KNF Japan
“The Japanese are programmed to win.” This is the cover story of an issue of German news magazine Der Spiegel in 1980. Meanwhile, US businessman Henry Ford II complains that the Japanese are “ready to eat us alive” when Toyota overtakes his company in the world rankings. And Volkswagen’s CEO at the time, Toni Schmücker, predicts, “We’ll need to prepare for the worst when the Japanese arrive on the scene.”
The automobile industry is not the only sector that fears the booming Japanese economy, and others also begin to take precautionary steps to protect themselves against its rise. An electronics giant and one of the world’s seven leading economic powers, Japan – or the Land of the Rising Sun – is the first industrial nation in Asia and for years has the second-largest economy in the world after the USA. The densely populated country pursues an aggressive economic policy and is known for years as the “world champion of imitation.”
After opening its doors to capitalism 160 years ago, the once isolated island nation begins to copy the West. Tokyo, for example, is today home to a replica of New York’s Statue of Liberty and a copy of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge as well as the Tokyo Tower, which resembles a taller version of the Parisian Eiffel Tower, but in orange. Japan also copies and manufactures industrial products originating from the West, some of which are cheaper or even decidedly better than their Western counterparts. By following this path, Japan becomes a world market leader in the electronics and automotive industries.
The country’s success does not escape Erich Becker’s notice. “The Japanese are overrunning the world,” he says. “If I want to be a technology leader, I need to go where the global players are.” This realization paves the way to Tokyo becoming the location of KNF’s first sales partnership in Asia after KNF sets up a joint venture with Japanese partner Lasco Co. in 1983. This partnership marks KNF’s first foray into the complex Japanese business world, with all its cultural idiosyncrasies – which explains why it was so short-lived.
Finally, in April 1993, KNF Japan gets transferred into a wholly owned Sales Center within the KNF Group. For 17 years, KNF Japan is based in Minato-ku, a ward in the southern-central part of the Tokyo Prefecture. The subsidiary then moves to Chūō, which translates as the “central ward,” in 2011. One of the Japanese capital’s main business centers, Chūō is also where the famous luxury Ginza shopping strip is situated.
KNF Japan now enjoys far better traffic connections and an overall much-improved location, and its facilities and capacity are fit for a bright future. With its 330 m2 of space near Japan’s equivalent of Wall Street and Tokyo’s main train station, KNF’s Japanese subsidiary is on course to do good business for many years to come.
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