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There is no substitute…
11 Thursday Nov 2010
Posted in Business
Business to the Buddha 
Even though Praveen there are similarities in the export trends from Japan and China the backstage scene is quite different in both the cases under discussion. Japan excelled because the copied the technologies from West instead of developing new and optimized them in terms of wastages and costs – the process pioneered by Taiichi Uhno for Toyota, using various Quality Systems like Kaizen, TPS etc. The China story is almost the same till copying the technology from West instead of developing new ones, but it suddenly changes tracks when it come to processes of production and work force management. Japanese concentrated more on controlling processes and hence costs, thereby differentiating in terms of quality and costs. Chinese friends on the other hand have exploited labour, as it is dirt cheap available in China. The quality standards are very much evident when somebody tells you that your cellphone or your beloved gadget is not original and is “China ka maal”(Chinese Product) and your heart skips a beat. Chinese production dominates only because the government has supported the manufacturing industry and promoted quantity but not quality.
Hence, Japan has taken a place which no one can snatch in the manufacturing industry. As “Prof Mankad” said even though China is the biggest producer of steel the finest steel comes from Japan.
You are right Tarun. Still I have my opinion and therefore the following –
1. I, you and perhaps many would agree there are similarities – both copied technology initially
2. What I believe is – you cannot copy to be the leader. Japan did it by manufacturing excellence; China is doing it by something else. There is no single path to success, if China does what Japan did China would remain second only to Japan
3. I recall class of Prof Moradian – there was a song in Hindi movie Shree420 (1955) ‘Mera joota hai Japani’ (My Shoes are Japanese). The reason for this song was – Quality of Japanese products during 50’s and 60s was poor. Now if you see the correlation same was true for China. A Nokia mobile phone or an HP laptop both have many parts (or completely) from China. Product from China are improving in quality over a period of time
4. There has been a thought in my mind for a long time – you cannot cost cut to growth. I will write on that in future that is what we need to see in case of China what the intend to do?
5. Agreed on Govt support yet as I said in point 2 ‘doing things differently’ is what China did, also changing perception will take time China perhaps China is working on quality aspects
7. Lastly, not only Prof Mankad but also Prof Seetharaman said the same thing. While writing the blog I had in mind – The Steel Company Nippon. It is a matter to see how long China competes on quantity and how long quality leadership is maintained by Japan. The mantra remains – whoever wants to come in the foray has to do things differently, one cannot copy to lead.
I want to drive home the point – There is no substitute to … HARD WORK, both the countries prove that, you would also agree to it, wont you!!
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