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Cooperative projects are not the only ingredient in Japan's stunning progress. Japan has other advantages that may be more difficult for the U.S. to imitate: first-rate technical-training programs, intense corporate loyalty among its work force, and a culture that confers high status on manufacturers and engineers. But a little Japanese-style teamwork, in which companies pool their resources on long-term research, could do wonders in the U.S. "The Japanese don't share all their secrets either," says John Young, CEO of Hewlett-Packard. "They get people to develop the basic technology, and then they go home and build like crazy."
The first high-tech consortiums in the U.S. have had rocky beginnings. The Austin-based Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corp., which a group of electronics companies formed in 1982 for research in advanced computer technology, was shaky at first because member firms were reluctant to share their best researchers and ideas with rivals. But retired Admiral Bobby Inman, former deputy director of the CIA who headed MCC until 1986, melted their resistance. Now under the stewardship of former Texas Instruments executive Grant Dove, MCC has brought to market its first products, including a new method for connecting chips to circuit boards and software that uses artificial intelligence to speed the development of complex microcircuits.
Such cooperative efforts tend to go against the grain in the U.S., where entrepreneurs often view their colleagues as blood rivals. "America has been wickedly competitive within itself," observes Robert Noyce, a co-inventor of the integrated circuit and near legendary figure from Silicon Valley who now heads Sematech. The danger is that by focusing too much on short-term competitive standings, U.S. industry will spend too little time preparing for the future. The most complex technologies require long-term planning and investments, and the payoffs, while potentially enormous, may be long delayed. But U.S. business leaders are showing signs that they realize, as the Japanese surely do, that the technological leader of 2009 is being determined today.