Becoming World-class: Lessons from Made in Japan – book by Prof. Motwani offers a way forward for India Inc.

NEW DELHI: The newly launched book Becoming World-class: Lessons from ‘Made in Japan’ is the first of its kind endeavor to critically analyze the gaps that led to the failure of Make in India initiatives despite the fact that the universally accepted Japanese Model of (mass) Production had made its way into India in the 1980s.

Suggesting a way forward, the book, however, expounds how Japan used Total Quality Management (TQM)/Toyota Productive Maintenance (TPM) to establish ‘Made in Japan’ as a global brand, and how India can do the same for the success of ‘Make in India’ and companies can use it in their journey to world-class.

Over four decades of experience has gone into scribing this 470-page book as the author happens to be Prof. Prem K. Motwani, a well-known authority on Indo-Japan relations.

A freelance consultant on TPM/TQM audit preparation/health check for readiness and interpretation during audits, Prof. Motwani has been involved in audits as a lead interpreter since the very beginning.

Published early this year, the book is based on his hands-on experience in these audits and the gaps Prof. Motwani witnessed as someone who knows the business culture of both the countries in and out.

Prof. Motwani has also been conferred Japan’s highest civilian honour – “The order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbons” in recognition of his contribution to promoting academic exchange and mutual understanding between Japan and India by the Japanese Government in Autumn 2020.

“TPM has been extremely popular in India for over 25 years but very few companies have gone beyond the basics due to the lack of understanding of the key concepts, underlying philosophies, and what TPM can deliver as a business tool. The book explains how Japan used TQM/TPM abbreviated as JMPs (Japanese Management Practices) to establish ‘Made in Japan’ as a global brand and how India can follow the suit to ensure ‘Make in India’ succeeds,” said Prof. Motwani.

Prof. Motwani has translated over ten books on Japanese management and JSQC (Japanese Society for Quality Control) standards into English, and also published six books of which four were in Japan prior to this book.

His latest book ‘Becoming World-class: Lessons from ‘Made in Japan’ is a treatise on Indian manufacturing and provides answers to some very pertinent questions: Why manufacturing in India has failed to take off? How to create more jobs and lift people out of poverty? How to make ‘Make in India’ work? How to reduce imports from China? How to change the narrative about India as a manufacturing destination?

According to the co-publisher Bibliophile South Asia, the book expounds on the Japanese manufacturing management model which enjoys tremendous popularity in India for nearly three decades but has not been adopted in its entirety for a variety of socio-cultural reasons such as lack of vision and direction towards a common goal and in the larger interest and deficient business ecosystem due to human resource practices and the silo work culture.

Prof. Motwani effectively and critically compared the Indian and Japanese approaches in the manufacturing sector.

“We Indians tend to take pride in talking only about our achievements but live in denial about problems/socio-economic issues including manufacturing and it interferes with our ability to tackle challenges in a timely manner. We talk of CUP/ST growth but not about CAD, unemployment under-employment, wasting the population dividend, economic disparity, why FDI not coming despite improvement in Ease of Doing Business ranking, etc,” said Prof. Motwani.

In deep contracts, the Japanese approach is all about having an eternal sense of crisis and they come on top more often than not. Bringing Yen 360 to one a USD to Yen 100 in 20 years is a fine example.

“You might ask why then the Lost 3 decades but Japan had its first trade deficit in 2011 due to the Great East Japan Earthquake and has had trade deficit only for a few years since then. It amply tells us about the Japanese management system,” adds Prof. Motwani.

In February, Suzuki Satoshi, Ambassador, Embassy of Japan in India joined Prof. Prem K. Motwani in his book launch event to celebrate its publication.

In his remarks, the Ambassador congratulated Professor for this great achievement, and expressed his hope for Japanese Management Practice to contribute to further deepening Japan-India relations and “Make in India”, leading to “Make for World”.

The book is available on Amazon.in at https://www.amazon.in/Becoming-World-Class-Lessons-Japan/dp/9382337490 and can be purchased for Rs. 1250 (Hardcover).

For outside India, the book price is $25 (US) or JPY 2500 (Japan)

Publishers: Promilla & Co. Publishers in Association with Bibliophile South Asia