個案總覽

No industrialized nation can be an economic island, yet Japan continues to behave like one. When foreign goods and services--such as food, airline tickets, and postal service--are priced much lower than those provided in Japan, the government's response is to tighten regulations or make it illegal for Japanese companies and consumers to buy those goods. Consumers have paid for such protections through higher-priced goods, smaller living spaces, and longer commutes. The results are clear when one looks at the decreasing affluence of each successive generation--from those who rebuilt the country after World War II and reaped the promise of a good life to the Nintendo kids who have replaced family and country with on-line relationships. With the youngest generation, the frayed thread of culture and values that has bound the generations has finally snapped. Interactive games have given Nintendo kids the opportunity, not readily available in Japanese culture, to experiment with different roles and outcomes and to believe that they can control their own fate. As they grow up, their economic and political decisions will force their government to participate in the global economy.

The nation-state has begun to crumble. What is emerging in its place is the region-state, which is defined by economic activity, not political borders. The factors behind the shift are threefold: First, people, capital, and information can move across borders so quickly that economic decisions are often based on the fear that needed resources will go elsewhere. Second, as consumers see how other people live, they pressure their governments to give them access to the best and cheapest products. And third, as governments defer to special interests and try to provide constituents with a civil minimum of services, they invest inefficiently and as a result destroy wealth. Although political leaders will resist acknowledging the demise of the nation-state, only those who can accept it and promote region-states within and across their borders will be able to provide the best quality of life for their constituents.

Growing a global organization is like growing a garden: there must be a proper fit between organization and environment. Achieving that fit means starting by decomposing the corporate center. Global companies need several regional headquarters. They must also make sure their far-flung managers have a shared identity, which comes from instilling a shared set of values. Global competitors invest in markets for the long haul. The shortsightedness of governments or the short-term setbacks of a downturn shouldn't prevent a company from considering the whole world a garden, ready for cultivation.

In today's borderless economy managers must see and think globally. Increasingly, managers and consumers all over the world speak a common language, and people everywhere can see what choices and preferences are in other countries. Companies must learn to become insiders in each market of the Triad--North America, Europe, and Japan. A headquarters mentality often prevents this; managers want to apply a home-country solution to a foreign situation or intervene in the management of the foreign market. This is reinforced by entrenched systems, structures, and behaviors. The key is to develop an equidistant view of all customers.

Entente--the forging of an alliance--goes against the grain with most managers, who have been taught never to share control of a company. But alliances are necessary in a world of rapid globalization. Customer needs and preferences all over the world are converging. Technology is dispersing as well; no one company can keep the relevant technology in-house. As a result, companies face increasing fixed costs, which, in turn, point toward forging alliances.

In today's competitive environment, strategy means paying painstaking attention to customers' needs: rethinking what your product is; what it does; and how you design, build, and market it. It is also about avoiding competition wherever and whenever possible. The problem of strategy is acute for Japanese companies. The Germans have captured the high-cost, top-of-the-line market, and the Koreans are attacking the low-cost, high-quality, entry-level market. The Japanese answer is to get back to strategy by creating value for customers.