Merits and Demerits of NEC - Assignment Example

Consequently, they were forming strategic alliances with other firms, laboratories and universities that held a competitive edge technologically (Mark 1987).In the year 1987, the plan to establish a new R&D site was submitted to NEC’s top management and approved. In June 1988 NEC registered a new company in the US, the main objectives included: To contribute to the progress of knowledge and information in the 21st century to contribute to the NEC’s C&C business contribute to society as a whole in the art and sciences establish NEC’s scientific presence and raise its corporate image globally to develop new technological knowledge and transfer it to other NEC laboratories attract talented scientist who was essential to NEC.

There were several proposed sites for NEC including Boston, Palo Alto and Princeton. Shinoda and Kahng believed it was necessary to establish the laboratory at a relatively quiet place and thus it was conducive to establishing the site in Princeton. The closeness of Princeton to Europe was significant for constant communication to the headquarters in Europe. It was essential for NEC to move out of Europe in order to diversify its market and exploit new markets in the globe. Princeton was a strategic position for the development of the company owing to the accessibility of resources.

The region has other scientific institutions such as the Bell Laboratories, the IBM Research Institute, and the SRI Institute would facilitate NES with new knowledge that would be essential in establishing of successful achievement of set objectives. Princeton would also be a convenient place to do collaborative research; this is because of the easy access to universities such as Princeton University, Columbia University and Yale University. These Universities would greatly help in carrying out research for the firm.

I think locating the industry in a region that has other firms already established would be essential for ease of access by clients because clients are already aware of the company’s location. The competition by another similar firm would greatly assist the firm to borrow and make reasonable improvements.1. Merits and demerits of separated R&D activities. Many companies tend to focus on both research and development activities altogether; this is not the case with NEC. NEC prefers to entirely focus on research activities alone in the international research centre; this decision is accompanied by a number of advantages to the firm which includes: The quantity produced by the firm increases, consequently its average cost decreases.

NEC was able to specialize in the area and thus high competence was evident in the researches carried out in the firm, this facilitated build-up of confidence and thus outdoing of the prominent competitors in the region. Due to specification much time was allocated in research programs and yielded great outcomes.DisadvantagesThe firm was viewed as not being well equipped and thus the customers failed to build confidence in the firm. Concentration on research alone did not facilitate the implementation of the findings or results of the research2.

Ideal locations for development activities in U.S.Development activities need to be carried out in regions with a huge population as well as thus areas with availability of research institutions, due to the high cost of developments this calls for huge or expensive recourses this is only favourable in regions with high national income, according to the exhibition, Palo Alto Area (San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose MSA) is best suitable for development activities. This is because of the high population and high per capita income as compared to Boston and Princeton areas.

The region also has the highest retail sales among the regions.3 Evaluation their recent location strategies new location choices by NEC to open up a new site in the Asian countries such as China and Singapore are very important in the diversification of the company in order to expand in capacity and continued survival in the market with the current economic conditions as well as increased competition. China has the majority population being the youth and thus it is a potential market in the investment of mobile phone information in the country.

The county has a huge population that provides the market for NEC services. Singapore is another developing country in the field of technology, NEC strategic positioning in this country will boost the firm's operation bearing in mind that the country has high economic growth and a vast population. To achieve a competitive advantage in these new regions, NEC should focus on both research and development simultaneously as compared to the other firms in other foreign countries. This will facilitate a comprehensive solution to the individuals seeking the services from the organisation.