Drawing on his experience at the forefront of the global LCD competition, former Sharp president Katayama Mikio (片山幹雄) discusses the information warfare and organizational challenges facing Japanese companies, as well as the management mindset needed to win globally. The key points from the seminar, presented as a dialogue, are summarized below.
The development of LCD technology took place at the forefront of global competition, but Japanese companies have been criticized for lax information management, with cases in which materials were leaked to South Korea and elsewhere. He said overseas companies actively circulate talent and capital while maintaining structures for long-term investment, whereas Japanese companies tend to fall behind because of their lower liquidity.
He said Japanese companies face multiple pitfalls, including the scale trap, the talent trap, the past-success trap and the KPI trap, and explained the characteristics of and countermeasures for each with specific examples. In particular, he pointed out that organizational capabilities fail to keep pace with growth, and that companies lack appropriate talent allocation and a focus on delivery.
He argued that KPIs tend to be assessed as an extension of past performance and should be reviewed flexibly to reflect the business environment. Using a water-pipe analogy to analyze the supply chain, he stressed the importance of identifying where supply and demand are becoming bottlenecked and accelerating the recovery of investment.
He explained that, in the AI era, companies should operate on the premise that AI is the competitor and incorporate AI into management decisions and operations. People and the ability to make effective use of talent remain critical, he said, adding that strengthening organizations by recruiting talent from outside is also important.
He concluded that businesses operating globally should continue to be managed in line with global standards and that there is value in choosing businesses built to last.