Hitachi Goes Worldwide

Hitachi products are well known in the United States, as well as in Europe and Asia. However, in
an effort to maintain its international momentum, the Japanese MNC is continuing to push
forward into new markets, especially emerging markets, while also developing new products.
Visit the MNC at its website www.hitachi.com and examine some of the latest developments that
are taking place. Begin by reviewing the firm’s current activities in Asia, specifically Hong Kong
and Singapore. Then look at how it is doing business in North America. Finally, read about its
European operations. Then answer these three questions:

(1) What kinds of products and systems does the firm offer? What are its primary areas of
emphasis?

(2) In what types of environments does it operate? Is Hitachi primarily interested in

developed markets, or is it also pushing into newly emerging markets?

(3) Based on what it has been doing over the last two to three years, what do you think
Hitachi’s future strategy will be in competing in the environment of international
business?
ANSWER
1. Hitachi, the Japanese multinational company highlights an array of diversified
products and services. The organization has eleven business areas that are financial
services, digital media, and consumer products, components and devices, information and
telecommunication, power systems, defense systems, social and industrial infrastructure
systems, automotive systems, electronic systems and equipment, construction machinery,
and high functional materials and components. No available data highlight the
emphasized business segments, but by judging through its 2014 financial reports, the
biggest earners were Information and Telecommunications systems, Defense Systems
and Power Systems (Hitachi 2015).

2. Hitachi in its global network operates in all types of environments ranging from
marine, desert to mountainous. The geographic positioning of its branches and subsidiary
firms highlights these terrains. Moreover, the nature of the company’s diversified list of
products and services suggest that the firm in its operations adapts to all forms of
environments. Hitachi according to its 2014 financial reports highlights acquisitions and
partnerships with various global firms such as Microsoft Dynamics (Hitachi 2015). This
approach teaches on the firm’s expansion to emerging markets. In addition, the firm’s
web homepage informs that the company is driven by research, development and
innovation (Smidt & Wever, 2010). These are key modern business approaches to
emerging markets.

3. The company needs to ascertain long-term operability in the new market thus requires
a global strategy that addresses its social innovation. The approach ascertains that the
firm balances its business performance with long-term growth objectives. With over nine
hundred units, the company needs to see how each unit adds to the well being of its
immediate social environment to establish consumer loyalty and retention (BSR Global,
2010). Social innovation would improve the commercial performance while addressing
global sustainability challenges. Information, Telecommunications, Power, and Social
Infrastructure are the best business units to meet this strategy.
 REFERENCE
BSR Global. (2010). Hitachi: A Global Strategy for Social Innovation. BSR. Retrieved
From http://www.bsr.org/en/our-insights/case-study-view/hitachi-a-global-strategy-for-
social-innovation

Hitachi. (2013). Hitachi’s Global Business and Research and Development Strategies.
Hitachi: Inspire the Next. Retrieved From
www.hitachi.com/rev/pdf/2012/r2012_05_101.pdf

Hitachi. (2015). News Releases: Corporate. Hitachi: Inspire the Next. Retrieved From
http://www.hitachi.com/New/cnews/corp/index.html

Smidt, M. & Wever, E. (2010). The Corporate Firm in a Changing World Economy: Case
Studies in the Geography of Enterprise. London: Routledge.