Japan's Car Industry Changes the Rules.

One of the ways to stay on top in business is to change the rules while you are ahead. Now that Western industry has finally understood the importance of Japanese-style production, Japan's carmakers are preparing to do just that. The new battle will be concentrated around product development and production.

Though Western carmakers have shortened their product development time from seven to five years in the past decade, the average time in Japan has been cut to four years — and Honda is at three. The process also takes half the man-hours required in the West.

Japan's second trump card * is effective, flexible manufacturing which enables Japanese models to be easily replaced routinely every four years, while output in production runs as low as 500,000. In most of the Western car industry higher unit costs dictate product lives of 10 years and volumes of about 2 million.

By combining these two advantages the Japanese seem to make speed of product innovation, their competitive tool in the world car market. They aim to shower the market with different models, which they will also use to test out new design features and technology. This approach should enable Japanese manufactures to respond more effectively to consumer fashions and indeed to create those fashions.

The changing character of competition may seriously affect Western carmakers who serve traditional market segments.

1. trump card — козырь

2. routinely — в рабочем порядке

Ex.5. Say what you have learned about:

1. the time required for the development of a new car model in Japan and in the West;

2. the life of a new model and the volume of output in Japan and in the West;

3. the new policy of Japanese carmakers.

Ex.6. Think and answer.

1. How do the Japanese carmakers manage to compete with other carmakers in the European and American markets?

2. What can explain higher unit costs in most of the Western car industry as compared with those in Japanese manufacturing?

3. In what way do consumer fashions influence the development of new car models?

Unit 2

Subject for study: The Japanese Decision-Making Style. Working on the text.

Ex.1. Read and translate the text paying particular attention to the words in italics. Use a dictionary if necessary.

The Japanese Decision-Making Style. Part 2.

When faced with several alternatives, the Japanese will explore each one in terms of its implementational feasibility. The American drive for an immediate decision, on the other hand, often prompts managers to choose prematurely, perhaps based on conceptual analysis and lim­ited substantive reasoning. Often there is too little concrete examination of how feasible the decision actually is.

The Japanese and Americans both regard experience as important in decision making, but it weighs more heavily in the Japanese style. The Japanese are encouraged to reflect on their experience. Some reg­ularly practice meditation for the purpose of clearing their minds so that they may reflect on their experience more deeply. Many Western managers learn subliminally in this fashion, but they are generally en­couraged to get their experience from substantive materials and formal education. The Japanese generally move their managers up through the organization after long experience.

The Japanese don't look to someone to "turn things around quickly." The Japanese manager is there. He has slowly climbed the ladder and he is not at all burdened by threats to his power or job because he deliberates slowly and carefully. The Western manager would feel more pressure to produce. It is simply less acceptable for an American to "flow" with a

situation* as the Japanese do.

The accepted American style of decision making is fast, energized, and bold. The Americans admire the "take-charge" person, the one who quips that his or her management philosophy is "Ready, fire, aim." The Japanese image of a good decision maker is the man or woman who is in no hurry to decide until he or she has discerned what really is required.

Many American companies are experimenting with the Japanese style in varying degrees. But it's a change that may not be made eas­ily. American executives who do business with the Japanese sometimes find their approach to decision making hard to deal with at first. One such person is Ronald G. Shaw, who is president of Pilot Corporation of America, the U.S. division of a Tokyo-based company. The first non-Japanese president of a division, he joined the company as national sales manager.

The "most glaring difference that I have found" between U.S. and Japanese businesses, Shaw says, is that "decisions are made by com­mittees. That's very difficult to get used to." There simply is no such thing as going to one person and asking for a decision, he says. The issue will invariably be discussed and considered at numerous meetings until a consensus is reached.

An attempt to impose such a system upon an entire company might very well cause "culture shock" and meet with some resistance. It could be safer to move gradually and phase in the changes.

However, whether it is an individual decision or a group decision, business or personal, made in the American or Japanese style, all deci­sion makers must follow the appropriate steps in the decision-making process if they want to be effective.

Ex.2. Say what you have learned about:

1. the behaviour of the Japanese and American manager when faced with several alternatives;

2. the attitude of the Japanese and Americans towards experience;

3. the image of a good manager in Japan and America;

4. the feelings of American executives who do business with the Japanese.

Ex.3. Think and answer.