BOSE: BEATING THE JAPANESE AT THEIR OWN GAME

In the world of consumer electronics, Japan has long ruled. But the Bose Corporation's speaker systems are bestsellers in Japan, and founder Amar Bose says a Japanese carmaker told him "that we are now supplying a better product than they can get from Japanese companies."

While most of its sales are home and professional sound systems, Bose supplies car systems to General Motors, Audi, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, and Mercedes. Dr. Bose, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plows company profits into research.