"... we had to learn to make products the way the Japanese wanted products. We were assembling products in Singapore and sending them to Japan. And the first th

"... we had to learn to make products the way the Japanese wanted products. We were assembling products in Singapore and sending them to Japan. And the first thing the customer saw when they opened the box was the manual, but the manual was turned the wrong way around – and the whole batch was rejected. In the United States, we’d never experienced anything like that." My employer learned a similar lesson years ago, securing a fat citrus contract in the process. Before the Japanese buyers arrived to inspect our packing facility, management insisted that every crate on the floor be opened, and the top tier of oranges all turned stems-up. (The packers thought that management had lost its mind. Who cares about presentation of a crate of oranges?) But when the buyers arrived they selected a random box for inspection, saw the fruit arrayed neatly, and nodded their approval.