Among these ten operating guidelines, the Japanese companies have particularly strengths for three operating guidelines, (3)show respect and humility, (7)create mutual value, (9)be patient.
Concerning the strengths of Japanese companies, Paul Kennedy, a professor at Yale University, remarked that focusing on who invented something first is not really significant; what is important is not the invention itself but how it is worked with and brought to the stage where application is possible – in other words, the improvement aspect.15
If this idea is applied to the BOP business executed by Japanese companies, it could be said that focusing on who first conceived of the BOP is not really significant; what is important is how to work with it and bring it to a stage of high effectiveness - in other words, the improvement and popularization aspects. Thus, it is highly possible that the next central key player in BOP business will be Japanese companies.
3.Issues for Japanese Companies, the Next Key Player
For BOP business, partnership is the keyword. It is one of the success factors clarified by research on numerous BOP businesses already existing. For example, London and Hart (2004) extracted three success factors, one of which is “developing relationships with non-traditional partners”. In addition, Hammond, et al. (2007) discovered four basic strategies common to businesses that have succeeded in the “poor” market, one of which is “unconventional partnering with governments, NGOs, or groups of multiple stakeholders”.16 Building partnerships with local entrepreneurs and NGOs in this way is the key to success in BOP business. In addition, by involving the local people and providing products and services that are aligned with the needs inherent to the poor, new value will be created locally. This will improve income, making it possible for people to break out of poverty. This is the reason why it can be referred to as a “co-creative approach.”17
However, for Japanese companies, this is definitely a weakness. For example, surveys on the emphases of the stakeholders by Japanese companies reveal that Japanese companies place little emphasis on NGOs/NPOs, comparing with Western companies, as Figure 5 shows (Japan Association of Corporate Executives, 2003).
Even the results of quantitative analysis of multinational corporations by author made it clear that compared with Western companies, Japanese companies do not have much of a stance concerning or awareness of civil society sector, as Table 1 shows (Sugawara and Kato, 2006). This survey aimed to find out how businesses recognize civil society and the extent to which they are influenced by it.