In less than 30 years, Takata ascended from a local Japanese manufacturer of seat belts to the world’s second-largest supplier of safety systems within the automotive industry. Rapid international expansion was a main driver of the firm’s growth. Takata had to develop adequate strategies to keep up with this development. The result was a broad array of configuration and coordination strategies, which are at the heart of this case study. To get to the bottom of Takata’s internationalization approaches, we begin by examining general characteristics of the automotive safety industry. We then introduce Takata and highlight the specific features of its international growth. Building on these cornerstones, the case study outlines Takata’s configuration and coordination strategies, citing examples from its international production and its international R&D activities. We also show how the company found itself sliding into a product recall crisis on an unforeseen scale, and we hypothesize how far Takata’s strategies may have expedited its subsequent downfall.