1.0 Business Description
1.1 Company Background
Shiseido started off Japan's first Western-style pharmacy 140 years ago in 1872 (Shiseido, 2012) .Since then, Shiseido has led Japanese cosmetics technology and culture, it has expanded its business to countries and regions in Europe, Americas, and Asia/Oceania (Shiseido, 2012). Shiseido expands globally since 1957 in a number of countries in the Asian market, starting point in Taiwan then to Singapore, Thailand and China. Shiseido brand products are sold in 88 countries and regions including Japan ,as of April 2012 (Shiseido, 2012). Shiseido is accelerating the speed with which we are exploring new markets in order to deliver Shiseido brand products to more customers around the world. Currently Shiseido has 10 Research and Development sites and 15 plants in their production network.

Primary product focus are on skincare and cosmetics, other product offerings includes healthcare, fine toiletries, restaurant operation and other activity. Their skincare range targets at women from 15 and above, having different skincare ranges for different age groups (Anon.). Their major competitors includes in Japan, local big players such as Kanebo and Kose. 2.0 Internal Analysis
2.1 Strengths
Shiseido's strengths includes having more than 10 strong brands/lines, having the advantage in more than 100 years of skincare research and high quality assurance on the products they manufactured (Shiseido, 2012).

Shiseido's current resources are valuable as having a strong brand, being ranked 11th on the Japan's best Global brand (Interbrand, 2012) contributes to Shiseido's growth. Shiseido aims to be a global player representing Asia having Japan as its origins (Shiseido, 2012, p. 12), with many mid range products offerings to many parts of the world, thus expanding global market reach. Having production sites in 15 sites