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今回の地震で被害に遭われた方々に、お見舞い申し上げます。

とりあえず、拡散の意味でリンクをいくつか置いておきます。

• Google安否情報システム
• 宮城の被災者に支援物資を送りたい方へ

後者を読んでの感想。要するに「あんたが要らない物は、被災地の人たちも要らない」「救援物資と称してゴミを処分するのはやめろ」ということですね。当たり前のことですが。

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When I read this part, I felt strange feeling. The case of Seiyu and Wal-Mart is known to be a fiasco in Japan.
They tried to introduce EDLP (Every Day Low Price) strategy into Seiyu but resulted in a big failure. It was said to be because of three points:

1. In Japan, still many people decide which supermarket to go by looking at the flyer delivered with the newspaper every morning. Seiyu abolished the flyer saying no ad is necessary for EDLP strategy, but that was not accepted by Japanese consumers.
2. The price of Seiyu was actually not so much cheaper than others, at least not overwhelmingly cheaper. This was mainly because the supply chain optimization did not work well in Seiyu, even with the help from Wal-Mart.
3. Several private brand products of Wal-Mart were introduced at cheap price. However, they did not meet the quality standard of Japanese consumers.

Wal-Mart and Seiyu started partnership in 2003 and until 2006 they struggled to enforce EDLP strategy into Seiyu. However, every year until 2008 Seiyu reported operation loss.

After 2007, Seiyu temporarily tried to get away from EDLP and concentrated on supply chain improvement. Recently they are trying to restart the EDLP, but with several modifications. It seems to be going well, at least much better than the one during 2003-2006.

The differences are as follows:

1. They call the strategy “Kakaku Yasuku” in Japanese, instead of English word “EDLP” (lol).
2. They started to assure the customers the cheapest price competing with flyer. If a customer brings a flyer with a price cheaper than Seiyu, Seiyu discounts to match it.
3. Now some of the PB products are low price with satisfactory quality, thanks to the big purchasing power and supply chain by Wal-Mart

What can we learn from here?

Of course the cultural difference with flyer ad was one of the reason. However, I think the most crucial point is that we need to consider what is the actual core value of “hedgehog concept” before enforcing it. EDLP strategy works for Wal-Mart because consumers can bet the price is actually the lowest at Wal-Mart. EDLP strategy did not work in Japan until the flyer match system started to assure the lowest price, and also until Seiyu improve the supply chain to make the price actually low.
Trying to imitate the concept without actual core value can even be dangerous.

Another important implication of this story is, yes, even Wal-Mart can sometimes fail. However, at the same time, it seems they are getting back to success by applying the true core value of their hedgehog concept.

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このエントリは私が勤める会社で書かされた読書感想文の置き場なので、無視してください。

The first impression I got after reading the book is “Yes. The world is flat – but it would be only for those who can speak English.”

I have an experience working with a software company in India (the same company argued in the book). Although they have superior technology and cost advantage, the project failed after several months of struggle. It was basically language and cultural problem. The Indian company assigned an Indian person who “speaks” Japanese, but his Japanese was limited and in the end we needed to communicate in English.
When we develop a software, the first task is “requirement definition”, which is to define how the software should work. Indian company is really good at the software development AFTER the “requirement definition”, but we could not reach to that point.

The experience always reminds me of a film title, “Lost In Translation”. Indeed, things are easily lost in translation. It is difficult to let software company know what you expect even when both parties speak the same language. You can imagine how hard it is with different language. I believe the high-level managements whom Thomas Friedman interviewed was telling what they believe is true. However, there’s always a possibility of different story going on in the real world.

Also it is true that the technology such as the Internet and web2.0 shorten the distance. However, ordinary Japanese people can’t understand English. Even if English web site is available in front of him/her, he/she can’t understand it anyway.

Translation software, at least at current level, does not help a lot.
“Please have keeping about the written guarantee and the receipt when it buys it to receive the guarantee appropriately. When it will correspond at the customer caring center, it needs it.”
This is a sample of “English” I just got at a web page with translation service. You may understand the intention, but it is very hard and takes time to read it. As far as I remember the quality of computer translation has not significantly improved for these 20 years.

In short, even the information, job and services can be ubiquitous in today’s world, there’s always the limitation of accessibility due to the INTERFACE for non English natives.
In other words, the “Flat” world would be the one where the difference of interface matters much more than physical distance.