1. How did Philips become the most successful company in its business during an era when scores of electrical engineering companies were being formed (GE, RCA, EMI, Thomson, Grundig, Matsushita, Hitachi, and Toshiba, to name just a few)? What did it do better than these others?
2. How was Matsushita able to overtake Philips in over 25 years? What distinctive strategic competencies gave them competitive advantage? What organizational capabilities embedded them?
3. Why are both companies having such difficulties building the capability they so clearly recognize as missing?
4. What advice would you have for Mr. Kleisterlee? What do you think of his out sourcing plans? What advice for Mr. Nakamura? Is his restructuring program too little or too much?