Electrolux Case Study

Sharp has a strong international presence and is a well known brand. It offers a variety of diverse products to its customers, including TV’s, laptops, and home appliances. A diversification of product portfolio is important as it protects company against risk of exposure in any particular line of business (Johnson, 2006). Therefore Sharp is relatively strong in this aspect. In addition, Sharp places an intense focus on research and development of new technologies and products, ensuring that their output is the best in the industry.

Whirlpool is the world’s largest producer and marketer of small and large home appliances such as mixers, food processors, washing machines, refrigerators, air conditioners, etc. Whirlpool also has a long standing relationship with Sears, which sells Whirlpool products under the brand name Kenmore. In addition to its North American presence (both manufacturing and sales), Whirlpool also has a strong presence in Mexico, and Europe. Being the largest producer in the world has helped Whirlpool to compete on lower costs through economies of scale and through its Global Procurement Organization (GPO). In addition, its large networks also help in

Haiser entered into overseas markets as a contract manufacturer for multinational brands in early 1990s. First exported products to UK, then Germany, France and Italy. It also establisted joint ventures to explore the foreign markets; i.e. established a JV with Mitsubishi to set up China’s largest AC (“air conditioners”) production plant in 1994, in 1995 set up a JV with a local firm in India to produce refrigerators and ACs, in 1997 establised a JV with a Yugoslav company in Belgrade to produce ACs.

Horizontal integration involves buying out other companies and taking over one single step of an industrial process. It establishes a monopoly because, with horizontal integration, everyone must go the company that has monopolized that step.

According to Wheelen and Hunger an acquisition is a growth strategy that occurs when a company absorbs another (usually smaller) company as an operating subsidiary or division of the acquiring corporation. Acquisitions usually take place with companies of different sizes and they can be hostile or friendly. Acquisitions can also be a good way to grow

Threat from Buyers Consumers hold much power today due to the economy but I forecast no negative issues in this category. A large majority of Company G’s buyers are repeat customers who place great value on our products, our service, and our reputation. As long as Company G continues to produce quality products with features that appeal to current customers as well as potential customers we will succeed in the small appliance market as we have done with our other electronics.

After acquiring, Newell would get the service level of each business to their standards as fast as possible to make sure that these businesses do not damage its reputation. Thus association of brand name to Newell highly enhanced the individual companies inside Newell’s portfolio to be of good service and fast distribution. Other than these factors, the acquisition of different companies might bring in different skills and synergies to complementing goods such as production knowledge and complementary assets. Companies that produce complementary products are able to know what exactly to produce that would suit their customers, while companies producing differentiated products of the same category would be able to learn from each other to produce better products for each customer segment. Companies of similar nature are also consolidated and the plants upgraded to increase manufacturing efficiency which will benefit these companies in the cost aspect.

New Product Development : the aggressive investment strategy into R&D division led to speed in releasing new products in the market. This gave the company higher ROI returns projections. The faster cycle of innovation led to multiple product availability in the market which led to further increasing the gap between them and the competitions and also the company indulged in manufacturing self brand products rather than Co-branded or Partnerships.

Competition is stiff within the industry. Domestically, the major competition is General Electric, Westinghouse, and Honeywell. Internationally, competition includes Siemens and Hitachi. Emerson’s future success requires beating not only the domestic competitors but also the large global Japanese and German manufacturers. Emerson must differentiate itself from the competition using its cost-reduction, quality improvement, and superior marketing and distribution channel strategies.

Blain Kitchenware, Inc. (BKI), founded in 1927, is a mid-sized producer of small appliances for residential kitchens. BKI has an approximate 10% market share of the $2.3 billion U.S. market for small kitchen appliances, with 65% of sales originating from the US market. The company is public since 1994, and the majority of the shares is controlled by the founder's family (62% of outstanding shares), who also have a strong representation in the board of directors. Mr. Dubinski - the CEO since 1992 and great-grandson of one of the founders, successfully completed an IPO in 1994 and gradually moved the production abroad in the early 90s. BIK`s current strategy is to complement its

Royal Philips NV and Matsushita (owner of the Panasonic brand among others) are two of the world’s biggest electronics multinationals. After successfully building their global empires in the early twentieth century, they have both suffered financially in recent decades. It is therefore interesting to look at why this has happened and what their future prospects are.

Cooper’s corporate strategy is diversification through acquisitions and mergers. This diversification is in both related and non-related businesses to lessen its dependence on the capital expenditures of the natural gas industry. Cooper’s started acquiring low-technology manufacturing companies. The companies were premium-quality products with strong brands names mainly still own by the original family owners that have seen

Haier is a Chinese electronical appliances producer and it decided to take a 20 per cent stake in Fisher & Paykel Appliances Company (F&P) which is a New Zealand company. According to their agreement, besides the stake, Haier will also take two seats on F&P’s board and also they will cooperate in various business functions, including product development, sourcing, manufacturing and marketing. This action brought win-win situation to both companies. For Haier, unlike its domestic acquisition strategy, this alliance strategy enabled access to well established

These minor details are what set Electrolux apart from the competition. The company’s ability to function as a team allowed them to gain different perspectives and create in a shorter time period than the rest. The case study proves that when it comes to the consumers, they do not care about price as much as they do effectiveness. If the product gives the consumer exactly what they need and want, they are more than willing to pay the price. A company’s success depends solely on each department’s ability to function as one and without teamwork this task is impossible.

For international business strategy, Hill and Jones (2004) suggested that there is four basic components of strategy development need to be addressed by a firm in order to succeed in foreign markets. These components are: ¡¥distinctive competence¡¦, ¡¥scope of operations¡¦, ¡¥resource deployment¡¦, and ¡¥synergy¡¦. By applying the theory, it is revealed that Whirlpool¡¦s distinctive competence is its brand name ¡V Whirlpool, the world¡¦s largest white-goods manufacturer. For the scope of operations, Whirlpool is specialised in broad middle market niche of white-goods products. In terms of resource deployment, Whirlpool allocates the resources equally to its three product lines. As far as synergy concern, due to the poor business performance of Bauknecht and Ignis, Whirlpool is not benefited in whole.