The Brazilians beat the Germans in 2002...but next year?
But it wasn't about soccer! Tonight I talked about what's wrong with this country with an elder colleague at work.
The conversation started as we were talking about Livedoor's Horiemon (Mr. Horie's nickname). I claimed that Horiemon's adventures on buying out Fuji TV was something that younger generations support as his moves looks as if he is attacking the old systems of this country.
Protected interests and controlled business should be on fire once in a while to make business better. But older generations feel Horiemon is just under the influence of the magical powers of money. Riding cars worth millions and living in a luxurious penthouse is surely of envy to many of us. His moves look childish as he shows his emotions so easily at interviews and press conferences. Even more, the way he secured the money for his ambitions were not welcome. From "Gaishi" or foreign capital like Lehman Brothers are seen as the last resort in collecting money. If he busts only the Gaishi win. That's not welcome to many elders.
After debates about Horiemon were over, we were into talks about what will we learn from this. Or what the Japanese will learn? Horiemon seems to represent the new ideas supported by the younger generation. His company is an IT enterprise, battling old modes. After the bubble collapsed Japan has fought breaking old rules. Lifetime employment and the seniority system broken up with restructuring and releasing old employees. More individualism and promotions by ability. Many ideas of which were imported from the western world. Living in the States, these ideas were common and there were no surprises that the Japanese take notice of them.
But I don't entirely support all the companies worshipping them as a priority. Everybody says these western or rather "post modern" ways of managing companies are mandatory for global competition. It was a pleasant way to show what globalization means. I have objections.
I think Japanese are not ethnically fit to these styles. Japan is practically a single-race nation which we prefer not to change. We work much better with teamwork rather than one-man actions. Well, there might be arguments to this if we're talking about small companies, especially the "venture capital" ones. No time for teamwork for companies like Horiemon's. But I think a teamwork-full company is much fierceful than one with a lot of individual talents looking different ways (i.e. looking for a better company to work for).
The Americans would rather be scared by a bunch of Toyota cars sent across the ocean, rather than a limited edition IT hardware that would be useless after a half a year. Japan hasn't changed as a nation, why try to change its style? We should at least inspect and verify whether the Japanese formula was wrong before we blindly adopt the western values!
World Cup 2002's final game was a battle between Germany and Brazil. The individual talents of Brazil erupted in the game to beat the organized team work formation of Germany. But how will the game turn out with Brazil organizing its team to kill the individuals or Germany letting the personal talents move on with their own ways of playing. Let them play their type of soccer and who knows which will win in Germany next year!?
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