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SOU prof will help Japan with new era Island nation calls on advisory group for help with questions about marketing strategies and fledgling entrepreneurship By GREG STILES Mail Tribune They came from around the globe: Switzerland, Greece, Australia, China, Virginia, California ... and Ashland. The economic landscape is changing in Japan and the island nation's government is looking for help. The Japanese consider Southern Oregon University marketing Professor Chuck Jaeger to be one of the experts who will help launch the country's fledgling era of entrepreneurship. "They have great technology, but they don't know how to market it," says Jaeger, who visited five cities in eight days before returning home Sunday. "They don't know how to make a product for the consumers' needs and wants, about target marketing. target segments or directing resources to the best opportunities." The Japanese Economic Trade Organization, known as JETRO, selected nine people to bridge the gap from something worthwhile to something economically feasible. "They do nationally what Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development Inc., does locally," says Jaeger, who has worked for Stanford Data Center, IBM, Apple and most recently as a developer of customer relationship management software. Jaeger visited the cities of Osaka, Kyoto, Sapporo, Koriyama and Fukushima. One of the results of Japan's current economic malaise has been the end of the long-standing practice of workers spending their entire careers working for the same large corporations where their forefathers toiled. That practice has dissolved as layoffs forced younger workers to fend for themselves. "The Japanese come out and say 'Here's the product and here's what we do. Are you in the position to help me yourself or to find a partner I can work with?' " Jaeger says. "We had a roundtable virtually every night and we were pretty well agreed they lacked marketing talent. They're process-driven and very efficient after they have a roadmap. Can you imagine a country where trains run on time to the minute?" Government representatives at each stop were quick to lay out the benefits for U.S. companies willing to do business in their region. "One may say 'We have 16 universities in this state and we have 12 state parks," Jaeger says. "It's more or less a chamber of commerce kind of presentation. In Hokkaido, for example, they gave us the number of businesses, employees, sales and strengths." The international group ranged from Swiss representative Fabrice Moscherni, from a multimedia firm that does MPEG data compression, to Australian Murry McDonald, whose firm produces robot vacuum cleaners. They had things to learn as well. "When you want to explore international trade, you've got to understand the rules of the game, not only in terms of regulatory practices, but customs. That's what this program allows you to do," says David Spinazzolo, another member of the advisory group and president of Metropolitan Laboratories in Portsmouth, Va. Jaeger, who works as a consultant for Japanese-owned Bear Creek Corp., could even find himself teaching marketing at a university that has superior technical training, but offers little in the way of marketing skills. Bruce Laird of the Oregon Economic Development Department says there is already a strong partnership in place, bridging the Pacific. "There are companies, ranging from a mom and dad in the garage to large, sophisticated manufacturers," Laird says. "The by-product from when their economy bubble popped in the mid-'90s has been an increase in entrepreneurial start-up rates." Laird cites many successful Japanese-Oregonian ventures, including Masami pork and beef from the Klamath Basin and Marion County's processed foods such as strawberries, beets, and raspberries. After Jaeger digests his findings, there are sure to be more. Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.