Sharp Japan 2017

Abstract

This case introduces the history of Sharp Japan in the beginning, what are their main products and then explained what happened to Sharp Japan before 2015 which resulted their financial crisis and why they sought for M&A opportunity to obtain external investment to help the company overcome the crisis. In the middle part of the case the history of Sharp Japan’s current main shareholder Hon Hai / Foxconn Taiwan is being introduced, which includes the background the Hon Hai / Foxconn Taiwan and what are their main products and customers. Then the case focus on the background, leadership and management story of the new Sharp Japan Taiwanese president J.W. Tai, who is assigned to Shar Japan in 2016 to demonstrate how he modeled the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, encourage the heart and led Sharp Japan to overcome the crisis and turned from loss to profit. The descriptions about J.W. Tai’s actions, turn-around strategy, how Japanese and Taiwanese media viewed him at that time are also mentioned in the case. In the end of the case, the outcome of J.W. Tai’s turn-around strategy, how Japanese and Taiwanese media regarded him, and his future strategy are being demonstrated. There is an Exhibit in this case (an interview with former Foxconn China vice HR President J.D. Wu, who worked directly under J.W. Tai’s supervision) which demonstrates J.W. Tai’s personality, leadership style, working attitude in more details for readers to have a deeper understanding of J.W. Tai. Also, there is another Exhibit which is the speech record of J.W. Tai which he mentioned how he followed the learnings from the book Art of War as the management guide and use it to cultivate future managers.

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