Next Battleground CL

Fierce competition lies ahead as American, Japanese and European firms slug it out in what promises to be the world's largest market, a unified Europe. Jackson, once the Tokyo correspondent for the Economist and now the Independent 's Brussels bureau chief, predicts that while Japan's banks and stock brokerages pose no threat to Europe, the European auto industry is likely to undergo a bloodbath of sorts as Japanese firms attack the mass market, then move on to invade the luxury car business. In the computer industry, according to Jackson, Japanese advantages will come to weigh more heavily as computers, more and more, become off-the-shelf goods. Using the restructuring of Philips N.V. as a case study, he argues that European consumer electronics firms can still revive their fortunes. Overall, Japanese companies are not unbeatable, Jackson stresses. His well-grounded analysis of the strengths and weaknesses that U.S., Japanese and European companies bring to the marketplace makes his trenchant, crisply written report crucial reading for managers facing a new arena. (Feb.)