Phillips v/s Matsushita harvard Case

See Chapter 1, Exhibit 01: Strategic management consists of the analyses, decisions, and actions an organization undertakes in order to create and sustain competitive advantages:

Let’s break down this case based on the four principles of our textbook. We will

To become a leading consumer electronics company in the post-war era, Philips implemented the strategy of a multinational company from early on, and also benefited from proficient leaders, Gerard and Anton. Philips managed to gain successes through becoming a multinational enterprise, evident through various characteristics of a multinational enterprise. Other strategies included a decentralised organisational system, and their technical and innovative capability.

The performance of each company is different from time to time based on their two different international strategies. Philips, for instance, showed poor struggles between national organizations and product divisions since there was no centralized decision –making terminal. In the end, the national organizations held the power because they were in control of the assets. Being in control of assets, the national organizations had more influence on the management team. Also the lack of clarity between the two’s responsibilities did not allow Philips to function effectively as a whole. They did have one thing going for them though. Philips was able adapt to changing markets based on their localization strategy. They

Carefully read Case 4-1, Philips versus Matsushita, on pp. 331-347 of the Transnational Management textbook. Consider the organizational development of each firm and its implications on that company’s strategic capability.

When it comes to Philips I would definitely suggest differentiation among products lines. There is necessity to define what are the organizational core value products and the ones, which are not-core products. I would invest in R&D, because without it Philips is loosing its competitive advantage that was its strong point. There is also necessity to divide responsibilities between national organizations and product divisions. They have already decreased number of PD, which I perceive as a good move. In my opinion they should also invest in training, maybe team-building, something to increase the cooperation between managers from NO and PD.

Lack of integration prevented the Keda's leaders from making strategic decisions when it mattered. For instance, when leaders were supposed to decide on whether to compete for orders for the polishing machines in foreign markets, Keda failed to assess the cost and the profitability involved. In order to remain ahead of competition in product innovation, Keda had to continue engaging in the improvement of product development and management operations.

According to Blocher, Stout, Juras and Cokins (2016), “One of the first steps in implementing strategy is to identify the critical success factors that the firm must focus on to be successful” (p. 35). By identifying core competencies and opportunities, the organization can choose a competitive strategy that allows them to focus on what they do best in order to provide an advantage over their competitors. Equally important, is understanding a firm’s weaknesses, and the environmental threats facing an organization, in order to correct, improve, or better align the management strategy. Knowledge of the industry also helps to pinpoint key factors of strategic importance for the company to succeed.

Strategic management plays a vital role in most organisations as it consists of formulating and implementing the company’s goals; this is done by taking into account the available resources and doing an analysis of the internal and external environment (Takalkar, 2014). The author of this essay will be identifying and analysing a significant strategic challenge that was faced by a local and global entity from two different industries, furthermore an external and internal analysis will be given. Lastly the author will address how the two organisations were able to overcome the strategic challenge in order to strengthen the strategic positions of the organisations. The local entity that was chosen is Eskom which falls part of the energy industry and for the global entity Samsung was chosen as it falls part of the technology industry. The differences found between Samsung and Eskom are that Samsung provides products that can be seen as a want for its consumers whereas Eskom provides a service which is a need for the general public. A similarity that can be found between the two entities is that both these companies are leading players within the industry they belong to. The reason these two organisations

In such a market place setting, the current project sets out to comparatively assess the two organizations and draw lessons to be further implemented by other entities. Emphasis would as such be placed on issues such as the history and core business of the two firms, the managerial approach to innovation, the managerial factors for success, the organizational approach to ethics and social responsibility or the managerial approach to market changes. Based on the findings, three recommendations would be formulated to help companies increase their flexibility.

This study focuses on the way in which Philips has transformed its organization and culture in order to flourish in the modern competitive world. Organizations today operate within an environment of change. As this environment is so dynamic, it is crucial for organizations to constantly ‘reinvent themselves.’ It is important, therefore, to continually adapt and move on. Nowhere is this more true than in the modern business environment, where today’s technology becomes out-of-date within a short span of time and in which there is intense global competition as firms jostle for the new “huge markets” that are opening up.

Philips has thrived on its technological prowess, which is a result of their strong focus on research and development. Specifically, Philips maintains a product-focused strategy and their highly decentralized National Organizations allow them to adapt to different market conditions globally. Human capital has historically been a key resource for the company, as they focused on caring for their workers and coordinating business efforts in a cross-functional environment (i.e. technical and marketing managers working on projects together), but frequent leadership turnover and seemingly endless turnaround efforts have weakened this valuable capability. It is arguable, however, that the cross-functional culture is still active at Philips and most of the top management team has completed foreign tours of duty.

* Philips used to have a dual management system, which historically worked for the Philips brothers. This desire to recreate the past as opposed to changing and looking to the future shows a weakness in Philips culture.

Reason for the paper The reason for this research paper on Royal Philips is to identify a problem that is facing the organization and through research and analysis. Researching all areas

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF BUSINESS STRATEGIES BETWEEN KOREA AND JAPAN: A CASE OF ELECTRONICS ITEMS BETWEEN SAMSUNG AND SONY CHOONG Y. LEE * *Daniel Froes Batata, Ha Sook Kim, Gladys A. Kelce College of Business, Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, KS 66762, U.S.A. ABSTRACT Sony, one of the world‟s most prominent companies in the electronics industry from Japan, has dominated the markets from all over the world for a long time since 1970s. Over the last decade, however, it has faced challenges to maintain its growth. Although sales levels have been relatively steady over the last decade, its profitability has gone from approximately eight to almost zero percent in 2009. Concomitantly, Samsung Electronics from Korea has successfully overcome