Micro Economic Paper Whirlpool
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The four economic concepts I employed in my report are:
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1. Cost Control
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2. Pricing Strategy
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3. Fighting competition through innovation & branding
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4. People
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I previously worked for the home appliance industry Whirlpool Corporation for about six years. The corporate office of Whirlpool is in Benton Harbor, Michigan in the United States. Whirlpool transformed itself from a regional manufacturing and trade-focused business into a global enterprise, with more than 80,000 employees and over 60 manufacturing and technology research centers worldwide. In 2006, Whirlpool made an aggressive move to strengthen its increasingly competitive global home-appliance industry by acquiring the Maytag Corporation for $2.7 billion. This move made Whirlpool the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, with annual sales of approximately $20 billion. However, Whirlpool is facing significant economic challenges. The US and Europe home appliance market have reached saturated penetration rates. Their population growth has been on a decline that means that the scope of future growth in these regions is limited. The burst of the bubble in the housing market in the United States and the global recession in 2008 significantly reduced the demand for home appliances. Whirlpool realized that in order to sustain growth, it needed to target areas of high population growth rates, which included the rapidly expanding economies and income of Asia and Latin America. Back in mid-1990, Whirlpool established a global presence into these emerging markets through significant financial investments and joint ventures. Unfortunately, the business people of
The four economic concepts I employed in my report are:
-------------------------------------------------
1. Cost Control
-------------------------------------------------
2. Pricing Strategy
-------------------------------------------------
3. Fighting competition through innovation & branding
-------------------------------------------------
4. People
-------------------------------------------------
I previously worked for the home appliance industry Whirlpool Corporation for about six years. The corporate office of Whirlpool is in Benton Harbor, Michigan in the United States. Whirlpool transformed itself from a regional manufacturing and trade-focused business into a global enterprise, with more than 80,000 employees and over 60 manufacturing and technology research centers worldwide. In 2006, Whirlpool made an aggressive move to strengthen its increasingly competitive global home-appliance industry by acquiring the Maytag Corporation for $2.7 billion. This move made Whirlpool the world's leading manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances, with annual sales of approximately $20 billion. However, Whirlpool is facing significant economic challenges. The US and Europe home appliance market have reached saturated penetration rates. Their population growth has been on a decline that means that the scope of future growth in these regions is limited. The burst of the bubble in the housing market in the United States and the global recession in 2008 significantly reduced the demand for home appliances. Whirlpool realized that in order to sustain growth, it needed to target areas of high population growth rates, which included the rapidly expanding economies and income of Asia and Latin America. Back in mid-1990, Whirlpool established a global presence into these emerging markets through significant financial investments and joint ventures. Unfortunately, the business people of