Essay - Competing for the Future: Komatsu and Home Depot Komatsu is...

Competing for the Future: Komatsu and Home Depot

Komatsu is now one of the leading earth moving equipment manufacturers in ***** world, however, it wasn't always so. Komatsu began in 1921, as a specialized manufacturer of mining *****. Yet, even in those early years, be*****e information technology began to eliminate geographical ***** cultural borders, Mr. Takeuchi, Komatsu's founder, had a globalized and customer-centric vision. He knew ***** was important for his management team to have "an 'overseas orientation' ***** a 'user *****" (Hamal & Prahalad 3) if they were ***** compete against much larger corporations.

Komatsu has managed to grow from these very modest beginnings to a multi-billion dollar industry-leading competitor, in only two generations.

It this success has been fraught with challenges. From *****tensified local competition when American companies were allowed to partner with Japanese ***** for joint ventures in Japan, to technological weaknesses in their product l*****e, to recessive economies and a mature ***** marketplace, Komatsu has weathered many storms. However, perhaps this is the source of ********** *****.

Despite what challenges Komatsu is presented with, they have ***** able to overcome them, taking threats and turning them into opportunities. In the late 1950s, a young Komatsu organization was profiting from the reconstruction of postwar *****. They thrived in a tariff-sheltered market, despite ***** poor quality ***** their machinery and customer unhappiness. It would be in 1963, when the Japanese M**********try of International Trade and Investment made the decision to open up ***** ***** moving equipment industry to *****eign capital investment that Komatsu realized they could no longer due business as they had for the previous 40 years (Hamal ***** Prahalad 4).

With the threat of a Mitsubishi-Cat joint venture entering in***** Komatsu's homeland territory, Komatsu's president, Yashinari Kawai, ***** he had to make changes and ***** *****m quickly. A two-year delay ***** for Komatsu to change their operations from status quo to operation critical. Komatsu ***** to acquire the technology necessary to compete with international companies, in addition to improving ***** *****. Quality ***** competitiveness ***** be the driving *****ce in the company from ***** po*****t forward.

It is this type of response ***** adversity that has made ***** successful. Even during economic recessions, Komatsu ***** been ***** to utilize this threat to their advantage. During the early 1980s, a time when many companies were experiencing cash flow shortages, Komatsu used this ***** their advantage and bought back the half percent interest International Harvester ***** in its business, eliminating ***** of ***** final restrictions that was holding them back from competing fully in the American ***** (Hamal & Prahalad 8)

Turning negatives into positives, concentrating on product quality and *****ion efficiency, and industry foresight ***** all allowed Komatsu to challenge Caterpillar for ***** leadership when so ***** other companies have failed, some of which ***** much ***** than Komatsu. ***** earned their industry leadership position. They have consistently provided a high quality product backed with levels of cus*****mer service that were unmatched in the *****. This powerful