'Firms asleep at the wheel won't survive': Biz leaders sound alarm on Japan's global decline
Ideas:
Back in the day, in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's Japan CEO's used to be risk takers, but these days its like Japan has lost is swagger and in many companies or CEO's or Japanese company employees are afraid to take risks.
Of course back then it might have been easier to take risks, but again these days company people are afraid to take risks for fear of failure and or losing their jobs.
The same can be said for South Korea too as it seems they have become a nation of adverse risk takers for fear of failure there.
It's good to see and know what is going on, but will companies in Japan adapt to new technologies and will they have the desire and need to do it, and will their workers adapt to the changes needed to remain competitive globally.
Not to be too critical but it seems many Japanese companies have adopted a Japan only mindset and they are not looking to advance their business globally, such a Japanese smartphones, which doesn't seem to have much market share in any major global areas besides Japan.
Entrepreneurs like Kutaragi, are almost non-existent in Japan these days as again, there just don't seem to be many risk takers at the major Japanese companies anymore. It might not be employees fault as maybe some Japanese companies might not encourage innovation or risk taking instead telling their workers to just do your job as is and don't make waves or think too much.
Maybe many Japanese CEO's or even Japanese company employees might have good ideas but they aren't being turned into real products or services for whatever reason.
No doubt Japan has not lost its edge in thinking about new products and services but for whatever reason they aren't reaching the marketplace.
The global world is moving so fast, that unfortunately, even the best and brightest companies can fade away if they don't stay vigilant to what is going on globally.
There might still be some traditional Japanese companies that were great years ago, but these days they barely make any noise in the market place, and its very sad to see.
And yes, there are some Japanese companies that are far ahead and those companies will be part of the global marketplace now and in the future.
Yes, Japanese products at one time were the envy of the world, and the US even tried to make a quasi trade war because Japanese products were eating the lunch of US products which weren't even in the same universe.
After that came the South Korean products and Samsung, LG, and Hyundai, and now there are the Chinese products which are beating down the door of global markets.
So where are the Japanese products now. Are there any in the top 5 or even top 10 of products within their categories.
Those companies were innovators and risk takers which unfortunately there are few these days in Japan or at least few that have ground-breaking ideas or innovations that can compete on the global stage.
For example, back into the 1980's it seemed like everyone in the US had a Sony trinitron color TV or a Japanese DVD player to record TV programs. Those were the days when Japan products were sweeping the US and leaving US products in their dust.
Visiting Yodobashi Camera, a major Japanese electronics store, there seems to be thousands of appliance products on display but how many of them are really able to compete on the global stage. They all look good and maybe they are but these days just being good is not good enough for the global market place.
Then there is the idea of looking at all of the products on display, do Japanese companies, in the domestic market just continue to manufacture without regard to demand or sales
Again all great products back in the day but again what about now. Are there any Japanese products in the top 5 or even top 10 these days in the global marketplace.
Japan might have been number one back in the day but again they lost their swagger and or became too became lazy and or lost their focus and have never gotten it back.
Maybe back in the 50's 60's, 70's and 80's Japanese companies were hungry and were driven because they felt ashamed because of WW11 and wanted to prove something to the world, which they did by creating ground-breaking products, but again somewhere along the way they lost their focus.
Yes, in 1989 Japan was at the top of the world and there was even talk that they might pass the US, but then Japanese bubble burst and the rest is history.
Japan has never really recovered from the 1989 bust and maybe it took away all of Japan's confidence, and or the new generation of CEO's just didn't have the same vision or drive that the older generation CEO's did.
It might be that Japan companies didn't really lose their vision but many other global companies just entered the race and passed Japan and Japan has not been able to keep up for whatever reason.
To be a little more positive here, maybe, again, Japan companies have always had ideas and or some kind of vision but what they lost or didn't have is the correct vision for the future which other companies were able to capture and produce the products that the global marketplace wanted and needed.
So again, all of those Japanese companies listed above that were global leaders have now been pushed aside as their ideas haven't kept up with others in the global marketplace.
Now to be more exact, maybe many Japanese companies have lost their ability to innovate new products and services and or the products and services they have produced just haven't resonated in the global marketplace.
Yes, Sony was the leader in many products in the 70's and 80's and maybe some in the 90's but when the Internet hit the global stage maybe Japan wasn't ready to transform as fast or as quick as other economies or companies were able to do.
Maybe Sony felt, because of there ranking among global companies back in the day they would just coast along and didn't really need to transform into a 21st century company like many companies were doing.
At the same time the speed of change it the 90's took over and many companies globally had to learn to pickup up the pace and transform but maybe Sony and some other Japanese companies just didn't feel they needed to move that fast.
Yes, the Sony Walkman was a ground breaking product and revolutionized many things which might have been a motivator for Steve Jobs to create the products that Apple did.
Again, if you go to a Yodobashi Camera electronics store, Apple has its own floor with all of its products on display but no where are the Sony products, except in specific product areas.
And Apple computers such as the I Mac or even the I phone are the most popular products now in Japan, and again the Sony products are, for the most part, no where to be seen.
But even in the US, there are many products and companies that have been like Sony as they failed to innovate and or became too complacent and didn't see what the future held and yes, they became lazy because of their overconfidence.
For example the late Peter Drucker, the world famous business consultant used to say if your product is not number one or number two, are you going to stay in the market.
That might be a little extreme but it makes a point as companies and products are always in a state of flux and never stagnant.
It looks like or seemed like Hirai might have been following some of Drucker's advice to get rid of products and divisions that were not number one or number two or at least having a significant impact in the global market.
And to be fair to Peter Drucker, when he was at his peak in the US, there were many US companies who didn't follow his advice. So he traveled to Japan for a series of lectures and the the Japanese companies were hungry for his ideas and they ate it up and used his ideas to propel them to number one in term of making products for the global marketplace.
Hirai did what he had to do in order for Sony to survive. If not Sony might have drifted away and just became another dinosaur of a company in Japan.
Unfortunately there might be many Japanese companies like Sony was as some call them Zombie companies, only existing but not living not growing.
The problem has always been that these companies employ people and people's lives depend on these companies and it is hard to just fire or layoff a lot of workers just to cut expenses in a company.
The difference, for a long time between US companies and Japanese companies is that Japanese companies considered their employees as stakeholders and a very important part of the company, while US companies considered shareholders as being the most important group.
That is one of the main reasons that Japan companies liked Peter Drucker was that Drucker emphasized that people were very important to the company and a resource, while US companies did't pay attention to that he said about people.
The fear of failure is in many sectors and industries these days, as employees are only thinking about survival and not thinking about innovation or risk taking.
It seems, sometimes, it seems the entire nation of Japan has given up and don't think they can ever make a difference again.
Its probably not their fault as everywhere around them there is complacency and the just survive mindset that affects everyone.
Hirai is correct, but to get people to change or even an entire country to change is a big task that doesn't happen overnight.
Maybe it seems that Japanese companies or those in Japanese companies feel they can't compete on the global stage so why should they try. For example, the see Chinese companies moving onto the global stage and maybe they feel they can't keep up so the are content to just do business in Japan.
At the same time, maybe some or many Japanese companies, because they feel they can no longer compete on the global stage like Japanese companies did back in the day, they are resigned to just being in the Japanese domestic market and not even trying to trying to make a mark in the global marketplace.
Maybe because there is so much competition from South Korea and China now, many Japanese companies have given up and just focus on the Japanese domestic economy.
Again just look at Samsung from South Korea and the Chinese smartphone companies and of course the I phone from the US. But where are the Japanese smartphone companies are the global stage or are they just content to focus on the Japanese domestic economy and or have given up trying to compete on the global stage now.
For whatever reason Fast Retailing, Uniqlo and GU were able to find the right vision and strategies to compete on the global stage. That can't be said about other Japanese companies as they don't seem to have any kind of global vision or strategies today to compete against others in their area.
The Fast Retailing president is getting up there in age and how long will he lead Fast Retailing and will be future president have the same vision that he has and will Fast Retailing be as successful as it is now.
Back in the day, in the 50's, 60's. 70's, and 80's Japanese company CEO's had a global orientation but today that seems long gone.
A Japan-only mindset is good for business in Japan but it won't help companies today compete on the global stage as they need a different mindset and different strategies to thrive and survive on the global stage.
Where have all the major Japanese electronic companies gone who were major players on the global stage back in the day. They seemed to have just slumped back to the Japanese domestic economy where there might be less competition and less stress for them these days.
GDP, while important and certainly still a viable measure, its not that accurate to describe or even define what is really going on in an economy these days.
What is happening on he ground level in Japanese companies and Japanese society is the real economy and yes, GDP can be an illusion to what is really happening in an economy and especially the Japanese economy.
India is an up and coming country and will soon surpass Japan and the reason for the decrease of Japan can easily attributed to very few Japanese companies now competing on the global stage as it seems most of them have shrunk back to the domestic economy where is safe for them.
Yes, that is why, again, India is going to surge ahead of Japan soon as they have a lot of companies that are now competing on the global stage while Japan has very few if any except Toyota.
Some have said, a few years ago, maybe longer, that Japan is content with being like Switzerland and doesn't really want to compete on the global stage anymore and Japanese people have reached a level of contentment and don't need or want to compete anymore.
But the problem with that thinking is an economy is never stagnant and it either moves forward or it moves backward, and it appears Japan is moving backward, away from the global stage.
For whatever reason, many Japanese companies, especially old-line Japanese traditional companies are slow to change or slow to react and they just want to keep things the way they have always been.
For example, many Japanese companies rely on the fax machine and some of course now use email, but how many companies in the US or the EU use the fax machine these days.
And then there the idea of face to fact meetings which are still important in Japan as yes, some have moved to online or remote meetings using Zoom or Microsoft Teams, but some Japanese companies have been resistant and insist on face to face meeting with other companies or clients.
It's going to be hard to change the mindset of the current senior level managers in Japan as most of them are in their 70's or even 80's. It's going to take a completely new set of CEO managers to come in with a completely new paradigm or mindset to really change things, in Japan and hopefully it won't be too late.
But even then, most likely, the new leadership among Japanese company CEO's might not want to rock the boat and unfortunately things might not change at all.
Yes, transform or decline, but it seems Japan companies have not seen the writing on the wall and continue to do business as usual.
But to be fair, there might be some or many companies that know they need to change but change could be very expensive and time consuming too.
Only time will tell if Japan is willing to change and finally move into the 21st century or remain a dinosaur in the 20th century.
Have a nice day!
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