfo.com (English)
• http://www.shadowsofwar.com/ (English)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Agthe, Klaus (2008): Shadows of War - A Germann Life in the Century of Extremes , USA: BookSurge Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4196-9235-2
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Agthe, Klaus (2008): Shadows of War - A Germann Life in the Century of Extremes , USA: BookSurge Publishing, ISBN 978-1-4196-9235-2 )
3. ↑ ^{a b} New York Times, Nov. 13, 1987 (English)
4. ↑ Yellow Freight press release, Feb. 28, 2001 (English)  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
5. ↑ Homepage of the Office of Alumni Relations, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA (English) ( Memento of the original from September 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.