Rilegato

ISBN 10: 0875844375 ISBN 13: 9780875844374

Casa editrice: Harvard Business Review Press, 1995

For managers seeking to understand how Japan has sustained a premier position in high-technology industries, Fumio Kodama provides a model that sheds light on global technology competition. He examines the technology strategies of large Japanese firms, arguing that a new paradigm shift favors their strengths in demand articulation and technology fusion. Using rigorous scientific measurement, historical perspective, and in-depth case studies, he presents an analysis from which companies--and governments--can draw enduring lessons. Analyzing data gathered over ten years of intensive research and study of Japanese firms, he distinguishes six dimensions along which the paradigm shift is occurring: manufacturing, business diversification, R&D competition, product development, innovation pattern, and societal diffusion of technology. He illuminates his discussion of each dimension with a profile of specific technologies and the companies that have advanced them, including consumer electronics (Sony Toshiba), fiber optic cables (Sumitomo Electric), computers and communications equipment (NEC), machine tools (Fanuc), and automobile parts (Honda, Toyota, Nissan).

About the Author:

Since 1984, Harvard Business School Press has been dedicated to publishing the most contemporary management thinking, written by authors and practitioners who are leading the way. Whether readers are seeking big-picture strategic thinking or tactical problem solving, advice in managing global corporations or for developing personal careers, HBS Press helps fuel the fire of innovative thought. HBS Press has earned a reputation as the springboard of thought for both established and emerging business leaders.

From Booklist:

Kodama's analysis shows that the Japanese have not, as some suggest, adapted their business, economic, and social systems to take maximum advantage of leading and changing technologies. Instead, he argues, these technologies intrinsically suit the Japanese. Kodama builds a model of how Japanese companies manage innovation and technological change; he identifies six areas where most change is occurring: manufacturing, diversification, research and development competition, product development, innovation pattern, and societal diffusion of technology. Kodama is a professor of science, technology, and industry at the University of Tokyo, and he has been a visiting professor at Stanford and at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. Although the author is Japanese, his language is pure "bizschoolspeak" ; he writes of techno-paradigm shifts, demand articulation, knowledge creation, and upstream linkages. Kodama also includes rigorous mathematical analysis of data he has compiled for 10 years. Recommended for academic or major business collections. David Rouse