From < In tandem (at last) > 摘自《经济学人》 Mar 30th 2006

It was a spectacular binge; it was also a flop. The company's share price plumbed new depths even as Germany's stockmarket boomed. Mr Reuter's successor, Jürgen Schrempp, started dismantling the empire bit by bit, selling the trains and the planes and the computer-software interests.（1）There was less talk of “integration” and more about what to do to bolster the car company at the core of the group.

Pretty soon Mr Schrempp was building an empire of his own. A former car mechanic, who had risen through the ranks running the Mercedes business in South Africa, he wanted to turn Mercedes from a European regional maker of premium saloons into a truly global carmaker with a big presence in America. In 1998 he took over Chrysler to convert Mercedes into a global heavyweight with a wide range of products and markets. （2）His reasoning was that, as competition became tougher, even premium brands such as Mercedes needed greater volume to support the increasingly expensive technological development required to stay ahead. Strategically, it was the right step to take. Rivals such as the head of BMW lauded his courage and admired the strategy. Ford Motor's boss never forgave Mr Schrempp for not tying the knot with him instead. The only problem with the Schrempp strategy was getting it to work.

new words

bolster     n./v. 支持
They bolstered their morale by singing.
他们以唱歌来鼓舞士气。
reasoning    n. 推论，推理，论证

关于“整合”的议论少了，人们谈论更多的是如何支持集团核心的汽车公司。
他的推理是这样的，随着竞争变得越来越艰难，即使是像梅塞德斯这样的好品牌也需要更大的空间以支持站在市场前列所需要的越来越昂贵技术发展费用。