You’ll have to excuse the fact that this post is not really at first glance much about FOREX, more about corporate cultural differences between Japan and western countries in general… which in a way is related to FOREX.
I read an interesting story about corporate culture at Toyota, even in tough times they don’t lay off workers, instead they train them, shift them to plants which are understaffed etc. In the last couple of years GM has laid off 34,000 workers, Toyota (in the US) ZERO.
At the bottom was a link to an old (2006) article about Honda. They really come across as the masters of diversification, and some very solid reasons why they will probably be around for a long time. It’s also interesting that they are run by engineers, where big car companies in western countries are run by accounting types.
Their slogan
“To be a company that society wants to exist.”
Not a bad goal, though it makes good survival sense
Honda believes that society does not cotton to companies that melt ice caps and kill coral reefs. Cars that create less pollution also cost less to fill up.
And interestingly they’ve never had a losing year. Would be interesting to see how the current economic climate has affected them.
Some months back I visited Japan and was very impressed with their efficiency (particularly the subways), when you compare it to Sydney or London their efficiency is amazing, everything is designed around getting things done quickly and efficiently. I should mention that this isn’t true for everything in Japan, try to get something out of the ordinary done that requires someone making a decision and chances are you’ll go crazy!