In the most recent Nikkei Business Podcast there was an interesting discussion about the auto parts manufacturer Denso. The editor, Inoue Yutaka suggested that this rather “JIMI” 地味 (plain,dull) company was heading for steady long term growth and attributed their success to a couple of factors. One being that they manufacture the ignition systems for all the cars made by Toyota and with Toyota soon to overtake GM as the world’s top car maker Denso will be able to piggy back on that growth. Inoue also used the acronym JIMI to define what he thought was the success of Denso J=Japanese (traditional Japanese old style management quite the opposite of western performance based management) I=Innovation (They got a 30 year product roadmap apparently. 30 years!!!), M=Meister (refering to the breeding of craftsman in the company), I=Intercultural (Communication between different generation, different cultures). Anyway, I checked their chart this morning and it looks like there’s steady growth for this company…must add Denso to my watchlist.
The Nikkei Business Podcast is a good way to improve your Japanese business vocabulary if you’re interested.
Do you like reading this kind of commentary or would you prefer if I just stick to pictures of Shinbashi Station?
You made me look up 滋味 cause I always thought じみ was written 地味.
滋味 (じみ) (n) nutriment ; wholesome ; savoriness ; savouriness ; rich food ; nourishment.
地味 (じみ) (adj-na,n) plain ; simple ; subdued ; sober.
Turns out I was right. :)
Thanks Patrick, fixed now. I actually knew that. You know, I intentional put out mistakes in my posts so I can get comments ;)
A 30 year road map doesn’t make sense. Many products and services become obselete even before the 10th year.
But this post in interesting, I never take much notice about business growth. Learnt something new today.
hmmm, could have been interesting for me. But unfortunately my Japanese is not good enough to understand the podcast about Denso. You linked to the graph of their stock price. The last 12 months shows good growth. But if you select a 5 year graph, then you see that they have had worse times.
Does that leave me the only choice to vote for Shinbashi hiroba photo’s? I like the variety of your site. Please keep up the good work.
Interesting content.
I’ll always associate Denso with the JGTC Denso Supra, but that’s just me :)
I only know of Denso spark plug.