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Hagoromo president explains why he closed down his beloved chalk business

asia.nikkei.com

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Re: Hagoromo president explains why he closed down his beloved chalk business

#51

Post by navait »

rmc wrote: post #43
creshal wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's also interesting that they seem to be somewhat oblivious of the US demand. I have no idea why, but with Japanese companies it's a common theme. Most don't even care about overseas expansion, and if they do, it's poorly executed (say, Daihatsu, who dicked around on the European market for decades without ever listening to even trivial customer wishes, and then wrote the whole business off because it "obviously…

It's common amoung US companies as well. How many tech companies aren't available in !USA? How much "streaming TV shows" aren't available in !USA?

90% of those are legal issues, whether it be in the US or in the country they are expanding to, especially in the case of copyrighted media.

Re: Hagoromo president explains why he closed down his beloved chalk business

#53

Post by dfc »

sevensor wrote: post #44
polymatter wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

optimise by a score. score is calculated as a function of price and some quality metric. unfortunately this can get complex.

Regardless of what metric you choose, Arrow's Paradox will bite you. Single-objective optimization will always force you to ignore good alternatives.

I do not understand the reference to Arrow's Paradox in a discussion of procurement policy (almost certainly related to my lack of knowledge). Can you elaborate?

Re: Hagoromo president explains why he closed down his beloved chalk business

#54

Post by rthomas6 »

putchdes wrote: post #52

When he said that people sent a flood of faxes, it made me totally cool with no more chalk. When your customers are still sending faxes, that pretty much sums up your dire situation.

It's Japan though. Faxes in Japan aren't antiquated like in the USA.

Re: Hagoromo president explains why he closed down his beloved chalk business

#55

Post by fnordfnordfnord »

tokenizerrr wrote: post #50
fnordfnordfnord wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, a specification for chalk is for chalk, uncolored, and or colored. There is no way to specify for quality.

Sure there is. Sadly you'll need humans for that part, though. You could get several humans who all get a sample of each supplyers chalk, and then ask them to rate the quality of each on one (or several) scales. The computer can then integrate this rating with the rest of its metrics.

I didn't mean to say that it wasn't possible, you probably don't need a subjective measure of quality. I think you could empirically discover some objective characteristics of good chalk that would do the trick. You could at least quickly reject the worst chalk which is too brittle and too hard. I meant to say that there was and is no way that is recognized sufficiently universally that enables one to specify a chalk with the desirable properties to a gov't purchasing agent such that s/he can buy the right stuff.

Re: Hagoromo president explains why he closed down his beloved chalk business

#56

Post by ams6110 »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #42
hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems the preference is shifting towards dry-erase boards.

Which themselves are being, albeit slowly, replaced by mobile technology, surface-type screens, computers attached to projectors, etc. I imagine the market for chalk are all die-hards, like say, vinyl record enthusiasts today. If you were to use internet outrage as your own metric you'd think it was a huge market. Its not. Chalk is two generations behind at this point. Its probably not too great to be breathing in al…

surface-type screens, computers attached to projectors, etc

These have their place, certainly, but I'd find it hard to believe that power-consuming electronic replacements (also considering the environmental impact from raw materials and waste products, and energy used to manufacture them) are a "better" choice than a chalkboard in many cases.

Re: Hagoromo president explains why he closed down his beloved chalk business

#57

Post by kvcc01 »

I read the whole letter and loved the tone of it! It jumps at you right away that: (1) Here's a guy who really cares about his business, its future, his employees. (2) He talks candidly about the reasons for closing up: his declining health, sales volumes, even including awkward sentences like "So chalk is more environmentally friendly, I think." I am now a fan of Hagoromo.

It was rather refreshing at a time when I can't stand reading more than a paragraph of a typical press release of a BigCo written by lawyers or PR specialists. Unlike this essay, those are intended to obfuscate, not to inform.

Re: Hagoromo president explains why he closed down his beloved chalk business

#58

Post by minikites »

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #42
hahamrfunnyguy wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems the preference is shifting towards dry-erase boards.

Which themselves are being, albeit slowly, replaced by mobile technology, surface-type screens, computers attached to projectors, etc. I imagine the market for chalk are all die-hards, like say, vinyl record enthusiasts today. If you were to use internet outrage as your own metric you'd think it was a huge market. Its not. Chalk is two generations behind at this point. Its probably not too great to be breathing in al…

Lots of people have respiratory reactions to dry erase markers too.

Re: Hagoromo president explains why he closed down his beloved chalk business

#59

Post by drzaiusapelord »

ams6110 wrote: post #56
drzaiusapelord wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which themselves are being, albeit slowly, replaced by mobile technology, surface-type screens, computers attached to projectors, etc. I imagine the market for chalk are all die-hards, like say, vinyl record enthusiasts today. If you were to use internet outrage as your own metric you'd think it was a huge market. Its not. Chalk is two generations behind at this point. Its probably not too great to be breathing in al…

surface-type screens, computers attached to projectors, etc These have their place, certainly, but I'd find it hard to believe that power-consuming electronic replacements (also considering the environmental impact from raw materials and waste products, and energy used to manufacture them) are a "better" choice than a chalkboard in many cases.

Power is also required to mine chalk (giant limestone mines), process it, package it, ship it, etc and its completely non-renewable. It becomes dust and then you place another order.

A PC with a projector can last a decade in use and depending on the region may be powered by mostly or all renewables.

Re: Hagoromo president explains why he closed down his beloved chalk business

#60

Post by emodendroket »

creshal wrote: post #14
kriro wrote: post #12

This whole saga pretty much has to inspire someone to build and reverse engineer the machine/recipe. The overlap of people who like to tinker with this stuff and people who love the chalk seems big enough. It's also interesting that they seem to be somewhat oblivious of the US demand. At least it seemed like that. My guess is that they could have sold one of the machines to a US based entrepreneur. I can pretty much…

> It's also interesting that they seem to be somewhat oblivious of the US demand. I have no idea why, but with Japanese companies it's a common theme. Most don't even care about overseas expansion, and if they do, it's poorly executed (say, Daihatsu, who dicked around on the European market for decades without ever listening to even trivial customer wishes, and then wrote the whole business off because it "obviously…

Japan has a huge economy and market, much like the US, which also exhibits similar insularity.
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