the kitchen cabinet. French are concerned about the refrigerators capacity to keep fruit and vegetables fresh while Spanish are concerned with meats. In Japan, refrigerators tend to have several doors in order to keep different compartments at different temperatures and to isolate odors. Also, because houses are smaller in Japan, consumers desire quieter appliances. It would be extremely difficult for a home appliance company, such as Whirlpool, to compete in these countries if it does not meet these specific requirements. Furthermore, 300 local manufacturers in developed markets like Europe created very intensive competitions. This is another reason why the appliance market was not very attracted to go global. However, the appliance market can be global in terms of reducing costs and maximizing profits. The appliance sales were growing at double-digit percentage rates in developing countries. The U.S. appliance market was completely saturated in 1986. Increased pressure from other companies like GE who implemented a $1 billion restructuring project on its appliance division, and Electrolux, a company that just inherited WCI and became a huge presence within the U.S., gave the Whirlpool top management concern on how to stay competitive . Whirlpool had to look outside of the box (Weiss, David & Gross, 1995). What Whirlpool did first to transform a largely domestic operation into a global powerhouse was purchasing the European appliance business of Dutch consumer goods giant Philips Electronics. The Whirlpool strategy called for reversing the decline in European market share and improving profitability. In order to achieve this Whirlpool had to change product designs and manufacturing processes and also by switching to centralized purchasing. The successful transformation cut its list of 1,600 suppliers by 50% and it converted the national operations to regional companies (Vlasic, Bill & Zachary, 1996). Whitwam believed ...
