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The Economy of Japan had experience a tremendous growth since the end of the Korean war. The growth of GNP in 1967 and 1968 was above 10 % (double digit growth period) which exceed countries such as Britain, France and Germany. The economy experienced a boost is due to many reasons, such as: enlargement of industrial facilities, massive adaptation of western technology and education, lower the military expense to 1% of GNP, relation with power nation, human resources and their spirit to achieve “zero defect program”. But after the first and second oil crisis that occur from 1973 onward. The economy move downwards partially due to the poor management of economic policy. Although the government had attempt to adjust the economic policy but the recovery was slow. As the soaring of yen continues the demand for export has increase tremendously. With the concern of the United State of this problem, president Reagan and the G5 have signed an agreement with Japan called “Plaza Agreement” , the agreement stated that the exchange rate of Japan and Deutschmark can appreciate against the U.S. Since then the yen value began to appreciate, Japan was going through a period of trade balance adjustment. While Japan is prepare to go through a period of trade balance adjustment, it will also suffer a period of recession, so the government strongly encourage business activities to strengthen the economy in order to prevent backwash effect. It was this event which boost up the GNP and raise the exchange rate. With this exchange rate advantage it stimulate business activity on housing and stock investment which created a bubble economy. During this period almost the entire country was involve in land speculation or other speculate activities. In this essay it will prove that land speculative activities had create many negative impacts to the Japanese society and economy. Firstly, it will describe the cause of land speculation.
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Companies must have satisfied employees to satisfy customers. Continental Airlines is a perfect example of how a company can succeed by putting the emphasis on the employees and customers. Continental demonstrates remarkable turnaround from a disastrous performance. In the early 1980’s, the management of Continental believed that the only way to save the company was to lower airfares, and to reduce all possible expenses. In doing so, it demolished the product and their quality of service. For instance, in the early 1990s, pilots could earn bonuses if the fuel burn rate on their airplane fell below a specific amount.The program motivated pilots to fly slowly, which often resulted in missed arrival times. Because of the delays, it was sometimes necessary to divert customers to the competition. Another example of this horrible “low-cost” approach was the CALite program. Continental replaced all first-class seats in some airplanes with coach seats to lower the cost-per-seat. This failed when airplanes were swapped during adverse weather conditions; the business class seats were not available to the passengers that had paid for them. Moreover, CALite eliminated all food on flights, all travel agent commissions, and all corporate discounts. This infuriated many of their very important customers. After 15 years of this “low-cost” approach, Continental had succeeded in creating services that nobody wanted. Continental’s organizational culture was terrible. Many of the employees felt ashamed to work for Continental. Some employees were so ashamed, that they removed the logo from their shirts. To make matters worse, Continental had put in place a horrible communication structure: Nothing was told to the employees unless it was absolutely necessary. Most employees found out about company activities, plans, and performance through the public press. They did not have ways to share their ideas nor ask questions. For example, if an employee came up with an idea for improving service for the first-class passengers, there was a useless form to fill out. The information was hardly ever collected, and was never used as a source of possible improvements for the company. Furthermore, there were so many rules to follow that employees could not possibly do what was the best for customers.
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