Compared with tesla, BYD and other new energy vehicle companies, the performance of Japanese car companies in the past year is not very optimistic. Recently, according to the statistics of the automotive industry: in 2021, the sales list of Japanese car companies in China, Honda, Nissan and Mazda and other major brands have declined, only Toyota sold explosively, with sales in China reaching 1.944 million vehicles, an increase of 8.2% year-on-year, a new high for 9 consecutive years.
I have to say that the skinny camel is bigger than the horse, and the strength of the Japanese car brand is obvious to all. But many people say this: Japan is a small country, lack of talent, lack of resources, lack of market, then how did their cars rise?
Is Japan a small country? What misconceptions do you have about projectiles?
Let's count the car brands of the three Axis countries in World War II, including Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen and Porsche in Germany; Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Mitsubishi in Japan; and Ferrari, Lamborghini, Pagani, Maserati and Fiat in Italy.
It should be known that these mechanical factories in the former Axis countries have transferred their energy to the study of aircraft and tanks to automobiles, and many of these manufacturers have military business before, and their main business is not automobiles.
That is to say, before World War II, in fact, Japan was already an industrialized country, with a heavy industrial foundation, especially ships, aviation and other military industries to cultivate a basic industrial system, the status of Japanese automobiles is obvious.
Let's see if Japan is a small country? In terms of land area, Japan is indeed not too big, but it is similar to Sweden, Germany and other countries. But there is a problem, the territory not only contains the land area, but the Japanese territorial sea is still quite large, larger than Italy, larger than the United Kingdom, but the land area is relatively small, in general, Japan can not be regarded as a small country.
At the same time, Japan has a population of 127 million, twice that of Britain and France, and 1.5 times that of Germany, which is second only to the United States among developed countries. 127 million people will still lack talent? Then Neither England nor France nor Germany will have to live.
In addition, there is no shortage of talent, technology and capital in Japan. Japan is the first industrial country among non-white countries, before World War II there was a complete industrial system and industrial education system, World War II destroyed Japanese hardware, but did not break the Japanese people's education level of these software.
After World War II, the United States began to vigorously support Japan, on the one hand, cheap or even free transfer of technology, statistics show that after the Second World War, the United States transferred 180 billion US dollars to Japan to develop technology at a cost of 180 billion US dollars.
Japan also has no shortage of markets, more than 100 million Japanese, the size of its domestic market is enough to cultivate its own automobile industry. More importantly, during the Cold War, in order to create a capitalist window, the United States opened its domestic market to Japan. It can be said that Japan's automobile industry, and even all industries, have grown up on the Us market.
Therefore, "small countries" like Germany and South Korea can make cars sound and colorful, and Japan is twice as large as them, so why can't we make cars better?
Second, just talking about history and technology can't be finished for several days, but the simple truth is that "the children of the poor have long been home"
The lack of talents will make them more humble to learn from the strong (starting from the imitation of American cars); the lack of resources allows them to put reliability, durability and economic practicality in the first place (the accumulation of Japanese car reputation); without the market, it is necessary to come up with better products to survive (technological innovation and the beginning of optimized production models), etc. When they do these to the extreme, the product itself is a high-quality product, right?
Of course, I have no intention of praising Japanese cars, but objectively evaluating it, Japanese cars are indeed successful, but behind their road to success, it is actually sad and helpless, not what is kingly in the world. Because they did not have the background, scale, technology and market advantages of European and American car manufacturers at that time, in the era when Japanese cars started, European manufacturers and American manufacturers were stronger.
However, Japanese manufacturers are willing to start from the most basic and slowly transition to low-end cars, so that they have today. Today's Japanese manufacturers are successful, especially Toyota Honda can stand out from the crowd, but when they first entered the US market, they were also abused by American brands. Toyota entered for the first time, and it didn't take long to exit again. Even taking out his own flagship sedan has been ridiculed by American consumers. The second time, with the cost performance, it barely stood firm; there was no shadow of Japanese manufacturers in the high-end market. Therefore, any success must have a huge effort and effort.
In addition, there is an objective reason, that is, the choice of history. By virtue of the oil crisis, Japanese cars have completely become one of the automobile powers, and have begun to achieve the same dialogue with Europe and the United States, in other words, there is indeed a factor of luck. Before that, Japan also began to exert efforts, such as the integration of domestic car brands, asset consolidation, and reduction of production costs, which played a vital role in their own car brands.
At present, our own car brands have also begun to exert their strength, which is a gratifying thing, especially at present, the foreign sales of many independent brands are not bad, which is a bit similar to the rise of Japanese brands in that year.
Finally, there is a very important point, that is, the current power system is transforming, from the evolution of oil vehicles to new energy vehicles, this is actually a good opportunity, is it also very similar to the oil crisis in the 70s of the last century? History is always strikingly similar, so whether success can be copied, we will wait and see.
Finally, apart from opportunities, what is the root of Japanese cars that are right?
Why are Japanese cars able to rise, and apart from efforts and opportunities, is there anything they have done right at the root? Is there anything desirable about their philosophy, code of conduct, or form of organization that has led to their long-term success? And in these places, is there anything we can learn from?
It should be known that Japanese automakers, including many other Japanese companies, have been successful because they have practiced the unity of individual and organizational interests in their business operations, and are a collectivist organization based on the spirit of contract. And this kind of collectivism is exactly what companies like automakers especially need.
Because the car is a large, fine, but sometimes instead of a particularly high intellectual threshold of the product, a small number of geniuses in the process of providing a perfect product, the multiplier effect is not particularly large, and a large number of responsible engineers, quality inspectors and workers who have a certain innovative power, etc., but it is the key to determining whether the depot can do a good job.
This determines that the automobile industry cannot and should not be a pyramid structure, like the financial industry, relying on a small number of leaders at the top to lead the traders below to trade. It should be a spindle-type structure, relying on a large number of middle and low levels with a sense of ownership to explore, and practicing continuous improvement and development of products.
Here I take Toyota, the most systematic and famous in the philosophy of several major Japanese depots, as an example, to explain how Japanese companies make such a large middle and low-level engineers and workers not regard themselves as a machine that does nothing, but are really willing, and on the basis of will, the organization is also willing to accept their innovation and be responsible, and how to form a benign mechanism for cooperation between the upper and lower levels.
You know, many companies around the world do not encourage the next situation, ordinary employees have ideas? Hold back. Whether the idea is a complaint about the environment or an improvement in craftsmanship, this is not allowed in many businesses, let alone encouraged spiritually and materially.
In many companies, employees and machines are like equipment, just as part of the factors of production, people's subjective initiative, in most enterprises is often erased, in order to reduce management costs, let some entrepreneurs worry less, and have more time to read an MBA, this phenomenon is more obvious in manufacturing enterprises, although the Internet company will be better, but in fact, the root is similar.
On the contrary, Toyota's management methods, if in this industry, will generally be heard. For most people's impressions, it may mainly stay on lean production, such as how to save steps for operators, how to stuff more screws into a box, how to separate the moving wires, how to do 5S and quality inspection system.
Are these things important? Of course, it is important, but these things, in the final analysis, are summed up by Toyota's engineers in their daily work, combined with a certain philosophy. Since Toyota engineers can, there is no reason why we can't, so why don't we seem to have produced many companies like Toyota that are consistently successful?
Because Toyota's methodology is not simply a set of methods, but a set of living systems. The cornerstone of this system is the philosophy of "full management and mutual commitment", which is the cornerstone of the success of Japanese automobiles and what we should learn.
To sum up, I think that the Japanese company as the forest of the world's enterprises, you may not be the most willing to see it, you may not feel that it is the strongest, but I think that if you are not even willing to admit that it is "strong", unwilling to admit that he has a unique point in business, it is too arrogant.
I have always believed that for us in China, the development of the automotive industry does not need to be achieved overnight, and the phrase "bold assumptions, careful verification" seems to be able to move here, that is, we must have the courage to make great strides forward, but we must also think carefully about serious accumulation. If so, the future can be expected.