CANON: COMPETING ON CAPABILITIES This report examines the competitive strategy that enabled the "camera company from Japan"1 not only to break down the monopoly enjoyed by Xerox in the copier business in the 1970s but also to grow into a highly diversified, multi-product and multinational premier company. Specifically, the report considers (1) the competitive strategy of Canon (2) the major resources and capabilities of Canon (3) management of the development and transfer of capabilities throughout the organisation (4) Canon's …showed first 75 words of 1970 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1970 total…appear that the positional advantage of Xerox was unassailable. Canon demonstrated that such monopolies (when not imposed by government) can be broken through the introduction of innovative and quality products. By introducing the personal copier, the company also demonstrated the potential impact of one firm to completely change an industry. ______________________________________________________________ 1 Information used for this report was based on the case study: CANON: COMPETING ON CAPABILITIES By Sumantra Ghoshal and Mary Ackenhusen at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France