In this stúdy, the criticai factors of successful management strategy in Brazil are identified, with a particular focus on companies in the electronics industry. Five companies with outstanding performance results were studied. Results indicated that among the most important factors in establishing competitive advantage were: operational improvement, risk management strategy, and empowerment o f local management. In addition, this study identifies some of the reasons for poor performance among Japanese companies in the Brazilian electronics industry. Some of these reasons are the poor risk management capabilities (dueto the fact that most of Japanese companies were historically developed in a low risk environment resulting from Japanese govemmental protection atid interference) and an absence o f necessary empowerment o f management decision from the local Japanese e:xecutives to the local management staff.