Eleven years have passed since the first iPhone was released. The world's information revolution has moved forward in a single stroke. At a time when only large computers were available, Apple and Microsoft were competing with each other to bring a computer into the home, one computer per family! Apple and Microsoft competed to bring the computer into the home. From there, the iPhone (Apple) and Android (Google) have been competing to take the computer out of the home, to take the computer anywhere outside the home, and to take the computer on the go.
The main battlefield of IT is changing by the minute. In the PC era, Apple, Microsoft, and Intel were the main competitors. The companies were known for their "I'm on Intel" commercials. Now, the main battlefield has shifted to smartphones, and there is no sign of Microsoft's windows phone or Intel. The next generation, AMD, was competing with Intel, and was good at making low-priced versions of Intel's products, like generic products in medicine, to stand up to Intel. Those days are in the past, and neither Intel nor AMD are heard from anymore.
There is no point in fighting on a battlefield that is not the main battlefield. How do we capture the main battlefield? The main battlefield is now smartphones. Both Intel and AMD were late to the game in making CPUs for smartphones. The current battle is between the iPhone and Android (Google + Qualcomm for CPUs). The main battlefield of IT has changed drastically.
The playing field is changing rapidly. The main battlefield for the service and restaurant industries is undoubtedly the world. Rather than fighting in the midst of a declining workforce, problems securing workers, soaring labor costs, and other double and triple challenges, wouldn't it be better to fight on the shifting battlefields? Isn't the strategy of continuing to fight with the best in Japan by operating the business quietly as it is now, similar to the PC battleground in the IT industry?
The key is how to read the market ahead of the times and how to fight within that market. Right now, we should be fighting in the smartphone market (the world of services and food and beverage). Unfortunately, the main players fighting on this battlefield right now are food and beverage companies and service companies that started overseas. YO sushi and wagamama, both of which started in the UK, are dominating the EU, the US, and even the Middle East. China-started miniso has begun to expand from Asia to the rest of the world. Are Japan's conveyor-belt sushi, izakaya, and 100-yen companies competing on the world stage?
It depends on where the main axis of management thinking lies. The key to corporate growth is being able to read the next generation and the next wave of the times. I was taught that a manager's job is to formulate major strategies and educate human resources.
The dilemma of innovation is everywhere successful companies are immersed in the success factors of the past. They fail to understand that past success (growth) factors are future decline factors. Microsoft and Intel, mentioned above, fell into the innovation dilemma. Past success factors made them hesitate to take on new challenges. Can we still go further as it is? The smartphone market has yet to overtake the PC market. There must have been many thoughts. As a result, we were completely late in responding to the smartphone market.
I don't feel that now is the time to throw away that success factor and fight the world on a zero-based basis.
For Japanese companies to surpass the market of Japanese food and quality service, which the world appreciates.
Akira Tsuchiya, AssentiaHoldings,Inc.
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