What Enlightenment Does The Japanese Enterprises Bring Us

Han Hanjun / Wen

The once prosperous Japanese enterprises also fell from the altar. This is not only a question that Japanese enterprises need to reflect on, but also a problem that Chinese enterprises must learn from. Dr. Huang Yanan's new book "business Justice: a history of the rise and fall of Japanese enterprises" (Zhejiang University Press) also makes a meaningful inquiry into this issue, and gives a thought-provoking view.

This new book describes the whole process from the creation of myth to the fall of Japanese enterprises after the war, and analyzes the internal logic of the rise and fall of enterprises. We can learn from this that the reason why Japanese enterprises have stepped down from the altar is that they are too superstitious about their adaptability and underestimate the persistence of political pressure from the United States; they are too superstitious about Japanese style operation and underestimate the differences between different overseas regions; they are too superstitious about their own technological capabilities and underestimate the essential difference between analog technology and digital technology transfer.

The reason why Japanese enterprises have such superstitions is closely related to the myths they once created.

Television used to be the pride of Japanese enterprises. In 1978, the Chinese side invited Matsushita to invest and set up a factory in China. That is to say, at that time, Japan's television production was No.1 in the world. However, it took only 25 years for Japanese enterprises to achieve such achievements. At the beginning, all the television production technologies of Japanese enterprises, including Panasonic, were imported from Europe and the United States. Moreover, Japan did not have the capital for mass production of various varieties. In order to overcome these disadvantages, Japanese enterprises choose the mode of mass production with one model, which not only ensures the product quality, but also improves the production level. Under such accumulation, Japanese enterprises have finally reached the top of the world.

The development of Japan's representative automobile industry also started from imitation and introduction of technology. In the early 1950s, Toyota hoped to introduce Ford production mode to improve its competitiveness. However, they were short of capital and could not get enough materials. They were totally unable to copy Ford's production mode. They had to adapt measures to local conditions to transform Ford's production mode. As a result, a more efficient Toyota production mode was formed. Later, the United States has spent a huge amount of money to investigate this, but ultimately did not learn the essence of Toyota production mode.

However, the success is also Xiao He, and the defeat is also Xiao He. At the beginning, the United States also paid more attention to the cultivation of Japanese enterprises, but later the attack on Japanese enterprises was also unambiguous. At a time when Japanese enterprises are booming and American enterprises are at a disadvantage, the U.S. government begins to make interviews and use political influence to help American enterprises maintain their competitiveness. When the products of Japan's textile fiber enterprises were more competitive than those of American enterprises, the United States forced Japan to reduce its exports to the United States on its own with the excuse of trade friction. From television sets, automobiles to high-tech products such as semiconductors, the United States has tried this way of suppressing Japan repeatedly, and Japanese enterprises have been able to cope with it with perseverance and become more confident. As a result, the United States has found another way to exert pressure on Japan in terms of patents and exchange rate, which has dealt a fatal blow to some Japanese enterprises, such as Minolta, a popular camera company. Unfortunately, Japanese enterprises are still superstitious about their resilience and underestimate the persistence of political pressure from the United States, and eventually have to lose Japanese production bases and shift their production overseas.

However, at this time, Japanese enterprises with insufficient overseas production experience were superstitious about the so-called Japanese style operation, believing that they could establish factories with the same standards and requirements all over the world. In fact, they underestimated the differences in different regions of the world. Japanese enterprises could not move to the overseas factories of Japanese enterprises and use the same standards The overseas transfer of production has not achieved ideal results.

Another important reason for Japanese enterprises to fall into the altar is that they are too superstitious about their technological capabilities and underestimate the essential difference between analog technology and digital technology transfer. The technology of Japanese enterprises is formed and accumulated in the process of creating myths. Japanese culture also makes Japanese enterprises very suitable for running in production. In such running in, Japanese enterprises produce numerous high-quality products. However, this dependence on running in has put a heavy burden on Japanese enterprises in the digital age, because the combination production in the digital era mainly focuses on standardization and directly denies the function of running in. If Japanese enterprises indulge in the past success, it is bound to be unable to walk on the road of recasting glory.

Political influence, Japanese style management and Japanese production technology were all the basic forces for Japanese enterprises to create myths. However, misjudgment and superstition on these elements also brought great pain to Japanese enterprises. Of course, these factors are certainly not all factors affecting the development of enterprises. Therefore, Dr. Huang did not simply make an abstract summary, but used specific examples to illustrate the rich connotation of enterprise development, and expounded the right way of enterprise management. From creating myths to stepping down from the altar, Japanese enterprises one by one have flesh and blood examples, which show three-dimensional and organic problems that enterprise development and operators must face, and bring us useful enlightenment.

This book involves many cases of industries and enterprises, from entrepreneurs to enterprise system, from political conditions to cultural environment. The content is rich and colorful, but the author can speak in an orderly way, with clear logic and complete structure. Generally, such works are written by many experts and scholars. Dr. Huang is able to complete such a general history of enterprises independently, which shows that his academic attainments are very profound. This book is vivid, readable and philosophic, probably related to his educational background and qualifications. The former Japanese Minister of economy and industry, Mr. Wanli haijiangtian, who once was in charge of Japanese national enterprises, is willing to write the title of the book in his own hand, which also shows the high recognition of the book by the mainstream society in Japan. Whether from the depth and breadth of research, or from the analysis method and results, this new book is a rare masterpiece in the field of Japanese enterprise research in recent years.

(the author is deputy director, researcher, doctoral supervisor, Institute of economics, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences)

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