The World Washer

4346 Words18 Pages
[pic] “The World Washer” Whirlpool Enters the Indian Market Abstract This is a comprehensive study of the introduction of an automatic washing machine, the World Washer, into the Indian market, by Whirlpool Corporation in 1990. Conceived as an important part of Whirlpool’s global strategy in the late nineteen eighties, it was designed for the emerging markets of Mexico, Brazil and India. It failed dramatically and resulted in Whirlpool having to purchase obsolete twin tub technology from Korea for their next product launch in India. This paper attempts to describe the existing market at the time of the launch, 1988-1990, Whirlpool’s global strategy and the part played by their design departments, where strategy and design meet, and to analyze the reasons for the World Washer’s failure. As Heskett[i] says, “An invention is not an innovation until it creates value for the company, which means it needs to be accepted by the user.” Whirlpool’s World Washer – A Strategy for world domination “Being an international company – selling globally, having global brands or operations in different countries – isn’t enough. Everybody is going global, but hardly anyone understands what it means.” David Whitwam, CEO, Whirlpool Corp. 1994[ii] Did Whitwam understand what it meant to go global in 1989 when he embarked on an ambitious global expansion with the objective of becoming a world market leader in home appliances? In the same interview, he said “We want to be able to take the best capabilities we have and leverage them in all our companies worldwide”. His strategy was based on platform technology. Although he had never run a multinational company until Whirlpool bought Philips in 1989[iii], he believed that the only way to gain lasting competitive advantage was to leverage their capabilities around the world, so that the
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