Finding Complementary Competencies — Managing Business in Europe through Alliances and Partnership

Abstract

From its humble beginnings in a small workshop in Tokyo’s Roppongi district, Canon Inc. had become, by 1986, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of cameras, business machines and precision optical equipment. In the following year, Canon would celebrate its 50th anniversary, and President Ryuzaburo Kaku planned to use the occasion both to review the company’s past achievements and to plan carefully for the future. Mr Kaku’s aim was to make Canon into a premier global corporation:

Well before the yen entered the steepest arc of its upward curve, Canon had seen the necessity of moving manufacturing into its markets, of putting production close to the place of consumption. The new phase of ‘internationalization’ was initially prompted by the trade imbalance (and trade friction) between Japan and the chief countries where Canon sells … Canon has advanced quite briskly towards becoming truly global — and the intention is to take the global process further by establishing R&D centres in its markets as its national companies develop into free-standing businesses within the global corporation.

The imperatives of global rationalization — especially in copier operations — require Canon ownership and finely-tuned management of R&D, production and marketing. As with all strategic alliances, the fine line between compelling necessity and expediency is not always readily apparent.