カテゴリー: Leadership

大胆さを育成する方法

現在のビジネス環境に最も足りないものは、才能でも金銭でも技術能力でもありません。それは自主的な考え方と、それを行動に移す勇気です。

５年戦略などには意味がない

No one has a five-year strategy, or even a three-year strategy much less a twenty-year strategic plan. How much do you think Blackberry’s five-year strategy meant the day that Apple announced the iPhone? Business conditions are too unpredictable for most strategic plans to mean anything even beyond six months, and even that might be too long.

「Conversation with 岡村雄嗣氏（タカミ創業者、ロレアルジャパンCEOエグゼクティブアドバイザー）」から学んだこと

On November 6th, 2023, I was privileged to conduct an onstage conversation the America and French chambers of commerce in Japan with Yuji Okamura, Takami Former CEO and executive adviser to L’Oréal Japan CEO, Jean-Pierre Charriton, who was also on hand to introduce Okamura-san and take questions. Takami is a Japanese skincare product company founded in 1999, innovating an omnichannel approach, selling directly to consumers online using a subscription model, and disrupted the prestigious skincare market and industry in Japan. He defied conventional wisdom that retail success relies on department stores and wholesalers in distribution, growing revenue to more than $60 million by 2019. The company continued to grow even […]

離職率を上げること

Many companies are struggling to find the qualified people they need, so they resort to retaining the people they have whether qualified or not. They fight to eliminate or at least reduce rates of attrition when it is increased attrition that can do the business the most good. Retention of the best is all that matters. Recently, the head of a large business unit of a major international company here in Japan told me that the company’s rate of attrition is of no particular concern to him, even though it is higher than industry average.

決して決めつけない姿勢

Years ago, I moved to Paris, started a business, and hired a French woman to help me with marketing. Early on, she and I met with a prospective customer, a vice president at a major publishing firm. I spoke and understood French but lacked the confidence to hold a business meeting in French at the time. So I let my new hire do the talking—and immediately regretted it. The vice president was skeptical of what we had to offer. My marketing manager diligently addressed his concerns. The vice president further criticized us and scoffed at our presumptions. My marketing manager argued back, her fervor growing. The vice president, indignant, pushed […]

改革における改宗者の熱意の力

You cannot rush buy-in, and that’s OK, because while buy-in is nice to have, professionalism is all you need. A vice president of sales told me matter-of-factly that I was wasting her time and mine when we met. Her CEO had just hired me to help improve the capability of her division, consisting of more than one hundred sales staff and managers. She explained laconically that the Japanese market targets the European headquarters executives expected were unrealistic, if not impossible. The current level of results was the best achievable with the existing team. Many of her staff were similarly cynical. The vice president was derisive of the methods I advised […]

素晴らしい人材にとって魅力的な企業になるための４つのヒント

良い人材にとって魅力的な会社になることはそう難しくはありませんが、そうあるためには勇気と決意は必要です。このビデオでは素晴らしい人材を惹きつけ、またそういった人材に働き続けてもらうための４つのポイントを述べさせていただきました。

優秀な人材のみ雇用すること

You want to retain just the best in your organization. Why? Retention, per se, is no business objective. It is retaining the best that counts, even in the tightest of labor markets.

日本問題研究家にはなるべからず

日本の特異さを考えすぎることは実際良くあることで、あなたの将来、キャリアにも影響を及ぼしてしまう可能性もあります。本社の役員たちに日本のユニークさを説明することはお勧めしません。それはディナーパーティーや学生たちとの会話、友人との戦争の思い出話などにはうってつけかもしれませんが、本社役員たちが個人的に日本問題研究に興味がある場合を除き、専門家が扱うべきことです。一般の役員であれば、そのような会話にイラつきを感じ、退屈なものと感じると思います。

あなたの最大の敵は

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 burdensome bureaucratic processes that were designed to meet Japanese government procurement requirements, the division’s primary customer. Quality control processes at the Japanese seller company were impractical and far beyond what the American company required, while lead-times and costs were excessive. Adherence to process, no matter how inappropriate, dominated thinking.