In 2021, Hitachi Limited was reconsidering its ownership of Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM). The decision about HCM’s future was one of the last steps in a more than decade-long effort to reorient Hitachi from a manufacturing conglomerate to a service-oriented company. HCM was a global player in the construction and mining equipment business, and although it no longer relied on Hitachi for product technology, Hitachi’s technological capabilities might once again become more valuable to HCM as automation and electrification of construction and mining equipment gained importance. Would there be greater synergies from more closely integrating HCM with Hitachi’s other businesses, or would both sides be better off if HCM was completely independent?
In 2021, Hitachi Limited was reconsidering its ownership of Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM). The decision about HCM's future was one of the last steps in a more than decade-long effort to reorient Hitachi from a manufacturing conglomerate to a service-oriented company. HCM was a global player in the construction and mining equipment business, and although it no longer relied on Hitachi for product technology, Hitachi's technological capabilities might once again become more valuable to HCM as automation and electrification of construction and mining equipment gained importance. Would there be greater synergies from more closely integrating HCM with Hitachi's other businesses, or would both sides be better off if HCM was completely independent?
In September of 2020, an international business executive at the North Dakota Trade Office was asked by a client company, Dakota Growers Pasta Company Inc., to advise it on how to increase pasta exports to South Korea. Like many other firms in North Dakota, the client faced a number of hurdles to building successful export businesses. These included limited exposure to foreign markets and limited expertise in trade-related regulations and processes, as well as logistical issues. In his role, the business executive aided local companies' efforts to develop and sustain export businesses. The client company now needed to find a new distributor to grow sales in the South Korean market, but selecting the right one required deciding which market segment to focus on first. The business executive had to determine what advice he should he give to his client company about expanding in South Korea.
In September of 2020, an international business executive at the North Dakota Trade Office was asked by a client company, Dakota Growers Pasta Company Inc., to advise it on how to increase pasta exports to South Korea. Like many other firms in North Dakota, the client faced a number of hurdles to building successful export businesses. These included limited exposure to foreign markets and limited expertise in trade-related regulations and processes, as well as logistical issues. In his role, the business executive aided local companies’ efforts to develop and sustain export businesses. The client company now needed to find a new distributor to grow sales in the South Korean market, but selecting the right one required deciding which market segment to focus on first. The business executive had to determine what advice he should he give to his client company about expanding in South Korea.
Japan's number-one apparel brand and retailer, Uniqlo Co. Ltd. (Uniqlo), built its business by delivering high-quality basic casual clothing at low prices. Uniqlo's founder and chief executive officer of Uniqlo's parent company, Fast Retailing, stated that his goal was to become the world's number-one apparel retailer. He argued that success in the U.S. market was crucial to meeting this goal; yet, Uniqlo USA was not doing well. In mid-2017, after more than a decade of efforts, Uniqlo USA had relatively few stores and continued to lose money. As the gap between its goals and performance continued to diverge, the company needed to re-examine its U.S.-based business and potentially its globalization strategy altogether.
This article focuses on the field of international crisis communication, whereby multinationals and their expatriate staff respond to crisis events in international and/or multicultural contexts. The field of international crisis communication is at or near a state of crisis due to lack of research and, more importantly, methods used by practitioners. 'Glocalization'-which is used successfully in fields as diverse as marketing, education, theology, and others as an effective and expedient way of leveraging global capabilities to meet local demands-is proposed as one method for addressing this need pragmatically. Using glocalization for the internationalizing of crisis communication benefits practitioners and researchers alike in a way that avoids imposing Western frameworks and interpretations onto non-Western crisis situations. We demonstrate the approach with a case study involving multinational McDonald's Corporation and its foreign subsidiary, McDonald's Japan.
Japan's number-one apparel brand and retailer, Uniqlo Co. Ltd. (Uniqlo), built its business by delivering high-quality basic casual clothing at low prices. Uniqlo's founder and chief executive officer of Uniqlo's parent company, Fast Retailing, stated that his goal was to become the world's number-one apparel retailer. He argued that success in the U.S. market was crucial to meeting this goal; yet, Uniqlo USA was not doing well. In mid-2017, after more than a decade of efforts, Uniqlo USA had relatively few stores and continued to lose money. As the gap between its goals and performance continued to diverge, the company needed to re-examine its U.S.-based business and potentially its globalization strategy altogether.
This case is a supplement to 9B15M083. In February 2015, the sales of McDonald’s Japan had continued to slide, despite the implementation of new pricing and the introduction of new food items. The company posted a loss for 2014, citing costs in dealing with the Shanghai Husi debacle and the impact it had on sales. However, numerous reports of foreign objects in McDonald’s food items had resulted in the loss of consumers’ trust. How should the expatriate CEO rebuild the company’s position in the Japanese market?
In July 2014, the expatriate CEO of McDonald’s Japan (MDJ) faced a crisis after a video was broadcast accusing one of the company’s China-based food suppliers of serious health and sanitation violations. Although MDJ was the biggest brand in Japan’s fast food industry, the company’s sales had been falling since 2008, and its profitability had deteriorated dramatically since 2012. The CEO, who had recently taken over at MDJ, urgently needed to turn around the company’s situation and deal with the crisis at hand. How could she reassure Japanese consumers and put the company back on the road to growth?<br><br>See supplement 9B15M084.
This case is a supplement to W15400. In February 2015, the sales of McDonald's Japan had continued to slide, despite the implementation of new pricing and the introduction of new food items. The company posted a loss for 2014, citing costs in dealing with the Shanghai Husi debacle and the impact it had on sales. However, numerous reports of foreign objects in McDonald's food items had resulted in the loss of consumers' trust. How should the expatriate CEO rebuild the company's position in the Japanese market?
In July 2014, the expatriate CEO of McDonald's Japan (MDJ) faced a crisis after a video was broadcast accusing one of the company's China-based food suppliers of serious health and sanitation violations. Although MDJ was the biggest brand in Japan's fast food industry, the company's sales had been falling since 2008, and its profitability had deteriorated dramatically since 2012. The CEO, who had recently taken over at MDJ, urgently needed to turn around the company's situation and deal with the crisis at hand. How could she reassure Japanese consumers and put the company back on the road to growth?
In January 2013, Mike Johnson, CEO of Headwaters Software, was weighing the opportunity to diversify into a new but related market. Despite being a small company, Fisdap, as everyone called it, was the leading provider of software solutions and content to students and educators in the field of emergency medical services (EMS). Since its inception, Fisdap had played a key role in facilitating new ways to track and manage clinical internships of EMS students. Now, it appeared that educational programs for other healthcare occupations were likely to adopt methods similar to those now used in EMS. Johnson had recently returned from a visit to a community college using Fisdap's EMS software, which had requested Fisdap to consider developing solutions for their nursing program as well. Nursing education was a large market, offering substantial growth potential for Fisdap. However, entering the market involved a number of risks, and meant that the company would move away from its existing strategy and direction. Johnson was concerned about whether the company could manage growth while maintaining its company culture and conservative approach to financing. Furthermore, the size of the nursing education market might entice larger competitors than Fisdap had encountered to date. Johnson felt that the nursing education software tools market might develop rapidly, so if he was going to enter, he had better do it now.
Human resource (HR) management practices in Japan are significantly different from those in Europe and North America. A knowledge of the traditional Japanese HR system, including practices relating to recruiting and compensation, unions and the labour market, is crucial for foreign companies operating in Japan as well as those seeking to do business with Japanese firms. While Japan’s distinct HR system was once considered a source of competitive advantage, changing economies and labour markets have called its current effectiveness into question. The traditional system primarily provided stable long-term employment for full-time employees; however, for a variety of reasons, non-regular forms of employment, including part-time and short-term positions, are on the rise. HR managers in Japan must consider relevant societal and economic changes and develop more effective HR systems in response.
Human resource (HR) management practices in Japan are significantly different from those in Europe and North America. A knowledge of the traditional Japanese HR system, including practices relating to recruiting and compensation, unions and the labour market, is crucial for foreign companies operating in Japan as well as those seeking to do business with Japanese firms. While Japan's distinct HR system was once considered a source of competitive advantage, changing economies and labour markets have called its current effectiveness into question. The traditional system primarily provided stable long-term employment for full-time employees; however, for a variety of reasons, non-regular forms of employment, including part-time and short-term positions, are on the rise. HR managers in Japan must consider relevant societal and economic changes and develop more effective HR systems in response.
The disastrous events of 2011--an earthquake and a nuclear accident, a major accounting scandal at a well-known company, and an unusual current account deficit--have brought Japan back into the international news. Although China and other countries in Asia have grown faster and gained greater attention in the last decade, Japan continues to be an important business player. Japan has the world's third-largest economy and is home to many major corporations, leading-edge technology, operational knowhow, and a strong currency. While much about Japan seems familiar, many of our beliefs about the country remain frozen in the early 1990s, when Japanese management was a hot topic and Japanese businesses appeared invincible. Japan has changed much since then, however, and deserves an updated understanding. In this article, we identify six commonly held myths about Japan, present corresponding realities, and discuss recent developments and implications for managers.
In 1998, Boots PLC was in the midst of planning to enter the Japanese retail drugstore market. Boots, a household name in the United Kingdom and a fixture in traditional English shopping areas known as High Street, had an impressive lineup of Boots-branded health and beauty products. Boots developed, manufactured, marketed, and sold these products through its chain of Boots The Chemists stores. Management was convinced that the markets for health and beauty products were becoming increasingly global. Although Boots made few international sales at this time, it was in the midst of expanding overseas and had identified Japan as a particularly attractive market to enter.<br><br><br><br>International retailing efforts can prove difficult, as many failed international ventures show. Japan presented a number of unique challenges and required careful planning and attention. Boots had dispatched a manager to Japan to work on market entry and had been discussing a joint venture to develop several pilot stores together with Mitsubishi Corporation, one of Japan’s large trading companies. Mitsubishi had a great deal of clout in Japan, something Boots lacked, and was interested in the retailing venture. The case centres around the question of whether Boots should go ahead with the joint venture with Mitsubishi, and also facilitates a broader consideration of the market attractiveness and market entry in general.
In 2006, the Japanese subsidiary of Tommasi Motorcycles, an Italian manufacturer of high-end motorcycles, was implementing a new customer data application to help its motorcycle dealerships increase the effectiveness of their sales and marketing activities. Horizon LLP, a consulting firm, was Tommasi’s global implementation partner for the application. To identify any dealer concerns regarding the new system, Tommasi Japan had brought in additional consultants from Horizon to conduct interviews with the dealers. As the consultants soon discovered, the dealers’ concerns with Tomassi went far beyond the new application. An unannounced visit by an influential dealer set all the players on a collision course, and soon exposed their widely differing views and a number of fundamental problems in the relationship between Tommasi Motorcycles Japan and its dealer network.<br><br><br><br>The case begins with a series of separate dialogues involving the director of sales and marketing; the expatriate president of Tommasi Motorcycles Japan; an influential owner of multiple dealerships; and two non-Japanese consultants from Horizon. When they meet in the board room of Tommasi Motorcycles Japan, the ensuing conversation reveals a number of issues: opportunistic behaviour by the bilingual director of sales and marketing, who limits and shapes communications between the dealers and Tommasi’s Japanese National Office; a limited understanding of local market conditions by expatriate Tommasi management; frustration on the part of business-savvy dealers; and naiveté on the part of the consultants, who do not see the social hierarchies at work, nor realize that their cultural and language fluency, which has in past projects always been an asset, could also be a threat.
In 2004, Kaneo Itoh, president of the consumer electronics firm Pioneer Corporation, was considering acquiring the plasma display operations of another Japanese firm, NEC. Pioneer had decided some years ago that plasma display panel (PDP) technology was a good strategic area in which to invest. Recently, Pioneer had been selling increasing numbers of plasma television sets using PDPs. While the company was building a new PDP production facility that would soon become operational if demand continued to increase, additional capacity would become necessary. Buying NEC’s plasma operations would give Pioneer this capacity, the potential for realizing scale economies, and some valuable intellectual property NEC had developed. Itoh had to make a decision: Should Pioneer buy NEC’s plasma business?