Phillips
MELISSA H
Case Synopsis: PHILIPS VERSUS MATSUSHITA
10/02/12
a. Address the case analysis questions provided for each case. 1. How did Philips become the leading consumer electronics company in the world in the postwar era? What distinctive competencies did they build? What distinctive incompetencies?
After the war, the management board decided to build the postwar organization on the strengths of national organizations (NOs) resulting on increased self-sufficiency during the war. As NOs built their own technical capabilities, product development often became a function of local market condition which was more responsive and adaptive marketing. In addition, Philips also became leader in industrial research. Year | Distinctive competencies | Distinctive incompetencies | 1960s | Gaining control over operation by closing the least efficient local plants and converting the best into International Production Centers (IPCs), which each supplying many NOs. | 1. Philips had many innovative technologies, but the products to market began to falter 2. Problem with reorganizing the company to deal with its growing problem. | 1970s | Replacing the dual commercial and technical leadership with single management at both the corporate and national organizational levels. | 1. NO ignores main company welfare and focuses on local profit which lead to abandon of its V2000 videocassette format. | 1980s | 1. Focusing on core operations by selling peripheral business 2. Classified its business as core (components, consumer electronics, telecommunications and data system, and lighting) and non-core (domestic appliances and medical systems) which allow its management to trim the management board. 3. Dispatching many experienced product-line managers to Philips’ most competitive market 4. Paid attention on research and development 5. Build efficient, specialized, multi-market production by closing 75 of the company’s 420 remaining plants
Case Synopsis: PHILIPS VERSUS MATSUSHITA
10/02/12
a. Address the case analysis questions provided for each case. 1. How did Philips become the leading consumer electronics company in the world in the postwar era? What distinctive competencies did they build? What distinctive incompetencies?
After the war, the management board decided to build the postwar organization on the strengths of national organizations (NOs) resulting on increased self-sufficiency during the war. As NOs built their own technical capabilities, product development often became a function of local market condition which was more responsive and adaptive marketing. In addition, Philips also became leader in industrial research. Year | Distinctive competencies | Distinctive incompetencies | 1960s | Gaining control over operation by closing the least efficient local plants and converting the best into International Production Centers (IPCs), which each supplying many NOs. | 1. Philips had many innovative technologies, but the products to market began to falter 2. Problem with reorganizing the company to deal with its growing problem. | 1970s | Replacing the dual commercial and technical leadership with single management at both the corporate and national organizational levels. | 1. NO ignores main company welfare and focuses on local profit which lead to abandon of its V2000 videocassette format. | 1980s | 1. Focusing on core operations by selling peripheral business 2. Classified its business as core (components, consumer electronics, telecommunications and data system, and lighting) and non-core (domestic appliances and medical systems) which allow its management to trim the management board. 3. Dispatching many experienced product-line managers to Philips’ most competitive market 4. Paid attention on research and development 5. Build efficient, specialized, multi-market production by closing 75 of the company’s 420 remaining plants