Post by Santosh Puthran on Oct 18, 2005 19:34:44 GMT
Our host was Jerman Gvishiani, who was then deputy chairman of the Council Of ministers for Science and technology, and is now deputy chairman of the State Planning Committee. He’s a friendly, sophisticated man who speaks Perfect English. I had met in San Francisco at a party given by Steve Bechel, senior, Right after a meeting Sponsored by the conference board and Standford research institute. I was amazed to see this Russian playing marvelous jazz piano and circulating with such ease and suavity in the capitalistic environment.
In the USSR he was just as expansive. He insisted the try dishes from his home country, hearty peasant food. He took to see factories in the suburbs of Moscow and Leningrad, And I watched then making radios and television picture tubes and assembling television sets. I saw everything there was to see, but I was not impressed. The Soviets were then eight To ten years behind Japan and the West In their Consumer electronics technology. They worked with crude and awkward and inefficient production technology. It was obvious to me that the lack of quality and reliability was directly attributable to the indifferent, plodding attitude of the Workers and the management that has not figured out how to motivate the engineers and the production workers. Even the Soviet citizens make ironic jokes about how badly designed and poorly made things are, but I believe Quality has improved since my visit
At the end, my host brought me to his office, where he was joined by an official from the Ministry of Communications and a group of bureaucrats. Mr. Gvishiani smiled and said to me, ‘Now Mr. Morita, you have seen our factories and you understand our ability. We don’t have inflation or wage increases in our country. We have a stable labor force. We offer to share this with your country in the form of subcontracts.’
He seemed to be proud of what he had shown me, and perhaps for someone who had watched the Soviet people struggle along through the years, the progress seemed to be phenomenal. But I was not encouraged by what I had seen.
I looked around the room at the faces waiting for me to say something. I asked Gvishiani if I could really say what was on my mind. He said that I should, by all means. And so I did.
‘I am going to tell you the truth,’ I said. ‘In Japan we used our top talent and our best brains and spent years seeking ways to increase the efficiency and the productivity of even such simple thing as a screwdriver. We have racked our brains and made detailed studies and experiments to decide just what is the exact and precise temperature for a soldering iron in each particular application. You do not make any such effort here; there appears to be no need to do it, because nobody seems to care.
‘Frankly, Mr. Gvishiani, I am very sorry to criticize anything after you have been such a fine host and shown me all around, but I must tell you that I could not bear to see Sony Products being produced under such conditions as you have here. I cannot offer you our product technology yet.’
He took it quite calmly and motioned to one of his assistants who proudly handed him small, crude, boxy Soviet made black and white transistored television receiver.’
‘Mr. Morita,’ he said, ‘this is a television set we are not planning to sell in Europe. ‘What do you think of it, please?’ Again I had to ask him, ‘May I really say what I think? He nodded.
I took a deep breadth. “Mr. Gvishiani, there is a wonderful artistic talent in Soviet Union, “I began. ‘Your musicians, your dancers, your artistic heritage are grand and your performers are world-renowned. You are fortunate that you have both technology and art in your country.
‘But why don’t I see both exhibited in this television set? Since you have art and technology in the Soviet Union, why do you not combine them to combine up with wonderful things? Frankly, gentlemen, knowing what we know of the market and consumer preferences, we would not consider such an ugly television to be merchandise.’
There was a moment of stunned silence and then Gvishiani turned to the communications ministry official: ‘Will you please respond to Mr. Morita’s comments?”
With all seriousness, the official said, ‘We understand what you are saying, Mr. Morita. But art is not under our jurisdiction!’
It was an incredible answer. I started to feel bad and I said, ‘Oh, I understand that. I have said all that I wanted to say. If you give me one these televisions, I will bring it back to Tokyo with me and let my engineers give you our recommendations as to how it could be improved.’ I did, and our engineers wrote a long report back suggesting some redesign of circuitry and other ways to improve the set. But no Sony technology.’
Although the idea of true competition for the consumer's benefit has not made much headway in the Soviet Union, the experiment in China may stimulate it. But right now the Russians and the Americans have another kind of completion, and this military competition is a major drain on both economies, despite the spin-off effect of defense technology. In the Soviet Union technology seems centered on such things as the space program and the defense program, certainly not on consumer goods. Design and even technological quality tags where the public is concerned.
- Akio Morita ... Book Made in Japan