How Matsushita Electric and Sony Manage Global R&D. Irena, LaRoi, Bree

Transcription

1 How Matsushita Electric and Sony Manage Global R&D Irena, LaRoi, Bree

2 Overview R&D abroad challenging management issue: how to successfully operate R&D labs dispersed around the world. New management systems and practices are introduced based on human relationships among a small number of top R&D managers, drastically changing company s organizational structures. It appears that both companies have already realized some of the anticipated benefits.

3 Approaches There are 3 basic approaches to R&D management: Top-down Bottom-up Mixed

4 Advantages & Disadvantages

5 Both Matsushita Electric (better known by its leading brand Panasonic) and Sony have long histories of doing R&D overseas and they have learned to adapt to competitive conditions effectively. As this article shows, both companies have moved from bottom-up and top-down organizational structure to a mixed approach. Matsushita and Sony have arrived at this structure though different paths.

6 Matsushita Electric s R&D Vision Technology for the benefit of mankind

7 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Products marketed in over 160 countries 328,645 employees 40% of employees outside Japan first lab in the USA major labs around the world employing 300 R&D personnel

8 1970 S - Early 1980 s TOP-DOWN APPROACH Parent lab took the initiative to establish overseas labs Parent lab took authority and responsibility for managing it Recruiting local researchers/ engineers Provided expenses for overseas labs Japanese managers sent overseas to support & manage activities Decided objectives and projects & assigned them to overseas labs Delegated total authority & responsibility for planning & control to top managers at overseas labs Gave final approval for projects & evaluated progress

9 Late 1980 s BOTTOM-UP APPROACH Organizational structure maintained Two features added: International R&D center (1988) Services for the Establishment & Management of overseas Labs R&D Management subsidiary in USA (1987) Panasonic Technologies

10 1995 Moving forward New Management Position Created Executive Officers Of Overseas Labs Overseas R&D office established to support the new executive Organizational Change Exec. Officer & office took over authority of parent labs to manage overseas labs

11 1997 Mission Statement To create new business and develop and market new products which satisfy both global business needs and local market conditions by utilizing the resources of an optimized research environment & Autonomous Responsible Management & Solidarity through Global Collaboration

12 New Goals Mixed Approach Autonomy Delegated authority to overseas labs Planning projects Managing human resources Financing & use of expenses Solidarity Prompt global collaboration among all Matsushita s labs Annual meetings in Japan & overseas Presidents/VPs/Directors exchange information & build human relationships

13 Mixed Approach

14 Matsushita s R&D Evolution

15 Sony R&D Division Thinking & Producing with a global perspective, and making efforts to export its products

16 Sony Overview Founded in establishes its first R&D Company in San Jose, California By 1996, company employs 151,000 employees worldwide, with 57% of their workers outside of Japan Have grown to have 11 R&D labs around the world

17 Late 1970 s BOTTOM-UP APPROACH Foreign subsidiaries establish their own labs. Top management positions plan & research R&D activities. Most employees were employed from local labor market The parent divisions paid little attention to controlling overseas R&D activities. Sony Top management eventually realizes that the bottom up approach was not always beneficial to the company.

18 Early 1980 s TOP-DOWN APPROACH Reinforcing divisional organization system. They establish a global Zone Management System. The same concepts were applied to their labs; they reorganized their labs into a new Cooperate research lab consisting of 6 sub-laboratories. This new lab was then given 3 missions; in which the new labs set 6 goals in order to accomplish these missions.

19 Missions & Goals Missions Set Sony s Technological foundation Contribute in Technology & Science Train talented individual researchers & engineers Goals Clear vision & policy Clear target and discrimination of strategy Strategic selection & sharp focusing of R&D themes Excellent researchers, engineers, managers Mobility of technology and human resources inside worldwide Sony Reinforcing R&D to existing labs overseas

20 Early 1990 s Mixed Approach CTO Zone Management Sony Establishes regional R&D head offices in the US & Europe US: Research Laboratories Europe: Stuttgart Technology Center Sony appoints Chief Technology Officer to each Division. CTO Japan has a responsibility for managing the company s worldwide R&D activities and formulating the global strategy.

21 CTO Zone Management CTO US & Europe are responsible for coordinating their own regional R&D activities and formulating the global strategy based on the cooperate strategy. CTO s meet twice a year to make sure that the regional strategies are consistent with the global strategies. They decide what to do in each region, how to collaborate among the regions, how to allocate expenses regionally.

22 CTO Zone Management

23 Benefits Global synergy. Reducing coordination cost and gaining flexibility. Labs, don t use autonomy; each lab is given authority and responsibility for planning & controlling it s own projects. Sony encourages it in order to implement projects suitable for local market needs.