The Reckoning: The Challenge to America's Greatness

This book is a masterpiece of narrative journalism. Based on five years of research and interviews, it tells the story of how the Japanese came to dominate the American car industry by telling the stories of key individuals, in the U.S. and Japan, who played important roles in that story. Halberstam is such a skilled writer that every one of these people comes alive on the page; you will meet the Fords and their Japanese counterparts at Nissan, and executives, car designers, union leaders, and workers in both countries. Along the way, as you get to know these people, you will learn the story not only of the automobile industry but also of American business in general, the story of how American companies abandonned the making of quality products under pressure from finance people (trained at the nation's leading business schools) who care only about stock position and short-term profits. There can be no better primer for anyone who wants to understand the economic history of America in the second-half of the twentieth century. Read it and weep--and then take a look at Eamon Fingleton's "In Praise of Hard Industry" (also published under the title "Unsustainable").

I read a borrowed copy of this book over a decade ago and it has proven memorable and useful.Memorable because 12 years after reading it, I still vividly recall many episodes: for example, we read of the American engineer and his wife who took Japanese citizenship during WWII because all their friends were Japanese, but still sent their sons back to the US; Halberstam writes of the president of Nissan's US branch (Datsun) who incredibly had enough strength of character to rename Datsun's new sportscar the Z80 (in North America) from the FairLady (in Japan) against the CEO's wishes; Ford's dismal accounting practices of the early 20th century when all invoices were put in a pile and weighed (!) to estimate how much cash was required in the checking account; and most rewarding of all, the story of Professor Deming, the American inventor of modern quality control, arrogantly overlooked in his homeland and treated as an oracle of wisdom in industrial Japan.I also found the Reckoning useful, because for the fifteen years I've lived in Japan I've relied and built upon the insights it gave me. David Halberstam presents an accurate evaluation of how Japanese business often works, especially manufacturing businesses. Halberstam doesn't advocate following Japanese practices, he merely presents them and evaluates their success. Sometimes these practices can be applied, and sometimes they can't.Japanese office practices work well in Japan because they rely on local customs. For example, the reason Deming found a voice in Japan is that a Tokyo University professor took notice of his work and called several old students who were now executives in Japan's car industry. They invited Deming and listened to his lectures. It's a characteristic of Japanese society that teachers retain some authority over their students for their entire lives, not only for the year they spend teaching them. This would not have worked in the West. However, once the value of Deming's work was obvious American car companies studied and implemented them, even if late. The lesson is that while Deming's methods can work as well for U.S. car makers as for Japanese, the politics of getting them accepted depend entirely on local conditions. Japanese car men were open, and sincerely enthusiastic, of listening to their old professor's ideas, while American car men needed failure to humble them enough to change their ways.

The Reckoning is not just a book about the car buisiness, or even just business as a whole. Halberstam has written a sprawling book about the human narratives that underpin every business decision, every intercorporate political machination, every glitch in the economic movement of the world.The book is as close to a novel as non-fiction can get. The characters are sharply drawn and grandly realized. Business decisions, board meetings, and car manufacturing descriptions are imbued with the crackling writing of good fiction. The style will make you want to read on.As for the subject matter, it isn't just about Ford vs. Nissan, or Japan vs. the US; this book is about people, their failings, prejudices, arrogance, stupidity, short-sightedness, intellect, brilliance, drive, ethics, love, culture, and power.It offers powerful insight into the world of multi-national corporations. If you want to know who's running the world right now and how, this book is a must read.

I work in the automotive industry and I find Halberstam's work to be absolute required reading. The book chronicles the history of the Ford Motor Company and the Nissan Motor Company, comparing and contrasting their vastly different methods for reaching the same goals. In his typical style, Halberstam writes this history like a novel, spinning fascinating stories about Ford Motor Company's infamous union-busting "Service Department" and the effects of American occupation in Japan follwing World War II. Some reviewers have negatively commented on Halberstam's implication that Ford was near death in 1986, but he was right on the money. We have the benefit of 20/20 hindsight and know that Ford is once again successful and Nissan was very near complete failure. But, if Ford had not succeeded with the Taurus (which at the time of publication was an unnamed concept) there is a good possiblity the lights in Dearborn may have been turned out forever. An outstanding chronicle of American and Japanese business in the dark days.

This books works on several levels. It's more than just, Detroit vs. Tokyo, or even, the automotive industry. It's, how to suceed in business by really, really trying. It's also, personalities and quotes, up-by-the-bootstraps business accumen. It's history come alive. It's also, American hubris and where it will get us, it's how can a country with no discernable resources kick our butt, and how a monopoly contains within it the seeds of distruction.