Swatch and the Global Watch Industry

Introduction
The Swatch Group had many early on successes due to repositioning strategies and a boost from acquisitions. On the surface, the Swatch Group was the world's leading manufacturer of watches in the late 1990's. They had 14 percent of the world market share and it appeared that gross sales and net profits were on the rise; however, under the covers, it was a much different story. Swatch was facing a myriad of issues that needed to be resolved in order for success to prevail. Management issues were plaguing Swatch; multiple key figures stepped down from the board in the mid 19…