Matsushita Strength Building Process

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3. Matsushita strength building process

In late 1980s, Matsushita had been able to take the opportunity from market changes and was successfully overtook Philips. As mentioned, the globalisation era shift electronics market competition from local fulfillment to global price competition. Compared to the Philips decentralized structures, the centralized Matsushita’s structure with its ability to respond to market opportunities enabled Matsushita to became global leader in this era.

Firstly, while Philips autonomous subsidiaries lowered their speed of reaction, the Matsushita ability to adopt the innovation supported by its centralised structure was providing significant productivity. As argued by Daft (2009), during the internationalisation companies usually still want to achieve ”common organizational goals”. However, it is difficult for them to choose between focusing on global standardisation or national responsiveness. Philips structure was geographic/product matrix with emphasis on the national responsiveness while Matsushita adapt the product matrix structure with power delegation to the subsidiaries. As illustrated in F During the period where forces for global integration are high and national responsiveness is low, Matsushita structure and mass production capabilities provides them advantages in delivering standardised low price product during that period.

Figure 1. Model to Fit Organisation Structure to International Advantages
Source: Roderick E. White and Thomas A. Poynter, “Organizing for Worldwide Advantage,” Business Quarterly (Summer 1989), 84–89. Adapted by permission of Business Quarterly, published by the Western Business School, the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.

The main strategic ...

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... plants and concentrate production in manufacturing centers.

In addition, the inability of Matsushita to encourage innovation from local market was also key disadvantages. Despite its four localizations, overseas companies continued to act primarily only as the implementation arms of Japanese-based product divisions. Matsushita attempt to transform of substantial resources and delegation of many responsibilities were not able to eliminate dependency of the local plants to the parent company.

Works Cited

Bartlett, C. A., Ghoshal, S., & Birkinshaw, J. M. (1995). Transnational management. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Bartlett, C. A. (2001). Philips versus Matsushita: A new century, a new round. Harvard Business School.
Daft, R. L. (2009). Organization theory and design. Cengage learning.
Porter, M. E. (Ed.). (1986). Competition in global industries. Harvard Business Press.

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