ABSTRACT
Olympus, which consisted of Olympus Optical Company, Ltd., and its subsidiaries and affiliates, manufactured and sold opto-electronic equipment and other related products. The firm's major product lines included cameras, video camcorders, microscopes, endoscopes, and clinical analyzers. Five Japanese firms dominated the world's 35mm camera market: Asahi Pentax, Canon, Minolta, Nikon, and Olympus. Canon and Minolta were the largest of the five firms, each with approximately 17% of the market compared to Olympus' 10%. There were two major types of 35mm cameras: single lens reflex and lens shutters or compact cameras. In 1987, Olympus' top management reacted to the losses by introducing an ambitious three-year program to "reconstruct" the camera business. At the core of this program were three objectives: first, to recapture lost market share by introducing new products; second, to dramatically improve product quality; and third, to reduce production costs via an aggressive set of cost-reduction programs.
