[:en]Japan, Rotten to the Core? No.[:ja]日本の企業文化が芯まで腐敗しているというのは間違いである[:]
[:en]When you hear of malfeasance in American companies like Equifax, Wells Fargo, Valeant, Countrywide Financial and Washington Mutual of subprime mortgage crisis infamy, and even Enron, no one questions whether or not something is rotten in the whole of American corporate culture. So, why should we think differently when it comes to corporate malfeasance in Japan?
[:en]Kobe Steel vs. Japanese Culture[:ja]神戸製鋼と日本文化[:]
[:en] Bloomberg invited me to discuss the current situation with Kobe Steel and my take on Japanese culture and the role it plays (or does not) with respect to what is happening inside of corporations in Japan. If you’d prefer to read this interview, the following transcript has been provided by Bloomberg:
[:en]Leader Versus Minion Behaviors [:ja]リーダーとそうでない人との違い[:]
[:en]Who on your staff is leadership material, and who is…perhaps not? Forget personality profiling and engagement survey results. None of these tests have ever been scientifically validated, and can tell you as much about a candidate for a higher level of leadership as reading the entrails of a slaughtered chicken.
[:en]Big Consequences of Tolerating Small Infractions[:ja]たとえ小さくとも、違反は大きな影響を及ぼすもの[:]
[:en] Illicit and unethical behavior should never be tolerated, even if the impact is small. For example, if a manager is padding company expenses for personal gain, you really have no choice but to fire the manager, even if it is for less than a few hundred dollars per year. That can be a hard decision to make when the manager’s performance is high, such as a top salesperson, but it is the right decision. It is a matter of judgement and leadership of the manager rather than a cost-benefit analysis of the infraction.
[:en]Attitude Trumps Experience[:ja]経験より態度を重視すること[:]
[:en]I advised the vice-president to hire the less experienced candidate and you should hire the less experienced candidate too. Let me tell you why. Between two candidates for a sales manager role at a major international company, I advised a vice-president of sales to hire the less experienced candidate over a more experienced candidate because the former was growth-oriented whereas the latter was confident that he knew his business and alluded he had little left to learn. The vice-president hired the less experienced candidate. What do I mean by growth-oriented?
[:en]Mothers Outperform Men[:ja]男性社員をしのぐ母親社員達[:]
[:en]Prime Minister Abe recognizes that getting more Japanese women into the workplace, including women with children, is the greatest potential domestic resource for boosting Japan’s GDP rapidly. He is, of course, right in terms of economics. However, he may not realize that getting more women with children into the workplace may also solve Japan’s low productivity and excessive overtime problem at the same time.
[:en]The Productivity of Doing Nothing[:ja]何もしないことによる生産性の向上[:]
[:en] The best way to achieve rapid progress in your profession is to regularly schedule doing nothing. Management is primarily brain work as opposed to hands-on manual labor. The higher the level of the manager, the more significant the brain work becomes. We advance our businesses by the power of our ideas and innovation. One good idea can eliminate countless fruitless meetings, unnecessarily lengthy processes, rapid growth in profit, or an improved capability of staff. Ideas are not the product of brute force labor, but rather emptying of one’s mind.
[:en]French Chamber of Commerce[:ja]フランス商工会議所[:]
[:en] Last week, I was formally inducted into the French Chamber of Commerce in Japan. Here is a photo of me receiving my certificate from Chamber president, Bernard Delmas, CEO of Michelin Japan.
[:en]The Art of the Stomach and Pitfalls in Communicating with the Japanese[:ja]腹芸、そして日本人とのコミュニケーションにおける落とし穴について[:]
[:en] Haragei （腹芸）in Japanese is “the art of the stomach.” Many Japanese people have not heard of this expression, but all Japanese are surely familiar with what it represents. Haragei is the art of understanding what someone means in conversation without his or her having to say it aloud. Haragei also means conveying meaning without explicitly saying it.
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