The strength of the electronics industry in Japan is the Japanese ability to organise production and marketing rather than their achievements in original research. The British are generally recognised as a far more inventive collection of individuals, but never seem able to exploit what they invent. There are many examples, from the TSR Z hovercraft, high speed train and Sinclair scooter to the Triumph, BSA and Norton Motorcycle which all prove this sad rule. The Japanese were able to exploits their strengths in marketing and development many years ago, and their success was at first either not understood in the West or was dismissed as something which could have been produced only at their low price. They were sold because they were cheap copies of other people's ideas churned out of a workhouse which was dedicated to hard grind above all else.

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The sad rule mentioned in this passage refers to