Sharpening technologies and enhancing competitiveness by taking advantage of the strength of foreign countries

Hiroyuki Yoshino Vice Chairmen, Nippon Keidanren Director and Advisor, Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

The 2003 overall ranking section of the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook was released in May. From this year, 59 countries and regions were ranked after separating countries with a population of over 20 million from other countries. Once again this year, Japan was ranked a low 11th, which was lower than Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, and the second lowest of the G7 nations. In order for Japan, a country of limited resources, to enhance competitiveness, it is most essential to further advance and develop its technologies. How should this be achieved?

When Mr. Allan Rock, the Canadian Minister of Industry, visited Honda recently, he said that Canada would not feel complacent in simply being a resource-rich country but would aim at becoming a technologically leading country with state-of-the-art technologies. In order to achieve this, the most impressive Canadian strategy is, first, to search globally for overseas companies with latest technologies and, furthermore, to adopt outstanding qualities to Canada in various aspects. In detail, 'adopting outstanding qualities' would include, communicating, collaborating, and absorbing outer knowledge, expertise and know-how. Relating to this respectful strategy, Mr. Rock also expressed his high expectations in collaborating with Honda in the R&D area.

Canada achieved the highest economic growth among the G7 nations in 2002 and according to the IMD investigation this year, Canada ranked third among countries with a population of over 20 million. In the realm of technology, they have created excellent ventures in the areas of fuel cell technology and biotechnology, thus maintaining the nation's high level of competitiveness. I believe that one of the keys to realize such achievements is to take advantage of the strengh of countries abroad.

At Honda the term "competition" allows us to first image racing scenes. Honda travels worldwide and competes against foreign teams, but at the same time, we benefit from encountering the strength of countries abroad. Most riders and drivers are non-Japanese, and taking the Formula 1 Race as an example, we develop the racing machines in cooperation with a foreign team. Honda engineers are achieving an advanced level through the competitive-yet-mutual-advancement racing experiences with foreign counterparts.

While both the Japanese government and companies tend to have possessed a rather close-minded attitude, from now on, it is important to develop an open-minded attitude and utilize foreign ideas in order to sharpen technologies and to enhance competitiveness.