Canon Case Study

Canon: Competing on the capabilities

Case4

Learning Purpose and Objectives

Overall, studying the case of Canon can: Revisit the key concepts you have learnt earlier; Integrate those ideas into a comprehensive framework that would show how they relate to and complement one another instead of being contradictory and mutually inconsistent. Help clarify how these concepts can be translated into effective strategic action.

Evolving and Broadening of Concept of Strategy

Michael Porter’s Competitive Strategy represented a major breakthrough and this IO-based framework provided the main lens through which the issues and challenges of strategy were viewed. In the late 1980’s, Grey Hamel and C.K.Prahalad proposed the approach to resource-based view of strategy, with the concept of core competency and strategic intent. On the second half of the 1990’s, another set of ideas come to the fore – essentially focusing on innovation as the the core of strategy. The advocates of those ideas include Rich D’aveni (hyper-competition), Kathy Eisenhardt (competing on the edge), Chan Kim (value innovation), Costas Markides (strategic innovation), etc

Assignment questions

(1)What was Canon’s strategy in the photocopier business ? (2) How did Canon build and leverage competencies? (3) Where did the competitive strategy (Canon’s differentiation strategy) come from? Describe the competency-building process? (4) How to make this competency-building process effective?

Question I: What was Canon’s strategy in the photocopier business? (see Figure 1)

Figure 1 Xerox’s existing Business 1. Customer definition Medium/large companies 2. Use pattern Centralized copying 3. Product characteristics high volume 4. distribution own sales force 5. Service own service network 6. Sale terms lease 7. Technology leading edge Canon’s strategic Logic Small companies individuals decentralized copying utility dealers dealers sale low cost

Question II: How Canon building and leveraging...