著者

平松 茂実

出版者

経営史学会

雑誌

経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.51, no.4, pp.28-50, 2017 (Released:2019-03-30)

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Dr. Kikunae Ikeda discovered the “Umami” taste associated with glutamate. He thenwent on to apply for a patent for a method of manufacturing a seasoning based on the“Umami” taste associated with foods high in glutamate. Fortunately this patent has turnedout to have an uncommon high availability, making it possible for Ajinomoto Company toestablish and maintain a large new global enterprise.Up to this present day, many technically outstanding patents have failed to succeed inbecoming the base of new businesses, even though these inventions and their patentshave been recognized and appreciated as representing useful technical novelties.The purpose of this paper is to clarify the reasons that Dr. Ikeda’s patent achieved thisrare high availability over a long period. First, I examined the details and the nature of thediscovery of “Umami”, took a close look at the novelty, the technical uniqueness and thedeficits of his patent, and then, in the light of these considerations, investigated the reasonsfor this success, by applying the NASA’s 3 step model developed to analyze barriersto industry development. In 2003, NASA in U.S.A. released a plan development model.This model identifies three barriers that need to be overcome during the course of successfuldevelopment. These are 1st: “the Devil River” R & D barrier, 2nd: “the Valley ofDeath” barrier to getting a business started, and 3rd: “the Darwinian Sea” barrier to successfulcompetition in the market.It is found that even though Dr. Ikeda’s patent had some deficits related to “the DevilRiver” barrier step, which allowed developers in the U.S.A. to get a foothold in the monosodiumglutamate industry in U.S.A., it also contained strong elements to combat “the Valleyof Death” barrier, and so it was able to hold back the emergence of most competitors inthis industry for a long time.Even though it may be difficult to place such a strong defense against “The Valley ofDeath” barrier in many patents, this finding does surely provide some new suggestionsabout how to launch highly available inventions and patents in the future.

著者

平松 茂実

出版者

Business History Society of Japan

雑誌

経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.46, no.3, pp.3_3-3_29, 2011 (Released:2014-09-10)

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The purpose of this paper is to confirm that the success of Ajinomoto Company's globalization management after the second world war was due to the development of a unique and new business model. In order to accomplish this purpose, two main subsidiaries of Ajinomoto Company in Thailand and Brazil were examined thoroughly in terms of the developmental process, as well as several other subsidiaries located in Asia, North and South America, and in Europe.This examination revealed that common strategy of management consisted of two steps. (1) At first, these overseas subsidiaries established the management foundation through the monosodium glutamate (MSG) enterprise, which has the internationally, highly competitiveness, but has a limit of revenue as a niche product. (2) After that, they introduced or developed the various kinds of enterprises to expand the global market. Some of these businesses are globally competitive and they were used to expand the global market. The others are locally competitive and they were applied to develop local markets.This type of Ajinomoto Company's globalization management, which concurrently operates multidomestic (M) type businesses pararell to global (G) type businesses in the same overseas subsidiary, is confirmed as a unique one, in comparison with those of traditional and other recently proposed new globalization management models. The strategy to expand the business by adding M type enterprises to a fundamental G type MSG enterprise is just like the structure of planet. This globalization management is supposed to be classified as II(planet) type model amomg eight new globalization management models proposed by Hiramatsu.The following factors appear to have contributed to the success of Ajinomo Compamy's globalization management using the new model. 1) In the earliest stage, Ajinomoto Company in Japan introduced and masterd American Corn Product Company's marketing development technique. 2) Ajinomoto Company was successful in diversifying from the simple MSG business structure, and top management has maintained a strong vision to expand the global market through this business diversification. 3) In order to implement this vision, well trained managers have been dispached from Japan to each overseas subsidiary. 4) The company has kept a skillful organizational system and the systematic ability to use matrix management.