Forget Recruiting. Poach.
Don’t recruit. Poach. In a tight labor market, there is no percentage in tentativeness. If there is any time to go on the offense, it is now. I don’t know why recruiting firms call what they do a “search.” Who cares about a search? A search is easy, and often consists of little more than […]
Retain Just the Best
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.
Don’t be a Japanologist
Japan-fatigue is real and can be fatal to your success and career. Don’t try to explain how Japan is different to executives in your head office. While such conversations are great for dinner parties, talks with students, and war stories with friends, unless executives in your head office are interested in Japanology as a hobby, […]
Strategy on Your Own Terms
The best military strategists always choose the terrain on which they will do battle, rather than allowing the enemy to choose for them. So, in business, why would you possibly allow others to define the topography of your business environment instead of choosing the topography yourself? Yet, that is often precisely what business people do.
[:en]There is No Japanese Mindset[:ja]日本人特有の考え方などというものはない[:]
[:en]Nationality and national culture are not granular enough to explain behavior. There is no “Japanese mindset.” I have traveled to more than twenty countries, and lived outside my native United States for almost my entire adult life. I speak Japanese and French fluently, and just enough Italian, German, and Mandarin Chinese to get myself into […]
[:en]Authority Isn’t Empowerment[:ja]権限とエンパワーメントとは同義語ではない[:]
[:en]Empowerment is like breathing. We all recognize its need but we’re rarely aware of it until something is wrong. Passivity in business is the most common symptom of lack of empowerment.
[:en]Empathy Trumps Projection[:ja]投影ではなく共感をすること[:]
[:en]Projection and empathy are not the same thing, but they are often confused. Empathy is the ability to understand how someone is thinking, whereas projection is presuming a person thinks like you. Be careful not to project when it is empathy that you intend.
[:en]Change First, Culture Later[:ja]まず変化に取り組んでから、企業文化を見直すこと[:]
[:en]If you are a leader seeking rapid change in your company, forget about culture. Culture will take care of itself. Focus on new ways of doing things. The genesis of a new culture results from a change in behavior, not the other way around. Change the way people do things. Culture change follows as a […]
[:en]When Risk Aversion is Personal[:ja]個人的な理由からのリスク回避[:]
[:en] There is nothing wrong with risk aversion. It is only aversion to reasonable business risk that is a problem. When a business leader complains of excessive risk aversion in his staff, the underlying concerns are frequently personal.
[:en]No Pain Points, No Problems[:ja]問題を抱えない顧客へのアプローチ[:]
[:en]What if your prospects and clients have no pain points and no problems? Presumption of damage is never a good way to start a relationship with anyone, whether in business or otherwise. Not long ago, I was working with a sales team to help improve their capability to ask questions when meeting with prospects. Without fail, […]
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