Shimano Case Analysis Essay

Starting from a company of less than 75 workers and owning less than 20,000 SCU for production, research, quality assurance and conduct warranty work Off The Chain Bikes has doubled the plant capacity and hearing doubling the workforce within two short years. The company is successful by targeting and capturing lucrative market shares by heavily investing in the desired technical specs and design styles of one of the most influential Racing bikes. Our keen ability to thoroughly research market demands, predicting competitive strategies between the four market majority shareholders by reviewing and interpreting the marketing reports and our aggressive design and development plans have significantly increased our market share and increase shareholder value. Our core competencies and strategic goals will be realized by carefully following our established plans and aggressively price our bikes to increase total market share.

Ducati has built an image of a race-focused company with a longstanding reputation dating back to 1950 when Ducati built their first bike. Ducati’s superior engine technology enabled them to build a name in the international bike racing community, winning multiple times throughout the sixties and seventies; they eventually succumbed to problems on the management end, after being sold by their parent company, IRI. After two troublesome decades in which Ducati was sold and acquired twice by different companies, in 1996 the ‘Texas Pacific Group’ purchased Ducati and assigned Federico Minoli as CEO, who transformed the company into the competitive Ducati we know today.

Ducati entered into Sport-Touring segment, which enabled a complete presence in all categories of Sports segment. Strategic innovation: creating new customer segment [Grant p 213]

When USAA started in 1922, they were a property and casualty insurance company however, with time they expanded their services to their members and became a financial institution.

Ducati has developed and managed their value chain very well. This contributes substantially to their strong position. I’ve already discussed Ducati’s effective management of Inbound Logistics and Operations. Ducati’s Outbound Logistics approach is oriented around brand management in each of its markets. This is accomplished through dedicated, single-franchise dealerships instead of multi-franchise dealerships. This decision means that Ducati seeks a high-value customer experience with lower volumes in lieu of a mass-market approach. This is a strategy that is consistent with being a niche player; it makes sense for the Japanese firms to have multi-franchise dealerships since they are close substitutes of each other.

From the article it seemed that Baldwin Bicycle Company competed somewhere between a cost leader and a differentiator.

Historically Harley-Davidson to be a Niche Marketer, which is they had focused in on one particular aspect of the market. Kotler and Keller identified the following characteristics of niche marketing; customers have a distinct set of needs, they are willing to pay more to the firm that best suits their needs, it is not likely to attract competitors, gains economies through specialized products and it has a size, profit and to grow. Almost all of these hold true for the “heavyweight” segment of motor cycles that Harley-Davidson produced.

"Automakers are seeking alternative materials to cut vehicle weight while maintaining strength and safety requirements. With investments in Asia, Europe and North America, Novelis has the global footprint, assets and expertise to meet the needs of automakers in every major auto-producing region."

YAMAHA MOTORCYCLES ­ IS INNOVATION THE MAIN DRIVER  FOR SUSTAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE?  TABLE OF CONTENTS

Ducati had managed to successfully establish itself as a producer of high quality, reliable and stylish motorcycles. They did this through an aggressive outsourcing policy, using strict supplier criteria, using the platform approach to production and by leveraging the advantages of being located in the highly sophisticated Emilian mechanical district. Ducati outsourced around 87% of their production, which was the highest in the industry. By outsourcing to highly specialized components producers in the Emilian district Ducati could focus on the key value adders such as design, R&D, the production of strategic parts and quality control. Ducati was very selective and placed great emphasis on the quality of its suppliers, so its number of suppliers decreased from 200 to 130. It typically identified at least 2 suppliers for each component and signed only short term contracts with them. This provided Ducati with a pool of highly competitive and dedicated suppliers. A big factor in the efficiency of the production process was the platform approach to production. Ducati would divide motorcycles into a small number of large components which would consist of smaller subcomponents. A key supplier would then be made responsible for a component and managing the suppliers for the respective subcomponents. Heavy investment in R&D was made and an internal design division

The first example, they highlighted that the “advanced design, engineering, and technology” made a significant role on the past successes. Thus, they are sustaining on this approach for further successes by continuing investment on the up-to-date knowledge which will be implemented into the entire processes in order to enhancing their capabilities and experiences. Specifically, to produce specialized vehicles have highest performance, minimal impact on the environment, and crossing the limits of their customers’ expectations in term of unique design and competitive

Buoyed by SYM 's success, other foreign companies including Yamaha, Suzuki, Honda from Japan later jumped into the market.

Over the next few years, Honda worked to expand its product line and expanded operations to numerous countries around the world. In a short amount of time Honda motor company was considered one of the leading companies in the automobile industry, and by volume it is currently marked as the biggest motorcycle manufacturer in the world.

Honda has continued to embrace the changes that happen around its operations to ensure sustainability and profitability. The current global motorcycle manufacturing sector is full of competition. It, therefore, becomes crucial for every manufacturer to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and then identify the opportunities to exploit to gain competitive advantage. Honda is Japanese based automobile company; it has numerous subsidiaries in Asia, Europe, and North America. Due to the advancements in technology, Honda will be required to make use of the latest technological trends to stay competitive. The business level strategy at Honda is in line with its enterprise and corporate strategy. The corporation also conducts Research and

One of the key differentiators top design manufacturers leverage is their ability to have visibility and insight into all aspects of the supply chain, especially when manufacturing goes global. This visibility helps companies to understand their products demand, inventories, service parts management, and the products overall viability.