Sharp Corporation: Beyond Japan

Case: 6.1 – Sharp Corporation: Beyond Japan

Questions:

1)      Who is the decision maker in this case? How would you characterize his background? Is he unusual?

2)      Discuss Sharp’s history. What has it been good at? Less good at? How is the company perceived?

Since it began trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1956, Sharp impressed everyone in the cell phone and LCD technology industries. The name “Sharp” had become associated with leading LCD technology and started developing the technology in 1970. That was until 2009, when the company reported its first loss. Competitors like Panasonic and Pioneer found themselves in the same position.

For many years, the industry where these companies operated was highly cooperative. However, Sharp’s management understood that their competitive lead was being compromised by the amount of proprietary knowledge shared with the outside world, and so, followed a black-box approach to its manufacturing operations—a strategic move they considered good.

Sharp has been good at releasing aesthetically pleasing TV models, positive advertising and marketing and their high-quality displays. Their strategy of making their products in Japan and selling them overseas made proximity and collaboration between workers easy. The proximity allowed Sharp to protect, control and strengthen its facilities and proprietary technologies.

A major disadvantage Sharp had was how expensive their LCD TV sets were when they were first released in 1995, and how small they were for their price. At the time of the case study, Sharp is not seen in a good light.

3)      How did Sharp become a successful player in LCD? How is Sharp performing at the time of the case?

First, Sharp was one of the first companies to begin working with LCD in 1970. They kept their technological advances private. Sharp was extremely good at creating products that were attractive to the eye of the buyer, and also ingenious in the way they marketed them (advertising to...