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This chapter is a historical case study on management and labour at the Matsushita Group. A Chandlerian framework is applied to analyse the evolution of the multi-divisional structure and spin-offs from an early stage of the company's development. The Matsushita Union was established as an enterprise-wide union from the start. The company responded to corporate growth by extending its boundaries to include not only all the internal divisions, but also spin-off companies and subsidiaries. The resulting extension of the internal labour market gave much flexibility in securing stable employment, as uniform working terms and conditions facilitated the movement of workers between divisions and spin-off companies. But there was a gradual increase of diversity in working conditions within the company and the corporate group, culminating in the 2003 corporate restructuring and the planned break up of the Matsushita Union into fourteen separate unions in 2006.

Smiths’ products are needed in aircraft, ships, and fighting vehicles. It has two shadow factories under way in 1939 and diverts resources into materiel and other war-related production from the outset of war, as its precision clock- and instrument-making capacity are easily adapted to war purposes. Smiths manufactures for the Ministry of Aircraft Production, to which the newly ennobled Sir Allan Gordon-Smith is conveniently seconded. Highly personal memories provide wry and amusing insights into wartime life. Inadequate planning for sourcing specialist raw materials is illustrated in Smiths’ role in a wider diplomatic smuggling effort involving the British embassy in Berne. The creation of enhanced and precision engineering capacity leads, as early as 1942, to detailed planning for the post-war period, highlighting themes of both future security as well as job creation/preservation. Important post-war relationships, for example, between Allan Gordon-Smith and Stafford Cripps, are forged

With government sponsorship, Smiths plans the (re)creation of a British watch- and clockmaking industry, building factories in development areas, in Wales and Scotland. Four main business divisions are created in 1944, but post-war markets for the divisions have different growth rates—aviation grows significantly on the back of post-war defence spending, but the clocks and watches division, despite its social and employment value, cannot generate acceptable returns, and does not enjoy the national support seen in Switzerland. Allan Gordon-Smith dies in 1951, leaving a vacuum, as his son Ralph lacks entrepreneurial flair and leadership skills. Smiths has now expanded to a significant size—there are over thirty group companies, including a nascent medical plastics business. Challenges emerge: new factories are needed, but also new houses to accommodate workers; industrial relations include a more militant element; taxation is still high; foreign competition, with lower labour costs, damages prospects