Japan Inc. Now Just a Memory

[Taro Toporific]

Japan Inc. Now Just a Memory,
Toshiba Retools Its Image
NYTimes.com > Aug 20
...Toshiba, like other giant Japanese electronics companies-- Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC and Mitsubishi Electric-- is under pressure to discard the vestiges of Japan's glory days in the 1980's and early 1990's, when they seemed capable of winning just about every battle they fought in the global economy. Now, Toshiba is trying to recast itself as a leaner, more focused company able to thrive in a new era where the old rules that worked so well for so long no longer apply.... the past clings so tightly to Toshiba and the other electronics giants that many outsiders fear they will never quite manage to catch up with their hard-charging rivals elsewhere...
...Peter Kirkman, chief investment officer at J. P. Morgan Fleming Asset Management here, who said: "I am reasonably skeptical about the electronics conglomerates because they have lost competitiveness to other Asian countries and their balance sheets are impaired. They cannot implement restructuring when they employ as many people as the U.S. Army."
...Mr. Okamura {CEO of Toshiba laments} "... given the global competition and ever-changing demand. There is no satisfaction."

[cstaylor]

Sounds like G.M. during the 70's and 80's.

[Taro Toporific]

[quote="cstaylor"]Sounds like G.M. during the 70's and 80's. ]

As a GM stockholder, I'd like to add, "G.M. during the 70s and 80s and 00s. "

[Crispy]

The electronics scene changed since the '80s? Say it ain't so!

[ramchop]

Now, Toshiba is trying to recast itself as a leaner, more focused company....

... by continuing the Japanese tradition of giving their sports teams stupid names:



via babel fish:

Toshiba Fuchu Brave Lupus
Origin of term of endearment:
In the ground ' the wolf ' the way, at the same time kind of fine there is no partner, intention to fight, it loses the organizational crowd wildness including the meaning of designating the driving into and the brave bold play which overflow as circumstances.

OK, it's not the stupidest Japanese sports team name that I've ever seen.. but Metropolis did have them listed as the "Toshiba Fuchu Brave Loops", now that would have been stupid!

[Caustic Saint]

Okay, I know canis lupus is Latin for wolves, but every time I see "lupus" I think Lupus Erythematosus.