GILLETTE COMPANY in a GLOBAL ECONOMY

This research examines global management through an assessment of the operations of the Gillette Company. A brief background review on the company is followed by an analysis of the company's operations.

King C. Gillette, along with William Nickerson, founded the American Safety Razor Company in 1901. At that time, King was best known as a socialist who had written and published The Human Drift in 1894, and had formed The Twentieth Century Corporation to encompass worldwide business under a single corporation, and, thus, eliminate competition, which King considered to be harmful. Needless to say, the concept of the universal corporation failed.

In 1895, Gillette conceived the idea of the rigid handled safety razor with replaceable blades. His collaboration with inventory Nickerson perfected the device for commercial use. The American Safety Razor Company was successful, and developed a reputation for marketing savvy in promoting the "Gillette razor." When American soldiers began embarking for Europe in 1918, the American Safety Razor Company sold them three million razors and 36 million razor blades in socalled "Service Kits." In the 1920s, Gillette across the United States to give a Gillette razor to each new depositor in a "Shave and Save" campaign. Hotels, restaurants, and service stations were persuaded to give away Gillette razors as part of opening ceremonies.

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of these factors are tracked at the Gillette Company. Consumers form expectations on the basis of messages and claims the corporation makes about its product. The level of consumer dissatisfaction, thus, is the product of the difference between expectations and performance. The strategic intent of the Gillette Company is the attainment of recognition as the design and quality leader on a global basis in the product areas on which the corporation focuses (McConville, 1992, pp. 5255). The company pursues this strategic intent through the continual development and introduction of advanced technological designs in its selected product emphasis areas (Gillette: Bladerunner, 1993, p. 68). The management of risk to develop a protected position on a global basis is one of the Gillette Company's core competencies (Hoffman, 1992, p. 12). To develop the desired risk philosophy throughout a global company, Gillette enhanced its corporate communications system, formed captive insurance firms, and engaged in international pooling arrangements (Banham, 1992, p. 31; Kelleher, 1990, pp. 5253). Risk management in the global environment involves a variety of factors (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1992, pp. 395402). Various types of risk exist in
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Approximate Word count = 3370
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page)