Takeo Miura of Hitachi was quoted as saying: " We (Japan) are going to win and the industrial West is going to lose: there is nothing much you can do about it. because the reasons of your failure are within yourselves. Your thinking while your workers wield the screwdrivers and you are convinced deep down that this is the right way to run a business. For you, the essence of management is getting ideas out of the heads of the bosses a nd into the hand. Mr. Mhura messagge is that:

a.- Today´s environment is so competitive that to be successful senior management must tap the valuable knowledge-base its labor force in order to continuosly improve the company processes and quality.

b.- As a proud japanese national, he is merely bashing US business.

c.-Senior managers are the most knowledgeable (otherwise they would not be running the company) and they are in the best position to improve product and service quality

d.- The senior management of US firms is incompetent and shouldn´t be running the company, they should turn the management of the compamy over to the labor force.

e.- All of the above.