In the integration planning phase in August 1998, management teams from both firms developed strategies for
the merged company. These teams identified a number of issues that had to be dealt with during the post merger
integration. With respect to HR one important challenge was to solve the remuneration problem: The German top
managers earned much less than their American counterparts. The contrary was the case for the lower management
levels. It was decided that the salaries for those German top managers who had international responsibility would be
raised to US level. For a broader group of German managers a component of their salary would be linked to the company’s
profit and its share price. At this stage all employees were informed using various media such as letters, the
intranet or films. Furthermore, there was a first awareness about cultural issues in the merger. The new board was
composed by 18 members including both, Schrempp and Eaton as chairmen, 8 board members from Chrysler and
the same number from Daimler-Benz plus 2 from the Daimler subsidiaries Dasa and Debis.