The world is growing smaller every day. With the technological innovations of the
recent past, global and multi-domestic businesses have become increasingly
easier to conduct. These business
strategies depend on corporate headquarters to manage operations and provide
new processes, products, and ideas.
Transnational organizations, however, are at the forefront of these
businesses, conducting their operations across countries, reaching all ends of
the globe, all while depending less on centralized IS operations and
independent IS units for subsidiaries. These
organizations rely on “integrated and cooperative worldwide hardware, software,
and Internet-based architecture for [their] IT platform” (O’Brien, 2011). With this innovation of transnational
business, comes unique challenges, and transnational organizations must develop
successful IT strategies to overcome them.
There are several IT strategies that transnational organizations employ
to ensure success in the marketplace, and this analysis will look at some of those
strategies and the ways Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) has implemented them as a transnational
organization.
Toyata is a transnational organization that operates 51
production bases in 26 different countries and regions around the world
(Toyota). Although it is headquartered
in Japan, the company stresses the importance of minimizing support that comes
from the corporate headquarters in order for each of the overseas locations to
become self-reliant (Toyota).
Image from
Toyota-Global.com
This has lead Toyota to implement many strategies to assist
in its overall IT strategy. One strategy
in place at Toyota is accessing world markets and providing mass customization
in them (O’Brien, 2011). Transnational
companies have the ability to connect with people all over the world, and in
doing so need to be able to communicate with them. Communication strategies and technological
infrastructures provide companies with the ability to communicate with people
in local markets in their native languages, while understanding local cultures
and customs (Gelsomino, 2011). This
global research and development also gives the company the ability to customize
its products and services to local markets, therefore expanding its customer
base (Raisinghani). Toyota has nine
R&D bases around the world, and spends a lot of time and resources
researching and developing not only the technical aspects of its products, but
also the laws and regulations in countries where its products will be sold in
order to customize them for those markets.
It also develops ways to customize a customer’s experience, such as offering
a geographic search for a local market, which then caters to the language of
that region (Toyota).
Another IT strategy of transnational organizations is global
customer service (O’Brien, 2011). Beginning
in 2003, Toyota built Global Production Centers (GPC) in an effort to establish
“best practices” from all of its affiliates and ensure consistent personnel
training. These centers train personnel
using visual manuals, including video and animation, which reduce the length of
training time and ensure that all personnel have the same level of training and
can be equally valuable in assisting customers.
These centers contribute to a well-integrated IT infrastructure that connects
divisions of the company from all over the world. The relationships of these divisions help
improve customer service by increasing the resources available to the consumer
base. (Toyota)
From Toyota-global.com –“Flags in the
GPC of all the countries from which trainees come”
Global supply chain and logistics is another IT strategy
employed by transnational organizations (O’Brien, 2011). The use of the Internet, Extranet, and other
networks, makes building relationships with suppliers easier and more
efficient. It also helps to simplify the
logistics of moving supplies to designated locations. It is not uncommon for transnational
organizations to enter into strategic alliances with suppliers and other
business partners to save time and resources and build specialized competencies
that give the organization an advantage (Raisinghani). Because not all decision making is centralized
in transnational organizations, local branches of the company have the ability
to form strategic alliances that benefit the entire company. Toyota stresses the consistency of its
products, but it also aims to make its various locations self-reliant
(Toyota). Because of this freedom, those
locations have the opportunity to establish beneficial relationships with
suppliers.
References:
Biggest transnational companies. (2010, July 29). The
Economist. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from http://www.economist.com/node/16702193
Gelsomino, J. (2011, January 3). Transnational Companies: Keys
to a Successful Globalization Strategy. Yahoo Contributor Network.
Retrieved July 15, 2014, from http://voices.yahoo.com/transnational-companies-keys-successful-globalization-7454306.html?cat=15
Globalizing and Localizing
Manufacturing. (n.d.). Toyota Global Site. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from
http://www.toyota-global.com/company/vision_philosophy/globalizing_and_localizing_manufacturing/
O'Brien, J., & Marakas, G.
(2011). Enterprise and Global Managment of Information Technology. Management
Information Systems 10e (603). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Raisinghani, M. (n.d.).
Transnational Organization. Transnational Organization. Retrieved July
15, 2014, from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Tr-Z/Transnational-Organization.html
Role of the Global Production Center
(GPC). (n.d.). Toyota Global Site. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from http://www.toyota-global.com/company/vision_philosophy/globalizing_and_localizing_manufacturing/role_of_the_global_production_center.html
Select Your Region. (n.d.). TOYOTA
MOTOR CORPORATION GLOBAL WEBSITE. Retrieved July 15, 2014, from http://www.toyota-global.com/select_region/
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