From: fester@island.COM (Mike Fester)
Subject: Re: Japanese employees and consumers [long reply with tangents]
Organization: /usr/local/rn/organization
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 18:43:52 GMT

In article <HARKCOM.92Nov16120723@spinach.pa.yokogawa.co.jp> harkcom@spinach.pa.yokogawa.co.jp (Alton Harkcom) writes:

A few addenda to previous posts:

>In article <7444@bigbird.hri.com.hri.com> blamb@hri.com (Bill Lambert) writes:
>
> =}I'm familiar with those things, Mike, but I'm glad that you pointed
> =}them out, as some things are the exceptions that prove the rule.
>
>   Not quite.  What Mr. Fester posted was not exceptions to the rules,
>but symptoms of problems with the system.  Employees in Japan are in
>no way highly regarded as an asset to a company (except for the rare
>company which is small enough to know what it's like not to have enough
>applicants).  Large companies in particular are as bad as their US
>counterparts in using their employees.  (I am an employee of a large
>Japanese company and have a network of friends from various large
>companies...)
>
>   One of the reasons I joined my company is that the literature paints
>it to be a company which cares for its employees (and to a certain extent
>this is true).  However, even my company trails far behind many US
>companies (IBM, Lotus, Honeywell, Johnson controls) in its treatment of
>employees.

The citing of IBM is interesting. The Japanese used post-war IBM in modelling
most of their large businesses (see Drucker for more explanatio). This is
seen in the "life-time" employment, the relatively low wages (but very gener-
ous benefits), the 'uniform' blue business suit, etc. In short, with modifica-
tions of course, the "Japanese way" looks a lot like the "IBM way", and for
good reason. (They even WEAR the same color as IBMers).

> =}I've also had
> =}home appliances installed when *I* wanted (which was off 9-5 hours).
>
>   This is truly amazing.  Most delivery outfits run on very 'flexible'
>schedules and don't even know when they will be in your area to
>deliver.  At most companies they give you a date of delivery which you
>can change to a later date.  On the day, you must be at home until they
>deliver.  This can sometimes mean staying at home all until early
>evening.  Some companies won't let you decide the date, and some won't
>even give a definite date (they say it will be on a certain day or the
>following day).  Some companies will let you specify afternoon or
>evening for delivery as they run a morning route and an afternoon
>route.  However these companies are usually more expensive (large
>department stores and such)...  I have only dealt with one company
>that would let me schedule a possible delivery for hours outside the
>9-5 range.  They agreed to bring my delivery last as I lived near their
>center.  It took about 20 minutes of begging over the telephone to
>get them to do this...

I'd have to agree with Mr Harckom on this. At least, the various department 
stores in Kichijouji were like this. And, for a sofa-bed I ordered, there was
a one-week wait for delivery (even though the item was in stock). Now, those
operations that deal in USED appliances, etc, are more flexible, at least in 
my experience.

>In Summary:  Japanese companies seek the same thing (profits) as US
>companies do.  They also use the same methods (trampling) to attain
>it...  One can find exceptions in both countries, but these exceptions
>don't a rule make :)

I'd have to agree here. I'll give  BIG edge to Japan in overall service, esp
at the larger (more expensive) department stores, most restaurants, etc, but 
after that, in reality, it's a wash.

Mike
-- 
Disclaimer - I'm only doing what the little voices tell me to do.