1. Is it easy or difficult to impose a new culture upon the company? Why?

2. Which way of decision-making ( the Western or the Japanese ) is more attractive to you? Why?

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Unit 1.

SUBJECT for STUDY: Industry and market.

Working on the text.

Ex.1. Read the text. Use a dictionary if necessary.

Industry and Market Structures. Part 2.

A few years later in Detroit, the young Henry Ford also saw that the market structure was changing and that automobiles in America were no longer a rich man's toy. His response was to design a car that could be totally mass-produced, largely by semi-skilled labor, and that could be driven by the owner and repaired by him. Contrary to legend, the 1908 Model T was not "cheap": it was priced at a little over what the world's highest-priced skilled mechanic, the American one, earned in a full year. (These days, the cheapest new car on the American market costs about one-tenth of what an unskilled assembly-line worker gets in wages and benefits in a year.) But the Model T cost one-fifth of the cheapest model then on the market and was in­finitely easier to drive and to maintain.

The story is not much different for British Leyland, once Britain's largest automobile company and a strong contender for leadership in Europe; nor for the big French automobile company, Peugeot. Both refused to face up to the fact that a decision was needed. As a result, they rapidly lost both market position and profitability. Today all three - Chrysler, British Leyland, and Peugeot - have become more or less marginal.*

But the most interesting and important examples are those of much smaller companies. Every one of the world's automobile manufacturers, large or small, has had to act or face permanent eclipse. However, three small and quite marginal companies saw in this a major oppor­tunity to innovate: Volvo, BMW, and Porsche.

Around 1960, when the automobile industry market suddenly changed, the informed betting was heavily on the disappearance of these three companies during the coming "shakeout*". Instead, all three have done well and have created for themselves market niches in which they are the leaders. They have done so through an innovative strategy which, in effect, has reshaped them into different businesses. Volvo in 1965 was small, struggling and barely breaking even. For a few critical years, it did lose large amounts of money. But Volvo went to work reinventing itself, so to speak. It became an aggressive world­wide marketer - especially strong in the United States - of what one might call the "sensible" car; not very luxurious, far from low-priced, not at all fashionable, but sturdy and radiating common sense and "better value"*. Volvo has marketed itself as the car for professionals who do not need to demonstrate how successful they are through the car they drive, but who value being known for their "good judgment."

BMW, equally marginal in 1960 if not more so, has been equally successful, especially in countries like Italy and France. It has marketed itself as the car for "young comers", for people who want to be taken as young but who already have attained substantial success in their work and profession, people who want to demonstrate that they "know the difference" and are willing to pay for it. BMW is unashamedly a luxury car for the well-to-do, but it appeals to those among the affluent who want to appear "nonestablishment*". Whereas Mercedes and Cadillac are the cars for company presidents and for heads of state, BMW is muy macho*, and bills itself as the "ultimate driving machine*".

* marginal - второстепенный

* "shakeout" - резкое изменение биржевой коньюктуры и вызванная паникой распродажа акций

* sturdy and radiating common sense and "better value" - прочный, свидетельствующий о здравом смысле владельца и стоящий потраченных денег

* to appear “nonestablishment’’- казаться неконформистом

* muy macho (исп.) - мощная машина

* bills itself as the "ultimate driving machine" - заявила о себе как о совершенном движущемся механизме

Ex.2. Напишите по-русски, что вы узнали из текста о:

1. реакции Генри Форда на изменения в структуре рынка;

2. реакции различных европейских компаний на подобные изменения.

Unit 2.