Globalization of Ajinomoto Company's Management after the 2^nd World War

The Characteristics of the New Model of Globalization Management

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to confirm that the success of Ajinomoto Company's globalization management after the second world war was due to the development of a unique and new business model. In order to accomplish this purpose, two main subsidiaries of Ajinomoto Company in Thailand and Brazil were examined thoroughly in terms of the developmental process, as well as several other subsidiaries located in Asia, North and South America, and in Europe.
This examination revealed that common strategy of management consisted of two steps. (1) At first, these overseas subsidiaries established the management foundation through the monosodium glutamate (MSG) enterprise, which has the internationally, highly competitiveness, but has a limit of revenue as a niche product. (2) After that, they introduced or developed the various kinds of enterprises to expand the global market. Some of these businesses are globally competitive and they were used to expand the global market. The others are locally competitive and they were applied to develop local markets.
This type of Ajinomoto Company's globalization management, which concurrently operates multidomestic (M) type businesses pararell to global (G) type businesses in the same overseas subsidiary, is confirmed as a unique one, in comparison with those of traditional and other recently proposed new globalization management models. The strategy to expand the business by adding M type enterprises to a fundamental G type MSG enterprise is just like the structure of planet. This globalization management is supposed to be classified as II(planet) type model amomg eight new globalization management models proposed by Hiramatsu.
The following factors appear to have contributed to the success of Ajinomo Compamy's globalization management using the new model. 1) In the earliest stage, Ajinomoto Company in Japan introduced and masterd American Corn Product Company's marketing development technique. 2) Ajinomoto Company was successful in diversifying from the simple MSG business structure, and top management has maintained a strong vision to expand the global market through this business diversification. 3) In order to implement this vision, well trained managers have been dispached from Japan to each overseas subsidiary. 4) The company has kept a skillful organizational system and the systematic ability to use matrix management.