I do not know whether "we" - the Japanese economy will win, because they are undergoing cultural transformation that is not recognised yet - my exchange with his Excellence the Ambassador of Japan in Paris -
but I can see how "we" - the "Western World" may lose.
Konosuke Matsushita’s declaration, 1988 1894 – 1989
Konosuke Matsushita, 1894 – 1989
“We will win and you will lose. You cannot do anything about it because your failure is an internal disease. Your companies are based on Taylor’s principles. Worse, your heads are Taylorized too. You firmly believe that sound management means executives on one side and workers on the other, on one side men who think and on the other side men who can only work. For you, management is the art of smoothly transferring the executives’ ideas to the workers’ hands.
“We have passed the Taylor stage. We are aware that business has become terribly complex. Survival is very uncertain, in an environment filled with risk, the unexpected and competition. Therefore, a company must have the commitment of the minds of all employees to survive. For use, management is the entire work force’s intellectual commitment at the service of the company…without self-imposed functional or class barriers.
“We have measured - better than you - the new technological and economic challenges. We know that intelligence of a few technocrats - even very bright ones - has become totally inadequate to face these challenges. Only the intellects of all employees can permit a company to live with the ups and downs and the requirements of its new environment. Yes, we will win and you will lose. For you are not able to rid your minds of the obsolete Taylorisms that we never had.”
