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Mitsui is a vast and diverse company. Coordination can prove difficult enough in much smaller, homogeneous firms. Mitsui executives [say] that there are several important keys to their attainment of organizational coordination:
- the communications network of the trading company, including telexes, computers, special departments, procedures and personal contacts;
- delegation of authority to domestic and overseas units (for example, Mitsui & Co USA Inc has been delegated responsibility for more than 40 business items from the head office; the US subsidiary, in turn, delegates responsibility to its regional organizations in the US and to its Latin American operations); and
- education and lifetime employment. For the first three years following employment, a college graduate is given assignments that help him learn a great deal about the company. From that point, programs such as delegation of responsibility, on-the-job training and job rotation continue the education process. Internationally, about 50 employees each year receive a scholarship to study at a foreign college for a year, followed by a work assignment at company operations within that country. In these ways, over periods of time, many managerial employees are exposed to different aspects of Mitsui business.
ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION
- Mitsui's business activities involve international trade rather than international production. Organizing a service firm is obviously different from organizing a manufacturing company. In your opinion, which is more difficult and why?
- What kinds of problems might develop in the relationship between the head office's staff divisions (whose purpose is to gather information and draft and coordinate policies and information for the operating and geographic regions) and the operating divisions worldwide?
- Is Mitsui involved in Africa?
- Does Mitsui & Co: USA Inc issue its own annual report? How does it differ from that of Mitsui & Co?
- How does Mitsui manage to coordinate its vast number of companies around the globe?
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