Ichiriyama Haitsu 102

10 stupid things found on bapeten.go.id

2007-12-14T15:38:00.001+09:00

One. I got "server not found" message when typing http://bapeten.go.id.

Two. No disclaimer regarding the content. Is it true that all information is correct? Does it always reflect the policy of BAPETEN?

Three. Wrong organization symbol and name when I browsed http://mail.bapeten.go.id/src/redirect.php.

Four. No information regarding your inspection activity and regulatory development at all. You mentioned about three basic regulatory functions, but only displaying one: licensing business.

Five. Your organization utilizes public money, but no information on your budget allocation, how you spend it and how you procure your needs.

Six. The News section suffered from lack of information. What the hell are you guys doing there?

Seven. You are very good, I heard, in implementing IGOS (Indonesia Goes Open Source). However, I hardly saw this fabulous achievement on your web.

Eight. Your photo album contains NOTHING.

Nine. [to be decided later]

Ten. Your ex-Executive Secretary corrupted.

Rits Graduation Ceremony 2007

2007-09-24T19:26:00.000+09:00

23 September 2007. Tanggal yang bersejarah bagi beberapa teman di Ritsumeikan University. Saya ucapkan selamat bagi mereka yang diwisuda pada hari itu. Semoga gelar yang diperoleh bisa membawa kebaikan bagi diri dan lingkungan. Berikut beberapa adegan yang sempat terekam di kamera saya.

Watashiwa Mutia desu!

2007-04-10T23:13:00.000+09:00

Senin pagi, 9 April 2007.

Pagi itu, saya sekeluarga mengantar Mutia ke sekolah untuk pertama kali. Campur aduk rasanya, sebab jangankan dia, saya saja yang sudah belajar intensif Nihonggo 2 bulan, masih gagap kalau berbicara dengan orang Jepang. Setelah sarapan pagi dan mengenakan seragam SD lengkap, saya sempat bertanya padanya, "Mutia, deg-degan nggak berhadapan dengan guru, teman-teman dan lingkungan yang serba baru?". "Iya sih, dikit", katanya ringan. Saya percaya dengan pengakuannya ini, sebab waktu pertama masuk TK dan SD di Indonesia, dia memang penuh percaya diri dan tidak merasa takut sedikit pun.

Ingatan saya lantas kembali ke beberapa minggu lalu, saat saya dan Mutia harus ke Otsu City Hall (bagian Pendidikan) untuk wawancara. Sebelum wawancara, saya ingatkan dia untuk tetap rileks. Karena apapun yang terjadi, mereka akan tetap menerima Mutia di SD Seta Higashi. Usai wawancara singkat tentang kaluarga dan tes ringan bahasa Inggris, kami harus langsung ke lokasi SD untuk urusan administrasi. Walau susah karena umumnya guru di sini tidak bisa berbahasa Inggris, mereka sangat helpful. Ada beberapa lembar formulir yang harus saya isi, diantaranya formulir data siswa, asuransi (tidak harus ikut) dan formulir reduksi biaya makan siang. Tanpa reduksi, saya harus membayar 3850 yen per bulan untuk lunch dan persatuan orang tua murid (PTA).

Kalau Anda menganggap saya hebat karena lancar berkomunikasi dan bisa membaca kanji, Anda salah besar. Untuk urusan wawancara, saya ditemani Muhiddin, JDS Scholar asal Uzbekistan, dan urusan membaca kanji saya serahkan pada Mas Sumadi, mahasiswa S3 Monbusho. Hehe, itulah enaknya punya banyak teman! Terima kasih banyak atas bantuannya, ya Mas-mas.

Selesai urusan administrasi, kami kemudian ke toko yang menjual perlengkapan sekolah. Wah, habis 20 ribu untuk baju atas, rok, sweater, baju taiiku (olah raga), sepatu sekolah dan olahraga, dan pernak-pernik lainnya. Mungkin karena senang dengan orang asing atau ada alasan lain, pemilik toko Yamazaki di bilangan Seta Ni Chome memberi beberapa hadiah pada Mutia, seperti tempat botol minum, sapu tangan dan pen case. "Domo arigatou gozaimashita", jawab kami serempak.

Lagi enak-enaknya membayangkan peristiwa demi peristiwa, saya dikejutkan dengan suara lantang yang saya kenal baik: "Watashiwa Mutia desu!". Dan aula berisi seratusan siswa dan ortu pun menjadi gaduh dengan suara tepuk tangan. Ya Allah, ternyata tiba saat perkenalan siswa baru dihadapan seluruh komunitas sekolah. Anak saya termasuk 1 diantara belasan anak baru yang diharuskan memperkenalkan diri. "Shugoi ... shugoi ...", kata bapak-bapak disamping saya. Saya dan istri senyum-senyum saja. Tak disangka, ajaran kilat istri saya di pesawat masih membekas di ingatan Mutia. Ah, anak memang mutiara jiwa!

Surprise yang saya terima pagi itu belum berakhir. Ketika mulai masuk kelas (ni neng san kumi), dia juga bisa menjawab saat diabsen dengan "Genki desu". Belakangan saya tahu, ternyata dia hanya menirukan teman-teman saat nama mereka dipanggil satu-satu oleh Satake Sensei, guru kelasnya.

Jadi, bagi Anda yang ingin menyekolahkan putra putri di Jepang, tidak usah khawatir. Ikuti saya seluruh prosedurnya. Nanti mereka akan membantu sekuat tenaga, bahkan dengan mendatangkan guru yang bisa berbahasa Inggris ke sekolah sekadar untuk mengajar murid asing. Halangan bahasa memang menyusahkan, tapi jalani saja. Nanti akan terbiasa dengan sendirinya, seperti pepatah: litle by litle, long long become hill.

Menjadi Sensei Sehari

2007-03-16T17:20:00.000+09:00

Kamis, 15 Maret 2007. Untuk pertama kalinya saya masuk ke sekolah dasar negeri di Jepang. Bukan sebagai orang tua murid, tapi sebagai Visiting Teacher alias Sensei untuk mata pelajaran English bagi murid kelas 4. Nama sekolahnya Kasanui Higashi Shougakko (SDN Kasanui Timur) di Kusatsu City. Saya tidak sendiri, tapi berdua dengan Gerelma-san dari Mongol. Ehem!

Sudah lama saya bilang pada Yonekawa-san dari BKC International Office, agar bila ada kesempatan mengunjungi sekolah dasar, saya ingin sekali ikut. Saya ingin mengetahui suasana di sekolah dasar secara umum, sebelum anak saya menjadi murid SD di Jepang.

Sebelum hari-H, Hiromi Sensei (guru bahasa Inggris) dan beberapa guru lain bertemu dengan kami guna menyusun skenario kecil. Ada 2 kegiatan dasar, pertama adalah menjawab beberapa pertanyaan yang sudah disiapkan, dan kedua mengajarkan permainan khas anak-anak Indonesia. Tantangannya, kami harus sejauh mungkin memakai kalimat sederhana, mengingat mereka baru 2 tahun belajar English.

Ada 20 pertanyaan yang boleh dipilih oleh murid, diantaranya tentang agama, perayaan tahun baru, hari libur nasional, sayuran yang tumbuh di negara masing-masing, suhu dan musim, makanan favorit di Jepang, dan sebagainya. Dasar orang Jepang kali ya, kami berdua diharuskan menjawab semua pertanyaan saat briefing itu. Ketika akhirnya mereka puas dan surprise dengan jawaban kami, barulah jawaban-jawaban tadi mendapat approval. Mungkin juga karena saya Muslim, hehehe. Tentang permainan, saya pilih yang sederhana: PING SUT. Di sini, mereka punya Janken (gunting, batu, kertas) yang sejenis dengan ping sut. Sementara si Gerelma memilih permainan 10 batu ala Mongol.

Pukul 9 tepat, kami berangkat dari Kusatsu-Eki dengan mobil yang memang disiapkan. Kata Hiromi Sensei, murid-muridnya sudah tidak sabar dan pingin bertemu kami. Wah, heboh nih, pikir saya. Perkiraan saya tidak meleset. Mereka benar-benar girang bertemu kami. "Good morning Ridwan-san and Gerelma-san .....", serempak mereka menyambut kami di pintu kelas.

Dan waktu berlalu sangat cepat, mereka bergembira. Mereka sangat antusias, demikian juga saya. Mengalir begitu saja. Tapi sifat malu-malu anak Jepang masih kentara. Mereka baru berubah, ketika saya mulai bergurau secara lepas. Sampai-sampai Hiromi Sensei berkata, "Ridwan-san, harusnya Anda jadi guru, bukan PNS. Pas banget mimik dan gayanya". Saya hanya nyengir kuda. Hiromi Sensei tidak tahu, betapa menyakitkannya menjadi guru di Indonesia.

Kelas makin semarak, ketika saya keluarkan sesuatu dari balik jaket. Topi haji yang selalu saya pakai ketika sholat. "Kashite kudasai, kashite kudasai ...", teriak mereka. Mereka pingin mencoba topi orang Islam. Maka secara bergiliran, anak-anak cowok mencoba satu per satu.

Sebenarnya masih banyak detail yang pingin saya ceritakan. Tapi nanti jadi terlalu panjang. Beberapa yang menarik perhatian saya diantaranya: perasaan gembira murid-murid, suasana sekolah yang menyenangkan, dan guru-guru yang semangat dan murah senyum. Tak ada kekerasan dalam sekolah!

Ketika akhirnya kami harus pulang, mereka dengan semangat mengantar sampai halaman. Ridwan-san, Gerelma-san .... sampai jumpa .... Tak terasa ada sesuatu yang keluar dari sudut mata saya. Air mata.

Mutia Pantas Jadi Menteri

2007-03-10T21:33:00.000+09:00

Menelpon rumah di Indonesia adalah kebiasaan saya setiap malam. Saya berusaha untuk selalu berkomunikasi dengan keluarga, sebelum mereka menyusul saya ke Jepang.

Senin malam minggu lalu adalah Senin malam yang berbeda bagi saya. Setelah berbincang cukup lama dengan istri, kemudian dilanjutkan dengan anak pertama saya, Mutia. Mengapa saya katakan berbeda? Ini dia sebabnya.

Sambil terisak kecil, Mutia menyapa saya, "Abi apa kabar?". "Alhamdulillah, Abi baik. Mutia kenapa menangis?". Sambil menahan tangis yang hampir meledak, dia menjawab "Aku tadi disetrap di sekolah karena ikut upacaranya terlambat". "Koq, bisa terlambat sayang?", tanya saya. "Bangunnya terlambat atau jemputannya yang terlambat?". "Jemputannya Abi", sahutnya sambil terisak.

"Kata Bu Guru, nilai PKPn - ku mau dikurangi soalnya terlambat", lanjutnya polos. Kemudian saya menjelaskan bahwa tidak apa-apa nilainya dikurangi. "Teman-teman yang lain di jemputan disetrap juga, khan?", tanya saya selanjutnya. "Enggak, Bi. Si Hana (sebut saja begitu) pura-pura sakit dan langsung masuk kelas. Dia nggak dikurangi nilainya karena sakit. Padahal habis itu dia bilang ke aku kalau dia bohong". Kembali terdengar isaknya perlahan. "Ya sudah, nggak apa-apa. Kalau nanti nilai ulangan PKPn Mutia bagus, pasti pengurangan nilainya sedikit. Sabar ya sayang ....". "Iya Abi", sahutnya. Lalu saya minta dia kembali belajar dan telepon kembali diserahkan pada istri.

Setelah acara menelpon selesai, saya lantas berpikir. Ada sesuatu yang terlupa dalam pembicaraan saya dengan Mutia. Ah, saya ingat sekarang! Ternyata Mutia kena setrap di sekolah HANYA karena dia mencoba untuk jujur. Jika dia pura-pura sakit seperti teman satu jemputannya, pasti dia tidak kena setrap. Masya Allah. Ini insight yang sangat berharga dari anak saya. Saya dan istri memang mengajarkan pada anak-anak untuk selalu bersikap jujur dalam keadaan apapun. Pernah pada suatu ketika dia berbohong tentang nilai ulangan. Ketika ketahuan berbohong, saya marahi dia. Bukan karena nilai ulangannya yang jelek, tapi karena bohong. Setelah itu, dia berjanji untuk tidak bohong lagi.

Setelah terdiam beberapa menit, tak terasa tangan saya mengambil gagang telepon kembali. Saya harus melakukan sesuatu. "Assalamu'alaikum Ummi. Mutia mana?", tanya saya langsung. "Mutia sudah masuk kamar dan tidur. Tumben Abi nelpon lagi", kata istri saya keheranan. "Ah, nggak ada apa-apa. Cuma, tolong besok beritahu pada Mutia, bahwa Abi berterima kasih padanya. Katakan bahwa Abi bangga memiliki anak seperti dia". Setelah itu saya jelaskan percakapan saya dengannya pada istri. Akhirnya kami berdua tersenyum gembira. "OK, Insya Allah besok kusampaikan", sahut istri sembari menutup pembicaraan.

Malam itu, saya tidur sambil tersenyum. Segala puji hanya bagi Allah SWT. Betapa gembiranya saya selaku orang tua. ANAK SAYA BERUSAHA JUJUR -- walau dengan resika kena setrap -- seperti yang kami ajarkan. Sesuatu yang mulai sulit ditemui, bahkan dalam diri saya belakangan ini.

Saya jadi teringat dengan kejadian-kejadian yang menimpa Indonesia akhir-akhir ini. Percaya atau tidak, kejadian-kejadian tersebut pasti bermula dari ketidakjujuran. Penumpang ferry yang membeli tiket dengan tidak jujur; maskapai penerbangan yang memelihara pesawat dengan tidak jujur; aparat pemerintahan yang bekerja tanpa semangat kejujuran ..... Sesuatu yang lama-lama terakumulasi menjadi insiden, kecelakaan dan tragedi; hingga akhirnya menghilangkan nyawa manusia-manusia berharga yang kita miliki. Professor Kusnadi, DR. Masykur Wiratmo, DR. Mulyanto, Letjen (Purn) Yogi, dan para korban yang lain. Bagimanapun, mereka sangat berharga bagi keluarga yang ditinggalkan.

Ah, seandainya Mutia bisa jujur sampai kelak dia dewasa, tidak mustahil dia bisa jadi Menteri. Sebab saya yakin pada masanya nanti, Presiden Indonesia hanya memilih orang-orang jujur untuk jadi pembantunya. Dan malam itu, seorang ayah belajar dari anaknya.

Banjir Jakarta dan Pilkada DKI

2007-02-07T15:00:00.000+09:00

Semingguan ini Jakarta dilanda banjir besar. Terbesar sejak 2002. Kala itu saya masih ingat, semingguan bolos karena kantor saya (masih di Thamrin) termasuk siaga I. Untuk pertama kali dalam sejarah, banjir 2002 mengakibatkan Istana Negara menjadi kolam setinggi mata kaki. Itupun setelah pompa-pompa penyedot bekerja keras membuang air ke daerah kota.

Saat ini, belum terdengar berita air masuk Istana. Tapi dampak banjir kali ini lebih parah. Tahun 2002, saya tidak mendengar berita motor boleh masuk tol. Tapi tahun ini Tol Simatupang, Halim dan beberapa yang lain boleh dilalui motor. Beberapa rual tol terpaksa ditutup. Proyek Banjir Kanal Barat yang diharap mampu mengatasi beban air, malah meluap ke daerah sekitarnya. Sungguh sia-sia proyek trilyunan rupiah ini.

Dari sisi komunikasi berbasis kabel, Jakarta juga lumpuh. Kalau semingguan ini Anda tidak bisa menelpon rumah (fix line), salahkan banjir ini. STO Pusat Gatsu (Gatot Subroto) tampaknya dimatikan atau tak kuasa menahan tsunami request komunikasi. Tidak Jakarta saja, kemungkinan Jawa, Sulawesi dan bagian Timur Indonesia mengalami gangguan SLI. Telepon lokal kemungkinan masih bisa tersambung.

Semalam, saya terpaksa menelpon HP istri untuk bisa berkomunikasi.Itupun setelah susah payah mencoba setengah jam lebih. Iseng-iseng, saya browsing ke beberapa situs Indonesia. Situs BPS, BAPETEN dan BATAN termasuk yang keok terkena dampak banjir. Maklum, mereka hanya mengandalkan leased line PT. Telkom. Yang beruntung antara lain BAPPENAS, DEPKEU, Kota Blitar, dan Univ. Andalas Padang. Daerah Sumatera Bagian Tengah ke atas (ke arah utara) selamat karena berbekal koneksi ke Batam (tanpa melalui Jakarta) untuk selanjutnya tersambung ke Singapura, gateway internasional utama Indonesia.

Kemana Sutiyoso?
Dari sekian banyak yang bisa ditelaah, saya memilih topik: Dimana eksistensi Pemda DKI? Kemana gerangan Sutiyoso dan aparatnya? Mereka sekarang persis seperti salah satu kaidah ilmu Fiqih: Wujuduhu ka 'adamihi. Wujudnya ada, tapi seperti tidak kelihatan alias tidak berperan. Jakarta memang sudah tidak mampu menampung belasan juta manusia. Ekologinya terlanjur rusak.

Tapi, sebenarnya ada yang bisa kita kerjakan. Mulai dari berbenah sampah, tertib tata ruang dan sebagainya. Dan teknologi ada untuk membantu menangani semua kesulitan. Sulitnya, ini tidak bisa tergantung warga biasa. Jakarta memerlukan kepemimpinan yang kuat untuk berubah. Tidak hanya kuat dari sisi pengaruh dan populis, tetapi juga harus mempunyai niat baik, tekat dan kemauan untuk membuat Jakarta lebih baik, ramah lingkungan dan tertib.

Capek saya melihat Jakarta dipimpin militer lagi. Tapi juga tak mau kalau Jakarta dipimpin politisi mutungan macam (maaf) Faisal Basri. Bekal populis macam Rano Karno juga tak mungkin dapat memecahkan masalah. Fauzi Bowo juga terbukti tidak bisa diandalkan. Sarwono? Waduh, terlalu tua Pak !

Saya kemudian melihat database milis JDS 2006. Dan mata saya tertuju pada data seseorang. Yang kumisnya tidak kalah lebat dari Rano Karno. Dia juga anak Betawi asli. Kepandaiannya di atas rata-rata. Kelihatannya dia juga sanggup bekerja keras. Namanya WAHYU SETYAWAN.

Jakarta memang membutuhkan wahyu Tuhan untuk berubah. Jadi, mengapa tidak "Wahyu" saja?

Setuju???

Sayonara Hiroshima

2007-01-21T22:53:00.000+09:00

Tepat pukul 20.53, pesawat saya ): mendarat dengan mulus di Seta Eki.Usah sudah perjalanan yang melelahkan selama 7 jam dari Saijo Eki di timur Hiroshima. Saijo - Okayama, Okayama - Himeji, Himeji - Osaka - Kyoto.Terima kasih buat Wawan-san dan Angga-san yang menemani kunjungan sehari semalam saya.

Dulu saya pernah punya cita-cita, bahwa jika saya mendapat kesempatan pergi ke Jepang, saya harus melihat kota Hiroshima, satu diantara 2 kota yang pernah kejatuhan bom atom. Dan kemarin, niat itu menjadi kenyataan. Puas melihat A-bomb Dome dan pernak-perniknya, tibalah saat makan. Wawan dan Angga tak salah memilih Okonomiyaki sebagai makan siang utama setelah sebelumnya mencoba udong khas. Hiroshima. Hmmmm oishikatta ne .....

Perjalanan dilanjutkan ke pulau Miyajima, tempat gerbang merah Yokoso berdiri. Saking capeknya (maklum berangkat jam 5 pagi), saya tertidur di trem. Setelah itu, ferry menanti untuk membawa kami ke Pulau Miya (Miyajima).
Sebuah pulau yang indah, pantas raja Jepang jaman dulu suka bawa gundik2nya kemari. Puas berjalan, mata tak kuasa memandang kaki goreng nan nikmat. Jangan salah, kaki adalah oister alias tiram. Makanya saus tiram namanya menjadi kakiabura, bahan penyedap favorit saya, hehe. Sebenarnya masih banyak ikon wisata lain macam Hiroshima-jo, Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, Fudoin Shrine, dll. Tapi kaki dan badan sudah terasa berat. Apalagi hari sudah menjelang malam. Paling tidak, 2 ikon utama sudah terjamah.

Esoknya, surprise berlanjut. Ternyata Pak Wawan pinter masak. Kalau kemarin dulu saya pernah cobain terongnya Pak Huda dan santannya Pak Zul, hari ini saya cicipin sosisnya Pak Wawan. Jangan salah lagi, ini sosis beneran dan halal lagi. Hmmm.... Puncaknya, rambut saya dipangkas rapi. Jadi sampai dengan 6 bulan ini, kepala saya belum pernah dipegang sama Nihongjin. Kayaknya tinggal Pak Jarot dan Pak Andi yang masih gondes alias gondrong.

Mbak Wiwin, mohon maaf nggak bisa lanjut ke Kyushu. Padahal saat itu adalah saat terbaik saya karena tinggal naik local train. Tapi memang saya tidak terbiasa jika dadakan. Setiap perjalanan harus diplanning dan didiskusikan dengan calon tuan rumah. Apalagi bukan weekend dan masih banyak tugas di Kyushu. Jadi ngak asal surprise lalu ujug2 datang. Mungkin lain kali jika ada kesempatan baik. Terima kasih atas tawarannya.

Nova, sorry nggak sempat mampir. Ntar kalau persediaan lengkuas, daun salam dan terasi udah mau habis, barangkali saya sempatkan ke Kobe lagi, hehe.

Demikian, Sekali lagi terima kasih atas pelayanan prima Pak Wawan dan Mas Angga. Karadaga ittain deskedo, tanoshi katta, subarashi katta, shogoina..... Boku wa ureshi katta ne ..... Otsukare sama. Iro-iro osewani narita. Sayonara Miyajima. Shiga e itte kudasai ne ..... Ja, mata aimasho.

Buat kawan2 yang lain, saya juga pingin dolan ke tempat sampeyan. Tentu jika bersedia dan ada waktu kosong.

BTW, selamat Tahun Baru 1428 Hijriyah buat teman2 Muslim. Semoga tahun ini dilancarkan semua urusan. Amin.

Terima kasih.

Company Review: ROHM *)

2007-01-17T21:38:00.000+09:00

ROHM COMPANY

We divided this paper into five parts. First, we will be introducing the company by chronological order. Secondly, we are going to present the current situation in semiconductor industry, especially in Japan. After that, we will utilize the Porter’s Five Forces of Competition Framework as an analytical tool to describe management strategies within this company. Please be advised that Five Forces will be presented in a slightly different point of view: Management of Technology (MOT). Then, we will have a conclusion as the final part.

I. Introduction
ROHM Co., Ltd. is a market-driven, completely independent semiconductor company specializing in semiconductor components. Currently, they produce ICs, transistors, diodes, LEDs, laser diodes, LCDs, printheads, resistors, and capacitors. In the following paragraphs, we will discuss the history of ROHM and some details about current organizational structure and mission as well.

I.1. 1960s – 1980s
ROHM established in Kyoto in 1958 as initially a manufacturer of small electronic components and registered as Toyo Electronics Industry. In 1967, the production expanded to transistors and diodes. Within two years, ICs and other semiconductor products were added to the lineup. In the year of 1971, ROHM was going against conventional Japanese business culture by entering the US market to establish a sales office and IC designed center in Silicon Valley. Through the hard work and passionate dedication of its young work force, business flourished, causing the industry to take notice.
Their expansion soon became a template for other companies and eventually accepted as a common business practice. By 1972, ROHM Korea Corporation established. Due to some management changes, in 1979, ROHM changed its corporate trademark from R.ohm to ROHM. By the same reason, three years later, the registered company name was changed to ROHM Co., Ltd. Since that, they began the development of MOS ICs.

I.2. 1980s – 2000s
ROHM began activities in laser diodes in 1982, when the company invested MBE (molecular beam epitaxy) technology to grow epitaxial material for laser diodes. The application targeted for these laser diodes was compact disk players. At that time, there were a number of dominant players in the CD laser business, including giants such as Sony and Sharp; however, all of these companies were growing their material by LPE. ROHM believed MBE technology would provide them with a superior advantage, and it invested in the growth and manufacturing technology necessary to mass produce laser diodes emitting at 780 nm (GaAs/AlGaAs technology).
In 1984, this company became the first in the world to succeed in the practical industrial use of laser diodes with MBE methodology. In 1988, they obtained basic patent of flash memory in the USA. One year later, they listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and received a PM Award (TPM). They also opened LSI Research Center, established liquid crystal process technology and began to marketing LCD products as well. Then, a manufacturing plant established in Philippines, Malaysia and the UK. ROHM entered the CD player market in 1987, delivering their first shipment of laser diodes. Haruo Tanaka is the pioneer behind the ROHM laser diode success, not only convincing the owner of ROHM to invest in CD laser technology supported by MBE, but also convincing customers to buy his product, guaranteeing improved performance and reliability at reduced cost.
By 1994, ROHM was the world's largest manufacturer of compact disk laser diodes, with a 50% market share. At that time, they were supplying 60 million laser diodes/year, at an approximate cost of $2/piece. In this sense, 18.3% of ROHM's net sales were attributed to the category defined as "printheads and other products," which includes sensors, LCDs, capacitors, and laser diodes, accounting for total net sales of $365 million, a 9.9% increase from 1993 levels. Revenues from discrete semiconductor devices (including transistors, diodes, and LEDs) were $712 million, an 11.8% increase from 1993 levels; sales in ICs (both monolithic and hybrid ICs) accounted for $650 million, also a 2.7% increase over 1993 levels. The company's sales of resistors brought $272 million in revenue, an increase of 4.2% since 1993. Figure 1 shows the trend of net sales for the last five years. The number of employee to support these activities is approximately 2,600, of whom 900 are engaged in research and development. Each division within the company has its own dedicated R&D specialists.

Figure 1. Trend of net sales (source: ROHM website)

In the same year, they obtained ISO9001certificate and succeeded to develop a single-chip LSI for use in spread spectrum communications, the next generation of wireless transfer. On the other hand, in 1998 they obtained ISO14001 Environmental Management System Certification. They also opened VLSI Research Center and developed ROHM's unique Dual-Cell system EEPROM. In the same year, ROHM developed highly first time it opened optical Device Research Center. By 2006, they opened Shenzhen Technology Center. This company succeeded to develop the world's highest performance silicon carbide (SiC) FET with a high voltage of 900V and low on resistance of 3.1.Ω/cm. Within this period, ROHM established technology centers both inside and outside the country and invented more new products.

I.3. Organizational Structure and Mission
The current organization of ROHM is headed by president and Chief executive officer is consists of five technical division, four Sales Divisions, one Administrative Division, one Accounting and Finance division, One Quality Assurance Division and one Audit Division. This organization has one Managing Director and seven Directors. The directors are head of individual division. It has separate audit division for internal audit (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Organizational Structure (source: ROHM website)
ROHM mission is declared as:
“Quality is our top priority at all times. Our objective is to contribute to the advancement and progress of our culture through a consistent supply, under all circumstances, of high quality products in large volume to the global market”.

II. Analysis
In this part, we will discuss the current situation in semiconductor industry and then our attention will be focused on ROHM market. After that, we try to describe the competitive power within this company.

II.1. Current Situation in Semiconductor Industry
Since the birth of the semiconductor industry with the invention of the transistor at Bell Laboratories in 1947, U.S. companies have achieved the most significant product and technical advances in microelectronics. Besides the transistor, U.S. companies pioneered the integrated circuit, the dynamic memory, the microprocessor, and other critical products and processes. American companies continue to hold an innovative edge in a number of product areas.
Yet today, the Japanese semiconductor industry is the world’s market share leader. In 1991, Japanese companies held 46 percent of the $60 billion world market for semiconductors, and U.S. companies held 39 percent. Of the top ten merchant semiconductor companies in the world, six of them are based in Japan and three in the United States. The current situation contrasts with that of 1970, when Japanese companies held 20 percent of the world market and American companies held 60 percent.

Figure 3. % operating income to sales (source: Takasu, 2006)

However, during the last 20 years, Japanese semiconductor industry shows structural changes in sales, manufacturing, investment and the competitive power as well. According to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS), sales ratio within Japanese companies decreases by 20%. On the other hand, manufacturing and investment ratio remain stable. The Nikkei Business Publication shows that the percentage of operating profit on sales within major Japanese companies was 15 points less than overseas ones (Figure 3). Similarly, the Boston Consultation Group predicts only maximum 10% of operating income to sales will be captured by most Japanese companies, but here the controversy begins: ROHM Company got about 30%. Moreover, for most areas, ROHM could get 30% market share or even more as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. Market Share for some products (source: ROHM website)

How ROHM can achieve, sustain and safeguard competitive advantage is a fundamental question in the field of strategic management.

II.2. ROHM Market
In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006, the world economy stayed firm by and large, principally because consumer spending was buoyant year-round in major countries including the U.S., though soaring crude-oil prices and natural disasters had a negative impact. The Japanese economy showed continued recovery, owing mainly to brisk plant and equipment spending and firm consumer spending pulled up by improvement in employment and family income conditions.
Excluding a part of digital audio/visual equipment, the electronic component market as a whole was sluggish from spring to summer in contrast to the market in the previous year, when it was favorably influenced by the Athens Olympic Games. From summer onwards, market demand was more favorable compared with the recent years, due chiefly to production expansion in the mobile-phone market and personal-computer market and to the brisk expansion of digital audio/visual equipment market including thin TVs.
In Japan, production relocation to other countries continued and intense price competition occurred. However, the thin-TV market stayed brisk and third-generation mobile phones became more common, increasing demand In other Asian countries, the markets of conventional audio/visual equipment, such as portable CD players, was extremely slow, but the production of personal computers, mobile phones and digital audio/visual equipment expanded, so that the electronic component market as a whole remained favorable.
Concerning North America and Europe, the markets related to telecommunication equipment were weak and a part of automakers experienced slow sales, which adversely influenced the electronic component market. In Europe, the market remained stagnated, influenced by production shift to other countries, though the mobile-phone market was relatively firm. Under these circumstances, the ROHM Group made proactive efforts to streamline manufacturing process lines, to invest capital more efficiently, to research for and develop new products, as well as to reinforce customer relations systems including sales and technical support.
If we look at the manufacturing process lines, they pressed ahead with the establishment of an integrated production system and made efforts to expand the 300 mm wafer process. They proceeded with the transfer of the production of module-related products to a new plant in Dalian. They also continued to shift production from Japan to their Thailand and Philippines plants and to streamline production systems in the plants in these countries. Furthermore, to be prepared for demand expansion in the future, they started to construct a new plant in each of their production bases in Tianjin, Thailand, and Philippines.
In the area of development of new products, ROHM proceeded with the development of various system LSI devices to satisfy customer needs for use in mobile phones and digital audio/visual equipment, whose markets are expected to grow further. The other efforts they made include the reinforcement of the product lines of compact-, thin-package power MOSFET products
For customer relations including sales and technical support, they opened new sales bases in and outside Japan, and established a design center outside Japan, to reinforce a customer-centered sales system and technical support system. They also opened a QA center near Detroit, U.S., reinforcing their corporate quality assurance network. Because of these efforts, ROHM’s net sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006, increased 5.1% to ¥387.79 billion over previous year, operating income decreased 10.2% to ¥68.318 billion, and net income increased 7.0% to ¥48.304 billion (The ROHM current sale statistic is in the Exhibit).

II.3. Competitive Power
To analyze the competitive power of ROHM Company, the Porter’s five forces were applied. The five forces include industry competitors, customer, supplier, substitutes and potential entrants. However, substitutes and potential entrants in the semiconductor industry would not consider in this analysis because in the field of technology there is no other devices which can use instead of semiconductor. Furthermore, the market of semiconductor depends on the quality of product and the newcomer companies do not create a big problem for ROHM company in the market place.

II.3.1. Competitor
The very basic questions come up: Who are ROHM competitors? Whom should ROHM consider as competitors? Who are the main competitors in this industry?
At the beginning, ROHM had the strategy not to follow and not to compete against the giant companies such as NEC Corp., Toshiba Corp., and other giant Japanese semiconductor makers who have committed huge amounts of capital and technology to the high-stakes game of making memory chips. Instead, ROHM has focused on custom chips and discrete devices such as the semiconductor lasers used to read CDs, one of several components in which ROHM has the world's top share. However, ROHM recently cannot prevent the competition because the size of the company is bigger and have variety kinds of production. Therefore, nowadays, ROHM’s competitors are primarily in the semiconductors industries. ROHM also competes in the electrical products and electronic components sectors.
In 2003, ROHM is the nineteenth ranking in the charge of the companies which sold their semiconductor products and its competitors that share the value of semiconductor market included Intel (USA), Samsung (Korea), Renesas (Japan), and Toshiba (Japan) as shown in Figure 5. However, the main competitors of ROHM are Maxim Integrated (USA) and Analog Device (USA) if considering the types of product because they have similar products and similar business. Furthermore, their products can use instead each other. These companies try to take over ROHM as showing in the charge of operating income.
Rohm was the nineteenth ranking in net sales. On the other hand, they can create their income more than many companies, and takes the seventh ranking in the operating income charge. The main reason is the companies like Toshiba, Sony, NEC, etc have to share a lot of their money after selling to other suppliers. That is why Rohm’s income is higher than other companies like Sony, NEC, etc.

II.3.2. Supplier
ROHM can carry out its production from materials to finished products, so the suppliers are mainly the material supplier company such as iron, aluminum, plastic, etc and the pure chemical supplier such as Helium, Nitrogen, etc. ROHM also produces materials internally, such as wafers, lead frames and photo masks. This allows ROHM to carry out quality control in all processes from materials to finished products, giving the company overwhelming superiority over competitors in terms of reliability. The Company’s manufacturing equipment, developed by incorporating its manufacturing expertise for top-quality products, is used at all the plants of the group including those overseas, enabling ROHM to manufacture and supply high-quality products worldwide.

Figure 5. Net sales and operating income for major companies (source: Takasu)

II.3.3. Customer and partnership
ROHM is a leading supplier electronics component with its product lineup of Integrated Circuits, Discrete Semiconductors Devices, Passive Components and Displays. Its main customers are the end-product companies such as Cannon, Sony, NEC, Toshiba, Renesas, Furutaka electronics co ltd, KD Electronics Co Ltd and others. These companies are not only its customer but also competitor due to sometimes they also have the same capacity of semiconductor, so if they have they will not buy from ROHM. Furthermore, they also tried to find the customers in the same market as ROHM. Therefore, ROHM’s customers are both partnership and competitor.
To reinforce its technical support and quality assurance systems for customers worldwide and enable the Company to respond quickly and precisely to all customer needs, ROHM has established and expanded its networks of sales offices, design centers, and quality assurance centers in and outside Japan.
ROHM anticipates new trends and bases the development of system LSI designs on customer demands by using a flexible approach in development and production activities (outlined below).
 Improved digital processors Central processor units (CPUs): ARM7TDM1TM and V20HL/V30HL
Digital signal processors (DSPs): Pine, Oak and image processors
 Augmented digital and analog interface cores coder/decoders (CODECs) and analog-to-digital (A/D) and digital-to-analog (D/A) converters, NTSC encoders and MOS amplifiers
 Improved digital interface cores (LVDs and USB) and multimedia cores (JPEG and MPEG)

As the North American branch of ROHM, ROHM Electronics has helped develop the supplier-customer partnership approach to business throughout the world. The company is committed to meeting customers' needs and specifications on time to help ensure the customers' success in the market. This includes the analysis of design and packaging as well as materials, quality control and SPC methods to achieve solutions that will provide high volume components with parts-per-billion reliability. This partnership approach allows ROHM Electronics to work closely with customers and to participate in the design process. In return, the customer receives the benefits of ROHM's support while enjoying the security of ROHM's experience in custom development. From customer design sessions and market trend research, ROHM Electronics develops and submits recommendations to ROHM Co. Ltd. regarding the modification and addition of products and packaging that will best satisfy customers' needs.

III. Management of Technology
Management of technological innovations and that of technology based new business development is a key element in explaining why some companies successfully implement growth strategies. According to Takasu, the technological innovativeness of a company is significantly influenced by the way in which research and development activities are managed; and how the interaction between central lab and business groups / divisions is structured. To ensure stable growth and a strong and well-balanced financial position under these circumstances, a range of measures should be taken. These measures include development of creative, high-value added products utilizing world leading advanced technologies, enhancement of cost competitiveness, establishment of a global production and distribution network that enables high customer satisfaction in both domestic and overseas markets, and strengthening of service and technical support systems for customers.
ROHM has identified the causes for the slowing down of Japanese major semiconductor manufacturers. These include (1) self-working principle, (2) no strong domain, (3) low profit ratio due to pursuing the volume only, and (4) low investment efficiency in manufacturing and R&D. To overcome these situations, board of directors in ROHM firstly deconstructed the typical Japanese enterprise model and then built the so-called “Layer Master Model”. Later on, they changed the company structure, from vertical integral type to lateral and divided type in order to pursuing highly specialized field. The only available option for them is by increasing the speed of technical innovation through product differentiation and by responding the customer requirement quickly. The key elements here are value-added and customized products, utilizing the fusion of different technology fields. We will further discuss about the strategic and managerial issues of technology and innovation in the viewpoint of the so-called management of technology.

III.1. Technological Expansion and Product Innovation
ROHM intends to attach overriding importance to the integrated development-production system, development of custom-designed products, and quality, as well as to make persistent efforts to formulate and implement measures in these respects. Specifically, ROHM intends to increase R&D personnel continuously while reinforcing the corporate operations handling digital technologies and digital-analog integration technologies. ROHM also intends to satisfy various needs from customers, especially from those in the digital home appliance market and information and communications equipment market, with larger-scale LSI devices, more sophisticated LSI devices, and lead-time reduction (Figure 6).
Regarding the organization of its corporate production system, ROHM is aggressively committed to improving cost competitiveness and reinforcing the corporate supply system for sales to the worldwide market. Specifically, concerning the front-end process of semiconductor production, the Company is pressing ahead with the adoption of larger-diameter wafer process, such as 300 mm wafer process, and micro fabrication process. For the back-end process, ROHM shifted production to overseas plants, including those in Thailand, the Philippines and China, while upgrading them. The production technologies established by those mother plants will then be introduced to the overseas plants, to enable the manufacture and supply of ROHM’s high-quality products worldwide.

Figure 6. ROHM’s product innovation (source: ROHM website)

In response to product quality, ROHM enhanced the reliability of its products, implementing quality-improving actions in its manufacturing divisions as well as thoroughly instilling the quality-first policy in technological divisions. To expand market shares in the growing global markets, this company reinforced its corporate customer relations systems including sales and technical support in various locations worldwide, by newly establishing networked quality assurance centers along with sales bases and design centers. At the same time, the company intends to make continued efforts to achieve more efficient corporate management and swifter decision-making by proceeding with the restructure and integration of corporate organizations in and outside Japan. To contribute to environmental conservation, the ROHM Group is making across-the-board efforts to establish an environmental management system based on ISO 14001 standards and develop new low-power-consumption, energy-saving products. All the production bases of ROHM in and outside Japan intend to commit themselves continuously to realizing zero emissions through the promotion of waste recycling and to pressing ahead with green procurement and supply. In addition, ROHM proceeded with its tree-planting project as part of the fight against global warming.
With some key innovations, ROHM developed from scratch a high-quality laser technology as well as a large-scale manufacturing capability. Indeed, the company built what is probably the only production-oriented, automated MBE growth facility in the world. In addition, ROHM developed procedures for automated packaging and testing of large numbers of devices, and it installed a very costly (but ultimately cost-effective) custom infrastructure for laser manufacturing.
In spite of their success story, ROHM had been overconfidence in the application of RF-ID Card. Although this product has many benefits, it has to be stopped due to some political reasons. In this case, ROHM lose a huge amount of investment for nothing. Finally, they had to sell this technology to a France company.

III.2. Collaborative Research and Development
To overcome the self-working principle, ROHM is actively involved in a wide range of joint R&D projects, including comprehensive industrial-academic collaboration alliances with universities and other major institutions. Moreover, ROHM established joint efforts with the Semiconductor Industry Research Institute Japan, which is a think-tank for the Japanese semiconductor industry; and participation in leading edge R&D projects, which integrate the wisdom of academic, industrial, and governmental circles. Furthermore, ROHM promotes partnerships with other companies wherever necessary to complement our technologies, thus improving the efficiency of its R&D activities. Some examples of these collaborative alliances include:
 ROHM and EMagin to develop OLED (organic light emitting diode) micro display for camera and camcorder viewfinders. EMagin is a leading developer of OLED,
 Research collaboration with Kyoto University, Ritsumeikan University and Doshisya University,
 The involvement in national projects:
 ASCA (Advanced Semiconductors through Collaborative Achievement),
 MIRAI (Millennium Research for Advanced Information Technology), and
 HALCA (High-performance & Agilent Clean-room Association).

At present, ROHM consistently invest one of the highest percentages of net sales revenue in research. In their 2006 Annual Report, this ”will ensure the future needs of our customers are fulfilled, and that current requirements are met appropriately and in a timely fashion”.

III.3. Competitive People is Everything
The competitiveness of people, whether part of a nation, of a firm, or as individuals is the most fundamental competitiveness factor for creating wealth. The eagerness to succeed and the willingness to work hard are irreplaceable qualities to attain higher levels of competitiveness.
With this thinking, ROHM introduced a merit-based wage system in 1999, where they actively recruit well-qualified human resources regardless of age or gender. The program has been a success. Employees who contribute to performance are presented with an award of up to 10 million yen, according to the degree of their contribution. Such incentives motivate personnel and appropriately reward results. They are also working to create an environment that better utilizes employee individuality by introducing a discretionary work system for development, technical and planning positions.
Considering their Human Resources to be the company's foundation for lasting prosperity and has prepared a variety of educational opportunities for employees to improve their intellect and character. Educational opportunities include hierarchical education, which is the training of new employees after they have joined the company, departmental training, participation in internal and external seminars, support for obtaining a variety of qualifications, and elective study groups that respect the employees' ambitions. These are available throughout all company divisions. They have prepared a system where employees can freely choose from these according to their own objectives. Those in leadership positions will exemplify model behavior at all times. Each head of all management levels will appraise staff fairly and conduct effective training programs periodically and consistently. Appraisals for each head of all management levels are based on the success of staff education and training.
Accordingly, the company developed personnel at all levels to constantly strive to obtain new knowledge and to acquire empirical reasoning ability from a broad perspective. They train staff to be dedicated as leaders in their field by utilizing their knowledge and experience, and develop personnel who can overcome any adversity and strive towards achieving targets. Moreover, ROHM train staff to place the highest value on teamwork, resulting from the combined efforts of all individuals Finally, ROHM also provide the employees tax-free property forming, employee stock options, home loans with preferential interest rates, home purchase discounts and others.

III.4. Cultural Component of Technological Success
Japanese leadership in optoelectronic consumer products appears to have been generated by an industrial culture dedicated to high-volume, low-cost, quality manufacturing; based on intensively constructed long-range plans; backed by financial commitment to leading edge technologies applicable to mass markets; and built by consensus and teamwork.
In terms of planning, Japanese companies try to foresee which aspects of their expertise in device manufacture can be employed in a consumer system that is "on the horizon." Having identified the potential market at the systems level, they then work to improve their device technology to meet the projected demands for volume, quality, and price. This theme of projecting needs was expressed explicitly on ROHM. Once the need is identified and the technology is brought to a suitable stage of development, the Japanese companies invest the resources and infrastructure needed to bring cost and capacity within their projected requirements. This level of forward planning appears to be well developed in the Japanese photonics industry and to be largely absent in the U.S. photonics industry. The reasons for this disparity are not readily apparent, although the different economic foundations and means of doing business in the two countries undoubtedly play decisive roles.
Japanese commitment to investing long-term in risky technologies with the potential for large-scale returns is best illustrated by the development of CD laser technology by ROHM. Although ROHM’s entry into the market would be late, its managers nevertheless appealed to the company president for support to pursue CD laser manufacture, and the president gave permission to proceed.

IV. Conclusion
The success of ROHM, which appears to be more entrepreneurial in nature than most large corporations in Japan, is primarily due to its commitment at a very early stage to high-volume manufacture of a product that mid-level managers anticipated would be important in the years ahead. This commitment led to investment in the necessary manufacturing infrastructure, the operation of which relies only on the availability of technical support, not on a highly educated work force.
The rapid decision-making capability of ROHM stems from its modest size as compared to the electronic giants such as Sony, yet the company was large enough to be able to fund the necessary product and manufacturing development.
Finally, ROHM has been able to find a profitable niche between the giants by following a policy of not competing with its customers. Because ROHM has traditionally been a manufacturer of silicon (Si) devices and passive electronic devices, it has resisted moving into more value-added subsystems and systems that are the domains of its customers.
On the other hand, ROHM should be more careful in evaluating their product innovation. The business failure of RF-ID Card application is the best lesson learned.

References
1. ROHM website, http://www.rohm.com
2. 2006 ROHM Annual Report
3. World Technology Evaluation Center, http://www.wtec.org
4. World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, http://www.wsts.org
5. Nikkei Business Publication, http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english
6. The National Academies Press, http://orsted.nap.edu
7. http://www.imd.ch
8. Analyzing the Industry Environment, lecture notes
9. Hidemi Takasu, Course Note on International Technology and Management - 1

*) International Technology and Management 3E (ITM) – 70674
Professor HIBARA Nobuhiko

Company Review: Nintendo *)

2007-01-11T21:42:00.000+09:00

Power Play (A):
Nintendo in 8-bit Video Games

The home video-game industry began in 1972 with the founding of Atari. After riding a dramatic boom and bust in the early 1980s, most players left the business. Nintendo of Japan then rebuilt the industry, establishing a commanding worldwide position by the end of the decade. By 1990, Nintendo game systems could be found in one out of every three households, in both Japan and the United States. The company's stock market value exceeded that of Sony or Nissan.

Home Video Game Systems
Video games were a form of home entertainment whose system consisted of three types of component: a console, controllers, and cartridges. The console, essentially a microprocessor-based computer, was designed to receive information from the controllers, process it according to instructions contained in the game cartridge, and send signals to the TV monitor. Controllers were hand-held devices used to direct the on-screen action. When a player pushed the buttons or joystick on the top of the controller, a signal was transmitted to the console. Cartridges contained chips encoding the instructions for a particular game and was designed to be inserted into the console.
Three technical factors determined the quality of a video game: data width (in bits), clock speed (in MHz), and the amount of RAM (in bytes).

Atari
Atari, which means “Check” in the Japanese game Go, was founded in 1972 by an entrepreneur, Nolan Bushnell.

The Arcade Game Business
In the early 1970s, coin-operated game machines were electromechanical devices that played games such as pinball, shuffleboard, and football. Manufacturers sold the machine to distributors, who sold or leased them to operators who, in turn, placed the machines in arcades, malls, bowling alleys, and other locations.
At Atari, Bushnell and his team developed a computer-based arcade machine called Pong, in which two players batted a light beam back and forth between on-screen paddles. At a time, when the best arcade game grossed $45 a week, Pong machines brought in $200 a week.

The Home Market
In 1975, Bushnell introduced Home Pong, the Pong machine that was compressed down to a few integrated circuits and designed to be hooked up to a TV. A total of 150.000 Home Pong games were sold in the first year.
Fueled by the runaway success of the arcade game Space Invaders, the home video game market quickly bounced back from the 1978 crash. However, the U.S. home video game market collapsed again in 1985. A flood of low-quality software was blamed for the bust.

Nintendo in Japan
Nintendo, based in Kyoto, Japan, was controlled by the old, established Yamauchi family. In the early part of this century, the company was the largest maker of Japanese playing-cards, introducing Western-style cards and building a sales force that called on shops all over Japan.
In 1978, Nintendo started putting out coin-op video games. In 1980, Nintendo put out Game & Watch, a handheld combination of video game and digital clock. In 1981, Nintendo had its first smash hit with the coin-op video game Donkey Kong.

The Famicom
By 1983, there were several players in the Japanese home video game industry, including Atari, Commodore from US, Casio and Sharp. The game sold out for around $200-350. In the same year, Nintendo launched Famicom at a $100 price and significantly undercut the competition. Overtime, the Nintendo engineers learned to make more complex game by using powerful new chips in the cartridge to take over processing activities from the console (Super Mario Brothers and the Legend of Zelda). As a result, makers of competing home video game system withdrew from the market.

Licensing
Nintendo decided to license other companies to develop games for its system. By 1988, there were 50 licensees. Nintendo continued with its outsourcing policy, working with some 30 subcontractors including many of the leading chipmakers. Later, Nintendo launched the Family Computer Communications Network System equipped by a modem and a special cartridge enabled of interacting with other terminals or a central computer.

Nintendo in the U.S
In the US, Nintendo established a subsidiary named as Nintendo of America (NOA) by 1980. At first, NOA had a shaky start importing Nintendo coin-op game and attempt to gain a foothold in the U.S arcade game business. However, in 1983, NOA entered the U.S consumer market with Game & Watch, brought over from Japan. The product, aimed at the toy market, was failure. Therefore, in 1985, Nintendo tried to launch the Famicom in America with the games which were redesigned to look more like a computer and given a hi-tech package. The decision was made to reposition the video game system as a consumer electronics product rather than a toy. At that time, NOA targeted electronics retailer and offered to stock stores for free, with retailer having to pay for only what they have manage to sell after 90 days. To the surprise of the trade, consumer reaction was favorable. A national roll-out followed in 1986

Marketing and Distribution
NOA spent about 2% of sales budget for advertising and also sought out promotion partner such as Pepsi, Proctor and Gamble, and McDonalds. In 1988, Arakawa started a magazine named Nintendo Power for NES users which gave tips on existing games, announced new release, and rated games. Very soon it became the highest circulated magazine targeted to children in USA. Nintendo’s products were sold through toy stores, mass merchandiser, departmental stores, electronic retailers and other outlets. NOA also set up interactive display nation wide which allowed any one to stop and try NES. NOA practiced careful inventory management in releasing its new games. It supplied less than the retailers demand. There was allegation against Nintendo for abuse of power to create scarcity of games in market and threatening to cut off retailers if they carried competitor’s products or discounted Nintendo machines and Games.

Position in the late 1980s
By 1990, Nintendo had a greater than 90% share of U.S home video game market and one NES unit for every three house hold in America. By 1989 in collaboration with AT&T it tried to bring all NES users under networking but finally the project was dissolved.

Game Boy
In April 1989, Nintendo launched a handheld monochrome video game named game boy which became one of the best selling games and through 1992, a total of 32 million game boy was sold through out the world.

Legal Maneuvers
US Justice Department investigated allegation against Nintendo in five areas – anti-competitive purpose of the NES security chip, software developer became almost entirely dependent on Nintendo due to agreement, creating artificial shortage of games during Christmas 1988, practice of software with hardware and exercising market power by threatening retailers with limit on their supply. At the same time, the Attorney general of New York and Maryland began investigation for enforcing retailers to keep price of game more than $99.95. NOA signed a consent decree with federal Trade commission along with the attorneys generals of Mary land, New York and 39 other states agreeing to stop action which could be construed as resale price maintenance.

A New Game
In late 1991, Seattle’s major league baseball team, the Mariners was put up for sale. But due to be a non North American Nintendo failed to buy Seattle’s major league base ball team, the Mariners.

Questions and Answers

1) Nintendo successfully recreated the home video game business following the Atari-era boom and bust. How did it so?
Nintendo’s success in the home video game business was achieved by:
 Making an innovative new game system which had some competitive advantages such as cheaper, superior image quality, faster hardware processing and a connector that can be used for future addition of a modem and keyboard.
 Preventing the possibility of product counterfeits by embedding into the system a security chip ensuring that only Nintendo-approved cartridges would be able to run on the system. This is a very important measure because it could lead customers into negative perception about the company reputation from using low-quality pirate products. Moreover, the company’s profit would be decreased.
 Keeping the hardware cost down by including some code into each cartridge. This code was needed for console operation to be read into the system’s memory each time a game was loaded.
 Proposing the policy of insulating R&D personnel from the marketing people in order to improve the chances of coming up with truly fresh game concepts.
 Focusing resources on trying to come up with one or two hit games per year rather than with several minor successes.
 Licensing other companies to develop games for its system.

2) What was the key difference between the Nintendo and Atari strategies?

The key differences between two companies are shown in the table format based on the information provided in this course.

Item Nintendo Atari
Technology Cartridge console with security chips VCS (Video Computer System), not cryptic
Market price Cheaper game having superior graphics and faster action Relatively more expensive
Market strategies  Insulated R&D
 one or two hit games per year preferable than several minor successes
 expanding strategy by using highly targeted advertising with support of partners such as Pepsi, P&G and McDonald’s
 Outsourcing policy and royalty  be played by predominantly youths of elementary and high-school age
 collaborate with other game producers
 allow reciprocal play using other games in the same platform

3) How was Nintendo able to capture value from the home video game business?
There are many factors which encouraged Nintendo to capture value from the home video game business as follow:
 Firstly, Nintendo had a good potential in technology of game production because it succeeded to develop new video game system that better than its competitors and it was cheaper. These were also good potential for Nintendo to promote its products in the markets and attracted the customers to buy its games.
 Secondly, in 1985, there was a factor which encouraged Nintendo to monopolize the game business because the home video game market collapsed. The big game companies such as Atari and others had the problems and the weakness points. This was the good chance for Nintendo to negotiate and license other companies to develop games for its system such as Namco, Hudson, Taito, etc.
 Thirdly, Nintendo succeeded to expand its distribution in the United State which was the biggest market for game business by advertising strategy and using the popular cartoon and movies characters to attract its consumer. Therefore, Nintendo game systems were very popular and could be found one system for every three households in both Japan and the United States.
 Fourthly, Nintendo used the regulation, contract, and patent license to limit the other game companies which tried to share the value of its game business. And also it used market strategy to ban the retailers who sold its competitors’ products or discounted its products.
 Fifthly, it had very good image because it achieved to launch the game such as Game & Watch, the coin-op video game Donkey Kong, The legend of Zelda, Metroid and Supper Mario Brothers. These made the customers relied on Nintendo and satisfied to pay for Nintendo’s new release games. These were the main factors that Nintendo could capture the home video game business.

4) What were Nintendo strategies towards its customers, suppliers, complementors and substitutors.
Nintendo is known as one of the top companies for customer service. Main objective of Nintendo was to provide video game that would be cheaper than competitors but having superior graphics and faster in action. To make its product available to customers it distributed products through toy stores, mass merchandiser, electronic retailers and other outlet. Nintendo published magazine for customers to give tips on new video games, announced new release, and rated game. NOA set up a consumer hot line to, with game counselors to give hints – but not complete answer- how to play the games. Nintendo also connected its user with a family computer communication network system that offered stock-brokerage services, home shopping, online banking, rail and airline reservation services, electronic mail, and access to information about new video game. NOA also set up interactive displays in stores nationwide, allowing anyone to stop and try the NES.
One of the strategies of Nintendo was outsourcing. All manufacturing of Nintendo’s game system was subcontracted, with final assembly alone taking place at company’s facility. It worked with around 30 subcontractors including many of the leading cheap makers. Specialized chips were sourced from electronic giant Ricoh. Suppliers who made software for Nintendo were restricted from moving another video game for next two years.
Nintendo provided new video games that would be cheaper than substitutors but having superior graphics and faster in action. They concentrated on come up with one or two hit game per year rather than several minor successes. Nintendo tried to monopolizing the market. They encouraged the retailers not to sell competitors game. In order or increase market demand, Nintendo did not fill all of the retailers demand, and kept more than half of its game library in active. It also withdrew game from the market quickly as soon as interest waned.
Nintendo provided license to other companies to develop games for its system. Initially six companies got license. They had to pay royalties to Nintendo set at 20% wholesaled price of Cartridge. By 1988, there were 50 licenses. Except the initial six, others had to pay 20% royalty and also had to absorb manufacturing cost. They also needed to make a minimum order of 10000 units with pay in advance. They insisted the retailers not to sell the competitors product and discounted Nintendo’s machine and games. Capitalizing the game characters NOA licensed its game characters to a wide variety of other business. Mario and other Nintendo creations turned up on TV shows, cereal packets, T-shirts, records and tapes, in books and board games, as toys, and elsewhere. NOA spent about 2% of sales budget for advertising and also sought out promotion partner such as Pepsi, Proctor and Gamble, and McDonalds. It also published a magazine. NOA set up a consumer hot line to, with game counselors to give hints about games.

*) International Technology and Management 3E (ITM) – 70674
Professor HIBARA Nobuhiko

Country Assistance Strategy for Indonesia: Changes, Impacts, and Improvements *)

2007-01-07T21:01:00.000+09:00

Introduction
The outbreak of the financial crisis 1997 and the deep recession that followed suit has highlighted the important role of foreign assistance in Indonesia. Recently, the IMF and the World Bank (the Bank) have been criticized for their roles in guiding the Indonesian government towards economic recovery. This has raised questions about the effectiveness of foreign aid to Indonesia. Within this circumstance, on November 2003, the World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors discussed the Bank Group’s Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for Indonesia covering the period 2004-2007.

Following the CAS Public Information Notice, the Bank described Indonesia as follows:
Indonesia continues its transition from an autocratic, centralized state to a democratic, decentralized one. It has successfully regained macroeconomic and political stability, but economic growth remains below 4 percent, poverty reduction remains a challenge, and governance concerns continue to cloud its achievements. Public debt has declined from 100 percent of GDP to 72 percent, inflation is now below 7 percent, and income poverty has fallen from 27 percent in 1999 to 16 percent today. Today, 110 million people still live on less than $2 a day, and remain vulnerable to falling back into severe poverty. Indonesia continues to under-perform its neighbors in access to quality health, education and other basic services, as reflected in the MDG indicators. Weak governance institutions are keeping investors away and undermining service provision, especially to the poor. Indonesia has undertaken reforms that could lead to a more effective and accountable government, and a restoration of growth. However, sound implementation is now needed to turn the promise into reality.

The Bank Group Strategy
Based on this discussion, the Bank focuses on the so-called “The Bank Group Strategy” to address these problems, which include:
1. Improving the Climate for High Quality Investment.
Bank Group support will be directed to address five key areas that are essential to raise the rate of investment from its current level of 20 percent of GDP: deepening macroeconomic stability, building a stronger financial sector, fostering a competitive private sector, building Indonesia’s infrastructure, and creating income opportunities for poor households and farmers.
2. Making Service Delivery Responsive to the Needs of the Poor.
Weak service delivery is undermining Indonesia’s goal of improving the quality of life of its citizens and the attainment of its MDGs. Bank Group support will thus be devoted to help revamp the management and accountability systems for service delivery to make providers more directly accountable to their clients. Focus will be given to implementing the principles of the World Development Report 2004, especially in health and education, but also in agricultural research, extension and irrigation, and in public services in general.
3. The Core Issue of Governance.
Advances in governance will be needed to address both CAS objectives. Four areas will be given priority: (i) making development planning more responsive to constituents; (ii) improving public financial management; (iii) strengthening the accountability of local governments under a more coherent decentralization framework; and (iv) enhancing the public credibility, impartiality and accessibility of the justice sector. Selectivity in the Bank’s activities will be determined less by sector priorities than by the opportunity to make progress in these areas. Corruption poses a special problem in Indonesia, and the country team aims to integrate governance and corruption issues through the entire Indonesia program, shaping how projects are selected, designed, implemented and monitored.

To deliver its business platforms, the Bank will leverage the projects it finances with analytical work, policy advice, technical assistance, strategic partnerships and capacity building to increase standards of governance at each level of government the Bank engages systematically. Four business platforms are envisioned:
1. The Community Driven Development Platform: about 25 percent of all lending (about $200 million per year) would be allocated to scale up this successful program.
2. The Local Services Platform: about 40 percent of lending would be allocated to help create accountability at the district and provincial levels.
3. The Public Utility Platform: about 15 percent of lending would help support investments in good corporate governance and efficiency in water supply and energy.
4. The National Lending Platform: about 20 percent of lending would be allocated to address central problems.

Through these platforms, the Bank proposes a Base Case with lending in the range of $450 - $850 million, including $230 million in IDA resources. The Base Case assumes continued, but incremental, progress on the Economic Policy Package. Evidence of decisive momentum in implementing the reform package could lead to an “enhanced” Base Case, in which the Bank would offer an adjustment loan in late 2004. The actual amount of Base Case lending would also depend on the number of districts and utilities that qualify through their governance reforms for bank assistance. The CAS also includes a High Case of up to $1.4 billion, and a Low Case of less than $300 million. The High Case triggers have all been selected from the Government’s Economic Policy Package as those most important to achieving target outcomes in the three CAS areas and putting the country on a path to stronger growth and better living standards.

The programs were designed to mitigate risks that could limit the effectiveness of bank support. These risks include a lack of political will to address governance issues, macroeconomic shocks arising from domestic or international factors.

Changing Features of ODA (Official Development Assistance)
Traditionally, the Bank and the ADB (Asian Development Bank) played the major role in implementing multilateral aid projects in Indonesia. The Bank always enjoyed a constructive relationship with successive governments, providing policy advice through the country economic memoranda and country strategy reports. The constructive nature of the relationship between both sides were especially highlighted during the late 1980s and early 1990s when the Bank did not attach any policy conditionalities to loans (World Bank 1999, p.15). However, the Bank also failed in several instances to persuade the government to implement important policy reforms. Corruption issues were raised a couple of times, but were ignored (World Bank, 1999, p.16). Warnings on financial sector insolvency, overheating of the economy and social stress went also unheeded.

In terms of sectoral allocation of aid, the infrastructure development absorbed the largest share at 40% of the total, followed by agriculture at 19%; education, health and nutrition/population at 13% and sanitation at 10% (World Bank Brief on Indonesia). Over time, the composition changed: the share of agriculture fell in favor of a rise in other categories. In the forestry sector, the Bank insisted on policy conditionalities to reform the sector and this caused the government to stop borrowing for forestry projects from the Bank. Together with a decline in the focus on transmigration (also explained by increased international criticism on the resettling program), this explains the declining share of agriculture.

Interestingly social infrastructure (consisting of education, health and urban development projects) is the main beneficiary with infrastructure development in the traditional sense (i.e. energy, transport and communications) following in second place. The overall operational strategy prior to the crisis was an emphasis on three areas: improvement of physical infrastructure, human development and sustainable resource management. Decentralization, specifically in the Eastern Islands was a priority. With the crisis, lending shifted towards poverty alleviation again, with the ADB providing $1.84 billion in 1998 (ADB 2000, p.19). The crisis has also brought the IMF into the centre stage of aid policies in Indonesia. So far, 8.3 billion $ SDR have been approved, of which 3.7 billion have been drawn. The IMF has been much criticized for its role in handling the crisis. Its insistence on wide - ranging structural reforms to restore investor confidence rather than to focus only on macroeconomic management (its traditional role) continues to be subject political debate among Indonesian policymakers.

Negative Impacts of Aid
Looking at the fiscal burden of debt in Indonesia, one cannot avoid the conclusion that the country will be dependent from external resources for a long time to come. After completing the bank recapitalization program, government debt will be 94 % of GDP, up from a pre-crisis figure of 23 %. An estimated 1.1% of GDP had to be repaid in debt in 2000 and for 2001; the figure will be about the same. Accordingly, debt service will increase in 2002 and subsequent years, when budget-supported loans from the crisis years and bank recapitalization bonds become due and rescheduling agreements phase out. The debt service will reduce development spending further, resulting in cuts in all areas of public spending, including spending on social infrastructure (World Bank 2000, CGI Brief, p.23).

The debt burden also raises issues of aid dependency and unequal relations between donor community (and single large donors like Japan) and Indonesia. To obtain financing for covering budget deficits, policy conditions are attached, primarily in the Letter of Intents between the government and the IMF. For instance, to ensure fiscal sustainability, the government must improve budget management, raise revenues though better tax administration, phase out fuel subsidies, and accelerate privatization and asset recovery, and so on. It is easy to see that many of these policies are politically sensitive. For instance, the recent delay in disbursement of IMF loans is caused by the If’s concern about the independent status of the central bank. This is seen by many as political interference.

Moral hazard and corruption also hamper the effectiveness of aid flows. One big structural problem is that Indonesia mixes development spending with recurrent items. Items such as wages and project management fees are included in the development budget. Routine maintenance is put into project spending and thus falls within the development budget. Thus, donor funded projects, which are fully integrated into the development budget; regularly finance recurrent spending such as books and medicine. This is a major incentive for inefficient spending and corruption, especially considering the low salaries of public servants (World Bank 2000, CGI brief, p.23).

In the past, aid flows were also subjected to a highly centralized fiscal system that fostered the unequal relations between central government and provinces. Revenues of the center, for instance, constitute almost 90 percent of all revenues. Sub - national governments depend for almost 60% of their spending on central government grants (World Bank 2000b). This unequal relationship can also be detected if one looks at several human development indicators. Moreover, there is also a clear relationship between lack of infrastructure development and slower economic growth in the regions. The current decentralization program is about to change this anomaly. Two regulations are the central instruments to push for decentralization: Law No.22/1999, which empowers district governments and Law No.25/1999, which regulates the fiscal balance between the center and the provinces and districts.

Improving Bilateral Aid Program - Current Approaches
In essence, there seems to be a consensus among major donors about the direction of future aid to Indonesia. Principles and guidelines are formulated in documents like the New Development Strategy by DAC or the last World Development Report by the World Bank (JICA 200, World Bank 2000). There is a broad consensus about attacking poverty and focusing on participatory approaches to growth, environmental sustainable development and open trade regimes. The main problem is that donors have frequently failed to coordinate aid efforts, countries have not taken ownership and policy conditionalities on the project and program level have reduced incentives to implement aid more effectively.

Sector-wide development cooperation is one possible future solution to overcome coordination problems. The idea is that the recipient country formulates a sector strategy in consultation with key stakeholders and a budget framework. Donors put their money into a central expenditure pool for the sector. Thus, the approach ensures donor and recipient coordination and provides for country ownership of sector strategies.

Although far from being close to this ideal situation, some efforts have been made into this direction in Indonesia. As part of an IBRD balance of payments support commitment, a sector - wide reform in irrigation and water management is under way. Based on public consultations, the reforms are being prepared by an intergovernmental committee with NGO participation under the Coordinating Minister for Economy and Finance with support from several donors. Donors collaborate with the government to develop a national water management program. The program encompasses several individual donor projects. They follow common program principles and strategies under joint oversight (World Bank, CGI brief, 2000, p.28).

While more coordination is undoubtedly important to harmonize efforts and to make aid more effective, the push for reform ultimately depends on internal political stability. Current lack of coordination among government agencies themselves and the shaky nature of the political transition process in Indonesia make it difficult to implement efficient and coordinated policies. However, future aid strategies for Indonesia have to take account of the increasingly worrying debt situation. Without substantial debt rescheduling and even canceling of debt, the unequal relation between donors and Indonesia is likely to continue, as the heavy fiscal burden caused by large debt repayments makes it very difficult for Indonesia to return to a high growth path in near future. Instead, the government will have to constantly rely on external financing and more policy conditions attached to it.

What Next?
Based on the above discussion and take into account the evaluation from external expert hired by the Bank, in the future the Bank should:
 strengthen operational guidance and oversight for the application of Bank safeguard policies and fiduciary compliance,
 design the program as an integral part of the overall assistance strategy, and carry out periodic assessment of on-going projects to ensure relevance and effectiveness to the country context, and
 give priority to helping countries build-up existing indigenously matured initiatives; where such initiatives do not exist, tailor project to country and community context while undertaking selective, rigorous, impact assessments to ensure learning.

Source of reading
1. ADB (2000), “Country Assistance Plan (2000-2002)”, January.
2. Indonesian Law No.22.1999, “The Regional Governance”.
3. Indonesian Law No.25/1999, “The Fiscal Balance between the Central Government and The Regions.
4. Japan International Cooperation Agency (2000), “Japan's Official Development Assistance to Indonesia “.
5. World Bank (1999), “Indonesia - Country Assistance Note”, Report no.19100, March 29.
6. World Bank (2000), “Indonesia: Accelerating Recovery in Uncertain Times”, Brief for the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI), October 13.
7. World Bank (2000b), “Public Spending in a Time of Change”.
8. World Bank (2003), “Country Assistance Strategy for Indonesia, October, 29.

*) International Technology and Management 4E (ITM) – 70671
Professor NAKAMURA Shuzo

Gaji PNS dan Korupsi - 3

2006-12-17T15:22:00.000+09:00

Setelah tak ada posting baru tentang diskusi gaji, akhirnya saya pingin komentar lagi. Barangkali ini final dengan threat subject yang sama.

Prinsipnya, saya setuju dengan semua pendapat kawan2. Tapi, ada satu hal yang membedakan. Sedari awal, saya sama sekali tidak punya asumsi bahwa peningkatan kesejahteraan berkorelasi positif dengan perbaikan mental. Wah, jauh banget, kawan.

Peningkatan kesejahteraan lewat gaji dan tunjangan, berujung pada harapan peningkatan kinerja atau profesionalisme. Memang belum ada jaminan, seperti yang pernah saya tulis dan alami. Namun ini bisa jadi awal dari prinsip reward and punishment. Di tingkat yang paling praktis akan berwujud: kalau ketahuan dan terbukti nyolong (korupsi), langsung pecat. Ibu Menteri Ani tidak akan merasa bersalah/berdosa memecat PNS Depkeu jika korupsi, jika sebenarnya kesejahteraan mereka terjamin lewat sistem penggajian baru ini.

Orang Indonesia terlihat gampang sekali menggeneralisasi keadaan, membuat stereotip yang tidak perlu. Misalnya, orang Batak pasti galak atau etnis China pasti pelit, atau orang Jawa pasti main belakang, dll. Ini bahaya dan tidak perlu, mengingat setiap manusia adalah unik. Jika diteruskan, maka akan muncul budaya: orang lain juga nyolong, kenapa saya nggak? Atau yang haram aja susah, apalagi yang halal?

On the other hand, mental adalah sesuatu yang abstrak. Sangat abstrak, bahkan. Ini grey area yang sangat subjektif. Makanya, domain kesejahteraan dan domain mentalitas, menurut saya, tidak memiliki himpunan bagian atau intersection. Maka menggeneralisasi peningkatan kesejahteraan dan perbaikan mentalitas, juga tidak mungkin.

Tapi nggak ada yang salah dengan dongeng jaman dulu tentang suburnya Indonesia lho, Pak Jarot. Bahwa tongkat, kayu dan batu bisa jadi tanaman, barangkali dulu memang terjadi. Yang terjadi kemudian adalah eksploitasi sumber daya alam secara serampangan dan besar-besaran. Begitu SDA kita mulai habis, kita tidak siap mental.

Gimana baiknya?
Gampang, koq. Siapkan saja mental kita untuk berubah. Ubah mindset kita, bahwa untuk bisa hidup, kita harus bekerja keras dan siap berkompetisi global. Bos saya di kantor beberapa kali bilang: "If you don't change, you die!". Terapkan itu juga pada keluarga kita, terutama anak2 kita.

Selanjutnya, siapkan jawaban untuk pertanyaan2 besar. Kalau belum ketemu, cari sampai dapat. It's a kind of lifetime achievement, kawan. Pak Andi mempertanyakan apa dibalik mentalitas orang Jepang. Saya punya jawabannya, yaitu: "Belum tahu, Pak, tapi pasti akan saya cari sampai dapat". He he.

Similarly, bagaimana memperbaiki mentalitas kita? Atau bagaimana memperbaiki Indonesia? Gampang, kawan2.

Mulailah dari diri kita sendiri,
mullailah dari sekarang!

Salam, aqimis sholaah!
[lho, emangnya ini kutbah Jumat, apa?]

Gaji PNS dan Korupsi - 2

2006-12-12T19:29:00.000+09:00

Anda benar. Mustinya domain pembicaraan kita adalah tunjangan, bukan gaji. Tapi kisah saya dahulu tentang gaji anak buah, memang demikian adanya. Karena term jaman pimpro dulu adalah gaji upah.

Saya nggak tahu pasti motivasi Mbak Ani (Dr. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Menkeu) dibalik rencana kenaikan tunjangan itu. Yang jelas, idenya rasional. Bahwa untuk dapat mencapai kinerja yang lebih baik, pegawai perlu konsentrasi penuh. Nah supaya bisa konsentrasi penuh, pegawai nggak usah mikir urusan dapur keluarga dan kebutuhan fisik dasar lainnya.

Kalau boleh nambah cerita, di jaman lalu saya punya target agar semua server di kantor diganti ke lingkungan yang bebas biaya alias free software environment. Maka pilihannya jatuh pada Linux. Kami semua mulai dari nol, karena jaman itu belum banyak buku tentang Linux di Gramedia atau toko buku lainnya. Bahkan GUI installer pun belum ada untuk beberapa distro macam RedHat atau Debian. Kalau nggak tahu, cari informasinya di internet.

Maka saya lalu merasa wajib mensuplai kebutuhan voucher komunikasi, kopi, teh, gula dan rokok untuk anak buah. Saya install 4 buah penyedot asap rokok di ruangan, supaya nggak mengganggu yang lain. Saya naikkan bandwith koneksi internet dari semula dial-up, ke 256 kbps (saat ini menjadi 512 kbps) plus 16 IP publik. Wis , pokoke apapun yang membuat mereka betah bekerja di kantor, saya penuhi. Pun termasuk saya belikan HP jika terpaksa (salah seorang dari mereka merasa wajib untuk selalu berkomunikasi dengan istrinya di rumah). Saya juga mewajibkan mereka untuk bisa dihubungi setiap saat.

Sedihnya, pernah suatu ketika salah seorang anak buah saya (yang jauh lebih senior daripada saya) mempraktekkan "permainan lama", dengan meminta uang pada rekanan yang menang. Karena saya gemakan "transparansi" tidak hanya pada pejabat proyek, tapi juga pada rekanan, akhirnya sang rekanan "bernyanyi" pada saya tentang permintaan mantan anak buah tadi. Walau akhirnya saya tahu rencana ini gagal, namun SAMPAI SEKARANG PUN, hubungan pribadi saya dengan mantan anak buah proyek belum membaik. Saya belum bisa memaafkan tindakan itu.

Jadi, ide menaikkan gaji atau tunjangan pun, belum jadi jaminan untuk menaikkan kinerja. Tapi paling tidak, saya bisa punya segudang alasan untuk mem "persona non grata" kan anak buah saya, persis apa yang dilakukan bos perusahaan pada anak buahnya. Dalam kerangka ini, saya setuju dengan ide Mbak Ani.

Tentang bocoran radiasi, saya nggak berani, Pak. Kawan2 seangkatan saya, 3 calon doktor di Jepun, dan beberapa lainnya di reaktor Serpong, malah punya anak lebih dari 2. Memang belum ada penelitian khusus, tapi saya curiga, medan radiasi juga punya efek positif pada fungsi genital manusia.

Lah, kalau ternyata Bapak2 anggota dewan yang terhormat itu malah jadi hiperaktif setelah kena bocoran radiasi, apa saya nggak kepoyoh-poyoh dikejar FPI dan dinas kependudukan sak Indonesia karena dianggap biang keladi kemaksiatan DPR dan penyebab ledakan jumlah penduduk? Nggak mau saya, kecuali ada Tunjangan Melarikan Diri ke Luar Negeri yang minimal jumlahnya setara dengan living allowance nya JICE.

Gimana?

Gaji PNS dan Korupsi - 1

2006-12-07T15:42:00.000+09:00

[buat Tuhan]
Ya Allah Tuhanku, rasanya baru kemarin aku berdoa (melalui puisi si Faiz) buat temanku di Hitotsubashi sana, hari ini sudah Kau kabulkan (dengan rencana kenaikan gajinya). Terima kasih Tuhan.

[buat Haris dan Cahyo]
Mbak Ani (Dr. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Menkeu) khan sudah menyebut, dananya berasal dari anggaran taktis Menkeu. Jadi DPR nggak perlu mencak2 gitu. Kalau nggak setuju, gampang aja. Caranya, tekan SBY agar Mbak Ani diganti. Dengan demikian kebijakan ini akan berakhir, karena sang Menkeu baru akan punya pandangan lain. Ho oh, tho?

Anyway, saya dari dulu setuju dengan model ini. Beri pegawai kita gaji yang layak, kalau perlu bersaing dengan gaji pegawai korporasi besar. Lalu, minta komitmennya untuk bekerja keras. Pakai ukuran2 yang benar untuk menghitung kinerja mereka. Basiskan pendapatan mereka atas hasil kerjanya. Tapi, kalau ketahuan nyolong, langsung pecat. Nggak usah pakai UU PNS atau PP sejenisnya.

Ketika suatu masa, pernah saya coba lakukan hal sejenis. Setiap akhir pekan, anak buah saya mendapat bonus ekstra sesuai hasil kerjanya. Kurang lebih 750 ribu s.d 1 juta per minggu. Dari pengamatan saya, kinerja mereka rata2 naik 3 kali lipat dibanding PNS biasa. Jadi hanya dengan menaikkan gapok 100% saja, saya (negara?) bisa untung 300%. Saya coba selama 2 tahun, dan 2 tahun itu grafik kinerja mereka tetap stabil. Sayang orde proyek berakhir dan diganti sistem ABK (Anggaran Berbasis Kinerja), yang ternyata tidak serta merta berbasis kinerja alias sama saja. Malah tambah susah keluar duitnya, hehe.

Kali lain, saya pernah berbincang dengan seorang kandidat penerima JDS yang ternyata gagal saat wawancara dengan professor. Dia sebenarnya agak segan kalau diterima sebagai JDS awardee, karena menurutnya gajinya sudah lebih dari cukup. Dengan bertugas di kantor Gunung Sahari (kantor pajak), si teman ini per bulan bisa mengantongi 7 juta plus. Dari semangatnya, saya bisa mengira-ira bahwa kinerja teman saya ini di atas rata2 PNS.

Well, tak ada kata cukup buat manusia. Tapi kalau gajinya lebih dari kebutuhan hidupnya (seperti kita sekarang?), maka konsentrasi ke pekerjaan (kampus) akan jauh lebih mudah. Dan rasanya dunia jadi lebih indah. Ta' iye?

[buat muliawan-muliawati PNS Depkeu van JDS]
Sudahlah, daripada sampeyan ribut mikirin kebenaran berita ini, mendingan sampeyan selametan saja dulu. Biasanya, sih, dengan selametan (baca: berbagi kegembiraan), impian itu bisa jadi kenyataan. Kenapa? Karena lebih banyak orang yang berdoa buat sampeyan.

Jadi gimana? Kita ngumpul di suatu tempat dengan host kawan2 Depkeu. Setuju??? Banyak opsi, diantaranya ke Honjo rame2 ... atau ... terserah sampeyan sajalah. Yang penting SPPD dan akomodasi ditanggung. Kalau setuju, ndak cuma dunia yang sampeyan dapat, tapi akhirat minimal kecipratan. Hik hiks.

Oke deshiyo ....

Book Review: Building Plant *)

2006-12-01T21:20:00.000+09:00

Title : Building Plants: Markets for Technology and Internal Capabilities in DSM’s Fertiliser Business, 1925–1970
Author : Arjan Van Rooij
Publisher : Transaction Pub, Aksant, Amsterdam
Year of Publication : 2004
Number of pages : 279

About the author
Dr. J.W. van Rooij or Arjan van Rooij is a researcher in Faculty of Technology Management, Eindhoven University of Technology, Netherland. He studied Arts & Sciences at Maastricht University, and specialized in the Technological Culture Program and graduated in 1998. He did historical research on bicycle tires, engineering contractors; and especially DSM, the Dutch State Mines.

His primary research interests are technology development and innovation from a historical and economic perspective, particularly the history of the chemical industry and chemical technology in the twentieth century. Van Rooij’s disciplinary interests include history of technology, business history and economics of innovation.

“Building Plants” is his dissertation and it was published in the same year. In 2005, Homburg and he wrote another book related to DSM history entitled “DSM Agro 1929-2004”. These two books will be a complete resource for understanding the DSM history. Unfortunately, an English translation is not available yet for the second book.

The reasons for choosing this book
First, this book tells the story of DSM, a corporation (or a company) that recently ranks among the global leaders in many of its fields; a group that it’s net sales grows more then 15% in the last 4 years. Now, DSM has annual sales of over EUR 8 billion and employs some 22,000 people worldwide. On July 2006, DSM NeoResins (one of its product) was awarded the Oliver Wight Class A Standard. Class A is only awarded to companies that achieve a performance standard of between 95 and 98% across all sectors of their business; planning and control, innovation, continuous improvement, people and strategy. Moreover, on September 2006, DSM was elected as leader in the Chemicals market sector of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for the third year running. The corporate sustainability performance has been assessed as the best of the world’s chemical companies.

Secondly, this book contributes to a growing body of literature on the history of industrial research and development. It explored the archives to uncover material on the innovative strategies of DSM, a chemical company that started in 1902 as “de Staatsmijnen” (the State Mines). Furthermore, this book is unique, because historians usually describe the growth of the company’s in-house research, but van Rooij has chosen to tell a different story. “Building Plants” shows how the firm DSM developed from a coal mining company to a diversified chemical enterprise from the mid-1920s to 1970. In order to understand the driving forces of that transformation, the author focuses on the plant level (he describes his research method as "plant level analysis") and the specific role played by engineering firms (which he calls "engineering contractors") and internal research and development activities.

The last but not least, in Indonesia, DSM operates in East Kalimantan as the DSM Kaltim Melamine. This huge plant produces melamine powder for industrial applications. I visited this plant in 2002 to inspect the radiation facilities within this plant, so I was likely having a kind of personal relation with this company when I found this book.

Outline of the book
During the twentieth century, DSM grew from a state-owned firm that operated exclusively in coal mining of southern Holland into a multinational chemical company. Around 1920, DSM’s chief executive officer, Frederik van Iterson, decided to diversify the company’s portfolio in order to reduce the company’s dependence on coal. Because its waste products (like nitrogen and phosphate) formed useful raw material for manufacturing fertilizers, they became DSM’s first new product. During the 1920s, DSM became the largest Dutch producer of the fertilizer ammonium sulfate. However, the step toward diversification was not straightforward, as DSM initially did not have the necessary expertise for developing complex products like ammonia.

In this period, DSM decided to hire chemical-engineering contractors who were capable of building a complete chemical plant: “patents were not wanted, only a complete plant”. The company hired engineering contractors, who designed the technology for synthesizing ammonia and made it readily available on the market. The contractors were crucial to the diffusion of technology, and they provided the opportunity for DSM to make use of a large-scale fertilizer plant. It is stated in page 76, “DSM relied on the market for technology to build its ammonia synthesis plant. The company never even contemplated developing its own process. There was no need for this, as several processes were already available and engineering contractors were capable of designing and building industrial scale plants”. Many people believe that engineering contracting was an American invention that was exported to Europe after the Second World War. However, van Rooij proved that even though American engineering contractors became important in Europe after the war, by the 1920s and 1930s there was a market for chemical technology in Europe. This situation had been ignored in the literature so far.

In relation to the economically oriented innovation literature, the author is concerned with the problems of technology transfer and the companies’ strategies on the market. The patent system, for example, would disrupt the ideal technology transfer. Nevertheless, he argues that technology transfer should not be treated as a general category. For example, if the technology is mature, its transfer becomes easier, because many suppliers and buyers operate on a growing market. The DSM case has shown that buying a complete plant is easier than buying patents—what an ammonia plant was supposed to do could easily be specified in a performance contract. For DSM, patents were more important in some cases than in others, but in the end they were not essential for its market strategy. The protection of the technology by means of patents was far more important from the perspective of the patent owner, but it was not crucial for DSM, the company buying the technology.

As a matter of fact, the innovation strategies of “defensive” companies like DSM were a vital factor in technology transfer and acquisition. Although its internal capabilities -- to understand the state-of-the-art technology -- were important for DSM, this did not mean that it exclusively internalized the knowledge it was seeking. The opposite is true: DSM badly needed the outside company knowledge held by engineering contractors.

Although van Rooij does not describe the history of DSM’s central laboratory in detail, the reader quickly can surmise that this department, inaugurated in 1938, stands at the heart of this account. Why? Because it exemplified DSM’s capabilities to carry out internal research, as well as to acquire outside knowledge and equipment. It was ultimately at the laboratory where the firm decided whether to buy or to develop its own technology. DSM’s central laboratory kept on growing to become one of the largest industrial research facilities in the Netherlands in the 1960s. By then, the Dutch state-owned company had established its own engineering and licensing departments. One of the book’s key chapters is in fact devoted to DSM’s urea process, developed at the central laboratory after World War II.

By that time, the firm had substituted oil for coal as feedstock. Urea, used as both a fertilizer and a raw material for the petrochemical industry, was a commercial success that explains, according to the author, the dramatic transformation that DSM underwent in its golden age. On the one hand, the firm came to rely more and more on licensing, while on the other hand, it was able to afford its growing in-house research activities. The urea case therefore represents the culmination of the story told in this book, a story that goes beyond the (not necessarily popular) history of the chemical industry to approach the history of the international markets for technology.

The correlation with the subject of this course
Van Rooij’s main point is that, by offering the possibility of acquiring outside technology complementary to internal research capabilities, engineering contractors can play an essential role in the development of industrial firms. This thought is more or less in accordance with Japanese companies’ way of thinking, especially in the beginning of “The Industrial Miracle”. According to the course, it can be proved that most of new technologies brought to Japan simply imported from Europe and US. Of course Japanese employees within those companies then should made many efforts to grow those adopted technologies in to mature commercial ones. Similarly, the DSM’s executive decision of “Go or No Go” in any cases have important contributions of their success story. I will discuss it more detail later.

Lessons learn
There are few companies, and even fewer successful chemical companies with a history to match that of DSM; a company that has changed so much over time, reinvented itself, repeatedly adjusted to changing circumstances and that are still fulfilling the promise of those modest beginnings in 1902.

What the author is therefore looking at is the ultimate sources of industrial innovation. There are indeed three relevant concepts he relates to technology and discusses throughout the book: sources, markets, and capabilities. More than that, this is a remarkable example of how the history of technology (his proper field) and the history of business can be brought together wisely and usefully, and how empirical research can be undertaken with new approaches and concepts. At the same time, the author claims that there was a market for technology around several European processes, such as high-pressure ammonia. Whereas large chemical firms sold expertise (through licenses), engineering contractors actually built and made operational industrial plants. Historians of technology and business who traditionally have focused on the former (the makers of the industrial diplomacy that shaped the European industry of the 1920s and 1930s) need to understand that the transfer of innovations would have been much slower and more difficult without the mediation of industrial contractors.

In spite of its intellectual excellence and literary quality, van Rooij’s book is not going to attract many readers among academic people. The author should not be blamed for that, since the chemical industry, as already pointed out, is not exactly an attractive topic. Besides that, the publishers, who overall have done a very good job, have not hidden the fact that the book is a doctoral dissertation. Still, those interested in the history of business and innovation in the past century should ignore both obstacles and read this book.

After 1970s
As requested, I add some information regarding DSM’s post activities after 1970s.

In the 1970s and 80s DSM underwent major reorganizations to ensure itself of sufficient scale, greater guarantees for market consumption, and diversification into high-quality plastics and fine chemicals. After 1985, DSM developed a series of ambitious innovation projects resulting in specialties such as the polyethylene fiber Dyneema, the strongest fiber on earth. Four years after that, DSM was privatized and listed publicly. During the 1990s, the company paid greater attention to creating a balance between commerce and research and developing value-adding processes and products, particularly products for the pharmaceutical and the food industries and performance materials for the automotive and transport industry and the electrics and electronics sector.

In 2002, DSM completed the sale of its petrochemicals operation in anticipation of future market movements. This was followed by the acquisition of Roche's Vitamins & Fine Chemicals Division in October 2003, which was subsequently, renamed DSM Nutritional Products. In February 2005 NeoResins, the coating resins business of Avecia was purchased. Now known as DSM NeoResins, this acquisition forms part of DSM Resins, a business group in the performance materials cluster. Within three years, this acquisition was followed by the sale of DSM Bakery Ingredients to the Dutch investment company Gilde Investment Management. Inally, in October 2005 DSM acquired the Chinese resins company Syntech.

With regards to “Go or No Go Cases”, at least there are two interesting points in the success story of DSM. First, their decision to diversify the company’s portfolio in order to reduce the company’s dependence on coal in the 1920s was a truly brave intuitive decision since they actually did not have the necessary expertise for developing complex fertilizers products like ammonia. Second one, their ambitious innovation projects such as the polyethylene fiber Dyneema have been leading to more profit. Its wide and various applications are the most basic foundation for stable market worldwide.

To sum up, DSM has grown and developed with new strategies and approaches. Based on their vision and strategy, the company is currently focusing on the four key elements: (1) market-driven growth and innovation, (2) increased presence in emerging economies, (3) operational excellent and (4) value creation.

Additional reading resources
http://www.dsm.com
http://www.wikipedia.org
http://www.polymer-age.co.uk
http://www.eyeforchem.com
http://www.chemunity.com

*) International Technology and Management 4E (ITM) – 70677
Professor NAKAMURA Shuzo

BKC Incubator *)

2006-11-30T21:44:00.000+09:00

Site Visit Report of Ritsumeikan BKC Incubator

Background
My report will mainly focus on my question about the future of incubator businesses, especially those supported by universities. These phenomena are quite interesting, since Japanese working culture is usually regarded as "lifetime employment". It means that labor force tends to work in a one established company for a long time, rather than build a newly company. In the past, being an entrepreneur in Japan is a very rare case. Only those “big men” such as Konosuke Matsushita (National-Panasonic), Tokuji Hayakawa (Sharp) and Kiichiro Toyoda (Toyota) that could be categorized as a truly entrepreneur.

The World is Changing
Everything in the world is changing, including Japan. There are now more than 200 incubators within Japan. Japanese government took the initiative in government-university-industry collaborative research, especially in the case of national universities. As this collaborative research scheme matured, the private sector became active and small and medium companies began to participate actively.

In developing countries, the public sector often needs to take the initiative since the private sector is not so developed and since R&D activities largely take place in public sector. However, as a partnership programme matures or aims at commercialization, the private sector should take the initiative. Even in developed countries, a public-private partnership-involving basic research at universities – needs public initiative to some extent.

Similarly, high-technology companies have developed close links with universities. These links are important for developing and transferring new technology as well as the creation of new products and goods. Links with business firms are also an important source of revenues and new knowledge for some universities. Links with leading universities in particular serve other important purposes, such as improving a firm’s reputation and increasing its access to key sources of innovation.

These links can connect business firms to sources of information about new scientific discoveries. Though challenging, costly and time consuming, these links can give the firm important competitive advantages that improve their markets. Understandably, more and more companies have actively sought to establish links with universities. But, although these facts have enriched our understanding of the contributions of business–university links, some basic questions remain unanswered. Do these links improve the business firm’s performance? Do they enhance the firm’s ability to develop and introduce new products to the market? Do they increase its ability to obtain patents? How do these links impact a business firm’s spending on R&D?

The growing links between universities and businesses have attracted some scholarly attention. According to George et. al. (2002), researchers have examined the organizational and political challenges that companies and universities face in building mutually beneficial alliances. Researchers have also studied the obstacles to the effective transfer of technologies developed from these alliances.

If we look at the data collected in the 1992 National Business Incubation Association survey, it was found that technology incubators generally performed as well as other incubators when compared using a variety of measures. Technology incubators had a higher rate of tenant employment and tenant revenues, as well as a larger number of patent applications per tenants firm. However, costs appeared higher for technology incubators, and the average operating deficit was higher for technology incubators than for other incubators.

There were approximately 42 technology incubators focused on technology transfer and R&D sponsored primarily by universities in the United States as of 1993. Data collected by Rhonda G. Phillips from 10 managers from this group to gauge the level of technology transfer and commercial activity occurring in university incubators. It was found that considerable activity had occurred, ranging from half of the tenant activity involved in technology transfer to no tenants at all, although, in general, the level of technology transfer was lower than would be expected. Some of the differences in the level of technology transfer research may be attributed to varying legal structures, requirements, and conflict of interest policies. This implies a need to further investigate the barriers and problems hindering the technology transfer process, especially in light of the finding that most technology incubator programs state as their objective

Success Story of BKC Incubator
BKC Incubator currently has 19 incubatees, ranging from manufacturing (8), information technology (7), medical services (2), environment and energy (1) to trading company (1). This establishment started in 2004, with strong support from Shiga Prefectural Government and Kusatsu City Hall. Incubatees take advantages of all resources within Ritsumeikan Universities, including laboratories and libraries. In its remarkable history, only 1 company failed in continuing its business.

What next?
Partnerships and strategic alliances are quickly becoming a major differentiating factor in business incubators. Dr. Masayuki Kondo pointed this out by mentioning the important of public-private partnership in a national innovation system. Similarly, private-private partnership is also significant in an age of business without corporate boundaries.

Hansen et. al. confirms the need to build a portfolio of synergetic technologies in an incubator and developing network between graduates and spin-offs of the incubator. His study concluded that only in strategic partnerships and alliances could a business incubator ensure cross-pollination that is vital to its long-term success. Furthermore, it is vital to design a revenue generation model for an incubator that consists of several different streams/sources of revenue.

Incubator business needs continuous support from government. Even so, it should be treated as a business, even when it is not-for-profit since financially dependent operational models will not be sustainable in the long run. While additional research is needed to explore further the effectiveness of technology business incubators as technology transfer mechanisms, it appears that this approach holds potential, particularly those programs affiliated with universities, as a means of encouraging technology based economic growth and development.

Resources
1. Gerard George, Shaker A. Zahrab, D. Robley Woodc, “The effects of business–university alliances on innovative output and financial performance: a study of publicly traded biotechnology companies”, Journal of Business Venturing 17 (2002) 577–609.
2. Masayuki Kondo, Dr., “University-industry collaboration in Japan Public initiative, public-private partnership and private initiative”, Yokohama National University, TECH MONITOR Jul-Aug 2004.
3. Morten T. Hansen, Nitin Nohria, & Jeffrey A. Berger, “The State of the Incubator Marketspace”, Harvard Business School, June 2000.
4. Rhonda G. Phillips, “Technology business incubators: how effective as technology transfer mechanisms?” in Technology in Society 24 (2002) 299–316.
5. http://www.nbia.org, National Business Incubation Association.
6. http://www.rits-binc.jp.
7. http://www.wikipedia.org.

*) International Technology and Management 3E (ITM) – 70674
Professor HIBARA Nobuhiko

Company Review: Toyota *)

2006-11-23T21:25:00.000+09:00

Review of
Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A., Inc.

I. Backgroud

In early 1980s, Japanese auto industry was thinking to build their plant in North America because of political pressure caused by trade imbalance. However, they were doubtful about maintaining high quality and low cost. In such situation experimentally Toyota Motor Corporation unveiled its plan to open an $ 800 million green field plant in Kentucky in 1985. In 1988, Toyota Motor Manufacturing (TMM) U.S.A began production Camry sedans in Georgetown, Lexington with a annual capacity of 200,000. In March 1992, TMM started producing wagon version of the new Camry exclusively within Toyota’s worldwide network.

I.1. Toyota Production System
Main objective of Toyota was to produce better car for more people to meet their divergence demand and supply in time. In order to produce world-class, quality automobiles at competitive price levels, Toyota has developed an integrated approach to production which manages equipment, materials, and people in the most efficient manner while ensuring a healthy and safe work environment known as Toyota production system (TPS).

TPS is built on two main principles. The first one is “Just-In-Time” (JIT) production. It refers to the manufacturing and conveyance of only “what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed.” The second principle is "Jidoka". It refers to the ability to stop production lines, by man or machine, in the event of problems such as equipment malfunction, quality issues, or late work. Jidoka helps prevent the passing of defects, helps identify and correct problem areas using localization and isolation, and makes it possible to “build” quality at the production process. Underlying this management philosophy and the entire Toyota production process is the concept that "Good Thinking Means Good Product".

I.2. The Georgetown Ramp Up
Toyota’s foremost priority was to development of human infrastructure in transplanting TPS to Georgetown. That’s why during the time when construction was going on Georgetown in early 1986, TMM initiated the hiring and training program for officials from managers to core operation’s personnels; these people came from within the industry and form the nucleus of TMM operation, in Tsutsumi, Japan. After that, they were sent to Georgetown plant. As a result, in early 1992, Georgetown’s huge complex employed over 4000 people, representing $150 million in annual payroll.

II. Operation

In Georgetown, the power train plant supplied engines and axles to the assembly plant, which performed sheet-metal stamping, plastic molding, body welding, painting, and assembly operations. In these direct operations as well as in their support functions, TPS was deployed as a set of management tools to be practiced daily.

II.1. Assembly
Assembly operations performed along 353 stations on a conveyor line, over five miles in length and consisting of several connected line segments: the trims lines, chassis lines, and final assembly lines. Assembly and part handling required 769 team members, who were paid an average of $17 an hour (not including benefits), plus a 50% premium for overtime. A team usually had four members and one team leader, who received a premium of 5% to 8%.

Assembly operations were built based on the principle of jidoka and kaizen. Jidoka is the stopping of production when a problem is noticed and fixing it. This strategy prevents defective items from being passed on to the next station, reduces waste, and most important, enable operations to build quality into the production process itself. Kaizen literally means “changing something for the better.” The objective of change usually includes the standardized work, equipment, and other procedures for carrying out daily production. Kaizen requires that a process be first standardized and documented so that ideas for improvement can be evaluated objectively.

II.2. Production Control
The mission of the production control (PC) department was to feed necessary parts into TMM operations so that the right number of cars in the right mix could be delivered to the sales company’s JIT. To achieve this mission, the planning process was reflected based on the principle of heijunka and kanban. Heijunka describes the idea of distributing volume and different specifications evenly over the span of production such as a day, a week, and a month. Under this practice, the plant’s output should correspond to the diverse mix of model variations. Heijunka practice achieved two goals. Firstly, by spreading out the demand for parts as evenly as possible, it relieves suppliers of a surge of workload and facilitates their just-in-time production. Secondly, it synchronizes the assembly line with the ultimate sales of the cars. Kanban, the Japanese term for “sign”, uses standard lot sizes and often, returnable containers with a card attached. These kanban cards, which are pulled as assembly-line workers use parts, alert suppliers that part levels need to be replenished.

II.3. Quality Control
TMM’s quality control (QC) department pursued a mandatory routine of setting tough quality standards, inspecting every vehicle against those, and following through on the customer’s experience with shipped vehicles. In addition, assembly group leaders help them solve assembly quality problems and work out part quality problems with supplier called on QC engineers. QC served two other functions as well. The first was providing instant feedback to direct operations including final assembly. The second was preventing problems from occurring in the first place.

II.4. Purchasing
Because TMM’s PC and QC departments engaged in fire fighting to solve delivery and quality problems directly with part suppliers, upon requests from assembly, the purchasing department was freed up to concentrate on managing costs over the long haul. Manager of purchasing should find low cost suppliers rather than low price supplier. Low price suppliers always came back to jack up their initial quote. Moreover, without low cost, it’s logically impossible for any supplier to offer low price consistently. To achieve this approach, the company encourages suppliers to share their cost data and help them improving their manufacturing process that can lead into low cost production.

III. The Seat

III.1. Manufacturing and installation
Manufacturing: Kentucky Framed Seat (KFS) used a system of sequential pull, so a Camry passed through the final assembly work station every 57 seconds, and the seat completely match the model type as the principle all just in time. The system operated when body shells emerge from the paint line, then a small transmitter was attached to each body to send the information to both TMM and KFS in real time. KFS’ manifest specified the style and color of the seat. In the process of manufacturing the car traveled down TMM’s five-mile-long assembly line and did all the seat assembly pieces. After the inspection, the cars would be loaded on the truck and transfer from KFS to TMM.

Installation: The overhead seat conveyor line ran above panel of the steel mesh that shielded cars and people below. At the rear seat loading workstation, a team member unstapled the seat set and placed all the rear seat pieces into the car. At the front seat workstation, team member guided the front seat assemblies into the car and fixed the bolts in place with a pneumatic wrench.

III.2. The problems of the seats
The main topic of the case was the problems caused by defective or damaged seats. At first the problems caused by the increase in the Camry seat options as demand of the market and the taking on of all the wagon productions for TMM Which cause the run ratio was drop 10 percent. Moreover, the problem also occurred to the relationship between TMM USA and its seat supplier Kentucky Framed Seats (KFS), so Doug Friesen and his colleagues had to set the meeting to brainstorm about the information and tried to figure out the problems and solve them:
 These are the problems which TMM USA was facing in the process of manufacturing.
 The first problem was a build up of cars with seat problems in the off-line operation area, when the JIT and JIDOKA principle seemed to not effective in the process of manufacturing.
 The second problem was the departure from the Toyota Production System (TPS) when dealing with the seat problem. Rather than fix the problem with the seat when it happened, they continued with the car’s production and worried about the seat afterwards.
 The third was the actual defects with the hooks and the damaged caused by cross threading by employees when installing the seats.

After Doug Friesen found the problems, he was not sure about the system and the principle of the company, and he needed to find the way to change the routine off line of the company.

IV. Questions and Answers

1. As Doug Friesen, what would you do to address the seat problem? Where would you focus your attention and solution efforts?

In April 1992, TMM had problems in the run ration of the plant. The run ration was down to 85% from 95%. It meant a shortfall of 45 cars per shift, which had to be made up with overtime. Consequently, too many cars needed off-line operations of one type or another before they could go on to shipping. The main source of the problem was the seats defects in the cars.
In case of the cars with seat problems, the car went through the assembly line with the defective seat in it. Then the car was driven to the Code 1 clinic area to see if the problem was correctable there. If the problem called for a replacement seat, the car was moved to the overflow parking area where the car waited for new seat to be delivered from the supplier. This routine is in fact an exception given the quality control process in TMM.
In TMM, TPS principles would make any production problems instantly self-evident and stop producing whenever problems were detected. In case of the defective seats, the reasons for exception were:
 The final assembly people already knew of the problem.
 It was possible to finish building the car without seat assemblies.
 It was felt that stopping the line was too expensive given how long it took to obtain the replacement seat.
The seat set was the most expensive of all the purchased parts. TMM’s sole seat supplier was Kentucky Framed Seat (KFS), which teamed up well with TMM’s operations until TMM proliferated its products, the seat styles increasing from 3 styles with 4 colors up to 18 styles. Even though the supplier tried to adapt the cars with seat defects became the major concern of the assembly plant in 1992.
In fact, the manager of the assembly, Dough Friesen should focus mainly on the legitimacy of the exception in the case of the defective seats and the coordination between the plant and the seat supplier:
 It is reported that KFS responded with a special delivery of replacements twice a week. But still, there were cars waiting for the new seats for more than 4 days.
 Occasional incidents of cross threading, that is, when a team member shot a bolt at an angle were fixed easily by team leaders.
 There were very few incidents, which could damage the seat covering with hand tools.
 The hook breakage problem reported by one of the group leaders might also derivate assembly process.
Consequently, the manager of the assembly should first identify those processes needing improvement. Second, he should gather more data about the problems by interviewing the personnel in details. Finally, he should analyze this data in order to figure out gaps between the standards and the current outputs.
2. What options exist? What would you recommend? Why?

We noted that the signs of problems appear after TMM proliferated the number of seat styles from 3 to 18. Even though KFS operated as a part of the assembly line, all the seat parts being detected through the line from the beginning to the end, the cars have seat defects. In fact, it is not reported that the seats are delivered defective to the plant. The seats are damaged during the assembly. Hence, one of the options that the manager has is to revise seat assembly team. Another issue is to redesign or improve off-line operations in case the manager decides to continue correcting seats off-line.
The manager should also think through the overwork that the plant has after TMM became the sole source of the Camry wagons for the first time for Toyota worldwide. So in this case, we recommend him these actions:
 Revision of the seats design in order to control assembly defects.
One of group leader, Shirley Sargent, suspected that its sharp edge made it difficult to assemble. TMM have also to listen to such feedback.
 To have multi-suppliers to lighten the burden of the only one supplier who works for 18 different styles.
It was obvious that this problem started after the styles expanded, so having several supplier could solve this overburden.
 Revision of the off-line operations in order to avoid overtime work.
TMM should be able to change its operation mode, since the Clinic Area and Overflow Parking Area were not enough to cover this mass problem.
These are the possible recommendations that may be useful for the manager of the plant, since the high level of off line vehicle inventory affects negatively the sales and most importantly the JIT principle of TMM. In addition, it is important to note that maintaining the quality in the long run is closely dependent on the efficiency of each step of the production process.

3. Where, if at all, does the current routine for handling defective seats deviate from the principles of the Toyota Production System?

The current routine for handling defective seats deviates from the two guiding principles of TMM:
 First, Majority of the defective cars inventory did not apply to the just-in-time principle. It is considered a deviation of the true production, which is hence a waste given the Toyota Production System’s principles.
 Second, the current application is against JIDOKA principle, which insists on building quality in the production process and on stopping production whenever a problem is detected.
Also, two strong attitudes created within the organization stick to the facts and get down to the root cause of the problem are ignored. A typical discussion of a problem would start with “let’s go see it” and then converge on the five whys exercise until the root cause was identified and determined.
Contrarily to these principles, the plant currently tries to handle defective seats with off-line operations. In case of the cars with seat problems, the car went through the assembly line with the defective seat in it. Then the car was driven to the Code 1 clinic area to see if the problem was correctable there. If the problem called for a replacement seat, the car was moved to the overflow parking area where the car waited for new seat to be delivered from the supplier. This creates the need for overtime in order to fix waiting cars. It is obvious that the handling is not suitable to the design of the production in the plant

4. What is the real problem facing Doug Friesen ?

In 1992, Doug Friesen, manager of assembly for Toyota's Georgetown, Kentucky, plant, faces a problem with the seats installed in the plant's sole product--Camry. A growing number of cars are sitting off-line with defective seats or are missing them entirely. The problem with the seat was due wrong parts, loose rear seat backboard, loose front seat backboard, rear seat lock, material defects, scratches etc. As a result, production was dropping by 10%. They were not able to supply the car to customers on time. Although they were working with JIT and Jidoka principles but the production was dropped and they were not able to find any solution .That was the main problem will be added after due.

*) International Technology and Management 3E (ITM) – 70674
Professor HIBARA Nobuhiko

Company Review: Sharp *)

2006-10-26T21:30:00.000+09:00

Review of Sharp Corporation

History
Hayakawa founded Sharp in 1912 and invented the Ever-Sharp Pencil in 1915. After the pencil business was destroyed by the Great Kantō earthquake in 1923, the company relocated to Osaka and started designing the first Japanese radio sets. Later on in 1929, he developed and produced vacuum tube radios for export to Asia. He began producing televisions in 1953 and diversified into appliances and air conditioners in the 1960s. In 1961, he established a corporate research laboratory to begin research on computer, solar cells and microwave woven. One year after, the company introduced Japan’s first microwave woven. In 1964, Sharp’s introduction of the world's first all-transistor desktop calculator, called Compet, signaled the beginning of the calculator wars.

In 1970 Akira Saeki became the new president of the company. He emphasized new products that created new markets. Using the same distribution channel technology developed for calculators, Sharp quickly diversified within the information equipment business in the 1970s. It developed a broad range of office automation products, including micro-computer (1970), electronic cash register (1971), liquid toner copiers (1972), personal computers (1979), Japanese word processor (1979) and facsimiles (1980). Sharp had developed world‘s largest solar cells for a lighthouse in 1963, and further research led to a development of solar cells for satellites in 1976. The central research and development (R&D) laboratory also developed electro-luminescent (EL) displays and laser diodes.

Haruo Tsuji promoted as president when Japan faced the yen's appreciation in 1986. The company introduced new products such as electronic organizers, dual-swing door refrigerators and the first combination cordless/answering machine. It also made advances in electronic, particularly in LCD. LCD technology continues to be a key part of Sharp's product range, in both the component and the consumer-appliance sides of the business. Based on these LCDs, it introduced a number of worlds first –in the world product such as a 110-inch color LCD video projector, 8.6 inch wall mount LCD monitor and the view cam camcorder with 4 inch LCD monitor.

Management System and Strategic planning
Sharp follow the top-down management strategy. Top management of the organization consists of 20 directors who in addition to their individual assignments, coordinated functions among groups. The organizational activities are shared among eight manufacturing groups, five sales and marketing groups, an international business group, a corporate research and business group, and a number of central service groups. Basically, the strategic plans are prepared by the manager planning board for improving company to catch up the world changing of technology and management. They meet twice a month to ratify critical decision and discuss the company future.

Normally the plans are about what the company will do in 6 months, 3 years or 6 years such as how to spend the budget to research and develop new products. After the plan was set up, it will be announced from the top level to the lower level. Actually the president will announce the management policy in his new year’s statement. For instance, sharp’s long term planning named STAR 21 in 1992 which focused on develop Consumer electronic and appliance, information systems and electronic components.
All of these groups, except the International Business Group, reported directly to the five top managers. The manufacturing groups, the International Business group, and the sales and marketing groups were profit centers, while the corporate R&D group and central service groups were cost centers. Sharp Corporation had a paternalistic relationship with its employees, and top management reinforced the view that the company was a family, or community, whose members should cooperate. Employee turnover was very low in accordance with the practice of lifetime employment. If a research project or a manufacturing plant closed, researchers and workers were not laid off but transferred elsewhere in the company. The reward is on fitting in consensus and coordination.

Within the company, they have 5 laboratories that spend a lot of money in the process of research. After one laboratory can develop the new product, the technology will be transfer to other members of the group. The technology strategy will be discussed every month in the meeting, which each division will present its own project to the others. After they know the capacity of their technology and demand of customer, they will identify what should focus to develop. However, they still remain research in the technology that other companies think it is impossible, but they keep it in small scale. This is the key factor that makes Sharp successful. For instance, they continuous to study LCD and gallium arsenide laser diodes in which many companies kept up to research. Finally Sharp can share market with the big company in that time and overtake many companies.

Sharp formalized its task-force-base product to enhance the effective to transfer and integrate technology among the member company. For instance, it formed a system of gold badge project in 1977. The projects mainly focus on area where technical seed existed. After the project got the good outcome, other member company would pay back haft of the project’s expenditure when products were sold in market. The project leader can choose 20-40 staff members in his team. There were many successful researches such as CMOC chips, LCD display solar cell and software.

Overcoming Difficulties
The economic climate of the late 1990s confronted Sharp with new challenges, however. Starting in 1996, Sharp--like other Japanese electronic companies--saw its sales eroded by the high value of the yen (which made Japanese products more expensive). 'The production cost in Japan has become the highest in the world,' Tsuji complained to the Wall Street Journal. In response, Sharp shifted more of its manufacturing overseas.

As LCD technology continued to go mainstream, the prices the displays commanded began to decline sharply, falling more than 50 percent in 1996 alone. Nevertheless, Sharp continued to boost production. The company also announced that it would produce and sell notebook personal computers in the United States to complement the company's burgeoning sales of copiers to American customers. Thanks to decisions such as these, Sharp appeared to be unscathed by the strong yen and the slumping LCD prices, even as many of its competitors went through painful restructurings. Early in 1997, Tsuji announced that Sharp would increase its production of LCDs by 43.8 percent for the year and would continue to invest heavily in LCD research and development.
But 1997 inaugurated a more difficult period. Sharp's LCD products faced tremendous competition from Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., as well as from manufacturers in Korea and the United States. The competition drove down prices and raised the supply of LCDs. To top if off, Sharp had failed 'to develop new high margin products that could guarantee it a steady stream of profits,' according to the Asian Wall Street Journal. As a result, the company's profits and sales declined for the first time in five years.

Sharp's troubles only grew more intense with the onset of a severe Japanese recession in 1998 (the country's worst since World War II). Sales of Sharp's usually steady 'white goods' sector (appliances such as refrigerators, washing machines, and air conditioners) plummeted as Japanese consumers shied away from major purchases. Caught in this crunch, Sharp's profits fell another 43 percent in 1998.

Business Today
The company recorded revenues of JPY2257.2 billion (approximately $20.9 billion) during the fiscal year ended March 2004, an increase of 12.7% over 2003. The increase was primarily attributable to high sales in most business divisions of the company. The operating profit of the company during fiscal 2004 was JPY121.6 billion (approximately $1.1 billion), an increase of 22.3% over fiscal 2003. The net profit was JPY60.7 billion (approximately $0.6 billion) during fiscal year 2004, an increase of 86.3% over 2003.

But the most significant changes took place in another area of business. New president Tsuji quickly recognized the potential of LCD devices, and unflinchingly focused the company's resources on developing the technology. Tsuji committed 10 percent of Sharp's total sales revenues to research and development. With this push, Sharp soon began to add LCD screens to all its products. By the late 1980s, Sharp succeeded in producing a thin film transistor LCD--a display with impressively sharp definition that opened the door to color laptop computers and portable televisions.

As its chief competitors struggled to catch up with its advances, Sharp continued to pin its future on LCD technology. Among them are Samsung, Seiko Epson, Toshiba, Sony, Hitachi, and Matsushita. In 1995 Sharp announced that it would again increase capital investments in its electronic devices division. In particular, the company planned to pour funds into its LCD and semiconductor manufacturing operations. Sharp's goal was not merely to produce LCD screens. Rather, the company sought to place cutting-edge LCD technology at the core of the emerging multimedia field. Sharp launched a bevy of products to further this agenda, including the Mebius notebook computer, the Super High-Resolution LCD Projector, and the pen-operated infrared transmission LCD Office Station. At the same time, Sharp entered into an alliance with AT & T to jointly develop the next generation of videophone technology. In the 21st century, I envision the future will be involved with three important things--multimedia, semi-conductors, and LCDs,' Tsuji told the New Jersey Business News on January 1, 1996.

Although 65 percent of its sales are generated in Japan, Sharp has subsidiaries around the world. It established a wholly owned sales subsidiary in the United States and gradually developed a global network. It transferred labor-intensive activities overseas, establishing Production Company in Taiwan, Brazil Korea and Malaysia.

Answers of questions:
1. Why has Sharp been successful for so long?
There are many factors that support the success of Sharp as follows:
- Sharp is dedicated to two principal ideals: Sincerity and Creativity. It means that entrepreneurship and technological innovation should always be the mainstays of the company.
- Sharp has good sense of seeing the future needs of customers and investing in products that competitors do not see any profits for future.
- Sharp has a top down traditional organizational structure and long-term prosperity. A feeling of crisis also enhanced their culture of innovation. The products are functional and user friendly. Furthermore, they intentionally spend much of their income on R&D expenditures to improve their products.
- They gave importance to globalization and now operating in 18 countries. These oversees production facility were built based on mutual joint venture between Sharp and local companies. Instead of exploiting the other countries, Sharp’s willing is to prosper with them.
- They built application and implication combinations such as using LCD, flash memory and ICs to built wizard organizer as an example of seeds and needs.
- Sharp devoted much attention to production technology than its competitors. They use low cost locations for after innovation. They focused technology investment on smaller areas where they have a competitive advantage. They have long term commitment as they start investing in LCD in the sixties before the market emerges.
- They are responsive to outside inventions and ideas such as hiring outsiders and using LCD from RCA, ICs from Bell Labs.
- They differentiate in end products to make them imitated more difficult.
- Another major factor of Sharp success is its being Japanese Company. They have strong dependence upon human resources and teamwork, high mutual dependence between employers and employees, employee’s strong loyalty. As a whole, they see the company look like a family.

2. Is Sharp today an end products or a components company?
Sharp is still considered as both an end products and components company. They produce end products such as calculators, LCD televisions and household appliances and also components such as LCD panels and Integrated Circuits because they are required to acquire continuous feedback from the final customers in order to improve future products.

3. Should Sharp enter into the Intel and Apple joint venture?
It should be positive if Sharp gets involved in the joint ventures, because Intel has 85% of the flash memory market today and it is $ 130 m. market. Sharp should get flash memories from Intel to produce its own products requiring flash memories or to sell other companies. For example to build wizard organizer, the company needs flash memory and their products of LCDs, ICs and software. Also If Sharp enters into Apple Joint venture it can use these flash memories and their own LCDs to produce laptop computers and Apple software. As we know, the computer market is rapidly growing and a profitable market.

4. How is Sharp able to coordinate and integrate activities across the corporation?
Sharp Corporation has top down traditional organizational structure that is functional and make things implemented quickly. They shared responsibilities among eight manufacturing groups, five sales and marketing groups, an international business group, a corporate research and development group, and a number of central service groups. All of these groups, except the International Business Group, reported directly to the five top managers. The manufacturing groups, the International Business group, and the sales and marketing groups were profit centers, while the corporate R&D group and central service groups were cost centers. Sharp Corporation had a paternalistic relationship with its employees, and top management reinforced the view that the company was a family, or community, whose members should cooperate. Employee turnover was very low in accordance with the practice of life time employment. If a research project or a manufacturing plant closed, researchers and workers were not laid off but transferred elsewhere in the company. The reward is on fitting in consensus and coordination.

Sources:
1. Sharp Technology: Technology Strategy, Harvard Business School
2. http://www.sharp-world.com
3. http://en.wikipedia.org

*) International Technology and Management 3E (ITM) – 70674
Professor HIBARA Nobuhiko

Book Review: Powering the Future *)

2006-10-21T21:12:00.000+09:00

Title : Powering the Future, the Ballard Fuel Cell and the Race to Change the World
Author : Tom Koppel
Publisher : John Wiley & sons Canada Ltd
Year of Publication : 1999
Number of pages : 276

About the author
Tom Koppel is an award-winning freelance writer and one of the most respectable documentation book writers in Canada. He has contributed feature articles on business, science, history, environment and travel to national magazines in Canada, Germany, Russia and the U.S. for nearly twenty years.

Although he has bachelor degree in economics from University of Pennsylvania and doctoral degree in Political Science from university of Wisconsin, his writing is commonly about science, nature, and environment. In order to write this book he has been following the story of the Ballard fuel cell for over ten years, and first wrote about it for over ten years. He lives on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, Canada.

Amazon.com named this book as one of the ten best business books of 1999. The author was also the finalist for Canada's National Business Book Award for 2000. The first Japanese translation of this book was published in January 2001 and the Germany version in October 2001.

The reasons to choose this book
This sixteen chapters’ book provides some unrevealed success story of Ballard. How Ballard could convince the government of Canada for supporting them and captivate Daimler-Chrysler and Ford for using the fuel cell technology. I think it is a very good examples how the dynamics of society in developed countries, in this case Canada, has affected the growth of technology and industry. Furthermore, it also presents the strategy of Ballard Company in order to convince big car company (Daimler-Chrysler) for providing research resources for him and for using the research results in the mass productions. The big picture of the development of fuel cell can be easily found in this interesting book.
The other thing that made me choose this book is the author’s writing style. Each chapter flows smoothly and it was easy to understand even for beginners in science and technology.

Outline of the book
This book provides the history and the development process of the fuel cell. It starts with the dream of Geoffrey Ballard, a former chemistry scientist in United States Department of Defense, for establishing a company which focuses in the invention of new alternative energy. He thought that energy conservation problem was not seriously tackled by the government of America.

The real challenge, Ballard thought, was to find a better energy conversion system or device, a convenient and economical way of taking energy from an abundant source and converting it to a usable, and preferably portable form, especially for transportations and communications. Ballard realized that the other technology is developing very fast, but the power source technology remains in stagnant position. For example although vehicle technology becomes enormously advanced but the vehicle still needs fossil fuel for moving which also creates heavy pollutions around the world.

In the beginning, actually Ballard wanted to look at battery chemistries with much higher energy densities; in the other words, much lighter weight for a given power output. One of the main problems with conventional batteries for transportation is the weight of the lead and also the long recharging time. Ballard Company efforts were focused in this research since the establishment, not in fuel cell technology.

Although they succeeded in order to develop long life battery (alkaline), but still the real breakthrough was in 1983. In that year the government of Canada requested Ballard and partners to develop fuel cell. Most government and industry money for fuel cell development in the US, Japan, and Europe was going into other types of cells, especially the phosphoric acid fuel cell. With the human resources who have deep knowledge in electrochemistry and experience in alkaline battery research and development, Ballard has no competitors for developing Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell at that time. The other big advantage for Ballard because the General Electrics (GE) patents for fuel cell technology also had expired. After Ballard succeeded the reengineering and the refinement of the GE PEM fuel cell, they could own the intellectual property right for that fuel cell.

The success story was continued, when in 1997 Ballard was able to captivate Daimler-Chrysler and Ford, two biggest automobile companies in America, for supporting Ballard research and development of more advanced fuel cell. Ford and Daimler-Chrysler also settled an agreement that they will produce the first mass-production cars in 2004.

The fuel cell technology itself was nothing new. In fact, they had been around for well over a century, and electrochemistry itself had been known even longer. It dated back to the generation of electricity by mechanical means, which was first achieved by Michael Faraday in 1831, when he rotated a copper disk between the poles of a horseshoe magnet.

The fuel cell was the next big advance in electrochemistry. It was pioneered by Sir William Grove, a Welsh-born and Oxford-educated professor of physics. Grove showed that when steam came into contact with a heated platinum wire, it decomposed into hydrogen and oxygen. He realized that, just as he could use electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, it should be possible to generate electricity by combining these two gases.

Grove’s invention largely languished until 1889, when Ludwig Mond and Charles Langer, also working in England, attempted to turn it into practical device. They were also the first person who called the device, a fuel cell. They replaced the oxygen with air and pure hydrogen with an impure industrial gas obtained from coal. They tried to improve the Grove’s invention. Their device generated 1.5 watts, but they decided it had little commercial potential, largely because of the high cost of platinum.

As a matter of a fact, in August 1965 the Gemini V spacecraft blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center into low earth orbit. It was the first manned space flight to rely on fuel cells as a source of electrical power. The cells were named PEM cells, which were developed and produced by GE, the same basic type that would be developed and refined to become the Ballard fuel cell.

With next several researches by some scientist, as example Francis T. Bacon, fuel cell technology was developed as one of the alternative power sources. Next milestone of fuel cell is reached when NASA and GE established cooperation for using fuel cell in Gemini space flight series. Although the fuel cell was extremely worthwhile and reliable GE would not even discount the eventual use to power automobiles, although the company conceded that size and cost would have to be brought down dramatically. GE put very limited resources into PEM and eventually sold its fuel cell division.

The correlation with the subject of this course
Powering the Future correlates very much with the objectives of this course. The establishment of Ballard to become the leading company in fuel cell technology begins from the small research company. After several years of loyalty and dedication, it becomes one of the companies which have the most expensive stock price in Canada stock exchange market.

Such a growth requires not only the development technologies, but also the progress of economy, society, and culture. This is again a very good example on how a new technology grew into a mature commercial technology and become indispensable for our life.

Lessons learn
Powering the Future not оnlу chronicles the company's impressive rise against stiff odds and intеnsе competition; it also teaches valuable lessons about vision and inspiration, creating a culture of loyalty and dedication, attracting and keeping talented people, and marketing and selling an underdog technology to the biggest players in the auto world. It is the entertaining and inspirational account of hоw a tiny high-tech research company grew, and became poised to literally change the way we live.

From business point of view, it is very interesting that a former chemistry scientist (Geoffrey Ballard) could enter the business with little knowledge of the object (fuel cells). But like other success stories of businessmen, he could pass through the crucial years of research and development with small staff and a small budget; and later on produced impressive results. To some extent, what Ballard did was similar to Sumitomo as semiconductor grade chemicals supplier. Both of them knew there was unbalanced between supply and demand in their respective fields. This situation opened the way to be successfully a great player in their business. I think Mr. Ballard is a perfect combination of an entrepreneur-scientist-marketer that could convince not only the market, but also the government of Canada.

One can argue that the author focuses too much on fuel cell dеvеlорmеnt and too little on the necessary hydrogen delivery infrastructure, which is required to operate the fuel cells. But from an environmental point of view, the fuel cell holds great promise as an energy source for the ecological millennium.

Even though this book is over-reliance on technical jargon and also lack an index, I believe that Mr. Koppel had a tough choice in crafting book - how to tell the story of the company and the personalities involved, while in the same time explain the technology - which is quite fascinating and а topic of its own. To achieve this and not end up with a 1000 page text is а hard thing to do.

*) International Technology and Management 4E (ITM) – 70677
Professor NAKAMURA Shuzo

Poverty: Concepts, Measurements and Reduction Strategies *)

2006-10-17T20:58:00.000+09:00

This paper aims to give very basic things about poverty. I chose this particular topic because I came from engineering background. I am lack of economic or even social terminologies during my study, so I am afraid of making wrong assumption or even wrong summary of poverty in my country. I hope that this will be a good start for understanding poverty.

Background
Basically, poverty has many dimensions. It has to be looked at through a variety of indicators: levels of income and consumption, social indicators, and indicators of vulnerability to risks and of socio/political access. It is also time-dependent and geographic-dependent.

If we ask somebody about what poverty is, the answer can vary: poverty is hunger; poverty is lack of shelter; poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. Others may answer: poverty is not having access to school and not knowing how to read, or poverty is not having a job, is fear for the future, living one day at a time. Everybody has their own answers to this.

The World Bank’s 2000 World Development Report defines poverty as an unacceptable deprivation in human well-being that can comprise both physiological and social deprivation. Physiological deprivation involves the non-fulfillment of basic material or biological needs, including inadequate nutrition, health, education, and shelter. A person can be considered poor if he or she is unable to secure the goods and services to meet these basic material needs.

Measuring Poverty
Basically, counting the poor is both complex and straightforward at the same time. A person is considered poor if his or her consumption or income level falls below some minimum level necessary to meet basic needs. This minimum level is usually called the "poverty line". If we could accepts narrow definition of poverty line only as consumption as a certain level, it is easy. Poverty is then straightforward: those with the consumption below the line are considered as “poor” and the rest are “non-poor”. In fact, setting the poverty line is a complex exercise as it requires answer to many questions: food commodities, level of calorie, securities, access to medical facilities, educational attainment, physical well being, etc.

A common method used to measure poverty is based on incomes or consumption levels. What is necessary to satisfy basic needs varies across time and societies. Therefore, poverty lines vary in time and place, and each country uses lines which are appropriate to its level of development, societal norms and values. As time goes, the future measurements of poverty line takes into account other dimensions of poverty.

To compute a poverty measure, usually three considerations are needed: (1) defining the relevant welfare measure; (2) selecting a poverty line – that is a threshold below which a given household or individual will be classified as poor; and (3) selecting a poverty indicator– which is used for reporting for the population as a whole or for a population sub-group only.

A definition of welfare includes what so-called ‘relative’ poverty, which is having little in a specific dimension compared to other members of society. This concept is based on the idea that the way individuals or households perceive their position in society is an important aspect of their welfare. The overall level of inequality in a country, region or population group – and more generally the distribution of consumption, income or other attributes – is also in itself an important dimension of welfare in that group. Inequality measures can be calculated for any distribution—not just for consumption, income or other monetary variables, but also for land and other continuous and cardinal variables.

Furthermore, insecurity is an important component of welfare and can be understood as vulnerability to a decline in well-being. Vulnerability is then defined here as the probability or risk today of being in poverty or to fall into deeper poverty in the future. It is a key dimension of welfare since a risk of large changes in income may constrain households to lower investments in productive assets--when households need to hold some reserves in liquid assets--and in human capital. High risk can also force households to diversify their income sources, perhaps at the cost of lower returns. Vulnerability may influence household behavior and coping strategies and is thus an important consideration for poverty reduction policies.

However, vulnerability is difficult to measure: anticipated income or consumption changes are important to individuals and households before they occur—and even regardless of whether they occur at all—as well as after they have occurred. The probability of falling into poverty tomorrow is impossible to measure, but one can analyze income and consumption dynamics and variability as proxies for vulnerability. Such analysis could be replicated for specific non-monetary variables likely to fluctuate, e.g. health status, weight, asset ownership, etc.

In the 1990s, the World Bank began to conduct poverty assessments on a regular basis. The primary target of these activities was to identify the main poverty problems within a country and to link the policy agenda to issues of poverty. These poverty assessments included quantitative data such as poverty lines, social and demographic characteristics of poor people, and their economic profile. In order to complement this statistical data with an assessment of poverty by the poor people themselves, the World Bank also developed the Participatory Poverty Assessment (PPA).

The methodologies used in the PPAs vary. Depending on the number of field researchers used, field work ranged between 10 days and 8 months in the field (average 2-4 months); sample sizes ranged from 10 to 100 communities and cost between $4,000 and $150,000. They are most often conducted by an academic institution or an NGO, in collaboration with the respective government.

Two assumptions make the participatory approach different. First, it assumes that the research methodology applied will engage the respondents actively in the research process through the use of open-ended and participatory methods. Second, participatory research assumes that the research process will also empower participants and lead to follow-up action. This puts special ethical demands on researchers who use participatory methods for policy research. These ethical responsibilities include a serious, long-term commitment to the people who give their time and information to the researcher.

Poverty Reduction Strategies: Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
The strategies for reducing poverty are based on macroeconomic issues, because economic growth is the most important factor influencing poverty. Macroeconomic stability is essential for high and sustainable rates of growth. Similarly, some factors had been identified by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as sources of growth. They include macroeconomic stability, trade, regulatory reforms, agriculture, health, education, expenditure, infrastructure, and tourism. Hence, macroeconomic stability should be a key component of any poverty reduction strategy.

As a matter of fact, the flows of trade and capital that integrate the global economy may bring benefits to millions, but poverty and suffering persist. Responding to such concerns, governments and international development agencies have begun to reexamine the way they operate. In September 2000, 189 countries signed the Millennium Declaration, which led to the adoption of the MDGs.

The MDGs are a set of eight goals for which 18 numerical targets have been set and over 40 quantifiable indicators have been identified. The goals are (1) eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; (2) achieve universal primary education; (3) Promote gender equality and empower women; (4) Reduce child mortality; (5) Improve maternal health; (6) Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases; (7) Ensure environmental sustainability; and (8) develop a global partnership for development.

Although each goal is important, they should be viewed together as they are mutually reinforcing. Achieving them will require building capacity for effective, democratic, and accountable governance, protection of human rights, and respect for the rule of law.

The World Bank’s Global Monitoring Report 2004 suggested areas for particular attention for the three main groups of actors involved. For developing countries, the priorities are (1) improving the enabling climate for private sector activity; (2) strengthening capacity in the public sector and improving the quality of governance; (3) scaling up investment in infrastructure and ensuring its effectiveness; and (4) enhancing the effectiveness of service delivery in human development.

On the other hand, the priorities for developed countries includes (1) sustaining stable and strong growth in the global economy; (2) ensuring a successful, pro-development and timely outcome of the Doha Round; (3) providing more and better aid; and (4) improving policy coherence for development.

Whereas the priorities for international financial institutions are (1) refining and strengthening institutional roles in low-income countries; (2) furthering progress on the results agenda; and (3) improving selectivity and coordination of agency programs.

According to projections by the World Development Indicators Report 2004, poverty rates will fall fastest in East Asia and the Pacific outside of China, but the huge reduction in the number of people below the $1 a day line in China will dominate global totals. In Europe and Central Asia and in the Middle East and North Africa, where poverty rates measured at $1 a day are low, a continuation of current trends will cut poverty rates to half their current levels. South Asia, led by continuing growth in India, is likely to reach or exceed the target. But growth and poverty reduction are proceeding more slowly in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will not reach the target unless growth picks up. The most difficult case is Sub Saharan Africa, where poverty has increased since 1990 and will, on present trends, fall very slowly in the next 11 years, unless there is a major change in prospects.

However, poverty is a multidimensional problem that goes beyond economics to include, among other thing, social, political, and cultural issues. Therefore, solutions to poverty cannot be based exclusively on economic policies, but require a comprehensive set of well-coordinated measures.

Resources:
1. Ames, Brian, et.al, Macroeconomic Policy and Poverty Reduction, The IMF and The World Bank, August 2001.
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/
3. http://www.imf.org/
4. http://www1.worldbank.org/prem/poverty/voices/reports.htm#cananyone
5. http://www.worldbank.org/poverty/
6. http://povlibrary.worldbank.org/library/
7. Staffs of the World Bank and the IMF, Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers—Progress in Implementation, The International Monetary Fund and The World Bank, September 20, 2004

*) International Technology and Management 4E (ITM) – 70671
Professor NAKAMURA Shuzo

Industrial Development Strategies in Indonesia: The Deployment of Technology and the Utilization of Small-Medium Industry *)

2006-09-30T20:51:00.000+09:00

According to Lincolin Arsyad (1992), there are three main thoughts in designing appropriate steps towards establishing industrial sectors in Indonesia.

First of all, industrial development should be focused on sectors having comparative advantages. This thought is represented by economist-academics. Agriculture is the most important sector which grows steadily and our people generally depend on it. By nature, the comparative advantages will show in relation with the increasing of efficiency and productivity of one commodity. If this strategy is chosen, the industrial development will relatively be faster because agriculture is basically people’s base economy.

The problems will encounter later on as a matter of fact that this strategy is not conducive to industrial diversification; and on the other hand, agricultural harvest will decrease the term of rate in the international trade system. This condition in long term will affect our national balance of payment.

Secondly, our former president Mr. Habibie in 1983 launched the concept of the Eight Ways of Transforming Technology and Industry. This concept prioritises the development of upstream industries simultaneously. As a consequence, modern technologies applied in industrial sectors will become tremendous added values; and at the same time avoid the decreasing of the term of rate. But, if we look at carefully, this particular strategy seems in concert only with medium and large scale industries which bring a lot of capital cost. By contrast, our national mastery of modern technology is not sufficient, so that the technological leap can only be done by utilizing or stealing foreign technology. It is impossible for small-medium companies to take such action. And again, this – in short term – endanger our balance of payment.

The third thought is a concept of linkage between industries, and the keyword is partnership between large scale industries and small-medium ones. As we know, common problems in small-medium industries include funding, uncertainty in market, and standardization of products. Within this concept, they are supposed to help each other in funding, information sharing, and quality standard assurance; so they can increase their business performances. Later on, this concept is also known as a part of the so-called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Should industrial sector be a leader in our national economic development, small-medium industry must also be capable of competing in global market. China is a very good example of this situation.

For these reasons, Indonesia needs multi-dimensional development strategy. Every single problem in small-medium industry, ranging from cost capital, marketing system, to quality standard assurance should be minimized. The next step is how to increase their efficiency and productivity, and all national resources must be shoulder to shoulder overcome these problems.

The Paradigm of Independency
We offer two hypotheses about the strategy of technology development. These offerings based on thought that we have to change our paradigm of development; from pursuing technology to technologically independent. As far, we are always surprised with the advancement of technology in developed country like Japan. However, technology itself is geographic-dependent and time-dependent.
The chosen technology should be in accordance with our local conditions and needs, such as economic, social, culture, and religious aspects; and side effects of technology for our people now and in the future. We can not determine this choice by just looking the progress of other countries, and this is where the value of national independency takes place.

The first hypothesis is strengthening the mass-production based industry to fulfil national consumption. This step aims to enforce people based economy by utilizing simple technology. The priority is set to improve human resources, such as knowledge evolvement, increase the production opportunity, and innovation in technology.
Second hypothesis is empowering hi-tech industry for global market. The pre condition for this step includes the successful of the fist hypothesis. The characteristic of hi-tech industry is lot of funding, so screwing on this kind of industry can impair national economic structure, e. g. increasing dept.

The question remains. What do you like Indonesia to be? To be like America or Japan, or to be like Ethiopia? This is our assignment in the near future.

Resources
1. BJ. Habibie, Prof.Dr. Ing., Science, Technology, and Nation Building, Jakarta, 1991.
2. Mike W. Martin & Roland Schinzinger, Engineering Ethics, Foreword by Y.B. Mangunwijaya, Gramedia, Jakarta 1994.
3. Student Magazine of Mechanical Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, Propulsi, Edition 6, Maret 1995.
4. Gadjah Mada University Magazine, Balairung, The Development Strategy for Small Industry in Indonesia, Special Edition /TH.VIII/1994.
5. Prospective, Technology for Indonesia, volume 3 number 4, Yogyakarta, 1991.
6. Rahardi Ramelan, Industri in Indonesia Towards Industrialization Era, Paper Dialog of Technology, Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, 1992.
7. Sri Bintang Pamungkas, Paper for Industrial Engineering Seminar, Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, September 1994.
8. Wardiyasa, Ir., Strategy for Technological Development, Paper in Dialogue of Technology, Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Gadjah Mada University, 1992
9. http://www.republika.co.id.

*) I and two of my friends wrote a ten-pages paper entitled “Our Industrial Technology: Following or Disobeying West Countries?” in 1996 for a presentation in “National Dialogue for Engineering Student” in Makassar, Indonesia. This paper you read is the short version of the above paper.

*) International Technology and Management 4E (ITM) – 70671
Professor NAKAMURA Shuzo

Recycle Shop dan Imigrasi

2006-09-12T01:13:00.000+09:00

Hari ini saya ke Recycle Shop (ReS). Oh, ya. Hunting peralatan rumah tangga di Recycle Shop adalah acara wajib kedua setelah mencari apato (apartement). Dua ReS saya jelalahi, pertama adalah ReS di daerah Kasayama (nggak tahu namanya kanji semua!) dan yang kedua adalah Takarajima di bilangan Seta, depan sebuah driving school. Yang disebut belakangan lebih baru, makanya nggak bisa nawar.

Habis berapa semuanya, ya? Sebentar, saya hitung dulu.

Kompor/stove (propane) 3500
Meja dengan pemanas 5500
Vacuum cleaner 770 (model lama tapi masih bagus)
TV Sanyo 2006 9500 (harusnya lebih murah, tapi biarin deh. Baru je ...)
Mesin cuci 4.2 kg 12800
Microwave Sanyo 6800
Meja tulis 1098
Meja TV dengan 3 drawers 998

Total 40966 yen belum termasuk pajak 5%. Ongkos angkut 1000 yen. Karpet, kulkas, utensil, wheel chair dan lainnya tidak saya beli karena ada lungsuran dari senior :). Besok rencana mencari futon. Katanya yang murah di Toys R Us dekat Lake Biwa.

Kalau kondisinya tidak ada lungsuran, mungkin perlu 100 ribuan untuk semuanya (termasuk futon dan sepeda).

BTW, hari ini istri dan 2 anakku ke kantor Imigrasi Bogor untuk membuat passport. Rencananya mereka akan menemaniku di negeri Sakura ini. Wah, bakal seru deh Ichiriyama Haitsu 102 jika mereka datang Februari tahun depan.

Untuk dapat membawa/mengundang keluarga ke Jepang, Imigrasi Jepang akan mengeluarkan Eligibility Card untuk pengurusan visa di Kedubes Jepang di Indonesia. Mereka akan mengeluarkan kartu itu jika kita melampirkan akte nikah dan akte kelahiran anak. Tentu saja semua dokumen itu harus asli dan ada salinan resminya dalam bahasa Inggris. Guna lebih mempermudah, perlu juga disertai terjemahan ke dalam bahasa Jepang. Gampang koq!

Akindo Sushi Restorant

2006-09-11T21:52:00.000+09:00

Pagi ini, Minggu 10 September 2006 adalah hari terakhir bagi JDS Fellow angkatan tahun 2004. Sesuai undangan Mas Erwin, member Rits Biwako-Kusatsu Campus (BKC) asal Indonesia berkumpul di kediaman Sang Kaisar Seta itu. Acaranya belum jelas. Yang jelas Pak Maris dan keluarga akan datang untuk mengambil beberapa barang milik Mas Erwin. Saya juga mendapat warisan beberapa barang dari Mas Erwin. Memang sudah menjadi kebiasaan, barang-barang senior yang sudah lulus dibagikan kepada yuniornya.

Maka berkumpullah semua member: tuan rumah, Mas Widhi - sejawat angkatan 2004 -, Mbak Ika dan Eka (2005), Pak Maris dan keluarga yang baru tiba di Jepang beberapa hari sebelumnya, Mas Andi, saya dan Mbak Lidia, anggota baru Rits asal Monbusho; serta 2 orang Jepang teman Mas Erwin. Setelah membantu Pak Maris meletakkan barang di mobil pick up sewaan, mendadak para senior itu menggotong lemari dan menggangkutnya ke rumah saya yang memang tidak jauh dari situ. Padahal saya punya rencana untuk menyewa mobil untuk mengangkut beberapa barang pemberian tersebut. Dengan keringat bercucuran, kami semua berjalan beriringan sambil bercanda. Tak terasa, ada keharuan menyelip. Seandainya kita di Indonesia bisa bahu membahu seperti ini. Pasti krisis ekonomi akan lebih cepat berlalu.

Setelah selesai angkut-angkut, Mas Erwin rupanya punya rencana lain. Dia mengajak kami semua ke restoran sushi, Akindo namanya. Rupanya dia pingin selametan kelulusan sebagai Master di bidang Teknologi Informasi dan sekaligus perpisahan. Sushi? Maka pikiran saya melayang ke restoran sashimi sewaktu Homestay dulu. Uh, ikan mentah lagi nih bakalan, pikir saya. Ternyata dugaan saya meleset. Memang ada ikan mentahnya, tetapi dikemas cantik dengan nasi dibawahnya. Yang menarik, sushi tersebut berputar mengitari meja besar seperti iklan di MTV.

Kali ini selera saya agak berubah. Saya makan dengan lahap. Diselingi canda dan tawa, piring demi piring tersusun di depan saya. Total ada 7 piring kecil. Berarti sudah tujuh macam sushi yang saya makan. Oh, .... onakaga ippai desu, saya kekenyangan. Semoga kebahagiaan hari ini bisa berlanjut 2 tahun ke depan. Amin.

First Launch di Bibir Lake Biwa

2006-09-10T00:55:00.000+09:00

Hari ini aku coba sepeda baru yang dibeli di AL Supermarket, malam sebelumnya. Si Biru, begitu dia kupanggil, berfitur multi speed and automatic pumping. Ada saluran pipa transparan yang menghubungkan as roda dan ban, sehingga udara dalam ban selalu sesuai dengan standard pabriknya alias nggak perlu repot mompa. Terima kasih atas bantuan Bu Ika dan Pak Andi dalam mencari sepeda idaman itu.

Setelah mencoba rute kampus Ritsumeikan di BKC, aku langsung meluncur pulang. Tiba-tiba sesuatu melintas di kepalaku. Danau Biwa. Ya, kenapa tidak? Hanya 20 menit dari apato. Maka meluncurlah aku ke sana dan menyaksikan keindahan danau terbesar di Jepang ini. Allahu Akbar, seruku sembari memandang dengan takjub keindahan danau ini, dengan pemandangan jembatan Omi-ohashi di kejauhan.

[diambil dari image.yahoo.com. Terima kasih buat juru foto yang mengabadikan gambar tersebut. Copy left khan? :)]

Dua puluh menit berselang, aku kembali mengayuh sepeda di bibir biwako. Kali ini tujuanku adalah mencari pusat grosir Amica, tempat yang menjual daging ayam halal dari Brazil. Setelah lirik sana lirik sini, akhirnya Amica kutemukan. Dan Alhamdulillah, memang benar ada 2 jenis daging ayam halal di sana. Mas Wiby, terima kasih atas infonya.

Iseng-iseng, aku beli snack dan makan siang di bibir danau. Ah, seandainya istri dan anakku ada di sebelahku, pasti lebih indah terasa.

[Hehe sorry, saya tidak pandai mengolah kata. Ini kali pertama ngeblog.]

Homestay

2006-09-08T00:37:00.000+09:00

Seharusnya ini tulisan pertama saya, tapi saya posting sebelumnya ke milis JDS 2006. Sesuai dengan program JICE, saya harus menjalani kegiatan Homestay selama 2 hari 1 malam (26-27 Agustus 2006). Berikut tulisan yang saya buat berdasarkan pengalaman di Homestay.

Bab Satu: Family Member, Volvo and English Sessions.

Nishikawa-san dan istrinya Keiko-san punya 2 anak, Masaru (boy, 33) dan Ranko-san (girl, 26). Yang disebut belakangan ini sempat membuat Pak Andi (ehem) jealous berat sama saya. Dari fotonya, terlihat cantik untuk ukuran Jepang. Alamak! Sedang bapaknya terkesan dingin, khas Jepang.

Setelah perkenalan umum di Piazza Omi di bibir Danau Biwako, saya mendekati Pak Nishikawa dan mulai kenalan. Saya tertegun. Ternyata orangnya cukup hangat dan akrab. Saya beruntung, karena beliau bahasa Inggrisnya cukup lancar. Menurutnya, istrinya lebih lancar lagi. [oh, syukurlah. Soalnya saya benar2 nggak siap untuk all out nihonggo]. Belakangan saya tahu alasan mereka bisa bahasa Inggris. Mereka sempat tinggal di USA 3 tahun dan 2 tahun di Negeria, sebagai dokter kedutaan Jepang.
Sampai di parkiran, saya kembali tertegun. Mobil Pak Nishikawa paling mewah, merek volvo. Masih ada sisa setengah meter meskipun saya sudah 100% selonjor di kursi samping sopir. Dasar orang kampung!

Bab Dua: The House and the Launch.

Kami sampai kira2 10 menit setelahnya. Masuk rumah tingkat 2 yang cukup besar jika dibandingkan rumah tetangga kiri dan kanannya. Istrinya, Keiko-san juga tak kalah ramahnya. Benar, dia lancar berbahasa Inggris. Saya disuguhi lunch mie ayam campur rujak. Kenapa saya sebut begitu? Karena rupa dan rasanya memang seperti mie ayam Bakmie Gajahmada. Irisan timun plus bumbu mirip benar dengan rujak untuk selametan tujuh bulanan istri saya dulu. Oh, istriku, jika saja kau ada di sampingku ……HUSH…. NGACO.

OK, fokus lagi ke homestay. Saya makan sampai 1,5 porsi gara2 keenakan. Sambil makan, kami saling bercerita. Keiko-san ternyata pemeluk kristen taat, sementara suaminya nyengir aja waktu ditanya agamanya apa. Rumahnya mewah menurut cara pandang saya. Ruang tidur utama ada di lantai dasar, sementara ruang kerja, living room dan kitchen di lantai 2. Saya menempati kamar di lantai 2 dengan perlengkapan TV kecil, dipan plus kasur serta piano yamaha ukuran kecil.

Rupanya mereka hanya berdua saja. Masaru-san sudah bekerja di prefecture lain, sementara sang putri Ranko menempati rumah keluarga Nishikawa yang lain, sudah lulus univ. tapi belum kerja. Atau barangkali diungsikan sementara saya tinggal di sana. Takut kali anaknya kecantol pria Indonesia seperti saya, hik hiks.

Acara buka omeyagi adalah kegiatan selanjutnya. Untung Pak Andi semalem sempat tukeran omeyagi, jadi lebih variatif. Dasi batik, pembuka amplop bernuansa batik, dan 2 bookmark wayang. Makasih Pak Andi. Mudah-mudahan sampeyan digampangkan jodoh, dihamparkan rejeki dan dianugerahi kemampuan untuk lebih menarik hati onnano hito. Wabil khusus hihongjin. Hehe …..

Bab Tiga: Perbandingan Agama dan Sashimi

Saya sempat mengenalkan Islam kepada Bu Keiko. Bu Keiko kaget setelah tahu, banyak persamaan antara Kristen, Jewish dan Islam dalam sejarah kelahirannya. Saya jelaskan bahwa 3 agama samawi itu memang sumbernya satu, Nabi Ibrahim atau Abraham. Saya jelaskan bahwa oleh sementara kalangan, Islam adalah agama Ibrahim versi Ismail, sedang Ishak adalah pembawa agama Ibrahim versi Jewish. Dari situ cara pandang masing2 mulai berubah. Selalu ada versi masing-masing, termasuk dalam Kristen. Bu Kiko memberi contoh, dia percaya bahwa yang akan dipotong oleh Nabi Ibrahim adalah Nabi Ishak, sementara menurut Islam, saya jelaskan, yang akan disembelih atas Perintah Allah itu Ismail. Bla … bla … bla. Kami saling menjelaskan dalam suasana damai dan santun. Persis seperti kuliah Perbandingan Agama di IAIN deh.

Suaminya hanya mesam-mesem dan sesekali berkomentar. Beberapa kali saya dan Pak Nishikawa mengambil foto. Hampir lupa, kamdig yang saya bawa milik Pak Wawan. Maklum saya belum punya sendiri. Bagi saya, bawa istri ke Jepang jauh lebih berharga daripada buru2 beli kamera. Tapi karena perbedaan adalah rahmat, maka saya ucapkan terima kasih pada Pak Wawan yang sudi meminjamkan kamera baru Sony. Sayang dia lupa ngecas baterai. Ada momen bagus nggak sempat terekam. Pada bab belakang saya akan cerita.

Jam 2 saya sempatkan memperbaiki skype mereka. Problemnya, mereka bisa dengar lawan bicara, tapi lawan bicara nggak bisa dengar mereka. Micnya rusak. Susahnya softwarenya kanji. Dengan bekal pengetahuan dan trik sedikit, saya bisa memperbaiki kerusakan ini. Mereka gembira setengah mati. Ridwan-san, kamu memang hebat. Dan telingaku pun terasa 5 kali lebih besar mendengarnya ….

Sorenya saya diajak ke departmen store dekat rumah. Mampir di toko buku tapi nggak ada yang bahasa Inggris. Seperti biasa, saya sempatkan lihat komik2 yang ada gambar dewasa di tengahnya. Hmmm, yummy….

Malamnya, tepatnya jam 5.30, kami bertiga menuju restoran sashimi di batas kota Otsu dan Minami. Mereka memilih sashimi setelah saya bilang pernah menikmati sabu-sabu, tempura dan sukiyaki. Mereka ingin saya menikmati masakan baru. Oh, God, ternyata sashimi adalah hidangan laut mentah.

Maka dengan modal Bismillah, saya lahap itu sashimi. Waduhhhh, rasanya campur aduk. Antara geli, pedas, asam, wis … pokoke campur lah. Kalau nggak ingat susahnya dapat beasiswa, pasti saya muntahin itu sashimi. BTW, amisnya sama sekali nggak kerasa.

OK, hasil kunyahan pertama berhasil saya telan. Habis itu minum koca hangat setengah cangkir. Mereka senyum2 dan tanya gimana? Seperti biasa saya jawab: omoshiro kute, oishi kute, kirei desu. Ah, gomasuri sebenarnya sih … lip serpis doang. Begitu terus sampai 3 sessions. Bisa dibayangkan khan betapa eneknya saya; herannya itu semua masuk aja tanpa terasa. Mungkin karena ada jahe, wasabi dan koca. Atau mungkin saya yang rakus? Entahlah. Sesekali ada tempura shrimp dan belut goreng. Langsung saya sikat habis.

Acara makan malam berlangsung 2 jam. Setelah selesai, saya pura2 mau keluarin dompet. Mereka ketawa2 aja sambil ngeloyor pergi. Rupanya itu adalah resto langganan yang bayarnya bulanan. Teori yang saya pelajari selama ini, untuk pura2 membayar makanan sendiri, tidak berlaku di sini. Ada rasa syukur nyelip di hati ……..:)

Bab Empat: Afterdinner dan The Great Coincidence Hanabi.

Sampai rumah, saya dan Keiko-san langsung naik ke lantai 2. malam itu gerimis. Nggak tahu tuh Pak Nishikawa sibuk sendiri di kamar bawah yang satunya. Mungkin ada kerjaan kantor, pikir saya. Atau jangan2 dia muntah2. Maklum tadi di resto ngebir sampai 3 gelas besar plus sake 4 sloki. Alhamdulillah, saya nggak dipaksa minum.

Sekitar pukul 8, mendadak ada suara seperti meriam dan mercon bantingan. Rupanya ada hanabi (firework)! Mereka sama sekali tidak menyangka. Dari jendela atas yang besar itu, saya BENAR-BENAR MELIHAT HANABI. Oh…. Indah sekali, dan terus menerus. Merah, hijau, kuning, biru bercampur aduk. Dengan selang seling antara bentuk besar dan kecil, hanabi tak terduga ini berlangsung hampir 1 jam.

Maaf teman2, jangan iri ya…….

Oh, ya. Rumah keluarga ini memang nggak jauh dari bibir danau Biwako. Viewnya luar biasa bagus, walau tanpa hanabi. Sayangnya, baterai kamdig Wawan habis.

[Mas Widhi, terima kasih atas foto hanabi di Lake Biwa yang terkenal itu ...]

Mendadak Pak Nishikawa bergabung. Di tangannya adalah beberapa lembar foto. Oh, rupanya dia mencetak foto di kamar bawah. Pantesan lama. “Ini buat kamu semua”, katanya. Satu lagi kenikmatan kudapat hari itu ….. Karena ngantuk, aku pamitan untuk ngamar pada 9.00. Setelah jamak sholat magrib dan isya :D. Malam itu aku nggak bisa tidur nyenyak, mungkin karena ikan mentah itu.

Terima kasih Allah, atas semua nikmatmu ….

Bab Lima: Perpisahan dan Melihat Apato.

Habis sarapan ala western, Pak Nishikawa bertanya: “Hari ini kamu ingin kemana? Gimana kalau ke Golden Temple Kyoto?”. Waduh, saya senang banget jika benar2 diajak ke sana, karena pasti bagus banget dan juga pasti gratis. Tapi, naluri Jawa saya muncul. Saya bilang, tanpa mengurangi rasa hormat, saya ingin ke Yodobashi kamera di Osaka untuk membeli sesuatu. Lagian saya punya janji dengan senior mau mengunjungi Golden Temple rame-rame suatu saat nanti.

Saya sengaja berbohong, karena nggak enak. Terlalu banyak yang sudah diberikan keluarga ini. Generosity dan hospitality nya benar2 bikin saya terharu. Bahkan saya dibolehkan masuk dapur dan mengambil video dengan kamdig. Bertolak belakang dengan ajaran Watanabe-san tentang Japanese cross-culture.

Tapi dasar orang Jepang nggak mudah putus asa, Pak Nishikawa memberi ide lain. Gimana kalau kamu saya antar lihat apato di dekat Minami Station. Dari situ khan ada bis ke Rits, jadi transportmu akan lebih lancar. Jadilah kami berdua meluncur dengan Volvo 960. Istrinya ke gereja dengan Honda mirip Jazz, saya sudah pamit sebelumnya pada Keiko-san.

Sambil nunjukin beberapa tempat, Nishikawa-san memutari sta. Minami Kusatsu. Dia berhenti setelah beberapa blok. Rupanya dia menunjukkan kantor dan ruangan tempatnya bekerja.

Lalu, dengan spontan dia mengajak saya melihat apato di dekat situ. Memang banyak apato berjejeran. Wah, agaknya 172.000 tidak akan bersisa kalau saya maksain milih apato di wilayah ini. Mentereng habis. Kami sempat masuk di salah satu apartemen milik kawannya. Saya jadi tahu bentuk family apato yang sebenarnya. Setelah sempat melihat price list, kami kembali ke Sta. Minami Kusatsu.

Dia ngacir duluan ke tempat karcis, dan …. Ya ampun …….. Dia beliin karcis buat saya seharga 1350 yen (Minami Kusatsu-Ibaraki). Wah, genaplah penderitaan, eh salah, kegembiraan saya selama homestay ini. Nggak keluar yen sepeserpun. Dan kami pun berpisah. Makasih banyak Pak Nishikawa. Semoga sampeyan sekeluarga tetap diberi kebahagiaan dan kegembiraan selalu.

Sebelum berpisah, beliau titip pesan kepada kita semua:

“Ridwan-san. If you or ANY OF YOUR FIRENDS have illness or others that need medical treatments, please feel free to contact me at 090-7341-XXXX. I know every doctors live here. So I can recommend them to make a first priority to help YOU and YOUR FRIENDS”.

Ya Allah, betapa tulus tawaran beliau. Maka sebelum terlanjur menitikkan air mata, saya segera pamit sambil mengucapkan terima kasih dan membungkuk dalam-dalam pada Nishikawa-san.

Sekian.