How to transcend from a local subsidiary into the global leadership position of your industry: the case of Whirlpool Slovakia

Abstract

The fall of the Berlin Wall, the Velvet Revolution, and other similar events ultimately led to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the opening of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) from a planned economy to a free market economy. These events provided investment opportunities for MNCs around the world. Around this same time, Whirlpool Corporation, one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of home appliances, made a strategic decision to globalise its production and market. In pursuit of this decision, Whirlpool entered Slovakia (part of Czechoslovakia) in the new CEE market. This paper describes the transition of Whirlpool Slovakia from a sub-standard producer of washing machines in Czechoslovakia and Poland to a position where Whirlpool Slovakia is not only one of the leading producers of white appliances in the Whirlpool global value chain, but one of the models of efficiency in the production of top loader washing machines.