December 31, 1989

LAST WEEK I wrote about the bootlegged version of a Japanese book called “The Japan That Can Say No,” written by Sony chairman Akio Morita and Japanese cabinet member Shintaro Ishihara. Painfully accurate, the book details the U.S. obsession with anything that reaps big, short-term profits, especially in the electronics industry, a pivotal market for both the U.S. and Japan.

I found equally interesting a chapter by Morita called, “Is America a Country Which Protects Human Rights?”

Morita believes (and I agree) that worker rights are ignored by U.S. companies: “I must ask American executives if they regard workers as mere tools which they can use to assure profits and then dump whenever the market sags,” Morita writes. “… I would like to suggest that they should first do something to protect the human rights of workers in America before they start asking other nations to protect and enhance the human rights of their citizens.”

Morita points specifically to a few standard “features” of U.S. industrial life which he finds shocking, and so do I: Only 1 percent of the population in the democratic, “one person, one vote” U.S. controls 36 percent of the wealth, and poverty is crippling a growing portion of our population.

So almost by default, an incredible income gap exists between executives and employees. Remember when Chrysler execs scooped up millions of dollars in bonuses the same year they persuaded union assembly workers to take a pay cut so that the company could “survive”? Explain that one to me.

Then explain the “golden parachute,” a common negotiating point in almost all U.S. executive contracts, whereby incompetents get big money — either a “balloon payment” or a hefty continuing salary or pension — for screwing up badly enough that they’re asked to leave. It’s logical, then, to assume they actually plan to screw up in advance, right?

Another absurd feature of U.S. business life is its tendency to hire executives from outside the company — and worse, not inform its employees how to move up the career ladder.

“The corporate uneasiness with career development is apparently based on the view that employees are expenses rather than assets,” wrote Kate Nasser, president of Computer Automation Specialists in Piscataway, N.J., for “InformationWEEK” magazine last October. “Hire talent as cheaply as possible and minimize the promotional scale to keep down salary costs. Keep them in the dark on how to be more valuable, as they might become top performers and request more money.”

Nasser notes, as does Morita, that Japanese firms recognize the value of employees who have intimate knowledge of how a company works. “When I find an employee who turns out to be wrong for a job, I feel it is my fault because I made the decision to hire him,” writes Morita. “Generally I would invest in additional training, education, or a change of duty, even perhaps sending him overseas for additional experience. As a result, he will usually turn out to be an asset in the long run.”

But “U.S. companies invest instead in expert systems — and therein lies the difference,” writes Nasser. “The Japanese will commit to their employees and ask for commitment in return. U.S. companies are more likely to commit to a technology, hoping it will eliminate the need to deal with employee retention issues.”

With these depressing facts in mind, it is absolutely miraculous that Silicon Valley has not been unionized. Mentioning the word “union” without sneering in a room full of Silicon Valley executives is the functional equivalent of admitting you’re a member of a satanic cult.

But often it is the mirror’s reflection that hurts most of all. As Morita writes, “Attitudes of executives are not actually much different than those of the union to the extent that they grab whatever they can — as much as half the company’s annual profits in the form of huge bonuses, claiming that this is just since they were responsible for the profits,” writes Morita.

So, you get the picture. If the 1990s are to be the decade of “The U.S. That Can Say Yes” for the wavering U.S. electronics industry, then it’s time to give up some of those old ideas, quit money-grubbing, and invest equally in the future of every link in the food chain — from factory workers to the executive suite. There’s nothing more exciting than watching a company involve everyone in reaping the benefits and sharing the burden of responsibility for success.

It’s an old cliche, but it’s true: in the long run, nobody wins unless everybody wins. Happy new year, and good luck to us all.