"Mobile Kaizen in Japan" - Recommending Continuous Improvement to Germany's Mobile Players
Daniel Scuka, co-founder of the online video magazine Wireless Watch Japan
and myself, CEO of Berlin-based consulting firm Mobile Economy GmbH
and Editor-in-Chief of this magazine, strongly believe that the gap between wireless Japan and Europe is still significant. We can learn a lot and we should learn a lot in order to enhance our competitive position and to reduce the danger of foreign market entrants into our home market. Think about Vodafone's recent announcement to cooperate with Japanese manufacturers for their upcoming 3G flagship devices and you will get the message, too.
That's why Daniel and me will explain during the Germany tour of our new seminar "Mobile Kaizen in Japan" (14.10.03 to 06.11.03) the reasons for the spectacular success of the wireless industry in Japan. We will also provide strategic recommendations to Germany’s mobile players for the continuous improvement of their products and selected business processes.
Kaizen is a made-in-Japan business process based on "continuous improvement" and first gained fame in the 1980s when Japanese auto makers produced cars with superior quality at lower prices as compared to those made in the West. Consequentely, Mobile Kaizen in Japan will analyse the Japanese Mobile Economy Triangle of networks, devices,
and services through the Kaizen lens and illustrate how excellent wireless technology combined with customer-sensitive marketing and sales form the pillars of success.
In particular, the transferability of Japanese ideas and products to Germany and Europe is a hot issue to be discussed. In this context it will be very insightful to discuss - during the Mobile Kaizen in Japan seminars in Stuttgart (30.10.03) and Frankfurt (04.11.03) - with special guest speaker Mr. Yusuke Kanda, President of DoCoMo i-mode Europe B.V., the strategy of NTT DoCoMo and its partners for making i-mode more successful in Europe. So far, we all agree that i-mode's performance in Europe is way behind our original expectations. What went wrong with i-mode in Europe? Did DoCoMo's European partners carry enough Mobile Kaizen in their veins?
After living for 9 years in Tokyo, Daniel Scuka, co-producer of Mobile Kaizen in Japan, understands the misconceptions regarding cultural success factors responsible for the wireless boom in Japan. Scuka likes to give this answer: "Yes, Japan's mobile culture has been a factor in the success of i-mode, but not the culture of the end-users. The Japanese carriers know and apply the best technologies and have also demonstrated some serious marketing savvy. The secret lies in the management culture."
My personal take is that E-Plus, in fact, made many technology and marketing management mistakes when launching i-mode in Germany. The first i-mode handsets were inferior in functionality and quality, right now the number of i-mode-enabled handsets is still very low. Moreover, E-Plus' Marketing budget was - and still is - rather small due to the financial problems of parent company KPN Mobile. Current TV ads of E-Plus advertise voice bundles instead of cool new mobile Internet services or, at least, MMS as everybody else does in Germany at the moment.
Another German operator, O2, is more innovative and aggressive these days. On TV O2 Gemany pushes a flat rate for surfing WML pages inside and outside the O2 Active portal including as many free mobile emails as you can eat - the price is 4,95 Euro/month for postpaid customers only. What I like is that you can access up to 3 external email accounts over POP3 or IMAP.
Other wireless Internet systems, such as Vodafone’s Live, are now also applying the Japanese model — in which the network operator manages device features and controls the content and services on their portal — very seriously and surprisingly successful. However, the resulting so-called "Walled Garden" is rather similar to a closed society and contradicts the current usage trend in Japan where more than 50% of data packets are now transferred in the unofficial content market. The unofficial market has to survive without charging for premium services on the telephone bill but rather refinance through mobile marketing or alternative revenue sources and payment methods.
To foster continuous improvement in your own company, we recommend to appoint one internal Mobile Kaizen Manager who is responsible for finding ways to improve products and processes. The most important process for MNOs in the
mobile portal environment, for example, is optimising the cooperation with content and application providers. Thus, MNOs should provide current and estimated device feature penetration figures that developers need to decide upon which product versions to launch when for which Java and native OS devices. Of course, better than having only one Mobile Kaizen Manager are 100% Mobile Kaizen Managers that act and think for the sake of better products, service and customer satisfaction.
