Evolution and the Theory of Games

Even before Claussen began pushing his architectural vision, others were busy designing the inner workings of the plant. Jan Knau, an engineer, was only 27 when he was asked to come up with a flexible assembly line for the factory. Knau, then just a junior associate, contacted BMW’s top 15 assembly engineers. He invited them to a two-day workshop at a BMW retreat near the Austrian Alps. After a series of marathon sessions that included discussions of every facet of the ideal assembly line, Knau…

He says that Western companies think they can avoid political risk by spelling out every detail in a contract, but "in Asia, there is no shortcut for managing the relationship."88 In other words, the contract is in the relationship, not on the paper, and the way to ensure the reliability of the agreement is to nurture the relationship. Even a deal that has been implemented for some time may start to get watered down at a time when you cannot do anything about it. A Japanese-led consortium…