Grand Strategy of Japanese Businesses

Abstract

After the 1st part “Grand Strategy: from Roman Empire to Cold War” and the 2nd part “Grand Strategy of Russia” illustrated the evolution of grand strategy, from traditional strategy focusing on military to other domains such as economics and foreign affairs, this last part “Grand strategy of Japanese Businesses” focuses on how grand strategy is applied in Japanese businesses. The grand strategies of businesses or corporate strategies or visions (ends) for future business including ways and means, there are 4 ends; growth, security, retrenchment, and combination. The documentary research reveals that Japanese businesses with more than 100 years of operation focus on the security strategy which the key success factors are 1) respecting tradition, 2) core skills and customer service, 3) integrated innovation 4) long-term focus, 5) building trust and customer intimacy, and 6) community relationship. When COVID-19 pandemic situations have an impact on the world economics, Japanese businesses’ strategies of adaptation are creating and adding values/uniqueness to their products/services including seeking opportunities amid crises and keeping the identity of products/services. Meanwhile, long-run Japanese businesses always emphasize their traditional core businesses which are admired by local customers or domestic consumers.