Seiko's Duelling Factories

In the aftermath of World War II, Japan must rebuild its economy. Certain products become vital exports in the revitalization effort, including the wristwatch. Seiko leaps to the forefront of the recovery, but there's a problem: their watches aren't good. The company decides to bring R&D in-house to take advantage of constructive competition between its factories, and winds up going from industry failure to time-honored player on the world stage.

In episode one of Teamistry's second season, host Gabriela Cowperthwaite takes us on the journey of how Seiko turned its fortunes. We hear from Hirokazu Imai, a Seiko Epson representative who explains how the two factories worked as members of the same "family," and David Flett, a writer for watch website “Beyond The Dial." You'll also hear from Daniel Moriwaki, a Seiko watch aficionado, and Roni Reiter-Palmon, professor of Industrial Organizational Psychology at the University of Nebraska. And Anthony Kable, who runs the website Plus9Time and has a finger on the pulse of the Japanese watch industry, also weighs in.

Teamistry is an original podcast from Atlassian. For more on the series, go to https://www.atlassian.com/blog/podcast.