Customer Reviews

DoCoMo--Japan's Wireless Tsunami: How One Mobile Telecom Created a New Market and Became a Global Force

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Chapter one of this pathetic book begins by informing us that "Business cases aren't romance novels. Things begin, and end, with the numbers". Not so this book. As well as seemingly endless diversions into such eclectic themes as post war land reform in Japan, General MacArthur's victorious cavalcade into Tokyo, hitch hiking in New England, some unfathomable nonsense about the "mystic Southwest" of the United States, a reference to Mary Poppins, a couple of paragraphs on Bruce Springsteen, the problems of mowing lawns in Utah, the relatively high mortality rates of upper class Britons during both world wars, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the usual sociological drivel of upwardly pointing nails getting hammered down in Japan, some buzz words from complexity theory, some tips on putting golf balls and interminable pages of insipid tips on how to turn your (non Docomo related) work into fun, we are given six shallow chapters respectively titled Love, Inequality, Impatience, Luck, Fun and Strength with a further appendix called Intimacy and M-Commerce. That is followed by a mercifully short interview with Docomo President Kouji Ohboshi, which, because it was originally carried in 1996, is, like the entire book, totally irrelevant to the current market conditions Docomo faces.
Although the book's blurb claims the authors had unprecedented access to Docomo's top executives, there is no evidence of that in this over priced book. We are, however, told that Ohboshi "looks like a conventional Japanese executive. He is tall". We are also told that he has the style of a cockroach, meaning that he is impatient and hurries around a lot. Because cockroaches tend to get stamped on, it is a dangerous and, at best, very silly metaphor to describe a dynamic CEO of a thriving company.
It is almost as silly as the 20 or so pages given to the digital experiences of Yasuko Sato who, we are told, had to overcome the sad fact that "Mama and Papa Sato lovingly, relentlessly instilled good old-fashioned analog values in their daughter." Although Mama and Papa Hayes did the same, I have used mobile phones in the jungles of the Golden Triangle and the Andes Mountains as well as in a fishing trawler 300 miles off the coast of Iceland. Talking about the wonders of i-mode or mobile phones in the tones Mitch and John (as they annoyingly call themselves throughout the book) is like talking of the wonders of black and white TV; they are old news.
To impress on us how successful Docomo has been, we are supposed to be amazed that its headquarters are in "a skyscraper so large that each elevator holds sixty-three people. Sixty-three! In just one elevator!" As if that was not penance enough for us to bear, the authors appeal to our vanity by telling us that we are the new "cosmopolitan, global kind of thinker" because we are reading a "whole book" on Docomo.
Instead of giving us a "whole book" on Docomo, all they serve us up is the most shameless padding that would make the laziest high school student blush. Only two paragraphs after mentioning "those alphabet soup economics equations that make so little sense to most of us", we read "Okay, enough about boring economic theories" and we are back to the problems of mowing the lawns of Utah.
Technical details are also, we are told on page 127, "perennially boring" even though they are vital to understand Docomo's short history as well as its prospects for future success. The mobile telephony industry Docomo finds itself in is a young industry, one that will mature in time just as wireless, television and the Internet did before it. Until that happens, the industry's many intangibles will complicate our best efforts to predict the industry's future trends. Instead of trying to identify those intangibles, the authors let us know that "what we can tell you, after years in think thanks and universities and high-powered consulting firms" is that luck is paramount in a successful business.
This is easily the worst business book I have ever read, let alone reviewed.

I've been looking for literature that explores why Japan is so technology obsessive, they have to have the latest of everything and feel utterly out of touch if they dont. Technology is fashion.

Having lived there a year i instantly recognised the name 'DoCoMo' and thought it was the perfect forum to analyse this exact phenomena, DoCoMo is the mother of all technology companies over there and really has become a part of the way of life there.

This book separates into chapters based on emotion, an odd idea, but one that works quite well. For me the Love and Fun chapters accurately depict the passion the Japanese have for technology and how DoCoMo capitalized on that.

However I wasn't looking at this book as an example of a business model. I skipped most of the facts and figures, though they are easy to read and very relevant. People who are skepical of this books practical use offering a business model that has a totally different approach, probably havent spent enough time in Japan to see how successfully DoCoMo has been. I believe this may be the future of the business model. But essentially i think this book would fit much better in the 'Technologies Influence On Society' section of the bookshelf.

Those who are researching technology as part of society are the ones who will really get a kick out of this book, there are so many interviews with developers, users, fanatics and novices, it is a feast of information that explains just why the Japanese are atleast a year ahead in the Mobile Industry. And why the Japanese are so passionate about their gadgets.

Why would a couple of guys think they should write a book about DoCoMo? Most of us naïve book store browsers would assume that they have something interesting to say. They must have some insight into the company, some insider knowledge that would make such a book an interesting read. Well, think again. The writers of this book have absolutely no insider knowledge of DoCoMo, they also do not have anything interesting to say. They have records of one interview with the president of DoCoMo, and they have some newspaper-level information about the company. Possibly they also chatted with some employees. But that's it.
How then, you wonder, do they fill a whole book on DoCoMo? The answer is: They don't. Only a fraction of the book is directly related to DoCoMo. The rest is just...stuff. I'm not even sure how to call it, but it is blah-blah of no value.

Just imagine, the book's discussion of wireless business models, revenue sharing models with content providers, DoCoMo's 3G strategy, the FOMA service, their international expansion strategy...all of that together takes up about 8 (in words: eight) pages. Eight measly pages filled with common knowledge on all of those issues that are regarded as the most critical issues in today's wireless industry.

On the remaining 200 odd pages, we find trivia such as a graph of the rental prices in Tokyo (1/2 page) and a table of the top 20 Japanese companies (1 page). Give me a break. And then there are plenty of fuzzy-warm discussions about Love, Inequality, Luck, Impatience, and Fun. Let me warn you of this book...for me, it's too late. I already wasted my money.

What we have here are really two separate but related books bound together in a single volume: One examines the extraordinary success of the world's second largest mobile phone company, Do-Co-Mo (which means "anywhere"); also, using Do-Co-Mo as a case study, Beck and Wade explain why that company's "huge techno-success story is all about feelings....In the end, what sets Do-Co-Mo apart is [in italics] passion." Reflecting on what they learned from their rigorous research, Beck and Wade confide that their findings forced them to propose "a radical, almost embarrassing idea: In managing your business, human passions matter. A Lot. More than any of us admit, and certainly more than any of us act on....Reflecting on the research presented [in this volume], we believe that a company that understands the power of human passions, and manages those passions in its customers, its employees, and its leaders, will create value faster than its competitors." So, this volume combines a highly informative, at times compelling case study with a thoughtful and eloquent explanation of how the core lessons of Do-Co-Mo's success can help literally any organization (regardless of size or nature) to achieve its own success by creating, nourishing, and sustaining the passion of everyone involved.

Please allow me a brief digression. By now I have become convinced that it is impossible to motivate others but that it is possible to inspire others to motivate themselves. I am also convinced that what people believe determines their values and those values determine their behavior. Throughout human history, the most effective religious, military, and social leaders have been passionate about the given enterprise and their passion was contagious. Because others shared their faith, exceptional success was achieved...often against what any sane person would agree are prohibitive odds. How else to explain the survival of the Christian church, for example, during decades of vicious and relentless persecution following the crucifixion? Draw up a list of those whom you consider to be the greatest leaders since then. How many were passionate in their beliefs? How many inspired others? Probably all of them, no matter which ones you named.

Obviously, this book will be of special interest to executives in companies now actively competing in one or more telecom marketplaces. There is much to be learned from the the case study based on DoCoMo, "Japan's wireless tsunami." Whether or not Beck and Wade intended it, I think this book will also be of substantial value to executives in all other organizations regardless of size or nature (including non-profits) which have failed to create, nourish, and then sustain passionate loyalty among their respective constituencies. It is no coincidence that the most highly admired companies, year after year, are also the most profitable. Extensive research among those employed by them or who do business with them reveals these common characteristics: identification with the organization's values, trust in its senior management, pride in its products and/or services, respect for associates, feeling appreciated, and passion to help the organization to achieve its objectives.

Speak with anyone employed by Southwest Airlines, for example, and ask her or him to share thoughts and feelings about this airline. Invariably the responses will be (in effect) "It's great fun to work here," "I really feel like I am making an important contribution," "Everyone I work with respects me and I respect them," "We're the best but we can be even better!" and "It's not just a job. It's a way of life...and I love it!" These are essentially the responses I have received whenever I have made such an inquiry of Southwest's pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers, and reservation agents.

Recall Beck and Wade's affirmation: "We believe that a company that understands the power of human passions, and manages those passions in its customers, its employees, and its leaders, will create value faster than its competitors." As of when this review is written, Southwest Airlines' cap value is greater than its six major competitors...combined. Driven by passion as well as by ability, energy, and technology, DoCoMo now has approximately the same number of Internet customers as does American Online...and accomplished that five times faster. Draw your own conclusions.

Those who share my high regard for this book are strongly encouraged to check out Maister's Practice What You Preach, Hutcheson's Portraits of Success, Shuman and Twombly's Everyone Is a Customer, the fully revised and updated edition of Rosenbluth and Peters' The Customer Comes Second, Bossidy and Charan's Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done, and Collins' Good to Great.

I picked up this book with the hope that it would share some insight into why i-mode was such a big success. It did that only.

This is an extremely 'business/management' style of book. Full of hullabaloo, simple to read and gets somewhat preachy at times.

However I did enjoy reading it, although I sometimes doubt validity of some speculations made (Such as Singapore eradicating paper and coin based money entirely by the year 2008).

I'll give it 3 stars because it did give me the answer I was looking for but it wasn't a life changing experience reading it. Sorry.

This book doesn't give a clear understanding of DoCoMo and it's mechanisms.
It's more of an unctious eulogy about people at Do-Co-Mo and the enterprise itself.
What we learn: Keichi Tachikawa had a keen sense of inequality, former Chairman Ohkochi is impatient, impatient etc., Keichi Enoki seems to be the lucky guy.
This is a latter day celebration of a Japanese enterprise. The rendering of the story could have been influenced heavily by the style of a communist storyteller, writing a biography of communist saint Breshnew or marshal Shukow.

Few facts. Tons of incense. Sprinklings of modern management thought.

Not devoid of facts, but these are incoherently interspersed into a rambling storytelling about all and everything.
This book did waste my time and continuous factless ramblings made me feel angry at times.

Very disappointing. 98% presentation and 2% substance. If this were a term paper in a business school, I'd give it C--- (triple minus). Who am I to judge? Well it almost made me wanna write my own version of what DoCoMo is, and how it reached the position it is today.

A little more detail. There's almost no info on the technical aspect of i-mode, except that it is packet-switching and runs on PDC. The authors attributed the success mainly to the management team. That's where they miss the point. After reading the book, you would still have no clue why i-mode succeeded in Japan, but has yet to dominate in other world regions.

I would give it 0 star. Amazon doesn't allow me.

This fluffy take on the human element of DoCoMo's success will not teach you anything about the wireless industry in Japan or the U.S. and hardly poses as a model or case study for anything related to strategy or how to "become a global force". Check out the market cap for DoCoMo in the last year and a half and look at the value and return in their overseas' investments and you will see why DoCoMo is a typical example of floundering, conservative Japanese management styles that aren't taking the world like a tsunami, but trickling in with little or no impact. Global competitors look at DoCoMo's business model as something to emulate, but their weak strategy and feet dragging business style make them a bloated telecom giant wasting away shareholder value. This books talks nothing of that and merely goes on and on about the success of i-mode, which would be relatively interesting if you hadn't read about it ten times in Business Week or Forbes Magazine in the last two years. NOTE: We used DoCoMo as a case study in my Japanese business school and despite all sorts of flowery talk about the creation and success of i-Mode, nearly every member of the class was critical of this company's overall global strategy.

How has Japan's NTT DooMo become as big as AOL's customer base - five times as fast? This is Japan's mobile phone service, who grew to second-largest in the world in just to years. Insights into industry secrets, Japanese business, the wireless and computer worlds like make DoCoMo--Japan's Wireless Tsunami: How One Mobile Telecom Created a New Market and Became a Global Force a book difficult to easily categorize, but packed with important business insights. Highly recommended for all readers.

John C. Beck, Mitchell E. Wade clearly do not know and understand the critical factors and strategy behind Ntt DoCoMo's i-mode. Most of the book is so superficial and general to be useless. Most of the intereting elements of Ntt DoCoMo strategy are not covered here so buy something else instead of wasting your money on this.