【Faculty of Global Management】Daniel Heller, a professor of the Faculty of Global Management, gave two online lectures at East China Normal University

Daniel Heller, a professor of the Faculty of Global Management, gave two online lectures to students in the MBA program at East China Normal University (ECNU) in Shanghai. He has occasionally been invited to give such lectures for ECNU since the early 2010s. The lectures are about monozukuri (in Japanese, a word that literally means "making things") and why it is important to learn the meaning of this Japanese word. In a business setting, monozukuri is a concept that was born in Japan, but it seems to have universal appeal. Chinese MBA students have certainly been interested in it and always ask many questions.

The meaning of monozukuri is different from "manufacturing" (in Japanese, seisan) or "production" (in Japanese, seizo), in that monozukuri also encompasses product development and sales. The goal of monozukuri is to create a smooth flow of design information across development-manufacturing-sales with the goal of having a satisfied customer at the end. Trying to create a smooth flow has the benefit of also being deeply related to employee satisfaction. Thus, companies that do monozukuri well are able to satisfy both their customers and their employees. And that is a recipe for success.