Менеджеры и менеджмент (Executives and Management) - 44 стр.

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30 vehicles were designed, engineered andbuilt in Japan for sale around the world.Significantly, however,
Honda tended to be more flexible than
35 Ford in developing new products. Rather than having a structure based on independent functional depart-
ments, such as bodywork or engines, all Japan's car makers
40 preferred multi-disciplinary teams. That allowed development work to take place simultaneously, rather
than being passed between departments. It also allowed much
45 greater responsiveness to change. In the 1990s both companies started to amend their organisational struc-
tures to exploit the perceived strengths of the other. At
50 Ford. Alex Trotman, the newly appointed chairman, tore up the company's rulebook in 1993 to create a new
organisation. The Ford 2000 restructuring pro-
55 gramme threw out the old functional departments and replaced them with multi-disciplinary product
teams. The teams were based on five (now three) vehicle centres, responsible for different types of vehicles. Small
and medium-sized cars, for example, are handled by a European team split between the
65 UK and Germany. The development teams comprise staff from many backgrounds. Each takes charge of
one area of the process, whether technical, financial or
70 marketing-based. Honda, by contrast, has decentralised in recent years. While its cars have much the same
names around the world, they are becom
75 ing less, rather than more, standardised. 'Glocalisation1 – a global strategy with local management -is the
watchword. Eventually the group expects its structure will
80 comprise four regions – Japan, the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific – which will become increasingly self-
sufficient. Two reasons explain Honda's
85 new approach. Shifting to production overseas in the past decade has made the company more attuned
to regional tastes. About lm of Honda's 2.1m worldwide car
90 sales last year were produced in the US. A further 104,000 were made in the UK. No other manufacturer
has such a high proportion of foreign output.
95 Honda engineers also reckon they can now devise basic engineering structures which are common enough
to allow significant economies of scale, but sufficient-
100 ly flexible to be altered to suit regional variations. The US Accord, for example, is longer and wider than
the Japanese version. The European one may have the
105 same dimensions as the Japanese model, but has different styling and suspension settings. Both Ford and
Honda argue their new structures represent a
110 correct response to the demands of the global market. Much of what they have done is similar, but in-
triguingly, a lot remains different
FINANCIAL TIMES
World business newspaper.
T a s k 15.
A. Understanding main points
1. Read the text about two car companies' global strategies and say which of these statements apply to
Ford and which to Honda.
a) Now has a strategy of decentralisation. Honda.
b) Now works in multi-disciplinary teams for car design and development.
c) Has always worked in multi-disciplinary teams.
d) Produces more cars abroad than in its home country.
e) Used to be very decentralised.
f) Used to be very centralised.
g) Has divided the world into four regions.

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