Keiretsu Concept
Keiretsus’, Japanese term that means economic rows are business groups whose companies that integrate them cooperate together with strategic purposes, especially with regards to international businesses.
These business groups, with origin in Zaibatsu are characterized by a complex web of relations, generally characterized by informal contractual relations, between companies belonging to most varied activity sectors such as banking, industry and distribution. Another important characteristic of Keiretsu is the fact that the relations between its members are clearly defined in a hierarchic scale, having at the top a leader company (generally the company responsible for the management of a brand or by the international businesses) that only relates with a group of companies that occupy the second level; these last only relate with the third level companies and so on.
Some Keiretsu examples: Some important Japanese Keiretsu examples are the cases of Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Toyota and Sumitomo. Out of Japan, can also be found some business groups with Keiretsu characteristics, among which the English Virgin Group and the Indian Tata Group or even Oneworld and Star Alliance, two important alliances of the civil aviation sector.
