挣脱日式管理的牢笼，瑞萨才能高飞

上周，当我采访瑞萨电子(Renesas Electronics)总裁Yasushi Akao (赤尾泰)时，赤尾拒绝用“日本”作为该公司处于混乱状态的借口。 我相信，继续领导这家陷入困境公司的总裁赤尾泰，认为将问题归咎于“日本卓异论”(Japanese exceptionalism)，是相当愚蠢的举动。 然而，事情是这样的。 我记得，瑞萨的危机可以追溯到两年多以前，过去二十年来，这家公司也展现了日本这个国家拘泥不化的传统特性。瑞萨完完全全是一家日本企业，而日本，正是问题的关键所在。 让我们继续看下去！ 在我看来，瑞萨科技(Renesas Technology)在2010年被迫与NEC电子(NEC Electronics)合并成为瑞萨电子公司。在成为瑞萨电子以前，瑞萨科技业已整合了日立(Hitachi)和三菱(Mitsubishi)的芯片部门。 瑞萨追随着尔必达(Elpida)早已采取过的类似步骤，而今，尔必达这家结合了日立和NEC电子DRAM部门的公司，已经破产。 作为日本最大的微控制器(MCU)供货商，瑞萨也可能会感到有责任维持日本汽车产业的领导地位并推动该产业成长。毕竟，汽车是日本的旗舰产业。 由原日立、三菱和NEC组成的瑞萨电子，也进入了SoC业务，因为他们看到了日本消费电子产业中的机会，这无疑是另一个极具前瞻性的产业。不可否认，一直到……或许是10年前吧，日本的消费电子品牌仍然领导着全球CD、DVD、数字相机和平板电视市场。 我们都知道，只要日本继续扮演着健康成长市场的角色，就没有人会将这两家公司面临的危机与日本“患难与共”(all-in-this-together)的产业精神联想在一起。毕竟，瑞萨的生态系统都在日本，而且之前在一定程度上运作得都还算不错。 从设计、制造到市场和金融，瑞萨永远只找日本的合作伙伴，而且所有的日本企业都这样做。 但黄金时代已经结束了。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 本文下一页：日本是一个金色的笼子

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{pagination} 去年12月，我在巴黎会晤了瑞萨子公司──瑞萨移动(Renesas Mobile)负责行动芯片业务的资深主管。当被问及瑞萨移动面临的若隐若现的挑战时，他谈到了在满足国内需求的同时，也必须平衡他该公司不断成长的全球 业务。这位主管表示，为应对新的全球挑战，这家公司已经挣脱了NTT Docomo打造的“金色笼子”。但另一方面，他也指出，这家公司已经没有能力因应日本领先消费电子产品制造商要求定制产品的需求了。 这句“金色笼子”一直徘徊在我的脑海中。 这是瑞萨移动独特的孤寂处境。它的母公司──瑞萨电子则被困在称之为“日本”的“金色笼子”之中。 只要这只金色笼子仍然存在，日本就会不断要求瑞萨公司。无法逃离这只笼子的瑞萨，在笼子的金色外漆剥落，开始露出黄铜时，也就代表了这家公司将步入停滞时期。 将一家芯片公司当作一个国家的标志，是上世纪的事了。 现在，是日本官僚、日本企业和日本企业管理体系真正释放瑞萨的时候了。让我们自由地飞翔，采取全新的管理措施，让这家公司走向崭新的道路。 本文授权编译自EE Times，版权所有，谢绝转载 编译： Joy Teng 参考英文原文：Free Renesas from its golden cage called Japan ，by Junko Yoshida

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{pagination} Free Renesas from its golden cage called Japan Junko Yoshida TOKYO – The Monday morning quarterbacks are out in force talking about what went wrong with Renesas Electronics over the past two years. Many of you have already spoken. And the analyses tend to be rich with insight. When I spoke with Yasushi Akao, president of Renesas Electronics, this week, Akao refused to play the “Japan” card to explain the mess the company is in. I am sure that Akao, who’s still heading up the troubled company as its president, considers it silly to blame his problems on “Japanese exceptionalism.” But here’s the thing. Renesas’ crisis, in my mind, goes back more than two years, and it embodies the rut in which Japan as a nation has been stuck for the last two decades. Renesas was created by Japan, for Japan and of Japan, and Japan is the crux of the issue. Let me break it down. Renesas Technology, in my opinion, was forced to merge with NEC Electronics to become Renesas Electronics in 2010 -- in the name of saving the Japanese semiconductor industry. Before becoming Renesas Electronics, Renesas Technology was already a company tasked to absorb chip divisions of Hitachi and Mitsubishi. Renesas followed similar footsteps already taken by Elpida, an amalgamation of DRAM divisions at Hitachi and NEC Electronics. Elpida, today, is bankrupt. As Japan’s largest MCU company, Renesas may have also felt responsible for keeping Japan’s automotive industry strong and growing. After all, cars are Japan’s flagship industry. Renesas (originally Hitachi, Mitsubishi and NEC) also went into the SoC business, because they saw an opportunity to serve Japan’s consumer electronics industry, which is another iconic industry. There’s no denying that Japanese CE brands led the global market with CDs, DVDs, digital cameras and flat panel TV — until, perhaps, 10 years ago. As long as Japan served as a healthy, growing market, we all know that nobody thought twice about Japan’s all-in-this-together industrial policy. After all, Renesas’ entire eco-system existed in Japan and it was functioning fairly well – up to a point. From everything from design, manufacture to market and financing, Renesas looked for Japanese partners and did so for Japan. But it’s time to end that. Last December, I met in Paris a senior executive working at Renesas Mobile, a subsidiary of Renesas responsible for its mobile chip business. Asked about challenges looming for Renesas Mobile, he talked about the need to balance his company’s growing global business while meeting domestic needs. On one hand, with Renesas Mobile’s new global charter, the executive explained that the company has freed itself from what he called the “golden cage” created by NTT Docomo. On the other, he said that it simply cannot afford to underserve Japan’s leading consumer electronics OEMs that continue to demand custom products. The phrase, “golden cage,” stuck in my head. This is not endemic to Renesas Mobile alone. Its parent, Renesas Eelectronics, has been trapped in a “golden cage” called Japan. It was OK to do what Japan asked Renesas to do as long as the cage remained golden. But being unable to flee from that cage — as the goldplate flakes away, exposing the brass — has kept Renesas frozen in time. Being a chip company as a national flag carrier is so last century. It’s time for Japanese bureaucrats, Japanese industries and Japanese management to free Renesas. Let new management fly free, toward a new path for the company.