Unlocking the Potential of Kansai Companies
Unlocking the potential of Kansai companies McKinsey Japan Kansai Office June 2018 Authored by: André Andonian Motohiro Hojo Raymond Chan Daruma dolls at Katsuo-ji temple, Osaka. The script character on the dolls means “victory” in Japanese. Unlocking the potential of Kansai companies Preface The world is now facing change on a scale surpassing that of the Industrial Revolution. Today, such change is driven by several disruptive forces, including the growth of emerging economies, the disruptive evolution of technology, the increasing interconnectedness of the global economy, and the aging of populations across the world. One intriguing phenomenon leading from these forces, especially as economies and markets around the world grow more tightly linked, is the gradual rise in importance of regions and cities rather than countries. In other words, regional and metropolitan attractiveness and competitiveness today hold increasingly greater sway than do the countries containing those regions and cities. What does this mean for Kansai? Fundamentally, Kansai leaders need to consider both the sustainable growth of the region as well as the international competitiveness of its cities. They should consider how Kansai can evolve, using its historical, cultural, academic, and infrastructural advantages to create a grand vision for the future, and make the bold moves required to achieve that vision. A worthy vision for the public sector and infrastructure related sectors, such as electricity, gas, transit, construction, telecommunications, and broadcasting, could be to establish a region that enables sustainable lifestyles, leading to improved core competitiveness and attractiveness throughout the region. The manufacturing and service sectors, by contrast, could focus on a vision grounded in global competitiveness, achieved by undertaking organizational transformations, productivity improvements, and growth investments in innovation and M&A.
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