[(The Management Challenge: Japanese Views )] [Author: Lester C. Thurow] [Mar-1987]

by Lester Carl Thurow

The original contributions in this book present Japanese management as the Japanese see it. They show how an economy that has outperformed ours during the last thirty years works, providing American managers with insights into practices that may spark new solutions to old economic problems. Thurow's introductory essay and his comments on each contribution provide a unifying framework while pointing up the implications that each chapter raises for the reblending of the American economic mixture. What works for the Japanese? As Thurow points out in his introduction, seniority promotions, lifetime employment, a wage structure heavily conditioned by bonuses, a culture that emphasizes the group rather than the individual, attention to good people management, and an efficient labor market--these are some of the ingredients in the Japanese system of payoffs and constraints that have contributed to that country's economic success. Conversely, he notes that high turnover, the lack of willingness to maintain employees on the payroll in exchange for "give-backs" during hard times, the emphasis on blue-collar layoffs, and treatment of human losers hardly contribute to mutual respect and cooperation in American firms. Our focus on improving capital rather than labor markets, on short-term financial objectives, and large bonuses based on current profits have not resulted in an optimal corporate environment. And what about the necessity for industrial policies? As one contributor asks, "Who is watching out for the steel industry and worrying about how to make it viable?" No one? The market?The Japanese experience presented in these essays coversmotivation and productivity, the impact of Japanese culture on management, perceptions and reality of Japanese industrial relations, the firm and the market in Japan, the Japanese financial system, product diversification, strategy for overseas markets, competition and cooperation among Japanese corporations, Japan's industrial policy, economic planning in Japan, and the Japanese economy.

Paperback

First published June 1, 1985

About the author

Lester Carl Thurow (born 1938) is a former dean of the MIT Sloan School of Management and author of numerous bestsellers on economic topics.
Thurow was born in Livingston, Montana. He received his B.A. in political economy from Williams College in 1960, where he was in Theta Delta Chi and Phi Beta Kappa as a junior, and a Tyng Scholar. Thurow was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, and went to Balliol College, Oxford to read Philosophy, Politics and Economics, graduating in 1962 with first class honors. He received a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1964.
Thurow is on the board of directors of Analog Devices, Grupo Casa Autrey, E-Trade, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.. Thurow was also one of the original founders of the Economic Policy Institute in 1986.
Thurow is currently an economics columnist for, among others, the Boston Globe and USA Today. He was previously an economics columnist for and on the editorial board of the New York Times, and was a contributing editor to Newsweek.
Thurow is a longtime advocate of a political and economic system of the Japanese and European type, in which governmental involvement in the direction of the economy is far more extensive than is presently the case in the United States – a model that has come to be known as "Third Way" philosophy.
His best selling book, Head to Head: The Coming Economic Battle Among Japan, Europe and America published in 1993, compares economic growth and living standards among Japan, Europe, and the USA.
His other books include:
Fortune Favors the Bold: What we must do to build a new and lasting global prosperity (2003).
The Future of Capitalism: how today's economic forces shape tomorrow's world (1996).
The Zero-sum Solution: building a world-class American economy (1985).
Dangerous Currents: the state of economics (1983).
The Zero-sum Society: distribution and the possibilities for economic change (1980).
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