Me: I need a trumpet, a xylophone, full drum kit, an electric guitar, a full PA system and a grand piano for my jazz show
Yamaha: I got you
Me: I also need a motorcycle to get there and a set of golf clubs for Sunday
Yamaha: I gotchu there too
Me: I want to play games until I get fat
Konami: yo, there you go
Me: damn, that was a bad idea, I need to go work out in a gym
Konami: I'm way ahead of you
Me: I will also need a motor for my boat
Yamaha: anything else?
Me: An ATV for the beach, a Snow Mobile for the winter and a Jet-Ski just because they're fun.
Yamaha: Of course!
Me: Oh, and you wouldn't know where I could find a DVD player?
I love how these logos often still reflect the initial small scale business, a Yamaha motorbike still features a trio of tuning forks for music. A Mitsubishi... anything.... has the three propellor blades of a Zero fighter plane. I made that second one up but apparently it's three Oak Leaves or Water Caltrops, a simple and enduring symbol.
Mitsubishi literally means “three diamonds”
I was going to point out the BMW Propeller but apparently it's a myth from 1929 and now my day is ruined.
Hold up before you place the order! I need train carriages, a supercomputer, radiotherapy equipment, nuclear power plant, aircon, self propelled artillery and an escalator. Don't ask me why.
Fine, oh and add that CPU from the Dreamcast
Samsung though: phones, tanks, healthcare equipment
Also 20% of South Koreas economy
They also make some fantastic solid surface counter tops that are pretty nice budget replacements for higher end stone counters.
So random.
Me: I need a flute for my orchestra performance
Yamaha: No problem, here's our 800W Series.
Me: You wouldn't happen to know where I can
get a heavy 600 cc sport bike with the stop speed of 260km would
you?
Yamaha: You're not gonna believe this
Yamaha often gets overlooked for instruments, I think a lot of this is that we don't expect a company that makes jetskis and motorcycles to also know what they're doing with guitars, saxophones, and pianos, but they actually make good quality stuff.
It's more accurate to think of Yamaha as a conglomerate that owns several different companies. It's just that a lot of those smaller companies are also named Yamaha
Fun fact, the Yamaha logo is an image of three tuning forks, laid atop each other.
This reminds me of around 2000, when I had a Daewoo television, and then my mind was blown one day when I saw a Daewoo car. Who makes televisions and cars? Daewoo apparently.
so apparently samsung also makes cargo ships
Ever hear of Daewoo Heavy Industries? They make excavators, railcars and ships
Mitsubishi
Me: Hmm, about time I bought a phone
Siemens: I gotchu
Me: a laptop would be nice to apply for jobs
Siemens: Gotchu there too
Me: Just got a City Planner job, wonder who I can buy some trains from
Siemens: Gotchu again bro
Me: Nuclear power plant to power the trains?
Siemens: We don't sell those anymore, we've gotchu with steam and solar power plants though
Me: Just bought a house, need some kitchen appliances...
Siemens: Gotchu bro
Me: I need a TV and a Smartphone
Samsung: No worries man
Me: I could also use an artillery barrage and a few tanks
Samsung: Well now that you mention it...
Brother (the printer company), makes world-class sewing machines. Home use and heavy commercial.
Me: I need to get rid of the whole Uchiha clan
Hitachi:
You can do similar with mitsubishi, yamaha, bugatti, samsung (especially samsung. They make a ton of things. Ships, phones, hospital equipment, clothing and you can even live at their hotel
These weird combinations look fun but they're generally the result of having conglomerates, companies that have gobbled up a bunch of smaller, unrelated companies.
Conglomerates are tricky to pull off because managing a lot of disparate business lines. A CEO who knows all about how to market construction equipment is likely to miss that one of their other products became an iconic sex toy years ago. The big problem is that more focused companies can typically outmaneuver you in their area of focus.
Theoretically, there might be synergies that make your company more effective but normally, conglomeration is drag on the risk-adjusted rate of return on your company. It's much easier to pull off when your government has strong protectionist policies or if there are officials you can bribe to keep out the competition.
Why would a company do something that's generally bad for the company? It's generally good for the CEO. A CEO often has a very concentrated investment portfolio. Changes in the value of the company they're running can have a huge impact on their personal wealth. Conglomeration allows a single company to be a diversified asset. It does it in a way that's objectively worse for shareholders but better for the CEO.
Koreas "chaebol" system isn't just any kind of conglomerattion, though... it was based on the system the Japanese used to dominate Korea during it's colonization of that country, which the US simply encouraged after the war. The dictatorships that followed basically ran with it... and now you have these gigantic, government-subsidized "chaebols" that is the epitome of "too big too fail." South Korea is about as oligarchic as it gets.
It's utterly hilarious to me when "free market" cultists try to use South Korea as an example of how miraculous their fairy tale economic ideology is.
Man, this Smart fridge is amazing. Do you, by any chance, happen to make self propelled atillery tanks as well?
Now I know why my girl friend and I both love Hitachi...
Damn, your girlfriend likes excavators? Lucky
Hey, I need a new high-end, innovative Phablet.
Samsung; sure, knock yourself out
I'm also interested in constructing the largest building in the world
Samsung; say no more
