Raise the Bar: How Japanese Companies Succeeded in
the Global Market
When I first came to New York City, what surprised me was that
there were a lot of products made by Japanese companies. Even though
I knew Japanese products were popular all over the world, it was more
than I thought. People drive Japanese automobiles like Toyota, Nissan,
Honda, Mazda, Subaru, and Suzuki. In an appliance store, we can see a
lot of Japanese brand names. I could not have imagined that I would
see young Americans playing with PlayStation Portable or Nintendo
DS in a subway train like Japanese do. Is there something speci al that
makes Japanese products so popular? At first, I thought there would be,
but the more I researched the companies, the more I discovered that
there are no special methods such as a magical stick. However, this
research reminded me of strict culture among Japanese companies. In
a Japanese company, employees are usually expected not only do their
tasks completely, but also more. Namely, we are supposed t o set our
bars high, so that we can develop our abilities and contribute to a
company. The culture is shared with people in an e ntire company
including executives and even owners. This strict culture, “Raise the
Bar,” have increased customer satisfaction and made Japanese
products popular in the world. For example, Sony never allows itself to
become just a copy-cat, as many Japanese manufacturers did after the
World War II. Toyota wasn’t satisfied with their reputation with
reliable fuel efficiency, and affordable cars.
Sony is one of the most successful Japanese companies in the
international market. Everybody knows the company as an innovative
manufacturer because of their unique products with advanced
technology, such as transistor radios, Trinitron televisions, the
Walkman, handy camcorders, and so on. These accomplishments have
established the Sony brand, which consumers are willing to purchase
despite its higher pricesm.
However, when Sony was founded by Masaru Ibuka, Akio
Morita, and Kazuo Iwama in 1946, nothing ensured the company’s
success besides its talents and efforts. At that time, “In the years
leading up to the Second World War, the tag, “Made In Japan,” meant
cheap imitations to the rest of the world” and “this was the stereotype
that Ibuka and Morita wanted desperately change” (Shu 80). Setting a
goal higher, they developed the first tape-recorder made by a Japanese
company in 1950, and they also developed the first transistor radio in
Japan in 1955.
With their talents and efforts, they tried and made progress.
Such struggles were described by a famous Japanese reporter for a
leading Japanese weekly in the late 1950 as a corporate guinea pig,
implying that the company played the sacrificial lamb to the industry
(Shu 79). Actually, Toshiba, which was a much larger enterprise, at
that time, producing twice as many transistor radios as Sony with rich
capital even though Sony had developed the first transistor in Japan .
At first, Ibuka was angry at the article, but later became proud to be
likened to a guinea pig because it symbolized their pioneering spirit.
However, the pioneering spirit brought them not only successes
but also failures. In fact, Sony faced a crisis of bankruptcy when they
were developing Trinitron, Sony’s color-television picture tube released
in 1968. It took a long time, eight years, to release, and one of the
founders, Iwama was worried that the company was close to ruin (Shu
88). However, it was successfully launched and became one of the most
profitable inventions. More than 180 million were sold worldwide for
forty years. Sony is going to
the production of Trinitrons in 2008.
To make progress without just coping others is risky, but as the
example of the invention of the Trinitron shows, it can bring high
returns. Sony chose challenges, and they have achieved huge success,
and the spirit isn’t tarnished even though it has become larger than
Toshiba. According to The Wall Street Journal, “Sony became the
world’s first manufacturer to start selling and OLED TV set…” (Iwama
B6). OLED is seen to as the next generation television, and it may
bring the company huge profits just as Trinitron did.
Toyota is also a successful Japanese company. However, “Just a
few decades ago, it was just a moderately sized company largely
centered in Japan” (Magee 57). What has made Toyota develop and the
most successful automobile maker comes from its pioneering spirit,
which never allows it to set low goals.
A couple of decades ago, the image of Japanese cars in the world
weren’t different from what they are today. Actually, in the early days
of Toyota’s business in the United States, the automaker did well with
its reliable, effectively priced models like the Corolla, a compact car,
known for its low maintenance, high gas mileage, and affordability
(Magee 93). It was a big success for a small country ’s automobile
manufacturer to be admitted into the United States, where the big
three, Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler dominated the market.
Toyota set an incredibly high standard and was not with
Corolla’s success. In 1983, then chairman, Eiji Toyoda, spearheaded
the Lexus initiative, challenging team members with a simple
question: “Can we create a luxury vehicle to challenge the world ’s
best?” (Magee 86). It must surprised engineers and desi gners very
much because he ordered them to compete against Mercedes-Benz and
BMW and win in a luxury car market, which was completely different
from a small car market.
Throughout the 1980’s Toyota engineers and designers in Japan
had been worked on a project intended to set an entirely new standard
for luxury vehicles. The chief engineer, Ichiro Suzuki, tried to build a
car that exceeds Mercedes-Benz in the most basic function, driving
performance (Magee 87). In 1989, after investing a lot of money, time,
and employee effort, they made a luxury car, the Lexus, LS400. Its
impressive debut took place at the North American International Auto
Show in Detroit (Magee 88). It was a moment in which Toyota
accomplished the impossible.
However, there was an important person responsible for
Toyota’s success in the United States and the world. Robert B.
McCurry had worked for Chrysler as a district sales manager and the
general sales manager (Magee 88). After his retirement from Chrysler,
he joined Toyota. He knew a lot about the market in the United States,
and he gave important advice to Toyota. In fact, Toyota’s original plan
was to add the LS400 to its existing vehicle lineup, but he proposed
that and argued for the creation of its own name brand so as not to
confuse buyers (Magee 88-89). His idea was accepted and the Lexus
brand was launched in the U.S. in 1989 with two models. Within two
years, the Lexus brand became the largest car import in sales, with
more than 70,000 units sold. Today, Lexus is the largest luxury brand
in the United States, with more than 300,000 vehicles sold each year,
and the fourth largest in the world in sales volume (Magee 90). The
accomplishment was the result of a combination of the high quality of
the Lexus line-up and McCurry’s marketing strategy.
The big success of the Lexus produced a success in the Camry,
which was the most sold car model in the U.S from 1997 to 2007(Magee
97). With advice from
McCurry and Jim Press, Camry based was
design on a Lexus platform, which provided more room and an
engineering base that had proven exceptionally effective. Designers
and engineers approached the new Camry much like they had Toyota ’s
luxury brand (Magee 95). Toyota efforts at continually working to raise
the bar, has contributed the success of Lexus and Camry.
Both Sony and Toyota’s success raising the bar led to high
quality products that attract customers in the world and has left
competitors
behind.
These
two
companies
are
the
top
two
manufacturers in Japan, but through my experience working for a
Japanese copy-machine manufacturer and computer software-house,
other Japanese companies also have similar challenging spirits, which
don’t allow them to set low goals. Actually it forces employees and
employers to work under a lot of pressure, but it would bring huge
successes to them. However, our world is getting more complicated due
to the globalization and high-technologies. Therefore, even though the
most important thing won’t change, other things, such as a marketing
strategy, may be getting more important.
Works Cited
Iwatani, Yukari. “Japan Helps TV Makers Develop OLED Technology.”
WALL STREET JOURNAL 11 July 2008: B6.
Magee, David. How Toyota
Became
#1. New York: Penguin Group,
2007.
Shu, Shin Luh. Business the Sony way. Oxford: John Wiley & Son,
2003.