What Malcolm X and the Washizumu don't know

Let's begin with a quote from Malcolm.

"Anytime you have to let another man set up a factory for you and you can't set up a factory for yourself, you're a child; anytime another man has to open up businesses for you and you don't know how to open up businesses for yourself and your people, you're a child; anytime another man sets up schools and you don't know how to set up your own schools, you're a child. Because a child is someone who sits around and waits for his father to do for him what he should be doing for himself, or what he's too young to do for himself, or what he is too dumb to do for himself."

Malcolm X

This sentiment is echoed in the traditional business practices of Japan. The system is designed to make certain that Japanese businesses do as much as they possibly can in house. In theory this makes certain that costs are controlled (i.e. favorable) and that the community is not subject to external influences.

In real life business does not work this way.

If a community spends it's resources trying to produce a technology, factory or resource it is taking resources away from other functions. If it can not produce these technologies in a way that is affordable, it is wasting it's valued time and money. Wasting time and money is a sure way to lose in a competitive scenario.

Let's take an example of a Japanese company that would like to design a product for an English speaking audience. Let's say the Japanese company has four choices. A Japanese Design Firm, a Japanese American Design Firm, a Big Budget American Design Firm or a Small American Design Firm.

The money politics are clear in each of the four choices. If the Japanese choose to go with a Japanese design firm they will be keeping the money within the Japanese business community.

Business is not politics.

The question should not be "Where does the design budget go?" it should be "what will be the result of my design efforts and how much will it cost to produce those results?"

If you want to design a product for an English speaking audience, you need to hire native English speakers who understand you.

If the Big Budget American Design firm does not make it clear that they can communicate your message and they are not priced well, don't go with them. If the Small American Design firm does not make it clear that they can communicate your message and they are not priced well, don't go with them.

A cost benefit analysis only requires looking at the outcomes and dividing them by the costs.

A small American design firm may put themselves into poverty to get the job done for the Japanese business. This is both favorable to the Politics and the Finances of the Japanese business community.

If the Japanese business decides to go with a Japanese design firm at a lower cost they are certainly not going to communicate what they intend to communicate through the design. If they pay too little to the Japanese design firm they may be putting people in their own community into poverty. This does not make any sense when there is the potential to get the job done by lower cost Americans.

In any case accountability is the main issue here. The history or nationality of the firm's people is not.

Negotiations should be centered around objective and competitive comparisons of all of the firms being considered. The most effective way to damage a community is to pay them very little for a lot of work. All people in the negotiation are trying to avoid this situation. Having work that pays less than you need to sustain business is more damaging to a business than having no work at all. If you have no work you can find something else to do.

Japanese designers can find other projects that pay more money, because Japanese designers, in general, have a better reputation than American designers.

Never overlook a business opportunity. You never know when someone is going to be able to provide more of what you want at a greater expense to himself than the person you usually work with.

I thought you ought to know that.

-David Caro-Greene