Preface: The Next-Level Operations in the Next Curve

The world is indeed very dynamic and unpredictable. The COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, and everything is back in full swing, but we are all still exposed to various classic problems such as climate issues, geopolitical tensions (which have led to conflicts and even wars in different parts of the world), various social and humanitarian issues, and the vulnerable economic conditions. The continuing acceleration of technological developments in multiple fields also keeps shaking up the world and bringing humankind into an increasingly complex landscape of never-imagined challenges.

Regardless of these dynamics, business must continue, with an even stronger focus on environment, social, and governance (ESG) factors. Our book Entrepreneurial Marketing: Beyond Professionalism to Creativity, Leadership, and Sustainability (Wiley, 2023) explains that conventional or procedural approaches are insufficient and will no longer be able to provide adequate results. To survive and develop in these challenging conditions, a business organization must apply an expanded marketing approach by integrating various dichotomous capabilities to increase its agility, flexibility, and resiliency.

The concept of this holistic approach is summarized in the omnihouse model, where the core component that can facilitate an organization's success is the operations aspect. Operations become an essential bridge between various dichotomous elements in the model. Operations can understand what the marketing department wants to achieve and, at the same time, help fulfill the finance department's primary goals. Operations can ensure that the use of advanced technology is genuinely humanity-oriented. Operations also become a bridge between two dichotomous clusters, namely, entrepreneurial and professionalism capabilities.

These two clusters of entrepreneurship and professionalism can influence operational excellence through quality, cost, delivery, and service (QCDS).1 Business organizations need a higher level of operational excellence to continue on the next curve toward 2025 and their journey to 2030 and beyond. In the next curve, operational excellence will be one of the critical determinants of whether our company will grow, stagnate, or even decline. Therefore, we must leverage all the momentum available with all our capabilities.

It is difficult for companies to have all the capabilities contained in the omnihouse model. However, limited capabilities do not mean the company cannot influence the QCDS aspect and ultimately achieve solid operational excellence.

This book attempts to present examples from various Asian countries that have gone through different processes on their respective journeys to nurture the formation of multiple capabilities, which became the foundation for many companies in each country to become competitive global players.

Why Asia? When the International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted the performance of the world economy in 2023, with a total global gross domestic product (GDP) of US$105 trillion, Asia's GDP was expected to reach US$35.8 trillion, or the equivalent of 34% of the worldwide GDP. This portion exceeded North and Central America's total GDP of US$31.3 trillion (equivalent to 29.7% of global GDP), making Asia the world's largest economy.2 The dominance of Asia's economy, with China as the leading player, is expected to continue, which, according to Goldman Sachs projections, will reach a total GDP of US$90.6 trillion, or almost 40% of the total global GDP of US$227.9 trillion.3

Apart from that, we can be inspired by some Asian countries that have succeeded in overcoming various tough challenges so that they can compete and stand on an equal footing with Western countries that have advanced far, even when these Asian countries were still starting to build their capabilities from scratch or even did not have any capabilities at all. We can see it from the long and arduous journey of various Asian countries becoming countries with a solid industrial base and, in turn, able to stand on the global stage.

We can concisely understand this long journey from the various backgrounds of some countries and how they eventually became very competitive globally. However, it should be noted that there is no guarantee that the countries referenced in this book will remain competitive in the long run. Everything depends on so many factors, including how the government and society in each country take advantage of the existing momentum and how committed they are to developing relevant capabilities and competencies from time to time. Furthermore, individuals, companies, and even countries must collaborate with others to face a world that is often hostile. Collaboration can positively affect individuals, communities, companies, industries, and even a country.

This book will briefly review the concept of operational excellence and examine how the various elements of the entrepreneurship and professionalism clusters affect QCDS. Converging these two clusters is an essential foundation for forming a company's adaptive capabilities in the long term.

In line with the increasingly complex nature of defining quality, we will explore how the new quality perspective is closely related to sustainability or ESG aspects, encouraging companies to continue strengthening their stakeholder-centric orientation to affect society. Cost elements can no longer rely merely on a cost-cutting approach but must align with social values that refer to humanity. An environmental-related cost reduction, for example, will be able to provide a very relevant social contribution.

In line with the growing importance of ESG aspects, technology-based product delivery (reflected by the rapid growth of e-commerce) will cause a significant shift from on-estimate to on-conscience delivery methods to provide optimal customer experience. Likewise, the supporting services required will shift from standard to transformational service. Service will also take an essential role in line with various social changes through transformative service.

After understanding operational excellence and QCDS, we will see many stories from various Asian countries, each capable of influencing operational excellence. South Korea is powerful in creativity and innovation capabilities, ultimately creating a hallyu effect and bringing multiple companies and brands from that country to become world-class solid players. Samsung, for example, has succeeded in building extraordinary operational excellence based on robust creativity and innovation capabilities.

In addition, we will look at India, which has succeeded in building strong entrepreneurship and leadership capabilities shaped by its unique social, cultural, economic, and environmental backgrounds. It is no longer strange to hear that many large world-class companies worldwide are now led by made-in-India leaders.

Japan—an icon for its productivity and improvement capabilities—is where the post–World War II concept of Kaizen originated, making it synonymous with productivity and continuous improvement. Even though it has often been discussed in various literature, it would feel incomplete if we did not highlight the journey of how Toyota became one of the most outstanding automotive companies in the world despite the decline in Toyota's share price at the end of 2023 due to scandals in several Toyota's subsidiaries, among others: safety-test scandal at Daihatsu, emission scandal at Hino Motors, and data scandal in several diesel engines including for the Land Cruiser 300 and Hilux. However, until early 2024, Toyota could remain the world's number one player in the car market.4

We will also learn from a small country with extraordinary capabilities that have made it one of the leading countries in the world: Singapore. We will examine how professionalism and managerial capabilities are ingrained in Singaporean society and have led to extraordinary achievements in various institutions, both government and corporations. At least these two capabilities have made Singapore a global hub. It is an outstanding achievement for a small island country that covers an area of about 730 square kilometers, slightly bigger than the city of Jakarta. All of Singapore's accomplishments were initiated with hard work and discipline since the era of Singapore's founding father, Lee Kuan Yew. Who doesn't know Singapore Airlines? Did you know that one of the universities from Singapore is included in the top 10 ranking of the world's best universities?5

As a finale, we will explore China, one of the global economic powerhouses that has successfully built its omni capabilities, which has significantly affected its ability to create operational excellence through robust execution. China's path to achieve what it has achieved today is a long journey from various eras of leadership with different revolutionary focuses: the cultural revolution under Mao Zedong, the economic revolution under Deng Xiaoping, and the social revolution under Xi Jinping. China has successfully converged and balanced its entrepreneurial capabilities with those of its professional capabilities (a combination of creativity and productivity, innovation and improvement, entrepreneurship and professionalism, and leadership and management), making China a supreme global player.

By understanding the concepts of operational excellence, QCDS, and various entrepreneurial and professional capabilities, which are a subset of the new genre of entrepreneurial...