Beating The Japanese At Their Own Game
You wouldn’t enter a fist fight with one hand tied behind your bad so why fight Japan’s technological prowess with the serious handicap of being thousands of miles away from the island nation A far better strategy, argues John R Stern, executive director of the U.S. Electronics Industry’s Japan office, is to set up shop in the Land of the Rising Sun. In a recent talk at the Industrial Biotechnology Association’s annual meeting, Stern urged his audience to follow the example of some electronics firms and form subsidiaries abroad. The reason: In Japan, a foreign subsidiary can grow by “foraging,” explained Stem, “that is, by taking advantage of aspects of the foreign environment that are more favorable than at home.” One such perk is the money that the Japan Development Bank has made available to foreign-owned companies: Millions of dollars are set aside...