Your Own Worst Enemy
Businesses can be their own worst enemies when business process supplants business thinking. The CEO of a large industrial American company in Japan told me of difficulties he faces in buying from a division of a large Japanese industrial company, not because of a lack of will to sell on their part, but rather unnecessary and […]
Be the Success Exception
Exceptions are “exceptional” by definition, and always exist no matter how rare. Just because research in organizational change shows a strong correlation between certain factors of success and failure does not make these axiomatic. My most successful clients make themselves the success exception, and you can too. In my experience, I have never seen any […]
Confronting Your Data-Driven Bureaucracy
The only data you need are those needed for making a decision. Yet in my experience, much data reported to head offices are rarely needed or used. At one point an individual datum might have been important for some kind of decision which is why its collection was mandated. Years later though, few people can […]
The Simplest Explanation is the Most Likely
The simplest explanation is most likely the right one. Occam’s Razor holds true not just for science but for international business as well—even in Japan. At a recent CEO forum of mostly non-Japanese and ex-pat business leaders in Tokyo, an American CEO wanted advice from peers in the room on overcoming the challenges of putative […]
The Unwanted Truth
A highly successful Japanese CEO I know who had just taken a new role leading a deeply troubled company in Japan asked me, “What are the top three things I need to do to turn around a business?” “There’s only one,” I told him. “You need to be brutally honest.”
[:en]Sales is a Noble Profession[:ja]営業とは崇高な職業である[:]
[:en]In a small Tokyo sales office of a Kansai-based company, the sales manager in charge habitually turns away sales people from other companies who call unannounced as a matter of course. It doesn’t matter what they have to offer or whom they would like to meet. He is uninterested. The office is small enough that […]
[:en]Perpetual Leadership Bench[:ja]常に次世代リーダーを準備しておくために大切なこと[:]
[:en]When it comes to identifying their own successor, Japan CEO’s whom I know often find themselves in exile in a land of no good options. Yet it does not have to be so. What do I mean by “no good options?”
[:en]Benevolent Dictatorship[:ja]優しい独裁者[:]
[:en] Understanding the rationale for change alone when accountability is lacking is never enough. As leader, you will find yourself having to do the work of your staff in their stead. By accountability, I mean a leader ensures there are rewards for the right behaviors and good results, and penalties if there are not.
[:en]Why Attitude Trumps Capability[:ja]能力より態度が大切な理由とは[:]
[:en]In this video, I’m talking why attitude trumps capability. Here are three things I learned about capability. Most people and most leaders are far more capable than they actually believe. Most people have the ability to improve their capabilities in some way, no matter where they are starting from. It’s rare that it’s capability that […]
[:en]Engagement Survey Use and Misuse[:ja]エンゲージメントサーベイの誤った使い方[:]
[:en]Leaders cannot engage people. People must engage themselves. All a leader can do is clear the way. Despite this, I often find overreaching conclusions from employee engagement surveys about leader’s capability that ought not be drawn, and decisions based on those conclusions that ought not be made. Engagement is either in the nature of a […]
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