International -- Readers Report
Have Faith in the Golden Arches
McDonald's is taking the right steps toward rebuilding itself as a progressive and performing company ("Hamburger Hell," The Corporation, Mar. 3). And it is avoiding shortcuts with harmful long-term consequences.
Many lesser-quality organizations would have turned to external saviors. Not McDonald's. The new leadership, headed by CEO James R. Cantalupo, represents both successful development of new concepts and deep familiarity with the character of the organization.
What the company is not doing is just as noteworthy. It is not engaging a major investment bank for a synergy transaction. It is not hiring a global consulting firm to provide it with a new strategy. It is not initiating outsider-led change programmers. And it is not installing a celebrity CEO from another industry or organization.
Most successful companies at some point are challenged by market and competitive changes. Those with quality in their genes stay away from quick fixes shaped by outsiders. They reach deeply into their own people and experience. Then they craft solutions consistent with their own character and competence.
Hakan Gomér
Arkwright Assets Ltd.
London
President Bush: Where Is the Vision?
Jeffrey E. Garten's comments in "Listen up, execs: Playing it safe won't cut it" (Economic Viewpoint, Mar. 3) illustrate convincingly that success in any field is like a coin where the two sides -- vision and execution -- cannot be separated without destroying it. And the former must always precede the latter.
Several years ago, President George H.W. Bush announced that he doesn't go for the "vision thing," trying to convey to the American public that he was a realist. But the first thing people demand from a leader is that he provide them with a clear long-term aim, i.e., a vision of where he wants to lead them. Let us hope that George W. Bush will not commit the same error that cost his father reelection. At present, he seems to be concentrating on execution without a coherent and convincing vision of where this is going to take us.
Otto H. Nowotny
Switzerland
The Japanese Penchant for Patience
I am replying to "A job only a masochist could love" (Finance, Mar. 3). As a Chinese born and raised in Japan, I am in a position to observe the Japanese objectively. One recent conclusion: the Japanese are extremely patient.
Many office workers have lost their jobs. Many company operators have been pushed out of business. Many homeowners have had to move from their homes because they can no longer afford the mortgage payments. Even high-net-worth individuals have lost their money in the property and stock markets because of bad advice from their brokers. They all say the same thing: sho-u-ga-nai, meaning "I can blame nobody" or simply "that's life."
This attitude applies to every aspect of life, from the 10-year economic depression -- with no end in sight -- to everyday life. The Japanese have started to think that it may take another 10 years to emerge from this depression. Still, there is not a single riot taking place -- not even a demonstration. The japanese just wish problems would go away, and repeatedly say shouganai.
They're amazing.
Yungho Pok
Osaka, Japan
Setting the Record Straight on European Growth
In your article "From Bad to Worse" (European Business, Mar. 3), you perpetuate some myths about productivity. Productivity is measured by output per man-hour. But it is questionable whether gross domestic product as measured in the U.S. is measuring the same thing as GDP in the euro zone. Robert Gordon of Northwestern University recently published work that shows that GDP is not a standard concept. American economists count spending on software as an investment, adding to GDP. But in the euro area, economists count it as a current expense -- with no impact on GDP.
Julian Callow of Credit Suisse First Boston has calculated that from 1996 to 2001, the counting of software as an investment added 0.4% per annum to the U.S. productivity figures.
And a further study by Francois Lequiller of the French Statistics Office suggests that when comparing apples with apples (i.e., using the same calculation method), productivity in the euro zone as a whole has grown at the same pace as in the U.S.
Stephann Wensink
Madrid
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Copyright 2003, by The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. All rights reserved.
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