[Leica] Thoughts on the new Zeiss lenses

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 5:12 PM -0400 4/15/05, Marc James Small wrote:

>
>There are a lot of reasons why Japanese-made quality lenses cost less than
>German- or US-made quality lenses.  Perhaps the prime factor is that the
>Japanese industrial establishment is really cut to the bone and works more
>closely to the timeline.  And, of course, there is no beer in Japanese
>lunchrooms.
>
>Marc

I worked for a while in Munich in the 60's, and have been back at 
various times.

It's interesting to know that your recent BMW has been built by 
ethnic Turks who've embraced the Bavarian concept of having a beer 
going at all times. Audi's too for that matter.

When I worked in the Siemens labs the first thing that happened in 
the morning was that the most junior person was sent to organize to 
get everyone who wanted it a beer. That was to prepare everyone for 
the afternoon, when we regularly had a party. With 60 employees in 
the lab, and a party everytime someone came, someone left, had a 
birthday, got a promotion or whatever, that meant a lot of parties. 
Large mixing vats from the chemistry lab were used to mix up some 
punch for those who were tired of beer, another vat was used to cook 
sausages, and some cakes and other snacks and extra beer were sent 
for.

Morale was good. Strangely enough, productivity wasn't that bad either.

-- 
    *            Henning J. Wulff
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