Yes, the merger may have been a good idea in the beginning and would have allowed both companies to form a considerable economy of scale, but only if they could work out their differences and be able to make the changes necessary. According to Lewin's model they never even got past the first age, therefore they were never able to make the changes in the first place. A merger requires that both companies "unfreeze" of their business model and other elements of their company. Unless they can get past the first age, they will not be able to get to the second and third stage of the change model. This one the key lessons that is learned by the failed merger of Daimler-Chrysler.

In 2007, the failed restructuring attempt led to the decision by Daimler AG to sell Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management (Szczesny, 2007). One of the key reasons for this move was that the German divisionfelt it would be much stronger without Chrysler and its dependency on the North American market. They decided to focus on the emerging markets in India and China by opening a plant to produce Mercedes-Benz cars in China. Daimler decided to abandon the strategy of becoming the world's largest automotive manufacture and returned to its core focus of becoming one of the most respected (Szczesny, 2007). This led to a reorganization of their divisions and a change of that was closer to its original management style.

As early as of the year 2000, there were signs that Chrysler would be the downfall of the merger. The merger of Chrysler and Daimler was not a match of two equals (Knowledge@ Wharton, 2000). In the end, these differences resulted in clashes of corporate culture. In order to achieve a successful merger, Lewin's model would have been an excellent model to choose in this case. One of the key mistakes that was...

This was never done in this case is a key reason for the failure of the new entity. An examination of the failed merger attempt supports the importance of the early stages of Lewin's model. This case the supports the thesis that the failure of the Daimler Chrysler merger was in the failure to take the initial steps and "unfreeze" both organizations.
References

Daimler. (2006). DaimlerChrysler Creates New Management Model. January 24, 20006. Retrieved February 22, 2011 from http://www.daimler.com/dccom/0-5-7171-1-583502-1-0-0-0-0-0-9296-7164-0-0-0-0-0-0-0.html

Kadapa, S. (2008). Change Management Analysis of Daimler-Chrysler Merger. Retrieved February 22, 20110 from http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1306208/change_management_analysis_of_daimler.html?cat=27

Knowledge@ Wharton (2000). Has DaimlerChrysler Hit the Breakdown Lane or Just Stopped to Fill Up? Retrieved February 22, 2011 from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=290

Mindtools (n.d.) Lewin's Change Management model. Retrieved February 22, 2011 from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_94.htm

Muller, J. (2001). Can This Man Save Chrysler? Business Week, New York; September 17, 2001,Iss. 3749; pg.86. Retrieved February 26, 2011 from http://www.albany.edu/faculty/miesing/teaching/materials/daimlerchrysler.pdf

Szczesny, J. (2007). Daimler-Chrysler Divorce Final with Name Change. Edmund's Auto Observer. October 5, 2007. Retrieved February 22, 2011 from http://www.autoobserver.com/2007/10/daimler-chrysler-divorce-final-with-name-change.html