A Losing Company Can’t Change Their Way Of Management

Shinjuku, Tokyo

30 years ago, it was normal for Japanese companies to have their official summer vacation in the middle of August based on a religious event. A majority of people working in Tokyo used to trek out of the capital city to their home towns accordingly. The big city became so quiet with less business and less people during the week. It was the social trend at that time.

Today, things have changed. Life styles are more diverse. There is very little chance for businesses to shut down even temporarily. So more and more companies, especially international ones, allow employees to have a flexible vacation schedule as both people and businesses prefer it.

Some companies still have the traditional vacation in August to use the week for maintenance of factories. But I think many of them can’t change their practice for a unique reason honestly. I saw an example in a management meeting of a company.

The company was losing their presence in the market. One day, their vacation schedule was one of the topics on the agenda of the meeting because the company had a set official vacation week in August while the important customers and the major competitors were doing business during the week. I participated in it as the head of HR.

I started with a proposal. “It doesn’t make sense any more that we have the fixed vacation in August. We have been left behind in the market. On the other hand, it’s not necessarily beneficial to all the employees to have the summer break at the same time of the year. There have been requests from employees to allow them flexibility to shift it to another week. I think an adjustable plan will have lots of benefits to both the company and the employees.”

The company had never had dealt with a topic of changing policies before. The directors didn’t know how to lead the discussion. Instead, they beat around the bush.

First, the sales director responded.

“I personally agree. But if we have the new plan, my team will never be able to have a summer vacation at all. Our customers directly call the person in charge of the account. So if he is gone, we will miss a possible business chance with the customers.”

“You are the leader of the department. You are supposed to discuss with your staff to set reasonable vacation shifts as a team. It’s a part of the normal business backup plan. Otherwise we will always have a problem when we have someone off due to the seasonal flu, for example.”

“Then we will have more chances that we have to become a backup for someone on vacation while being responsible to customers. As a result, we can’t take a vacation to avoid such an additional workload as a team.”

The finance director followed.

“I basically agree to the change. The finance team has worked during the week anyway because the current vacation schedule hits the busiest week of the month. It will be helpful to have the week to be our normal business day. But the team should follow the same operational schedule rather than individual vacation plan.”

“In that case, you can discuss with your staff to set the same vacation week as a team according to your timetable.”

“I am afraid that everyone from my team will want to have a different schedule from the others because they don’t like each other. I’d prefer keeping the current plan over having that problem.

The service director joined.

“I agree to the new plan. We’ll be able to respond to customers in a timely manner. But I don’t think my staff will feel comfortable with it. There will be some people who want to have the same vacation schedule. Then they are likely to make an argument against the new plan. I will have difficulties in managing them.”

“It’s our responsibility as the management team to communicate with our employees. Why don’t we discuss a communication plan in this meeting?”

“I don’t agree to a plan which may bring a dispute in my section. We, as the management team, should provide something with no room to argue.”

The directors listed up their reasons to disagree to the change. After a few hours of discussion, they finally reached a conclusion.

“We, as a good employer, should keep our current practice to protect our employees from too much workload and internal conflicts. Keeping consistency will strengthen our productivity to catch up with the market.” The president agreed to this counter-proposal from the majority directors.

It was a silly game. But the most expensive resources of the company were seriously playing it in the board room. They were satisfied with the conclusion.

A Letter to Expats

Dear Expats in Tokyo,

I’d like to share some ideas with you so that you could make your business life happier and easier than it is today you feel stressful.

I guess you’ve been frustrated since coming to Japan because your staff are sometimes illogical and unintegrated. You might have taken an intercultural training before coming to Japan and leant that Japanese people strictly follow rules and go with the flow. They would work cooperatively in a team. But you may have realized it’s not the case in your organization, correct?

If you agree, you’ve probably missed a critical fact. That is, we follow rules and hierarchies which are clearly established as a consensus. It’s more important for Japanese people to follow a majority than to follow a mere statement. If it sounds illogical, then yes, we are illogical in your way of thinking.

Please let me show an example to you. The other day, an expat executive asked me, “The written rule says that you must not cross the road when the traffic light is red. You should follow it. Otherwise we can’t run our business as a company. Business is business. Not their preference. But all the employees do cross the road when the light is red. Why do they ignore the rule?” I answered, “Then they interpret the rule in their way and they make a consensus on it. That is, they understood they must not cross the road because it’s dangerous to cross the road with heavy traffic. It means that they could cross the road unless it would be dangerous. They make a consensus on it. Once it’s established, it could even rule out the cars on the street. Then they have no doubt about their way of working” He said, “It’s not written in the rule at all that you may make an exception!” I added, “It’s not an exception. It’s how they understand the given rule.” “Hey, are you serious?” “Yes, I am. We are illogical in your way of thinking.”

Please don’t underestimate the power of the unwritten consensus. It could move all of your staff more effectively than your statement. I know many expats have tried to change their staff’s attitude by repeating their speech. But That’s the thing your local staff are the least willing to follow and the most likely to steer around by interpreting in a very different way from your expectation. But once you become good at reading the consensus behind, you will be trusted and followed by your team.

Business is business. It must be crystal clear with globally standardized logic. This proposition could be interpreted in a different way. I’d be pleased to help you living in our illogical world. Please feel free to contact me if you have any question.

Best regards,

K

Leadership in The Concert Hall

In January 2011 in the National Philharmonic concert hall in Warsaw, I saw unique leadership of Mark Minkowski, a French conductor, literally on stage.

There was a lady seated in the center of the hall. She coughed after every number of the program. It was easy for everyone to recognize her cough.

After a short piece of J.Strauss II, Minkowski took time to reorganize the orchestra for a pizzicato. He also let the lady control her cough during the break. I thought all the audience might have wished the same thing, “Please don’t cough during the music!”

When he started a Pizzicato polka, the lady started to cough again. What was worse, it became louder and louder. The atmosphere of the hall suddenly became very uncomfortable. She lost control of her cough. I was afraid some people around her would shout, “Get out!” The cough was so loud that the players on the stage were visibly annoyed. Minkowski was the only one who was not losing his temper in the hall.

When I thought it couldn’t get any worse, it happened. Minkowski stopped the orchestra right in the middle of the piece. All the players held their positions at the same bar in the score. Then he turned around to give a message to the lady by gesture, “No more cough? You can do it now” with a gentle smile. The concert hall went totally quiet.

How amazing! The atmosphere in the hall was returned to peace during the short break. When Minkowski confirmed that the lady had controlled her cough to calm down and that the players were ready, he resumed the music at the same bar and the audience’s excitement at the same level or even more. He repeated the witty humor from time to time at reasonable bars to communicate with both the audience and the orchestra by clear and comical gesture. The musicians followed the able leader perfectly while the audience was delighted with their performance. His tact united the whole concert hall.

When the music came to the final bar, there was a moment of complete silence in the hall. Minkowski held back his tact. Then all the audience and the players stood up and gave him a loud applause. “Bravo!”

The Light in The Clouds

The train gets out of the business district and crosses the bridge over the river into an old town in the east of Tokyo. I get off the train at the first stop on the other bank of the river. There are rows of low-ceilinged two-story houses. The sky is covered with thick clouds.

With good access to the water transport, the riverside area has been industrialized for more than a century since the modernization of the country. Micro-enterprises have led the growth of the nation until the globalization of the economy.

I walked along the narrow passage along the railway and found a greengrocer . The shop is as small as the porch of a house. He is seated in the shadow of the house and quietly waiting for a customer. A few other shops have shut down their business recently. I pass by the gloomy place heading for a garage shop.

It looks like a barrack at a glance. Inside the house is dimly lit with only a few light bulbs on the low ceiling. “Hello. I have an appointment to pick up my repaired belt…” A matured craftsman finds me and abruptly answers, “Yeah, he will be back in a second.” He turns back to his workbench in the dusty darkness never looking back at me.

Then a young man appears from the other side of the workplace. “Here you are. How do you like the final result?” I have assumed he must be an old craftsman like the one I just saw now but he is a fresh-faced business man or even looks like an IT boy in casual clothing. But he is the very owner of this workshop.

“Well…It’s perfect! I’m happy to wear it again.” “Look. This is the weakest part of the buckle. It’s made of weak material for cost-saving. It’s not designed for repair but for throwaway once it’s broken.” He explains in plain words what he has done to fix my belt. I am impressed with his thorough effort to try different approaches to turn my inexpensive but the most favorite belt back to what it was. I did not expect it would be so difficult.

He adds, “Do you need the removed piece? Can I keep it? I want to try working out on it. I have many customers. They want to have their buckles to be fixed without any evidence. Once I find a solution, I hope it could even change the market standard.” He is confident with what he should serve to the market. This young leader of the new generation in front of me firmly stares at the future. “Yes, of course! Please use it for your work.”

The clouds are gone when I leave the shop.

“Today’s tomatoes are really sweet because of the ideal weather in the past few weeks…” The grocer man is ensuring to a customer on the passage. I join them. “How about broccoli?”

I get on the train back to the heart of the big city.

A Work Diary: Chemical Experiment

This is a true story. I got a job offer of the head of Human Resources of an American company in Tokyo. It was like a chemical experiment. I was put into a mixing pot filled with very differnt people. It actually worked to make a reaction.

Day 1

It was 8:55am. I entered the building to walk up to the office of the administrative functions, which would become a new part of my daily routine. I had prepared to speak to my new colleagues. There was a group of people already busy working on the computers.

I found a lady next to the door, who looked the most senior amongst them. “Good morning. I am the new head of HR.” I said nervously. She gave me a cold stare at me without saying a word. I spoke to her again. But she kept herself completely silent while I was hoping that she would say something to me.

With a new attitude, I walked around the room stopping at each individual desk to say hello. They politely bowed to me, but no one said anything to me. Even on my bright sunny start day, the gloomy office made me so anxious about how I could get along with the people. I wised that it could have been just my too much worry, but shortly it turned out to be the reality.

The private office assigned to me was the only place where I felt comfortable.

Day 2

A young woman from the Sales department came into my office right after the lunch break. “We are not happy with your presence here because you are seated in this private office. It was a board member’s office. My boss has worked here for a long time in this company but has still been seated in an open space like his staff. This room should be assigned to him.” She said to me abruptly.

I had no idea what to say but tried to calm her down. I explained that I was not given any special treatment but assigned to work with several confidential documents.

“There is no need to hide the documents. You should be working with the rest of us.” She denied. It was an illogical argument. She had no right to order me around as she was an assistant who was not authorized to decide how to run the company. Suddenly the phone on my desk rang, which gave her indication to leave my office.

Later on, I visited the sales office and finally understood what she had meant. All my sales colleagues had expressed the same thing as her. I found no friends but enemies in the organization due to the difference in belief. It did not matter to me that I was in a private office. I was simply to do my job. But they cared very much.

Day 3

I got a call from my boss from the Headquarters in the morning. “How are you doing? You can call me anytime you need help from me.” I spoke to him about my first two days which had proven to be tough and asked for his advice on how I would cope with these people. “Actually that’s what I want you to change.” He said.

In the afernoon, a man from the Operation department came into my office and said, “We don’t know what your role is, but we don’t need you. We will continue what we have been doing to this date. We don’t want you change anything.”

I realized what the bottleneck of the organization would be like and that it wasn’t going to be something I could change overnight. The company had been acquired by the American brand a few years before. Literally, the people had had to be Americanized just one day against their will. Since then, they had started out their silent resistance against the American headquarters.  Anyway, I was expected to bring a peace and friendship into the local organization.