'Peter Drucker [a Western authority on management issues] recently wrote that he is unable to understand why Japanese industry is so successful', said Akio Morita, Chairman of Sony in 1981. 'In particular, he seems puzzled by the fact that, in comparison with their North American equivalents, Japanese managers appear so unimpressive when you meet them. Peter Drucker's problem is this: he does not understand what management is about.

In Japan a manager's role is very simple; it is to develop the skills of his staff so that they can find better ways of satisfying customers.'. This book shows how the Japanese first learnt their industrial and technological skills from the West, and in particular from Britain, in the 1870s. It challenges the popular misconception that Japan is culturally so different from the West that there are limited lessons to learn from Japan's stunning industrial success.

It asks, for example, how it is that the USA, with some 70,000 new MBA graduates each year is increasingly losing the commercial battle against Japan with an annual output of just 100 from their MBA courses. Here at last is a book which provides a very clear answer to this apparent conundrum - and furthermore shows how any organization can use a range of simple techniques to become truly world class.

Written by British and Japanese authors, this is a highly readable insight into the real secrets of Japan's continuing successes.