GV - Re: "One of the tenets of this Japanese model was that market share was the key, as long as you focused on market share then the profits would eventually follow. Back then, of course, an American manager focused on profits in addition to market share was just too short-term oriented to compete in the new global economy"
Japan, Inc. wasn't necessarily wrong with their market share goals.
They achieved these (temporarily), as you noted, without regard to profits.
However, Japan, Inc. was blindsided by Korea, Inc. which entered the Japan, Inc Memory space and beat them at their own game - Market Share without regard to profits.
Korea, Inc. (Samsung, Huyndai, Lucky Goldstar) all gained access to essentially "free" capital to enter, compete and expand into semiconductor memory.
As we all found out, the "free" capital turned out in the long run not to be free (for both Korea and Japan) and the result was all but one DRAM manufacturer in Japan and Korea (Samsung) survived the market-share-grab.
Paul |
