Sony, which was founded in 1946, the second year after World War II, just witnessed Japan's innovation process. "Creating an ideal factory that is free, open-minded, relaxed and happy," the phrase in Sony's "Declaration of Establishment" became its global hotspot The starting point for the sale of goods. The corner into their own music world walkman walkman (listed in 1979) so that Sony ushered in its heyday.
However, the momentum has not continued for a long time until 2000. Although Sony released 3 digital products such as Walkman that can be connected to a computer, it was developed by another business unit around 2000. As a result of lack of compatibility, the unified strategy has also become a bubble. Years, the United States Apple's iPod market, creating a model to download music anytime, anywhere, become the golden age of Apple's entry into the iPhone.
'Some products are the only ones we can do,' said a Sony executive at the time, noting that there was no timely change in demand, despite its technical strength. "Why do people in organizations sometimes act stupidly? , Gillette Tate of the Financial Times in the United Kingdom said that at the time Sony departments were isolated from each other and had no general plan and were in a 'loose sand' status.
From the 100 inventions of post-war Japan innovations compiled by the Japan Inventions Association, innovative products such as Walkman that combine new ideas with technology to create new value all occurred in the 1980s. Why?
Walkman origin of creativity is the founder of Sony's well-thought-way when you want to fly alone to listen to music alone.Waseda University Associate Professor Kazuyama Noboru Zhang Rong said that after the reign of the pioneering generation, Japanese companies did not build can replace entrepreneurs, Organizations and management systems that share common goals'.
Combination of knowledge
The recession of innovation also shows that the 'Japanese common sense' such as lifetime employment, annual merits and laws and regulations has come to an end. Although Japan is a developed country, the system of dismissal is very strict, and it is very difficult for managers to carry out bold business reorganization. Lifelong employment of employees? Japanese companies are aware of this problem, so they are unable to make a long-term determination to make full use of outside talent.
The industrial innovation agency that shows a sense of presence on the Toshiba issue belongs to the state. The agency requires that the reorganization of enterprises is a common occurrence, but ambitious large enterprises with numerous talents are unable to realize the metabolism as a whole. If knowledge and experience are not renewed Combination, innovation is ultimately empty talk.Japanese IT industry still need time to be resurrected.
Carbon fiber, blue LEDs and flash memory ... Japanese companies still dominate in materials and components, and in the service industry, the rise of start-up companies such as Dream Street, a pioneering online delivery service, Very significant.
At an innovative bioengineering project at Stanford University in the United States, members of the professional community came to the medical field in about two months for consultation with doctors and patients. Innovations are not a few of the geniuses of patents. From this point of view, Enterprises should explore the ordinary people's perspective should be improved place and demand.
Today, Tokyo University, Osaka University and medical companies are taking this approach. "Professor Morikawa Morita of the East University said that most innovations such as Internet of Things (Io) are emerging from the production line, which is beneficial to Japan, which emphasizes the production front line '.
'The only source of innovation is' anger,' "said Tom Peters, a U.S. business advisor who said that upstart was spurred by the car's fury in San Francisco, and Airbnb, a homestay and brokerage platform, During the hotel full of complaints derived from.
Anger and dissatisfaction are everywhere in life and commerce, and how can it be sublimated into innovative products and services that create a virtuous circle? Some of Japan's traditional habits may be tested.
Do not consider 'output'
The protagonist of innovation is undoubtedly the enterprise, but the ability of Japanese companies to create profits through research and development is declining.
"Although some NEC execs feel sorry that they have other motor technologies that other companies can not imitate ..., NEC decided in August to sell a lithium-ion battery company co-funded with Nissan to a Chinese fund.
As a power source for electric vehicles (EVs), lithium-ion batteries have a very promising future market, but NEC can not open up other customers except Nissan and Nissan has decided to diversify its buyers. Commercialization.
Let's take a look at the figures first and foremost to spawn the R & D capabilities of new technologies. From Japan's MEXT's R & D spending by various countries in 2015, Japan saw a 26% increase over 2000. In the meantime, An increase of 10 times and surpassing Japan in 2009. Japan lags far behind China and the United States, ranking only third.
From the mechanical and electrical industry point of view, the situation in Japan is even more grim.NCE and other eight large-scale integrated electrical and mechanical enterprises in fiscal 2016 (as of March 2017) research and development costs add up to about 2 trillion yen, a decrease of 22% The decline was even more pronounced when compared with a 3% drop in sales.
A serious problem is that the efficiency of research and development has dropped significantly. Japan's Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting conducted an 'efficiency' survey, using the average value-added added by companies in the world's major economies in five years divided by the five-year R & D cost average.
A comparison of five Japanese, Viennese, French, and Korean companies shows that Japan was 32 times the lowest level in 2016. It maintained a downward trend almost 47 times in 2000. European companies also showed a downward trend as Japan did, however Japan's R & D status quo, executive director of Japan's Deloitte Fujii just think: 'Which market will expand in the future, do not fully consider the' output 'to carry out research and development there are many examples.'
The third wave in Asia
The advent of Asia in front of Japan through innovation comes in the background of changes in the industrial structure in Asia, which started with labor-intensive industries that use cheap labor and consolidated the world's factories through capital-intensive industries that use large equipment such as semiconductors and petrochemistry In recent years ushered in the third wave of that knowledge-intensive industries such as IT and pharmaceutical rise.
'With limited generic growth', Kirti Kanakar, senior vice president at overseeing overseas operations at Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, India, explains why it is committed to the development of new drugs such as anti-cancer drugs.
On the self-developed treatment of chronic dermatological drugs, the company has applied to the European and American authorities for sale, plans to enter the Japanese market in the future.
The earliest navigators in Asia were garments and other light industries. From the 1970s to the 1980s, Hong Kong capital built apparel factories on the mainland to build the foundations for manufacturing, while South Korea and Taiwan also accumulated their capital through processing trade. Since the 1990s, capital The rise of intensive industries The rise of the Korean steel industry in POSCO in Taiwan, the plastics industry in Taiwan (Formosa Plastics) in the petrochemical industry as opponents of Japanese companies, etc. In the semiconductor industry, South Korea's Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) Rapid Growth of Global Enterprises. China and India Rise Knowledge-intensive Industries
In 2001, China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) increased its foreign direct investment in China and accelerated the globalization of its industries. OEM Hon Hai, Taiwan's precision-manufacturing industry that produces electronic products such as personal computers, has stepped up its production in mainland China.
Since the mid 2000s, with the global popularization of the IT industry, the commissioning of software development in China and India has expanded .As the education level in Asia has increased, the number of senior technical staff has increased.In the pharmaceutical industry, the world's largest pharmaceutical companies have also been in China Mainland and Singapore set up research base.
Judging from the total market capitalization of Asian companies, as of the end of October, representatives of knowledge-intensive industries - pharmaceuticals and networks accounted for 8.0% of the overall total market capitalization (QUICK FactSet Survey), up from 1.7% 10 years ago increase.
Recently, the Internet-related fields have been very eye-catching. The rapid popularization of mobile payment apps by Internet companies such as China's Alibaba Group and their scheduled visit to Japan may even change Japan's social structure.