Change won’t wait for us

Latest Japanese player to exit field as foreign rivals eat up market share

Yuu Nakamura
Aug 23, 2017 · 2 min read

In the past Japanese named for their problem: Galápagos syndrome. Recently announced that top 5 in Japan handsets player is looking to offload its mobile phone operations, becoming the latest casualty of growing competition in the once highly lucrative market, where Japanese players are finding it increasingly difficult to keep up with global giants.

Nearly all of the Japanese manufacturers that once thrived in the cellphone business have bowed out in recent years. Of the 11 major Japanese companies in that field in the early 2000s, only three — Sony, Sharp (now a unit of Foxconn) and Kyocera — will continue to make and develop the devices once Fujitsu departs. Mitsubishi Electric withdrew from the business in 2008, followed by Toshiba in 2012. IT company NEC and electronics maker Panasonic left the field in 2013.

Judge the core-competence and redefine the vision

I wouldn’t dissuade to stop manufacturing business for Japanese company, I would say that you have to either judge what is your core competence or prepare a clear vision and load-map with business strategy for what you want to be at each points unless they have well established conviction as brand message. As the pace of social transforming is really fast, so organisation has to be considered whether execute fast judgement or decision making, agile development, and actively utilize external partners in needs.

In this situation, the diversity is also the key factor that can be objective, flexible, and creative for address something only done by human. Since we are facing up-coming the fourth industrial revolution which is digital era through represented by artificial intelligence, internet of things, and big data. The life in 10 years might not be the one as we have seen in last 10 years.

“Have the courage to leave the place you used to”

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Yuu Nakamura

Written by

Glocalist, the voice from Japan through local and global perspectives. User Experience at Volvo group.

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