Summary free essay sample

Matsushita was created by a 23 year old engineer in 1918 by producing double socket in his house. The company grew very fast to acquire 162 employees in 1932. Matsushita announced a plan of 250 years focusing on the seven spirits of Matsushita. Before the war, the company produced more than 5000 product and opened 25000 domestic retail stores. It was the first company to apply divisional structure. Competition between divisions was hard. After the innovating division earned high profits he took it off to a new division to decrease the tension of inter division competition. Funds were given to each division for development production and marketing. The treasury worked like a commercial bank: they reviewed the division loan request. Each division profits were calculated after deducting the central services. Each division paid 60% to headquarters and financed working capital and fixed assed in the next 40%. If the profit decreased fewer than 4% for 2 successive years in a division its manager was replaced. We will write a custom essay sample on Summary or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Matsushita was known as a copycat. Matsushita wasnt able to find an American investor. He only invested in a licensing with Philips. He started by producing black and white TVs and went verseas to open his first branch office in America. They sold TVto a retail shop under the Matsushita name. In 1960, branches opened in Asia, Central and South America. As manufacturing cost increased in Japan, Matsushita was forced to open factories in low-wages countries, however high value product were still produced in Japan. In the 1970s political reasons forced Matsushita to open plants in the US, Canada and Europe. Matsushitas VCR allowed him to be first in the consumer market, he copied the design of Ampex a US company. Several formats were developed however Matsushita was forced to adopt VHS format. In 1977, he increased the volume of the VCR reaching 6. 8 million units for the company itself and other companies such as GE and Philips. The company also licensed VHS format for other companies. VCR accounted 45% of total profit and 30% of sales. In the 1980 the overseas division reported either to the parent company in Japan or to the METC in the US a separate legal entity. Matsushita had over 700 expatriate Japanese managers all over to the world to establish proper communication between headquarter and the companies overseas and to translate the Matsushita philosophy overseas. They were required to tell the merciless truth. The expatriate kept close relationship with managers at parent companies to have all the information and updates. Managers overseas were requested to visit Osaka every year at least twice and corporate managers replied these visits to conduct face to face meetings. Yamashita as president: he first started by implementing an increase in overseas sale from less than 10% to 25%. He set up a target of 4 localizations: personnel, technology, material and capital. Matsushita over the years increased the number of local national managers supported by Japanese advisors. He established local subsidiaries to source the equipments locally and modifying design to meet local requirements. They were also free to buy supplies from local vendors only key components from parent company. Each year the parent company held a meeting where the manager could negotiate product teatures, price change and other things to meet the requirements of their local sales. Yamashita publically admits that the TV company in Cardiff was strongly dependent on the center. Tanti as president: in1986, he merged METC and the parent company, he also brought all the subsidiaries under METC. He relocated headquarters from Japan to US, Asia and North America. The growth of Matsushita continued. They were frustrated that they couldnt develop overseas companies so they bought some. After Japans economy burst, Tanti was forced to contain the cost. He was forced to resign in 1993. Morishita: He first sold one of his overseas companies to Seagram, losing $1. 2 billion in the transaction. He moved 6000 staff to operating Jobs. However, the company continued to struggle. Competitors rose from China and Korea collapsing prices. Japan consumer electronic market decreased from $42 billion in1989 to $21 billion in 1999. Thus, Matsushita shifted it production houses to China and Malaysia low-wage countries holding 140,000 employees the same number of employees in Japan. However, they were not ready to lay off employees due to their lifetime Job commitment. Morishita started to develop overseas innovations he began investing in overseas RD partnerships. Nakamura: His main objective was to build a super manufacturing plant on 3 basis: technology based components business, flexible and responsive manufacturing facility and customer oriented solution based business. His plan was to close inefficient plants and localize in Manufacturing Centers. He also separated plants from product divisions. He also divided sales and marketing division to 2 global organizations one for appliances and one for consumer electronics. In 2001 Matsushita had his first quarterly loss. The CEO immediately offered the early retirement of 18000 employees, 13000 accetepted reducing cost and allowing the emergence of new managers. Despite all that, Matsushita announced losses of $3. 7 billion in 2002. He directly iniated the release of innovative consumer focused products in markets at competitive prices. In march 2004 he reported a profit of $1. 9 illion less than the 5% promise on operating margins. Ohtsubo: in 2006 after profit of $3. 6 billion nakamura stepped down. He invested $1. 3 billion in cash for the development of flat screen TV RD. he wanted to build manufacture and release a new product twice a year. In 2008 Matsushita was changed to become Panasonic best known brand, in order to be able to grow overseas. In 2008, sales growth hopes faded. He immediately, vowed to shut down any company that had less than 3% operating profit. 27 plants were closed $4. 2 billion loss dreams about a $90 billion in revenues vanished.