nese business managers, or companies, have a major talent for turning adversity into advantage, since, historically speaking, Japan's biggest hardships have inspired its most impressive innovations.
In addition, the internal societal pressures that Japanese companies have overcome during the last few years--slow economic growth, price deflation, over-crowded markets, and copying of innovations by rivals, are spreading to the rest of the rich world Western world.
This particular analysis approaches the data in the case study from a different point of view -- that of the keiretsu. For it is the contention that the keiretsu is indistinguishable from Japan. The study will include an investigation of the pertinent literature available on the topic, followed by an attempt to take the most important points of that literature to form a basis for further understanding of the importance of the keiretsu concept. Finally, the study will attempt to show what directions Japanese managers must go in their attempts to re-invent the keiretsu.
Much literature exists praising the management efficiencies of the Japanese keiretsu and its style of operation for maximum effectiveness. Dunning argued (1995) that the paradigm of the kereitsu was one which should be followed by companies wishing to remain competitive in the global economy since it answers the needs of consumers by focusing on the upgrading of core competencies of firms, and on the way these firms are organized as a means of improving their global competitive advantages Dunning, 1995).
Lillirank (1995) agreed that most of the basic ideas of Japanese management were originally developed in the United States. The Japanese had the wisdom to translate these ideas of management into competitive advantages, and the very success of these cross-germinated ideas created a demand in the West for "secrets" of Japanese management, including flow-based plant layouts, trust-based supplier ...