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Harvard Business Publishing
Length: 11 pages
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Abstract
Competitive advantage is a constantly moving target. Leading Japanese companies provide a window on strategic change and its progression from the 1940s to today. Since World War II, Japanese competitors have shifted their strategic focus at least four times. They began by exploiting their low labor rates to gain entry to various markets, then moved to a scale- based strategy. From there they shifted to focused factories and finally to flexible manufacturing. This latter strategy gave the Japanese both lower costs and a greater variety of products. One result was the outbreak of variety wars in the early 1980s. The variety wars signaled a shift to time-based competitive advantage. The leading Japanese companies today recognize that time is the most critical competitive yardstick of company performance. McKinsey Award Winner.
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Abstract
Competitive advantage is a constantly moving target. Leading Japanese companies provide a window on strategic change and its progression from the 1940s to today. Since World War II, Japanese competitors have shifted their strategic focus at least four times. They began by exploiting their low labor rates to gain entry to various markets, then moved to a scale- based strategy. From there they shifted to focused factories and finally to flexible manufacturing. This latter strategy gave the Japanese both lower costs and a greater variety of products. One result was the outbreak of variety wars in the early 1980s. The variety wars signaled a shift to time-based competitive advantage. The leading Japanese companies today recognize that time is the most critical competitive yardstick of company performance. McKinsey Award Winner.
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