future. While many companies are just now beginning to expand into the global marketplace, Toshiba has already established itself worldwide.Toshiba has subsidiaries and joint ventures throughout the world. They have a strong presence in Europe, Asia and the Americas. For instance, in the United States alone, Toshiba America employs thousands of people and has eight separate divisions. When you consider that this is only one of the many countries that they are present in, this demonstrates their strong ability to compete and survive in the global marketplace. When you consider the rapidly changing market in which Toshiba participates, establishing itself as a multinational player is of the utmost importance. If they had little presence in the global marketplace, their innovations would take longer to reach the consumers and the chance of someone else developing a similar product would be greater. By being established in various countries throughout the world, they are able to market their new products immediately and be the first. This is another key point. While others may follow suit and come up with substitute or look-alike products, people know that Toshiba was the original. The fact that they have a good quality reputation increases their chances of being the brand that people are willing to try with regard to a new product.Now that we know the history, mission and markets for Toshiba, what about the company structure itself? In April of 1999, Toshiba underwent a huge restructuring transforming from a traditional hierarchical/functional structure to that of a divisional structure. They actually have used a combination of various divisional structures throughout the entire company. In Japan, the divisional structure is by product with a separate structure for corporate headquarters. In their overseas markets, they are structured first by geographic area and then by product line. This has proven to be very effective fo...
