Re: Automotive Manufacturing Industry: Japanese vs American corporate cultures

On Nov 18, 1:30 am, Aidan <awe...@gmail.com> wrote:
> With all the talk of bail-outs for American owned auto companies, I got
> to wondering about the foreign owned car production corps, and how
> they're being affected by all this.  Then I stumbled upon this article....
>
> http://edgehopper.com/what-toyota-knows-that-gm-doesnt/
>
> I think that this kind of corporate culture is the way of the future.
> Where employees are not simply viewed as an operating expense, but as
> assets of the company - as people, not commodities.... and when I say
> the future, I'm not restricting the concept to the automotive industry -
> I hope that this will be how all large companies are run one day.
>
> The "note 2" at the bottom of the article also conjured a question I've
> often asked myself:  why are finance guys and marketers seemingly valued
> so highly compared to engineers and other technical positions?  It seems
> counter intuitive to consider the people who actually design and develop
> products as less valuable than those who simply hawk it to potential
> customers...  I mean, without the R&D department, the marketers and
> money jugglers would have nothing to work with.  On the other hand, the
> engineers and architects can happily do their work in the absence of the
> marketing and finance departments (they may not have a lot of money to
> work with due to lack of sales and such, but the point stands).  I see
> this situation as a symptom of the greater ailing of the American
> system... where money is valued over all else - products which provide
> actual value be damned.
>
> I think the message in all this is clear: America's brand of capitalism
> has failed us all.  The values that drove it have been proven to be
> corrupt and untenable in the long term.  As a new paradigm emerges, we
> as participants in this global society need to make sure that it is not
> as easily gamed or corruptible as the current system is.

I didn't read the article, as I have had 'Japanese corporate culture'
shoved down my throat at work for at least 20 years.  I can tell you
that it doesn't exactly gel with the North American mindset.  However,
does the article also mention that Japan keeps the value of the Yen
artificially low to protect their industry?  That the government has
always propped the companies up financially as necessary (including
rescuing Nissan)?  That it is one of the most protectionist markets in
the world?  Easy to win when you have that kind of 'culture', lol!