Abstract
This paper discusses the corporate, business, functional and operating strategies for Black and Decker, Makita, Bosch and porter Cable.
Black and Decker
Corporate Strategy
The most serious corporate decision that was taken by the Black & Decker was the phased closure of the company's manufacturing operations in Kuantan in the Malaysian state of Pahang Darul Makmur which had a traumatic effect. Remarkably, during the six months it took to close the plant, B&D registered a 13 percent drop in production costs, a four-fold reduction in defective products, and a 98 percent achievement of schedule realization. What's more, absenteeism among the 1,000 mostly female employees was held to a low 2.8 percent, and the plant's accident rate was one-fifth lower than the previous year. Even voluntary staff turnover was half that of the same period in 1997.
In January 1998, the company, whose sales declined to US$4.5 billion in 1998 from US$4.9 billion the year before, announced a major corporate reorganization. Scheduled to take place over a two-year period, the retooling included restructuring the company's global operations, reducing its workforce by 10 percent, repurchasing stock and divesting non-core operations. Company management said the plan would help the manufacturer deal with its sizeable debt burden. What's more, managers noted that the restructuring would help the company meet its targeted annual earnings per share growth of 15 percent. Such an ambitious goal, however, put the Kuantan plant squarely in the firing line. With fluctuating labor costs, an Asian market that never materialized, and costly transport charges to the US, the Malaysian plant had suddenly ceased to be key to the parent company's profitability. After lengthy discussions at the company's corporate headquarters in Shelton, Connecticut, B&D managers finally decided that the Malaysian factory had to be shuttered. The overall budget for the closure.......
