THE DEVELOPMENT OF
YASUKAWA ELECTRIC CO. AND ITS ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITIES
Shin Hasegawa
This paper analyzes the entrepreneurial activities
relating to market and product developments and the plant and equipment
investments, and their contribution to the development of Yasukawa Electric Co.
Yasukawa Electric Co. was established in 1915 as a part of the Yasukawa
family’s business diversification, initially producing generators, motors, and
transformers. The company did not fare well in the 1920s, due to the slow
product development and the formation of sales organizations.
From the late 1920s, the product
development focusing on motors became active. During the Great Depression, the
production became organized around electric motors and the sales network
expanded. Thus the company grew
rapidly in the 1930s.
The establishment of the mass production system stemmed
from the active plant and equipment investments beginning in 1933. These
developments were made possible by the increasing influence of salaried
managers. The advent of salaried managers and their supporting staff
necessitated an adjustment of interests in the Yasukawa family’s businesses,
and changed the process of decision making in the Yasukawa family as well.
THE MANAGEMENT OF
ENGLISH COTTON SPINNING COMPANIES IN THE PRE-WORLD WAR I PERIOD ‘THE FORMATION
OF THE ROYTON COMPANIES’ GROUP
Shin’ichi Yonekawa
The Royton group was widely
known as one of the best-performing company groups among the
(2) G. E. Gartside, a “student”
of the M. B. Tattersall school, spun off from the Tattersall group by establishing the Holly Mills in 1890.
He was, however, closely aligned with Tattersali’s
group, so that it is reasonable to regard the companies as part of a single
group.
(3) The group’s strategies were not notably different
from those of most well-performing cotton spinning companies, but among the
(4) How was it possible to keep up the good performance
among the group? One of the answers is found in the internal labour market of the group. Mill officials were usually
recruited and moved within the group, so management strategies could be settled
in each company.
STANDARD OIL COMPANY
(NEW
Takashi Itoh
Standard Oil Company (
The main characteristics were as followsｷ
(1) The Company maintained and shored UP the fundamental
structure of operations which had been established during the 1920s and 1930s: the
crude oil production department played a most important part in dominating
other companies; the cartel continued to be effective in crude oil production,
especially in the U.S.A.; the range of operations was worldwide in wartime as
well as before the war.
(2) The Company manufactured strategic munitions, that
is, aviation gasoline (100-octane), butadiene and synthetic toluene. I think
this was an important beginning for petroleum chemical operations by the
Company. But it was small in scale in contrast to other operations. I estimate
that it didn’t provide profits of any importance.
(3) The Company made use of government finances, which
were essential. But it used them chiefly for operations which had little
validity in crude oil production, were peacetime. The main operations, for
instance, carried out using the company’s own capital.
GREENE VS.
HYDE
--Two types of Life
Insurance Management in the Nineteenth Century America--
Yuichirou Tamura
This article deals with some important problems in the
life insurance business in the late Nineteenth Century America, as follows;
1. Fundamental structure of life insurance business.
2. Expansive character of the American life insurance
business, typified by Henry B. Hyde, the Equitable Life. His aim was, first of
all, to satisfy his own entrepreneurial wants, higher ranked than life
insurance purpose.
3. Tontine Policy, introduced by Hyde, was not only an
ideal solution of the problem with which he was confronted, but also gave him a
weapon to push his Equitable to the top of the industry.
4. Management of Jacob Greene, the Connecticut Mutual,
was in a marked contrast to that of Hyde. Being an early advocate of “Humane
Life Value Theory,” and stubborn opponent of the Tontine, he had a distinct
idea of life insurance business. His management, true to his principle, was
inferior to Hyde, in quality: that is, growth of business, but much more superior
in quality, both cost and returns to policyowners.
A REAPPRAISAL OF THE
Chikage Hidaka
The analysis is focused on the financial problem.
Probably, one of the most important characters of the limiteds
was in their financial system. The system, as a matter of fact, opened a new
source of finance and made possible the emergence of a huge additional spinning
capacity, but at the same time it influenced the corporate strategy of the limiteds in such a way as to make them less competitive.
The question of why did the decline of the British
industry occur is the author’s major concern. And this paper is a first step
toward clarifying the nature of a mature economy and the factors that affected
the British industry’s adaptability to changes in the economic environment.
THE BRITISH COLONIAL
BANKS AND THE
Masashi Kitabayashi
Hokkaigakuen
Kitami Women’s Junior College
The price of silver began to fall after 1873. The silver
question was one of the most difficult problems facing British colonial banks
in the 19th century. British colonial banks, whose operations involved
financial transfers between
The violent fluctuations in. exchange rates were
undermining their business with all silver using countries by introducing into
it a strong element of speculation and uncertainty. Under these circumstances,
the nature of China’s foreign trade, especially the import trade, was
undergoing a complete change from the late 1880s to the early 1890s, The very
unsettled state of exchange rates had been compelling foreign importers to
alter their mode of’ doing business, the so-called “Indent trade”. Under this
“Indent trade”, a good deal of the import business passed into the hands of
Chinese merchants, while foreign importers were becoming merely commission
agents. After the Indian mints stopped producing silver coinage in June 1893,
the bulk of the “Indent trade” changed from a silver basis to a sterling basis.
At this stage, it became possible for manufacturers in
As a result, sterling bills came to be widely used in the
East and most of the “Indent trade” was conducted on a sterling basis. Through
this mode of business, British colonial banks were able to carry on exchange
operations on a stable basis, and to make remunerative profits.
THE INTRODUCTION OF
TIME STUDY METHOD INTO MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC CO. AT
Satoshi Sasaki
There were many Japanese electric manufacturers who had
introduced “modern” or “scientific” management as well as engineering technique
from abroad. However, business historians did not bring forth detailed studies
on this topic so far.
In this case study, the author clarified the
significances of Time Study Method at
Some results from this investigation are shown as
follows.
1) As for business circumstances in this period, three
fundamental elements were pointed out: the expanding markets, the radical labour movement and the decreasing labour
mobility. These changing business conditions urged managers and engineers to
reorganize the structure of management at the workshop and to pay attention to
the availability of the scientific management method.
2) Time Study Method was, first of all, introduced into
electric fan shop of Kobe Works by Takeo Kato who had
learned the scientific management method at Westinghouse Electric Company after
the technical tie-up of the two companies in 1923. At the electric fan shop, the
Time Study Method was successfully applied to the fabricating process, and then
the wage rate based on this Time Study, guaranteed the workers the average wage
in the industry concerned.
3) The Time Study Method from Westinghouse was eventually
diffused into the governmental factories such as Kokura Works of the Ministry
of Railway and Kure Navy Shipyard. Nobuo Noda and Takeo Kato, pioneering in the introduction of the Time
Study Method to Mitsubishi, took a leading role in the scientific management
movement in the Showa Era.