Chapter 8 Chapter 2 10 Powers to Flatten the World (5)

Adhering to WTO rules will flatten the Chinese economy, and it will also help flatten the global economy. But while I am a trade liberal, I am concerned about the impact of China's rise on wages and benefits for American workers, at least in the short term.China's economy is already closely linked with the developed countries. If it tries to cut off this trade link through protectionism, it will lead to economic and geopolitical chaos, and even bring a devastating blow to the global economy.American and European companies should seek new business models if they want to benefit from China's economic development.Maybe ASIMCO is one, and IBM, which sold its PC business to Lenovo Group, is another.As the cover article "China Price" of the December 6, 2004 issue of "Business Week" wrote, "Can China dominate everything? Of course not. The United States is still the world's largest manufacturing country, consuming 75% of the products % is produced domestically, although this figure was 90% in the mid-1990s. Industries that require huge R&D expenditures and capital investment (such as aerospace, pharmaceuticals, and automotive) still have a strong production base in the United States The United States will certainly continue to benefit from China's rapid economic development."The article also said that if the United States cannot well deal with the long-term challenges brought to it by Chinese prices in many fields, the economic strength and influence of the United States will suffer.

In other words, if American and European companies want to benefit from this flattening of the world, they have to run at least as fast as the fastest lion, which I doubt China is, and the speed at which it runs pretty fast. Flattening Force #7 - Eating Sushi in Arkansas I didn't know what a supply chain looked like until I visited Walmart's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.My friends at Walmart took me to their 1.2 million square feet (1 square foot = 0.093 square meters) distribution center, and we climbed to the highest platform so that we could observe the entire distribution process.At one end of the center, many white trailers are unloading boxes of goods from different suppliers. The large and small boxes are put on the conveyor belt, and then these small conveyor belts are like a stream flowing into a river. Merchandise is transferred to a larger conveyor belt.This is true 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.But that's only half of the story.As the "Dajiang" continues to move forward, the electric eyes will read the barcode on each box, and according to the content, they will be diverted again when they reach the other end of the distribution center.The boxes are guided by motorized arms out of the "big river" to specific "creeks," where another conveyor belt takes them directly to trucks dispatched from various Walmart stores, which then deliver the boxes to the U.S. On a shelf in a Walmart store.

Consumers take them off the shelf and hand them over to the checkout counter, where the cashier scans the item and sends a signal through Walmart's network to the supplier of the product, whether that supplier is in China or Maine. . After receiving this signal, the supplier will supplement Wal-Mart with new products through the supply chain, and the whole process will repeat itself.So the moment you take a product off a Walmart shelf and hand it to the checkout counter, that same product is going to be made somewhere in the world.We could call it a "Walmart Symphony" without a finale, it just plays 24 hours a day, 365 days a year: deliver, sort, pack, ship, produce, reorder, deliver, sort, Pack. ..

During the Christmas period, HP alone can sell 400,000 computers in one day through Wal-Mart's 4,000 stores around the world. This requires HP to adjust its supply chain to ensure that all standards match Wal-Mart's, so that their The products can flow into Wal-Mart stores smoothly through "small streams" and "big rivers". The fact that Walmart can successfully play a symphony on a global scale — moving 2.3 billion uniform boxes of merchandise through the supply chain to individual stores each year — is enough to justify the next flattening factor I’m about to discuss, which I call the For "one-stop supply".It is a way of horizontal cooperation among suppliers, retailers and customers for the purpose of creating value.It is both a product of the flat world and plays an important role in flattening the world, because the faster these supply chains expand, the more they can enforce common standards among companies (so that every link in the supply chain can be connected) A supply chain), the more friction can be removed, the more efficient a company can be accepted by other companies, and the more it can promote global cooperation.

To understand the importance of the supply chain as a source of competitive advantage and profit in the flat world, consider the fact that today Wal-Mart, the largest retailer in the world, does more than one thing.Everything it does converges into a super efficient supply chain.Just like Yoshi, an expert in supply chain management and a professor of engineering systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.As Yossi Sheffi puts it, “Making stuff — that’s easy, but building a supply chain is hard.” What he means is that with today’s technology, it’s hard to keep intellectual property secret, So it's easy to reverse engineer a product and "make it" in a matter of days.However, setting up a process for distributing items globally involves many suppliers, distributors, port operators, customs brokers, forwarders and shipping companies, and getting them to work together in a high degree of harmony is not only difficult, but very difficult to replicate.

Before looking at the Wal-Mart situation in detail, let me say a few things about the supply chain and why it matters. In a flat world, your company can and must take advantage of the best producers at the lowest prices. If you can't do this, your competitors will jump at you.So supply chains that absorb parts and products from all corners of the world have become critical factors for both retailers and manufacturers.This is good news. The bad news, as Sheffi said, is that operating a supply chain is much harder than it looks, requiring constant innovation and adjustment.He explained that there are two fundamental challenges to developing global supply chains in a flat world.One is the optimization of globalization.It means that it doesn't matter whether you can get cheaper parts in one place, what matters is that the total cost of shipping all the parts from all over the world to your factory or retail store in a timely manner must be low, and of course lower than the competition. The cost is lower.

Sheffi said that if I were the transportation manager of the company, I would like to cooperate with the transportation company with the lowest price. If I am the production manager of the company, I will cooperate with the most reliable transportation company.They may not be the same company. Therefore, the first challenge is to balance these factors to find the most reliable and low-cost transportation system.The second challenge is reconciling disruptive supply and unpredictable demand.In other words, you don't want to over-purchase one component or one type of sweater because you'll have to discount them when they're piling up on factory or store shelves.You also don't want to buy too few parts or sweaters because the customer might not find what they want when they shop, and you might lose not just a business that day, but a customer forever.Both challenges are exacerbated by shortening product life cycles, especially in fashion and consumer electronics.The pace of innovation is accelerating, as is the rate at which products become popular and obsolete, making demand forecasting more difficult.

Sheffi hinted that the company tries to address these challenges in a number of ways.One of them is replacing inventory with information. Walmart pioneered this approach.The faster you can get from the store what products, models and colors customers are buying, the faster you can feed that information back to manufacturers and designers, and the sooner they can send more red sweaters back through the supply chain and fewer yellow sweaters.Advanced information technology also allows Wal-Mart to know where products are in the supply chain at any time.So, if demand is high in Texas and demand in New England is lower than expected, Wal-Mart can know the supply flow for a product and make sure that more product gets shipped to where customers need it most—Texas.Spanish fashion retailer Zara is particularly adept at this and often stands out from the competition.Zara's motto is that shortages are more profitable than surpluses, and then responding to shortages with lightning speed allows you to satisfy customers while greatly reducing the risk of overstocking.How do they do this?

According to a joint UPS-Harvard Business School study, Zara has invested heavily in sophisticated information technology, equipping all store supervisors with transmitter-enabled Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) to monitor customer preferences, The data is then sent directly to the Central Program Office.The technology cuts execution time from design to shelf in less than 30 days, allowing Zara to defer design decisions to absorb the latest findings from stores.With good planning to deal with fickle consumer tastes and fashion preferences, Zara is also prepared for the unexpected. Immediately after 9/11, Zara executives recognized depressed consumer sentiment, and within weeks black had become the dominant color for new products in their stores.

Sheffi, whose latest book is "The Resilient Enterprise: Overcoming vulnerability for Competitive Advantage," explains that this strategy, known in business as a "postponent," is the idea: As demand forecasting becomes harder and harder, good companies try to defer adding value to their products until the last possible moment.That's Dell's secret sauce.Because every computer produced by Dell is "tailor-made" for customers, the number of computers it produces is the number that customers need, and each computer is produced according to the way customers need.It has no computer stock.But there is a basic parts supply, and the display size, memory and software can be adjusted according to customer needs. “Dell sometimes has a surplus of hit-and-miss parts, but each part can be used in multiple configurations, so there’s a good chance these parts will come in handy sooner or later,” Sheffi said.However, Dell will never have a computer that no one buys. "The conclusion," concludes Xie Fei, "is that in this flat world, products move from innovations to commodities faster than ever before, competition is fiercer than ever from all over the world, and consumer demand is greater than ever before." More unstable and well-informed, various fashion trends come and go like lightning. In today's world, a smart and fast global supply chain is becoming one of the important magic weapons for companies to defeat the enemy!"

As consumers, we love the supply chain because it allows us to move all kinds of goods -- from tennis shoes to laptops -- and keep prices lower and lower, which is why Walmart is the largest retailer in the world .But as Wal-Mart workers, we may have a very ambivalent or even hostile attitude towards this supply chain, because it exposes us to increasing competitive pressure, and sometimes bears the company's cost-cutting wages and labor costs. The pressure of benefits, which is why Wal-Mart is one of the most conflicted companies in the world.No company has improved supply chains and flattened the world more than Walmart; no company has more epitomized our ambivalence as consumers and as workers. The September 30, 2002 "Computer World" article summed up the key role of Wal-Mart: "Joseph Aikeros, the chief information officer of Mattel Toys in the United States, once said, 'There are advantages and disadvantages to being a supplier of Wal-Mart. .Although Wal-Mart is a very good sales channel, it is also a very strict customer. They have high requirements for products.'The world's largest retailer has established an inventory and supply chain management system, which has changed business ever since. The business outlook. They use new technologies to identify and track the sales of individual commodities, which makes their technical support an object for other companies around the world to study and emulate. AMR Research Inc, a high-tech consulting firm in Boston, is responsible for retail industry research. "We've always seen Walmart as the best supply chain operator," Abel said. In its quest to build the most efficient supply chain in the world, Wal-Mart has also made a number of business mistakes, the consequences of which are slowly spreading.Still, its status as one of the ten world-flattening forces is undeniable, and to understand it better, I decided to make a pilgrimage to Bentonville.Somehow when I got on a flight at La Guardia Airport in New York, I was thinking, I'm going to have sushi tonight.But where do I go for sushi in Northwest Arkansas?Even if I could find it, would I still be willing to eat it? However, when I arrived at the Hilton Hotel near Walmart headquarters, I was surprised to find not only a sushi restaurant, but also a large Japanese steakhouse right next to it.When I told the clerk that I never thought I'd be late for sushi in Bentonville, he told me, "We're going to be adding 3 new locations in the city soon." Will there be many Japanese restaurants in Bentonville?I said to myself, "I've made my point - the world is flat. Go home." The demand for sushi in Arkansas has to do with the fact that the supplier has set up many offices around the Wal-Mart office in what is known as Venderville.Wal-Mart's headquarters is very distinctive.The offices of the various supply companies are crammed into a converted warehouse.As we passed a building clad in crumpled metal, I thought it was a maintenance shed, but the Walmart spokesman, William, who showed me around.Watts told me, "This is our international office." These places are far from the offices of my daughter's junior high school principal, vice principal, and even counselors.As I walked down the hall, I spotted vendors promoting their wares to Wal-Mart buyers.Some have tables full of sewing machines, others are piled high with toys, and still others are blouses of all kinds.It felt like being at the crossroads between Sam's Club and Damascus Bazaar.Wal-Mart shareholders should rejoice: The company sure isn't wasting money on frivolous renovations. These creative ideas have changed the way the world does business in so many ways, but how did they come out of such a backwater?This is actually a phenomenon I refer to a lot in this book - the flat coefficient. The fewer natural resources your society or company has, the more you can tap into your potential and find inspiration for innovation in order to survive.Wal-Mart has become the world's largest retailer mainly because it often does not make concessions when negotiating with rivals, and the agreements reached are all on harsh terms.But let's not forget one thing: Another reason Wal-Mart became the No. 1 company is that the company from this small Northwest Arkansas town was far smarter and faster at embracing new technology than its competitors, and it still does today. in this way. David.During his tenure as CEO of Wal-Mart from 1988 to 2000, Glass implemented many innovative solutions that made Wal-Mart the largest and most profitable retailer in the world. Fortune magazine once called him "the most underrated CEO" because he finished Sam out of obscurity.Walton's blueprints. Glass's contribution to the supply chain is equivalent to that of Bill.Gates' contributions to word processing. Glass explained that when Wal-Mart started out in the northern Arkansas city in the 1960s, it wanted to be a discount store, but at the time, every cheap item was sourced from the same wholesalers, so Wal-Mart and others Retailers don't have much advantage over them.He said that it is undoubtedly unrealistic for manufacturers to ship products to Wal-Mart stores across the country, so Wal-Mart has established its own distribution center. Manufacturers first ship products to the distribution center, and then Wal-Mart sends trucks to deliver the products various branches.We can calculate carefully that Wal-Mart’s own distribution center will increase the cost by an average of 3%, but it can save an average of 5% of the cost of buying goods directly from the manufacturer by eliminating the wholesaler link. 2% of the cost. Once the basic method of buying directly from producers was established to maximize discounts, Wal-Mart focused on three things: first, working with producers to keep costs as low as possible; , strive to improve the supply chain associated with producers, so that they can deliver products to Wal-Mart's distribution centers no matter where they are in the world, and reduce costs and frictions as much as possible; the third is to continuously improve Wal-Mart's information system , Know exactly what products consumers buy and feed this information back to the corresponding manufacturers, so that the shelves will be replenished with suitable products in time. Wal-Mart quickly realized that it could beat competitors on price if it sourced directly from manufacturers, innovated to reduce operating costs in its supply chain, and learned more about its customers to avoid overstocking. Plus, its location in Bentonville, Arkansas doesn't leave it with a lot of options.Jay, a senior vice president of Wal-Mart.Allen said: "Wal-Mart's logistics and distribution system is established by itself, mainly because Bentonville is really a small place, if you want to find a third party to handle logistics, it is almost impossible. This is indeed a need for survival. People often assume that we set our prices low because we are large and buy from cheap production places like China.But the truth is, the low prices stemmed from the efficiency of Wal-Mart's investments -- systems and culture.It's a low-cost culture. Glass added: "I hope this shows that we are very smart and visionary, but in fact it is all out of necessity ... A lot of productivity gains have to do with culture." “The faster the supply chain expands, the more Walton and Glass realize that the key to their business is scale and efficiency. Simply put, the greater the scale and scope of the supply chain, the more they can The price sells goods to consumers, and the more advantage you can have in the bargaining process with suppliers, the more goods you sell, the more benefits you can bring to shareholders... If say Sam.Walton is the father of this culture, necessity is the mother of this culture, and their children are the supply chain machines. In 2004, Wal-Mart's US division purchased commodities worth approximately US$260 billion and sent them to 3,000 stores in the United States through a supply chain consisting of 108 distribution centers across the country. "In the early years we were small, 4% to 5% the size of Sears and Komat," Glass said. price competition strategy. If I can reduce my distribution center operating costs from 3% to 2%, I can lower retail prices, increase market share and not be attacked, so the ultimate beneficiary of any of our efficiencies is the consumer .” For example, after a manufacturer sends products to Wal-Mart's distribution center, Wal-Mart needs to deliver them to each branch, which means that Wal-Mart will have trucks traveling to and from all over the United States.Walton quickly realized that if he could connect all the drivers via radio and satellite, so that they could unload the goods at a certain branch and pick up other goods from the nearby manufacturers, they would not be empty. The car returned, and Wal-Mart no longer paid the delivery fee to the latter manufacturer.Although the savings are small expenses, they can add up after all.Wal-Mart has spared no effort in improving its supply chain.While visiting Wal-Mart's distribution center in Bentonville, I noticed that because some boxes were too large to fit directly on the conveyor belt, Wal-Mart employees put the boxes on pallets and transported them on special small lift trucks. A computer keeps track of how many pallets each worker loads onto a truck in an hour and tells them through earpieces worn by workers whether they're on track. Rowling, executive vice president of logistics at Walmart."When you set the sound on your headphones, you can choose male or female, and you can choose English or Spanish," Ford explained. A few years ago, these pallet drivers didn't have access to this kind of computer voice prompts, they could only get this information from written instructions, and then Wal-Mart discovered that through this kind of soft voice prompts, drivers can use both hands to drive, and this The sound also serves as a constant reminder that they are on track."We've become much more efficient," says Ford. It's the little innovations that make Wal-Mart's supply chain unique. The real breakthrough, Glass said, came when Wal-Mart realized that to keep costs down, Wal-Mart and manufacturers had to collaborate horizontally to create value for each other while bargaining.Wal-Mart was one of the first retailers to use computers to track sales and inventory, and it was also the first to develop a network for sharing information with manufacturers.Wal-Mart's theory was that if manufacturers could learn more about what consumers were buying, they would be able to adapt more quickly to changing market demands, and Wal-Mart's sales would be more efficient. In 1983, Wal-Mart began to equip POS terminals, which not only recorded the payment into the cash register, but also tracked the reduction of inventory, ensuring that the inventory was replenished quickly. Four years later, it installed a large-scale satellite system linking all stores and the company's headquarters, allowing Wal-Mart's computer center to obtain real-time inventory data, and at the same time allowing the entire supply chain to share these data information.Key suppliers can see how their products are being sold through Wal-Mart's network of retail systems and decide when they need to increase production. Leila.Rena Granofsky, one of the partners of JCD Williams (JC Williams) Ltd., a retail consulting firm based in Toronto, wrote an article in "Computer World" in 2002, pointing out that it is Opening sales and inventory databases to suppliers has made Wal-Mart so powerful today. When competitors regard sales information as treasure and are unwilling to disclose it to suppliers, Wal-Mart enters suppliers as a partner.Walmart's Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment Program (CPFR) Allowing him to view inventory in real time, reducing shipping costs for retailers and suppliers.Granofsky Said: "Since then, there has been much less excess inventory in the supply chain." Just because of the improvement of supply chain efficiency, Wal-Mart's cost of goods is 5% to 10% lower than most of its competitors. Wal-Mart is improving the supply chain A recent innovation in this area is the introduction of RFID (Radio Frequency Identification Chip), a tiny chip attached to trays and boxes that can replace barcodes that must be scanned individually. In June 2003, Wal-Mart notified its 100 largest suppliers that starting from January 1, 2005, all pallets and boxes shipped to Wal-Mart distribution centers must be equipped with RFID tags. (According to the "Journal" article, RFID is a general term for technologies that use radio waves to automatically identify objects or people. There are many methods that can be used for identification, but the most common method is to use a device that can distinguish people or objects. The series of numbers are stored on a tiny chip -- the chip and the antenna connected to it are called an RFID transponder or RFID tag. The antenna allows the chip to send identification information to a reader, which then reflects the wireless light waves from the RFID tag into digital information that can be passed to a computer.") RFID allows Wal-Mart to track pallets and boxes at every stage of the supply chain, and to know exactly which supplier's product is inside the box and when it arrived. Period etc.If a product needs to be stored at a specific temperature, the RFID tag will reflect whether the temperature of the product's environment is suitable. Because each label costs about 20 cents, Walmart only uses them on some large items and pallets. While not used by every item, it is clear that this will be the way to go. "Investing in RFID is very far-sighted," said Wal-Mart's deputy director of logistics. You can judge more quickly which stores sell more of a certain shampoo on Friday and which sell more on Sunday. , you can also find out if Hispanics prefer to go out shopping on Saturday nights rather than Monday nights.Ford added: "When all this information is fed into the demand model, we can be more efficient in the production and transportation of products. We used to need to scan the products at the receiving terminal to check the quantity, which was very troublesome. Now With RFID, just scan the entire pallet once and the system will tell you that all 30 of the products you ordered are here, and each box will tell you, 'This is what I look like, this is how I feel, It's my color, I'm in good shape' - which makes receiving the product easy," says Procter & Gamble spokesman Jean Lew.Jeannie Tharrington (Jeannie Tharrington) talked about Wal-Mart's adoption of RFID in "Salon" magazine (September 20, 2004): "We think this technology is very beneficial to maintain the normal operation of the entire supply chain. We Our products sometimes go out of stock due to insufficient information feedback in a timely manner, which we and consumers do not want to see, this technology can avoid this phenomenon, so that customers can always find our products on the shelves.” In addition, RFID technology also allows Wal-Mart to more quickly adjust its supply chain as conditions change. Senior Walmart executives told me that people drink more beer in the run-up to a hurricane, eat more storable, nonperishable foods like Pop-Tarts during a hurricane, and Buy more children's toys that don't use electricity and can replace the TV.So when Wal-Mart weather experts tell headquarters that a hurricane is coming to Florida, the Wal-Mart Florida store's supply chain automatically adjusts to hurricane conditions—more beer at first, more Pop-Tarts later. Walmart is always looking for new ways to work with consumers, and it recently moved into banking.It found that many people in the Hispanic enclaves did not have bank accounts and had to pay in cash, so Wal-Mart offered them money orders, cash transfers and even bill payment services (only for standard business such as electric bills). - All for a small fee.Until then, Wal-Mart has always provided this service to internal employees, and now it is just externalizing it. Too much good stuff, though, and the same factors that drive Wal-Mart's constant innovation -- its insular location, the need to tap into its own potential, etc. -- also got him stuck.It's hard to overstate how out of step the Bentonville retailer is with the world when it comes to advocating labor and human rights, but it's easy to see how low-price Wal-Mart has gone too far in some ways. sam.Walton created not only a relentless drive for efficiency but also a relentless culture in perfecting Wal-Mart's supply chain.Wal-Mart has been exposed not long ago for a series of incidents: locking night employees into the store, hiring illegal immigrants as janitors, serving as a defendant in the largest discrimination against women lawsuit in American history, and refusing to sell certain articles such as Playboy. Magazines are on the shelves.That's not all. Some of Wal-Mart's biggest competitors complained that they had to cut employees' health care benefits and lower their wages in order to meet Wal-Mart's challenge.We can only hope that the negative coverage of Wal-Mart over the past few years will force him to understand that there is a clear line between how a super-efficient global supply chain can help people save money and improve their lives, and reduce costs and squeeze employee benefits. Wal-Mart can squeeze out the last profit of suppliers, and it will not hesitate to pit domestic and foreign suppliers against each other.Some suppliers have adapted and become proficient at surviving this pressure.If all of Wal-Mart's suppliers cannot adapt to this pressure, then Wal-Mart may not be able to find a supplier.Therefore, it is clear that many suppliers have survived well as Wal-Mart partners, but there are also some suppliers who have turned Wal-Mart's price pressure into exploitation of their own employees, reducing their wages and benefits, or Watching their own business opportunities flow into China. In 2004, Wal-Mart's supply chain purchased goods worth US$18 billion from 5,000 Chinese suppliers.Xu Jun, spokesman for Walmart's China operations In an interview with China Business Weekly (November 29, 2004): "If Wal-Mart were a single economy, it would rank as China's eighth largest trading partner, ahead of Russia, Australia and Canada." sam.Walton's successor seems to recognize Wal-Mart's problems, but it's unclear how Wal-Mart can adjust.However, when I spoke directly to Lee, the current CEO of Walmart.When Scott asked these questions, he didn't shy away from them—in fact, he wanted to talk to me about them. "I feel like what I should do is, just as we institutionalize our commitment to consumers, we should institutionalize this obligation to society," Scott said. "The world has changed, but we haven't. keep up. We believe that good intentions, good stores, and low prices will make people forgive us for our mistakes.There are areas where we are not the best and we should strive to be better. " Wal-Mart insists that it is not responsible for the large number of offshoring operations in the US manufacturing industry. "We would be in a much better position if we could just buy American-made goods," Glass said. "I've been traveling around the country for the past two years trying to convince suppliers to manufacture in the U.S., and we're even willing to pay more." High prices because it creates jobs for the local people who visit our supermarkets. Sanyo used to have a factory in Arkansas that made televisions for Sears, but Sears demanded so much from them that they decided to move the factories to Mexico and Asia.The government asked us for help, and we decided to buy the TVs from Sanyo if they were willing to keep the factory in Arkansas, but they didn't agree and wanted to move the factory elsewhere.To convince them to stay, our governor even talked to Sanyo's controlling family in Japan.In the end, with the combined efforts of the governor and us, they finally agreed to stay. Now they are the largest television manufacturer in the world.We just bought our 50 millionth TV from them.But people who don't want to do manufacturing in the U.S. say, 'I want to sell you the product, but I don't want to be responsible for the construction, the employees, the high health insurance here, so we're forced to outsource manufacturing to rest of the world. ’ My concern is that one day we’ll just be selling each other hamburgers when production is outsourced elsewhere. "To understand the role Wal-Mart has played in the flattening of the world, it is best to go to Japan. On July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the U.S. Navy opened the closed gate of Japan with 4 steam ships with loaded guns. Navy Historical data show that the Japanese did not know that there were still steamships in the world at that time. They were terrified by the sight in front of them and thought they were "dragons spewing clouds". On March 31, 1854, General Perry Returning to Japan, he signed the "Japan-US Treaty of Goodwill" with the Japanese government, allowing American ships to freely sail into the ports of Hakodate and Shimoda, and established the US Consulate in Shimoda. This treaty brought about the prosperity of US-Japan trade The rapid development not only brought Japan out of the state of being a closed country, but also accelerated the process of Japan's modernization, because the Japanese realized their own backwardness. They did catch up.In many fields, from cars to consumer electronics, from Sony walkman to Toyota Lexus, the Japanese have learned a lot from the western countries, and they have surpassed us in many places-except retail, especially discount retail .The Japanese can make Sony products unrivaled in quality, but when it comes to retail, they can't. 150 years after General Perry signed the treaty, another (though much less well-known) treaty was signed between the United States and Japan, which was actually a treaty of commercial cooperation called the Nissang Seiyu-Wal-Mart Treaty (2003 ). 跟佩里将军不同的是，沃尔玛不必用战舰轰开日本的大门，它由声誉开道，这也是濒临破产的日本零售连锁店日商西友急于在日本推行沃尔玛模式的原因。于是我乘高速列车从东京赶到沼津——这是第一家采用沃尔玛模式经营的日商西友超市所在的地方。《纽约时报》的文章指出，这家商店离美国第一个驻日领馆所在地——下田市约100 英里（1英里=1.61 千米）。佩里将军也许也会喜欢在日商西友的新式商店购物，在那里你可以欣赏到优美的西方音乐，你可以用65美元购买一套中国制造的男士西装，然后再花5 美元购买一件配套的白衬衣。沃尔玛的口号——每天都有低价——是沃尔玛员工最早学会用日语说的话。沃尔玛对世界变平的推动作用可以在沼津的日商西友超市得到验证，这不仅表现在每天的低价位上，还包括宽过道、运送家用商品的大托盘、展示每类商品最低价格的巨型标志和沃尔玛供应链的计算机系统等。 我问日商西友的首席执行官木内正男（Masao Kiuchi）为什么他会寻求和沃尔玛的合作。他回答说：“我第一次知道沃尔玛还是大约在15年前。当时我去美国达拉斯市参观那里的沃尔玛商店，我发现他们的方法是非常合理的，主要体现在2 个方面：其一是他们的标价方法简单易懂，其二是他们真正兑现了物美价廉的承诺。日本人过去认为，折扣商店就意味着以低价出售次等商品，可我发现，在沃尔玛不管是等离子彩电还是高级品牌的宠物食品都能确保质优价廉。在达拉斯的沃尔玛分店，我照了很多照片，后来带回日本给日商西友的同事们看，但光看照片是远远不够的。”最后，木内正男与沃尔玛进行谈判，双方在2003年12月31日签署了合作协议。沃尔玛收购了一部分日商西友，作为交换，沃尔玛同意教给日商西友它独特的合作方：通过全球供应链以最低的价格给消费者带来最好的商品。 但是有一样事情是日商西友必须教会沃尔玛的。木内正男告诉我，这件事情就是怎么卖生鱼。日本大大小小的超市都有专门的食品专柜给眼力很好的消费者出售生鱼，一天之内日商西友的鱼价都要随着新鲜度的下降而下调好几次。给沃尔玛点儿时间。 我相信在不久的将来，我们将看到沃尔玛推出自己制作的寿司。 最好有人警告一下那些金枪鱼。 第8 大力量——内包：那些穿着可笑褐色短裤的家伙在干什么？ 在身边发现自己以前一点不了解的事情，这是我在写作本书过程中觉得最有趣的事情之一。没有什么会比发现联合包裹服务公司（UPS ）的价值更有趣的了。 是的，我指的就是那些穿着普通褐色短裤、开着难看的褐色卡车的家伙。就在我睡着的时候，丑陋的UPS 成了令世界变平的巨大力量。 这次又是我的印度“导师”之一——Infosys 的首席执行官南丹。尼乐卡尼给我指点迷津：“联邦快递和UPS 也应被列入令世界变平的力量。它们不仅在配送包裹，也在做物流。”当他从班加罗尔给我打来这个电话时，我还不理解他在说些什么，只是记下了这个观点。几个月后，我到了中国，有一天晚上由于航班延误，我就在中国的某个机场观看CNN 国际频道。忽然屏幕上出现了UPS 的商业广告，广告词就是UPS 的新格言：让你的世界同步。 忽然之间我有了个想法：这肯定就是南丹要我明白的事情。我认识到，UPS不仅是在配送包裹，它也让大大小小公司的全球供应链实现同步。第二天，我打电话给UPS 在亚特兰大的总部，表示希望登门拜访。后来，我就参观了邻近路易斯维尔国际机场的UPS 全球港配送中心，这个机场在夜间基本就是被UPS 大批的货运飞机接管了。 来自全世界的包裹被卸到配送中心后先被加以整理，几个小时后就被发送到各自的目的地（UPS 拥有270 架飞机，在全球航空公司中排名第11位）。我在参观过程中发现，今日的UPS 早已不同于往日。是的，虽然UPS 每年360 亿美元的销售额大部分都出自每天发送的1350万个包裹，但这个1907年创建于西雅图的邮递公司早已改头换面为全球供应链的管理者。 请你想一想。如果你拥有一台享受质量保证的东芝笔记本电脑，现在它出了点毛病，这时候你会打电话给东芝公司要他们维修，东芝公司会让你联系UPS ，由它负责把电脑送到东芝维修中心，修好后再送还到你手中。但是他们有一点没有告诉你的是：事实上，UPS 并没有把你的笔记本电脑交给东芝公司，而是交给了UPS 中心负责电脑和打印机维修的工作站。我以为在路易斯维尔中心只会看到被拖来拖去的包裹，然而我却发现自己穿着蓝色罩衣站在干净的房间里观看UPS 员工更换那台笔记本电脑的母板。几年前东芝曾遭遇形象问题，一些客户抱怨他们的修理过程耗时太长，于是东芝就找到UPS ，要它设计一个更好的系统。 UPS 说：“我们可以去除所有中间环节，直接从你们客户手中取到机器，由UPS 修理，然后再送还给他们。”现在已经可以在一天内将东芝笔记本电脑送到UPS 的修理中心，第二天完成修理，第三天再将电脑送回。UPS 的维修人员都是获得东芝公司认证的，消费者的抱怨由此大幅度降低。 这只是UPS 的一项业务而已。最近吃过棒约翰的比萨吗？如果你看到带有棒约翰标志的供货卡车通过，可以问问是谁在派遣这些司机，谁在确定西红柿、比萨酱和洋葱等原材料的配送时间。我可以告诉你，答案是UPS .UPS现在深入很多公司的内部，帮助他们及时配送货物，就棒约翰公司而言，UPS 负责的任务甚至包括将比萨的生面团在固定时间从面包房送到经销处。 你是否已经厌倦了在商场购买网球鞋？到耐克公司的网站去订购一双吧。不过，这个订单实际是由UPS 处理的，雇员从UPS 在肯塔基的仓库提取、检验、打包和配送你在耐克网站上订购的网球鞋。同样，你从乔基国际公司网站订购的内衣最后也是由UPS 雇员帮你填好定单、打包、贴标签并最后发送给你的。 惠普打印机在欧洲或拉美出了故障该怎么办呢？在那里给你上门维修的人往往也是为UPS 效命的，他们在这些市场负责为惠普客户更换零件和进行一般的维修业务。 假如你通过UPS 从加拿大订购弗罗里达州Segrest 农场（全世界最大的观赏鱼经销商） 的热带鱼，UPS 对这些鱼的特殊包装可以让它们在经过UPS 的处理系统时不受到任何伤害。UPS 的发言人史蒂夫。赫尔姆斯称：“我们希望它们旅途愉快。” 这就是我说的“内包”过程——一种水平合作和创造价值的新形式，它既是平坦世界的结果，也令世界变得更加平坦。在前面的章节，我探讨了供应一条龙在平坦世界如此重要的原因，但并非每家公司，事实上只有很少的公司可以向沃尔玛那样开发和维持一个规模和范围都相当大的全球供应链。这就是“内包”产生的原因。 一旦世界变平坦了，小公司也可以有大动作，它们会发现，在世界很多地方他们都可以销售和生产产品，并且可以用更加有效的方式购买原材料。但是很多公司要么不知道怎么做到这些，要么没有能力独自管理一个复杂的全球供应链。很多大公司虽然有能力管理，但认为这不利于提高他们的核心竞争力，因此无暇考虑供应链问题。比如，耐克公司就宁愿将资金和精力用于设计更好的网球鞋。 这就给UPS 等传统配送公司创造了新的全球商机。1996年，UPS 推出了“同步商务解决方案”，迄今已投资10亿美元收购了25家全球物流和货运公司，具备了在平坦世界的每个角落为任意供应链提供服务的能力。2000年左右这一业务得到了突飞猛进的发展。我喜欢使用“内包”这个术语的原因是，UPS 的工程师会深入你们公司内部，分析你们的生产、包装和配送流程，然后设计、再设计和管理你们整个的全球供应链。如果有必要，UPS 甚至还会为部分流程提供融资，比如应收款项和货到付款等。现在有一些公司甚至将全部流程都交给UPS ，自己根本就不接触产品。UPS 负责从工厂到仓库到消费者直到维修的整个过程。如果有必要，它甚至还负责收款。这种深层合作的方式需要UPS 和它的客户及客户的客户建立信任和亲密关系。 UPS 的董事长兼首席执行官迈克尔。埃斯丘说：“你知道我们大部分的客户和合作伙伴都是什么公司吗？都是些小公司。这些公司让我们带它们走向全球化，我们让它们和大企业平起平坐。”事实上，如果你是一家小企业，你也可以搭上UPS 的快车，让它成为你全球供应链的主管，这样你可以装做是个更大的公司。 另一方面，如果小公司可以做大，它将让全球竞争场地变得更加平坦。UPS 收购的Mail Boxes等公司让它可以给个人和小企业提供全球供应链服务。不过UPS 也可以让大企业具备小公司的竞争优势，如果你拥有像惠普一样的大企业，UPS 让你可以在世界的任何地方以极快的速度配送包裹或维修产品，为你节省下不少成本。 除此之外，UPS 还极大地提高了商品和服务在全球的配送速度和效率，它让越来越多的人接纳了运送商品的统一规则、标签和跟踪系统，有助于贸易的协调化。UPS 所有的包裹上都贴有智能标签，这样时时处处都可以对它们进行跟踪。 在和美国海关总署的合作过程中，UPS 设计了一种特殊的软件程序，让海关可以直接同UPS 对话：“我希望查看一个名叫卡洛斯的人从哥伦比亚卡利市发到你们世界港中心的所有包裹”或者“我希望查看一个名叫奥萨马的人从德国发送到美国的所有包裹”。计算机将自动引导这些包裹到达UPS 中心的海关办公室，受计算机控制的臂状物会将这些包裹从传送带倾倒至一个专门的箱子里，让海关人员仔细检查，不仅提高了检查的效率，而且也不影响其他包裹的流程。这种高效率给UPS 的客户节省了不少开支，加速了他们的资本循环，让他们可以有更多资金用于创新，不过它也要求UPS 及其客户间的合作能达到一个新的层次，这样他们就可以通过水平合作创造更多价值。 Plow & Hearth 是一个专门经营“乡村生活产品”的网络零售商。有一天这家公司的负责人来找UPS 说，他们在运送家具的过程中总是遇到擦碰现象，问UPS能否出点儿主意。UPS 排他的“包裹工程师”为Plow & Hearth 采购小组组织了一个研讨会，为其提供了选择供货商所必需的指导原则，目的就是要让Plow & Hearth明白，对供货商的选择不仅要注重他们产品本身的质量，而且要考察这些产品打包和运输的质量。 在给Plow & Hearth 提供帮助的过程中，UPS 不仅要仔细研究Plow & Hearth的内部状况，而且还要调查其供货商的经营情况，包括后者使用的包装材料等等。 这就是内包。 让我们看看（eBay）上的卖主、UPS 、PayPal和eBay上的买主之间是怎样开展合作的吧。假如我提出要在eBay上出售高尔夫球棒，你决定购买它，我会用电子邮件给你发一个PayPal的发票，上面有你的名字和通讯地址。同时，eBay会在它的网站上给我提供一个图标（这样就能打印出一个UPS 的邮政标签），我的打印机印出的邮政标签上会有UPS 的跟踪条形码。而UPS 通过它的计算机系统也设立了一个与那个标签一致的跟踪数字，这个数字会通过电子邮件自动发给你——要从我这里购买高尔夫球棒的人——你就可以自己在网上跟踪包裹，并且可以确切地知道什么时候能收到。 即使没有UPS 也会有其他公司从事这一行业，在这个平坦的世界中，越来越多的人通过远离本土的全球供应链从事生产，必须有人填补当中的空缺和强化微弱环节。 UPS 负责全球销售的高级副总裁库尔特。库恩称：“比如，德克萨斯州生产机器零件的公司担心马来西亚的客户有信用风险，我们作为双方都信任的中间人参与其中。如果运送的货品由我们掌控，我们就可以用承兑汇票而非信用卡的方式收款。虽然可以通过个人关系或系统控制的方式建立信任关系，但如果没有这层信任关系，你可以依赖货运中心，他们会在收到货款后才发货。我们会比银行更能管理这一切，因为我们掌握着货品，而且和客户的关系更为持久。” 从1997年起，60多家企业已经将他们的工厂搬到了离路易斯维尔的UPS 中心更近的地方，这样他们的产品一经生产出来就可以直接从UPS 中心发送出去，不必再占用库存。不过，受益于“内包”更好的物流和更有效供应链的并不仅仅是一些小公司。 2001年，福特汽车公司将其效率低下的配送网络交给了UPS ，让其深入研究福特公司内部存在的问题，理顺其供应链中的症结。 《商业周刊》2004年7 月19日的文章称：“多年来，大多数福特经销商最头疼的就是这家汽车制造商将汽车从工厂运到展台的低效率。如果汽车没在路上被弄丢的话，通常要一个月的时间才能到达，而且福特公司并不是总能告诉经销商还有多少存货、在最近的铁路仓库里都有哪些存货。德克萨斯州加兰市Prestige Ford公司的老板杰里。雷诺兹回忆说，'我们甚至会丢失过几个车皮的汽车，这简直是很疯狂的事情。'但UPS 的工程师重新设计了福特整个北美的配送系统，从汽车运出工厂的路线到他们在地区分类中心被处理的过程都得以简化，他们还在福特19个美国工厂生产出来的400 万辆汽车的挡风玻璃上贴上了条形码，这样它们就像普通包裹一样可以被随时追踪。福特汽车到达经销商手中的时间因此缩短了40% ，平均只需要10天时间，这就给福特公司每年节省下来上百万的成本，而且让它的6500家经销商可以很容易地跟踪需求量最大的车型。雷诺兹说，'这是我见过得最令人惊讶的转变。我对UPS 最后的评价是，能像这样再给我们弄些备用零件吗？'”UPS 在马里兰州提摩尼恩市设有一个运筹组，他们专门负责研究供应链的运算法则——却被称作“包裹流程技术”，将UPS 的卡车、轮船、飞机和分类能力同当天需要配送的包裹相匹配。UPS 的首席执行官埃斯丘说：“我们现在可以改变时间以适应数量的变化。运算法则最关键的地方就是要使整个供应链最优化。” 提摩尼恩市这个60人的工作小组主要由一些工程和数学方面的专业人才组成，还包括一些博士。 UPS 还雇用了气象学家和战略威胁分析师来预测每天必须应对的自然和政治风暴。 UPS 是无线技术在这个世界上最大的私人用户，仅UPS 的司机在取货、送货途中接打的电话就100 万个。UPS 的数字显示，该公司配送的商品占全球GDP 的2%. 哦，我是否提到UPS 还有一个金融部门（UPS Capital ）呢？这个部门可以为你的供应链提供资金，特别是当你是一家小企业，并且没有足够资本的情况下。 埃斯丘举例说，假设加拿大一家出售医用胶粘带的生物科技公司是UPS 的客户，这家公司在大医院连锁店的市场份额一直在增加，但存在的问题是，它不能及时满足需求，而且由于规模太小不能得到足够的融资，它在美国东西海岸都有配送中心。UPS 重新设计了这家公司在达拉斯的冷藏中心，并且通过UPS 资方的融资对其进行了扩建。 这样做的结果是，这家公司的存货数量变少，现金流量增加，客户服务改善。 加拿大蒙特利尔一家制作新娘头饰和面纱的工厂希望将业务拓展到美国市场，埃斯丘回忆说：“我们将加拿大公司库存用一次报关的方式全部运到美国，存储在我们纽约的仓库中，这样他们的产品就不必一个一个地经过海关检验了。我们通过网络接受定单、贴上标签、发货并收款，接着我们通过UPS 资方将收款转入他们的银行，这样他们既进入了新市场，又使得存货最小化。” 埃斯丘解释说：“我们的祖辈开店时，存货就是放在店铺后面的东西，现在的存货则需要用卡车、火车、飞机来运输。我们现在都可以很清楚地看到供应链，因此可以协调所有这些运输模式。”确实，由于消费者现在可以通过网络定购个性化的产品，UPS 发现自己不仅是真正接受订单的企业，而且还可以根据用户的特殊需要来送货上门。于是其他公司说：“让我们把尽可能多的差异化产品推到供应链的终点（而非起点）吧。” 由于UPS 是产品被装上飞机、火车和卡车前供应链上的最后环节，它就创造了名为“空运前终端服务”（end of runway services）的新商务形式。我去路易斯维尔的那天，两个年轻女性正将尼康相机和特别的存储器及皮套放在一起包装，原因是一些商店在周末促销时会将这些存储器和皮套当作礼物，UPS 甚至为那家商店把这些促销的尼康相机放到专门的盒子里，它让这些公司在最后关头可以有更多机会推销他们个性化的产品。 UPS 还充分利用了网景和其他令世界变平的力量。1995年前，UPS 的客户必须通过呼叫中心才能查询和跟踪自己的包裹，你拨打UPS 的号码800 ，然后询问接线员自己的包裹在哪里。圣诞节前一周，UPS 的接线员一天能接到60万个电话，每个电话要花费UPS 公司2.1 美元。20世纪90年代，越来越多的UPS 客户开始使用网络，而且UPS 自己的货件跟踪系统也已随着无线技术的提高而有所改善，于是UPS 就让客户在网上跟踪自己的包裹，这样UPS 每次承担的费用就降低了5~10美分。 UPS 的副总裁肯。施特纳德称：“所以我们极大地降低了服务成本，并且增加了服务内容。”UPS 现在平均每天处理700 万个跟踪查询，高峰时期每天能达到1200万。 你还会看到UPS 的司机总是携带着褐色的电子书写板，这是一种被称作“司机配送信息采集设施”（driver delivery information acquisition device，简称DIAD）的新技术。最新一代的电子书写板可以告诉司机每个包裹应该放在卡车里的哪个位置——在架子上的具体位置，它还告诉司机下一个目的地是哪里，如果他们没有到达正确的地点，DIAD中的GPS 系统就不允许他发货。除此之外，DIAD还让客户可以上网查看司机送到包裹的具体时间。 我将这种合作形式称作“内包”——以区别于“供应一条龙”——因为它已经超出了供应链管理的范围。这是一种第三方管理的物流方式。它要求UPS 和它的客户及客户的客户建立更加密切和广泛的合作关系。如今，UPS 的雇员不仅让你的包裹同步化，而且也让你的整个公司和它同客户和供货商的互动也同步。 埃斯丘说：“这不再是一种买主和卖主间的关系。我们替你们接电话、我们和你们的客户对话、我们为你们保管存货、我们告诉你们哪些产品畅销。我们可以获取你们的信息，而你们也必须信任我们。虽然我们的客户可能是竞争对手，但一切运行良好的前提是，就像我们的创始人告诉金倍儿和梅西百货（美国的两大百货公司）的那样，'要相信我们'。我不会违背这一点的。因为我们让他们将一部分业务交给我们，这确实需要信任。” UPS 正努力创建让任何人都可以将自身业务全球化的平台，或者是让他们能提高自己全球供应链效率的平台。这是一个全新的业务，但UPS 确信它的发展空间是无限的。Time will tell everything.尽管这一行业的利润空间还不是很大，但UPS 在2003年一年的收入就达到了24亿美元。我的直觉告诉我，这些穿着可笑的褐色短裤、开着可笑的褐色卡车的家伙将要成就一番大事业——一种只有在平坦的世界中才有可能出现、并且令世界变得更加平坦的事情。 第9 大变平力量——提供信息Google、雅虎和MSN 搜索服务我和我的朋友在一家餐馆遇到了一个年轻男子，我的朋友被他迷住了，但我却对这家伙的身份表示怀疑。用Google进行了一番搜索后，我发现他曾因重罪被逮捕过。虽然我因此再次对这种约会方式感到失望，但至少我给朋友敲了警钟。 ——用户给Google的赞词我对你们提供的翻译服务完全满意。我朋友安排两个工人给我们帮忙，但在交待事情的过程中出了点儿差错：她让工人们上午11点来，可服务中心8 点半就把他们派过来了。这两个工人只会说西班牙语，我只会说英语和一点儿法语。我们会讲西班牙语的邻居碰巧又不在家。 但是，在Google翻译服务的帮助下，我可以和这些工人交流、向他们表示歉意并让他们11点时回来。谢谢你们提供的这种服务……谢谢。 ——用户给Google的赞词我只想感谢Google教我找到爱情。在使用Google寻找多年未见的兄弟时，我偶然看到了墨西哥一个介绍男性脱衣舞表演者的网站，我被震惊了——我的兄弟在做男妓。我以最快的速度飞到了他所在的城市，在那里，我不仅将他从这个卑微的职业中解放出来，而且还遇到了一个和他从事同样工作的人……上个周末，我们在墨西哥结婚了。我非常感谢Google给我提供的帮助，没有它我就不会找到我的兄弟、我的丈夫和见识墨西哥男性脱衣舞行业。谢谢你，Google！ ——用户给Google的赞词Google的总部位于加州的山景城，有点Epcot 迪斯尼主题公园的感觉——有那么多好玩的太空时代玩具，而时间又那么少。在一个角落里放着可以旋转的地球仪，它根据全球各个地方Google搜索用户的多少发出光束，正如你所料，大部分的光束都来自北美、欧洲、韩国和日本和中国沿海，中东和非洲仍是一片黑暗。另一个角落里放着一块大屏幕，上面显示的是使用不同语言进行搜索的人们使用最多的关键词。我在2001年参观Google总部时向工作人员询问当时最频繁使用的关键词是什么。答案当然包括“性”，还有“上帝”，排在第三位的是“工作”。排在第四位的答案令我哭笑不得——职业摔跤。最不可思议的答案就是菜谱：人们打开冰箱，看看里面还有什么原料，然后用Google搜索一下这些原料，看看会搜到什么菜谱。 很幸运的是，没有任何一个单词或主体在任何时间曾超过Google搜索主题1%~2%的比例，所以任何人都不必因为Google上某一关键词出现的过于频繁而担心人类的命运。事实上，正是因为Google上有如此多样的搜索项、如此多的语言种类，才让Google及其他的搜索引擎工具成为重要的令世界变平的力量。在此之前，人类历史上从未出现过有如此多的人可以依靠自身力量找到如此多信息的时候。 Google创始人之一、俄罗斯出生的塞吉。布林说：“如果一个人可以通过宽带、拨号方式上网，那么不管他是柬埔寨的小孩、大学教授还是像我这样管理搜索引擎公司的人，他都可以跟其他人一样获取同样的信息。这是完全平等的。这和我小时候的情况有很大差别。那时候，我最好的选择就是去图书馆，而那时图书馆的馆藏也并不是很丰富，你要么等待奇迹的出现，要么只能找到简单和新近发生的事情。”他补充说，当Google出现时，人们可以充分接触世界各地图书馆的所有信息。