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  • July 2001 (Revised February 2003)
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Recall 2000: Bridgestone Corp. (A)

By: Lynn S. Paine
  • Format:Print
  • | Pages:35
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Abstract

In September 2000, the president of Bridgestone-Firestone, the U.S. subsidiary of Japan's Bridgestone Corp., was invited to appear before a U.S. congressional subcommittee investigating the August 2000 recall of more than 6.5 million tires made by the subsidiary. The tires had been implicated in several hundred auto accidents and dozens of fatalities in the United States and elsewhere around the globe. This case depicts the tire controversy and the decisions it posed for Bridgestone's management. Tracing Bridgestone's evolution from a regional multinational to a global player by way of acquiring Firestone, a U.S. tire maker founded in 1900, the case shows how cultural differences between the two business systems played a part in creating the situation and in shaping Bridgestone/Firestone's responses to it. A rewritten version of an earlier case.

Keywords

History; Crisis Management; Business Processes; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Manufacturing Industry; Auto Industry; Rubber Industry; Japan; United States

Citation

Paine, Lynn S. "Recall 2000: Bridgestone Corp. (A)." Harvard Business School Case 302-013, July 2001. (Revised February 2003.)
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About The Author

Lynn S. Paine

General Management
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Related Work

    • July 2001 (Revised September 2001)
    • Faculty Research

    Recall 2000: Bridgestone Corp. (B)

    By: Lynn S. Paine
    • July 2005 (Revised October 2006)
    • Faculty Research

    Recall 2000: Bridgestone Corp. (A) (Abridged)

    By: Lynn S. Paine
Related Work
  • Recall 2000: Bridgestone Corp. (B) By: Lynn S. Paine
  • Recall 2000: Bridgestone Corp. (A) (Abridged) By: Lynn S. Paine
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