16-21日目-17

My greatest reward of this business trip was not the delicious meal but the philosophy of Japanese practice. Apart from the meeting and mid-night gathering, I learned from our wise president that how significant it is to go along with other companies with similar technology as ours.

At the beginning, I could not figure out why we had to meet other companies in the same industry and even to make connection to them. They are not our clients, would not drive up our profits, and are probably our competitors. However, not until I gathered up all courage to ask our president for answers did I finally realize the reasons.

In Japan, there are a lot of small- and mid-sized companies with unique technique which especially belonged to them alone. Since they are too specialized in particular technique, it’s very difficult for them to handle other technologies at the same time and to produce on a large scale. Therefore, collaboration with other similar companies has become an important business practice to satisfied clients’ various requests and survived. With the cooperation, Japanese company can focus on their specialty and also keep flexibility.