Sigh. Another facile "ooh, different language/cultures are so very different" story, coating a nugget of truth in a thick layer of bullshit. Having lived in the US, Japan and Singapore, rest assured that in any of these, a washing machine (or car or mobile phone or...) that falls apart in a week is considered low quality, regardless of how new (Korea), shiny (Japan) or expensive (China) it looks. Sure, each of those three cultures has those preferences for appearance and you'll need to take that into account for design and marketing, but <i>material</i> quality (Jp. 品質 hinshitsu, Ch. 品质 pinzhi) still means exactly that everywhere: how well it's built to spec, how long it lasts, etc.<p>Also, I am completely not buying that story about somebody refusing a dented shipping container <i>just</i> because it's dented. Think about it for a second: if somebody offered you a shipping container full of goods, and said giant metal box looked like it had fallen from a crane, would <i>you</i> buy it? Hell no, at least not without inspecting every piece inside for damage and a hefty discount for my troubles.
<i>What if I came to America and tried to start a company that helped people stay at home and get drunk alone...blah blah blah</i><p>Sivers responds: <i>Touché</i><p>Touché? What if I came to America and tried to start a...liquor store? Where you can buy a bottle of vodka at 90 percent off, compared to clubs? Totally novel, right? Unthinkable.<p>Obviously, if the Singapore retail experience described in this article is correct, any entrepreneur there is going to look for ways to change that. Besides, a <i>huge</i> amount of product from amazon is boring stuff like nappies and soap and ground coffee. People don't buy those things during a social event.
However earnest, such efforts always end up being a narrow perspective which when successful becomes even more dangerous as then the one persons stereotype becomes an 'accepted fact' (case in point the Indian head nod references, What!)<p>The only way to do this would be to avoid being your culture centric and wherever you go start with respect for that culture and then open your eyes, ears and mind as the first step<p>During business visits to Europe, I have had Indian colleagues who cringed up their faces short of vomiting at the sight of a rare beef steak and have had European colleagues come and track down that 'cow on the road photo shoot' as their first biz agenda.<p>Now that is not the right start and it does not need a book to tell you that you have to respect others way of life.
A long advertisement for a pile of books. Not to mention the article states the obvious - different cultures are.. you know.. different.<p>Am I missing something? Was there anything more to this?
And if you ask a Six Sigma drone, even here in Murka, "quality" means little variation from piece to piece.<p>"Quality" is one of those things like "value" that doesn't refer to a specific thing, but must always be reckoned against human desires. Like, gold doesn't have "intrinsic value". It has value to us because it's rare and shiny, and humans like shiny things. And it's the same thing with quality: things are quality because people like them and consider them useful, reliable, pretty, or whatever. So this article boils down to a bunch of broad cultural stereotypes (Koreans like new things, Japanese like refined things, etc.) without much meaning.
I'm working on something somewhat related:<p><a href="http://www.istorical.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.istorical.com</a><p>It's user-contributed reports about what it's like to live in cities and countries around the world. I'd love to hear some feedback if anyone else is interested in this sort of thing!
It's particularly cool that "quality" is the word dissected in this article.<p>Robert Pirsig wrote a whole book[1] about Quality: specifically the unique characteristic that it doesn't completely resides in an object itself, nor does it reside completely within the subject experiencing the thing.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0060589469" rel="nofollow">http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0060589469</a>
The "culture shock" series is pretty good too, aimed more at people who actually move to the country.<p>The difficulties with books like this are 1> they age quickly 2> they are hard to generalise (books of the same length for the Netherlands and India will have wildly different levels of resolution) and of course the authors will be different.<p>This wood egg approach seems like a reasonable way to deal with the latter.<p>I've lived in five countries the only general statement I can make is that people are the same everywhere, and completely different as well.
Article is VERY accurate. Japanese, especially, hate imperfection and believe that everything should be perfect, without any asymmetry or irregularity.
On their face these WoodEgg books look very attractive. I having been toying with the idea of setting up a company elsewhere than Australia, and would be very interested in an in-depth survey.<p>Anyone who owns one care to share their thoughts?
It's conflating language and expectations. Quality means the same in the US as in EU or China or in Japan, we just don't expect the same level or properties depending on the environment. Quality sushi in Japan is not the same level of expectation as quality sushi in Brazil. A quality car in Sweden won't be judged on the same criteria in Zimbabwe.
It does seem like a bit of an ad splash page.<p>But on the topic of different meanings, my favourite example is in Greek, you as "Τι κάνετε" "What are you doing" literally but it translates as "How are you?". These things go always translate directly, and if you are speaking with a nonnative it's likely that these things will occur.
Have people never left their own countries?<p>This is one of the first things you figure out when venturing abroad.<p>Nothing beats a summer day in thongs.