In 2014, Toshiba, a well-known Japanese corporation announced to recall 583 thousands of washing machines in a global context. It included 30 different types machines produced from July 2005 to November 2011 since they were spontaneous combustion hazards and these recalled machines would be freed maintained. However, for some reasons, this action excluded Chinese market. This was not the first time Toshiba ignores Chinese customers and this time, many media quoted a Toshiba recall happened a few years ago, pointed out that Toshiba” ignored China once again ” or “repeatedly ignored China”. What Toshiba responded was that the 30 types of machines were not sold in Chinese market; therefore, it’s nothing to do with Chinese market. Although this statement may be one reason, Toshiba still obeyed parts of business ethical rules.
As Toshiba said, they did not sell those defective products to China. However, this does not mean that people in China are not in a position to use them. Since nowadays global online shopping is generalized, purchasing a washing machine online is like a piece of cake for Chinese. Although these machines were not available in Chinese market, Chinese citizens still have lots of channels to purchase them. Whence, what thoughtless Toshiba did wrong was that they ignored Chinese consumers. In fact, Toshiba ought to tell Chinese buyers about the defectiveness instead of ignoring them. According to incomplete statistics, since 2008, Toshiba has recalled defective laptops, color TVs, washing machines, mobile phones and other products globally many times and Chinese market was not even involved once.
A successful business maximum profits for stakeholders, while following certain social customs (Milton Friedman). In my opinion, Toshiba did not create great value for customers, suppliers, communities and other shareholders. First of all, there are several hidden dangers of Toshiba home appliances, which show its products exist problems. This undoubtedly exposed the lack of internal technology of Toshiba. Think about it. It took six years from 2005 to 2011 to find the quality issue of the products. This implies that not only technique was lacking, but also the loopholes happened in the company’s management. All of this series of problems caused the huge amount of recall. Moreover, refusing to recall products in China is a kind of strategic deviation. China, as a country with a major amount of market share has immeasurable profits. Toshiba did not see the great potential of Chinese market and underestimated Chinese economic strength and the level of consumption. In the long term, it is detrimental to the company’s development. The key for any company in order to become bigger, stronger and invincible is to base itself upon market, so what Toshiba did actually leave hidden risks for itself.
Austin, P. (n.d.). Toshiba Laptop Battery Packs Recalled. Retrieved September 13, 2017, from https://www.consumerreports.org/laptops/toshiba-laptop-battery-packs-recalled/