SYNOPSIS

JAPANS GLOBAL REACH

The influences, strategies and weaknesses of Japans multinational companies Written by- Bell Emmott

Submitted byAbhishek Pandey Roll no- M2-03 PGDM (Marketing)

About the bookJapan's Global Reach analyzes the future of key Japanese multinationals amid a changing Japan and a rapidly changing world economy. Japans economy is peaking: but the Japanese corporation is not, nor is the spread of the countrys influence. As Japan has become less competitive as a manufacturing and export site, so Japanese firms have suddenly begun to transform themselves into truly global organizations. Conventional wisdom assert that they are ill suited to worldwide wisdom expansion, because of their centralized decision making, distrust of foreign management and lack of experience with any but a Japanese work force. Japans global reach demonstrate with a wealth of vivid detail how just they are flouting such wisdom and while keeping their traditional organizational spirit are implementing new organizational form and getting close to customer needs with tremendous effect.

About the author

Bill Emmott is the business affairs editor of The Economist. He has worked for the newspaper since 1980, including spells as its Brussels Correspondent and Financial Editor. His first book on Japan The Sun Also Sets was a world best seller and sold 300000 copies in three month in Japan. Bill Emmott writes a regular column in Japanese and English in the Yomiuri newspaper, Japans biggest selling daily

Contents:
1- Over here 2- The trouble with multinationals 3- Car maker with cruise control 4- Japans overseas adventure 5- West meet East 6- Lured by Hollywood 7- Questions of control 8- In the city, on the street 9- Domestic sunset versus global reach 10-After Japans sunset 11-Glimpses of unfamiliar world

1-Over here:
1.

Japans global reach: A decade ago, few Japanese companies had

much presence overseas, beyond the networks of dealers or distributors that handled their exports. Yet between January 1980 and January 1990, Japanese firms made overseas direct investment totaling $280 billion. Here are six different reasons why Japanese firms have rushed to invest offshore in America, Europe and Asia Managerial advantage Business obstacles Seductive dealing opportunities Mature market, or intensifying competition Local technology The pursuit of Japanese customers overseas

2. In the golden state and silicon glen 3. Mixed reviews from the natives 4. over paid, over here and under loved

2-The trouble with multinationals: Reason behind that the cast

list of multinationals seems to change so much and so rapidly. While in the

early 1970s it would have seemed reasonable to track the development of American firms and then extrapolate into the future, American firms no longer at the top of the global list, their place has been taken by French firms, British firms, German firm and Japanese also. The basic issue with all multinationals concerns national autonomy.

3- Car makers with cruise control:

The world local car Bottoms up

4- Japans overseas adventures-

They poured heading off for a new life overseas- engineers, administrator, general manager, shop floor, supervisors, maintenance specialist, and many, many more. For years they had worked dutifully for their companies in Japan sometimes posted away from their homes to other Japanese cities, but now the economic times were changing Japanese companies were thinking anew about how to deploy their strengths and to expand market share and this new thinking produced a new strategy: foreign direct investment. The life of the expatriate The productivity struggle On the factory floor A clash of culture

5- Lured by Hollywood-

Japans big electronics companies are among that countrys most experienced overseas investors. Sony the best known for all the electronics firm abroad, has had factories in Taiwan since 1967. Japans two companies conducting an ambitious and costly experiment, they takeover the Hollywood studios. Mugged in la la land Back at the factory Men of principle Seduction by synergy

6-Questions of control:

 The trail of adolescence In the lab

7- In the city, on the street:

Globalization has come most rapidly and profoundly finance. Money is like water: it will always find its own level, flowing to the places and at the speeds that are dedicated by gravity and by surrounding obstacles. So the combination in the 1980sof tumbling barriers to the international movement of capital and rapid improvements in communication and computer technology turned finance into a worldwide business. Global, and yet still Japanese Loan rangers

9- Domestic sunset versus global reach: Japan has established

global reach , with investment and business empires stretching all around the world. Yet this new Japan, this brave, far more international entity, is undergoing changes that are having, and all have a big impact on Japanese multinationals. Such as juxtaposition of worldwide strength with domestic economic turmoil is apt to play a large part on determining the future of Japans global reach. And in the short term at least, that future is poor. From hubris to nemesis Three delayed punctures for the bubble The short term : A credit crunch recession From global reach to investment overstretch

10- After Japans sunset: A saying holds that the darkest hour
comes just before the down. The sunset of 1990-93, first in finance but than in the real economy, has made life appear dark, that darkness is likely to prove misleading. The long term prospects for Japan are bright and worm. Down with savings A womens revolution The future of Japans global reach

11- Glimpses of an unfamiliar world- Accounts or the past

have a tendency to ignore problems and difficulties and only to pick out positive sign particularly things that appear to have been better than they are today. With hindsight thinks generally look better than they really were. But with fore sight things after look worse than they actually be . Nothing to lose but their past The world before 1914 A capital shortage Golden glimpses

Conclusion- The past, present and future of Japans multinationals are

inextricably linked to two things: the fate of Japans own economy and the fate of the world economy. No multinational is truly stateless, and especially if it is a Japanese one and no companys strategy can be determined independently from world wide economic trends. for the reason the final three chapters are devoted to those subjects, to show how financial turmoil in Japan is likely to affect the domestic economy and Japans international companies and how changes in the world economy may affect the pattern of multinational investment in future, regardless of its national origins.