[: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]White Collar Work Reform is not a Labor Issue[:ja]オフィスワーク環境の改善は、労働問題の解決によって行われるものではない[:]
[:en] The Japanese government has lately been working in partnership with industry more than usual to promote white collar work reform to address perennial issues of low productivity, habitual overtime, and health issues related to overwork including death from overwork, known as karoshi. Reforms under discussion address mostly policy around regulating how people work and are paid, such as overtime limits and remuneration. However, these fail to address underlying cause, which is not about how people work, but rather is how managers with staff lead, or rather fail to lead. It is a leadership capability deficit issue for companies.
[: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]Takeaways from my Conversation with Steve Dacus, CEO of Seiyu and Walmart Japan[:ja]西友・ウォルマートジャパンの最高経営責任者、スティーブ・デイカス氏とお会いして学んだこと[:]
[:en] My February 3rd Conversation With Steve Dacus event, jointly hosted by the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan and the Australia New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Japan was fully booked with over seventy people in attendance. As with all my “Conversation With…”I leave ample time for the audience to ask questions of the guest directly, and like always, this audience participated with zeal.
[:en]Four Characteristics of a Great Employee[:ja]優秀な社員の4つの特徴[:]
[:en] I am often asked what separates great employees from the merely good and mediocre. My answer frequently surprises. Below are four characteristics of a great employee.
[:en]Invest Your Time with Your Best People[:ja]有能社員と無能社員。誰の為に時間を使うべきか。[:]
[:en]Let’s say that your company started a mentoring program as a part of corporate responsibility. Professionals like you from different different departments with varying expertise volunteer time to mentor a young person, say a high school student, a college student or maybe a young person who is out of school and working. There are more young people participating than volunteers to accommodate them. How do you select the young people to mentor? I asked this question to a group of Japanese managers at a Japanese company. Most wanted to be selective. Some said they might interview candidates to see who was the most motivated to learn, who had superior communication […]
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