As I mentioned in the first post of this blog, Japan was a big deal for me. I have experienced many Asian cultures first hand in my years growing up through an International school as well as time spent teaching English in Taiwan.However, in all that time the Japanese culture eluded me. Now as I check it off my bucket list I think back to a few of the major things I took away from the trip.
1. The Japanese consumer is like no other. They are a highly sophisticated, intelligent, and focused group. Through some of the business meetings we attended while in Tokyo we learned that the Japanese are among the hardest to please. Quality is more than a big deal to them, it is absolutely required to even sell a joke of a product. That being said, businesses have had to step up their game and undoubtedly tighten their control over suppliers and activities leading to production. Perhaps one of the strongest reasons for the popularity of the Keiretsu (Japanese Conglomerate) is the control vertical integration affords one over quality control.
That being said, the Japanese consumer may be changing. With many macro economic issues and changing cultural values pushing the youthful Japanese in a different direction, it is not outside the realm of reality to see the Japanese market start to accept cheap foreign imports, namely Chinese, in favor of their domestic counterparts. It will be interesting to see which budges first. The Japanese obsession with quality or their rapidly shrinking savings accounts.
2. The Japanese business is like no other. The Keiretsu is truly a remarkable model that assuredly would only work in Japan. Our visit to Itochu was very informative about the nature in which the business seeks out its employees, trains and places them in one of its countless operations that reach from the farm to retail. I was amazed at the process by which employees are found. They are hunted based on exam scores and education level. Personal interest in a specific area did not seem to be an important factor in determining who would be hired. The competitiveness for jobs is very tight (less than 0.5% are hired from the applicant pool). After being hired, the company places this blind faith that you will succeed no matter what the position. In fact, moving between positions at a company occurs on a 3 year cycle. Even more incredible is the environment which you work. A row of desks linked together with the manager at its head.
3. The Japanese is like no other. Although other Asian cultures are similarly collectivist and relationship based the Japanese are like no other. The fact that on multiple occasions I witnessed people randomly pick up garbage off the street and pocket it until they found a garbage can is incredible. The fact their language has three levels of politeness, they engage in contests to see who can bow the most frequently and treat their job as if it was a matter of national pride is all reflective of a society who has collectively made a decision to be the best. For all the comments I've made or could make about the xenophobic, pretentiousness, superiority complex of the Japanese and how I've seen them treat Filipino's, even I can't deny they have a will like no other group on earth. One thing you can take to heart when dealing with the Japanese is that they will be more prepared, more determined and more confident than anyone you've ever met.
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Friday, May 27, 2011
Kyoto
After traveling by bullet train from Tokyo we arrived in Kyoto and took a somewhat unpleasant cab ride to our hotel. We pulled up to The Three Sisters Inn in Kyoto which is a traditional Japanese kind of B&B. The place was deserted except for another gentlemen and the management informed us that 98% of their reservations had cancelled. Yikes.
Kyoto was by far a more enjoyable experience for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big city type of guy and one would think Tokyo would be right up my alley but Kyoto gave me something that Tokyo never did...a Japanese experience. Compared to Tokyo, one would think we had arrived in another country when arriving in Kyoto. The people were happy to engage us, the history was far more impressive and the area allowed us to walk around and take more of it in. Although technology is associated heavily with Japan, sometimes I feel that from one big city to the next, there isn’t a whole lot of difference.To be completely honest, Tokyo reminded me a lot of Taipei although it is at least 10x the size.
While in Kyoto, we took in many of the sites including the Golden Pavilion, the Philosopher’s walk, and of course the Imperial Palace. The palace was amazing and I highly recommend any trip to Japan be inclusive of this attraction. With over a thousand years of history and painstaking maintenance the original Imperial Palace of Japan was immaculate. For all the pride Americans have regarding our nations status in the world, it is humbling to acknowledge that this palace housed arguably the most powerful man in the world at one time or another.
Kyoto was an excellent companion to our trip to Tokyo because it was more or less its complete opposite. All in all, Kyoto was by far the more enjoyable part of the trip for me probably because I had a chance to appreciate it which was largely a function of how our trip was planned.
But all good things must come to an end. Sayonara Nippon.
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Mt. Fuji, Green Tea Farm/Factory, and tea ceremony
Today we all piled into a private bus headed for the iconic Mt. Fuji. The popularity of this honored landmark among the Japanese meant some traffic and a detour to a rest stop with some decent views of the peak from the mountain's northeast face.
After a very delicious box lunch which had incredible 'presentation, taste and texture' we were back on the bus to visit a Green Tea farm and factory operation. Given the amount of tea drunk in Japan, the size of the farm was considerable. The factory was basically an automated process with very specific steps in the process designed to maximize quality and preserve taste.This one factory produces over a million kg of tea every harvest season, which only lasts 4 months. The factory lies dormant in the interim.
Lastly, the informal tea ceremony gave us a chance to appreciate the very tea we encountered at the farm as well as the preferred process of consumption which is very respectful and representative of what the leaves mean to Japan.
After a very delicious box lunch which had incredible 'presentation, taste and texture' we were back on the bus to visit a Green Tea farm and factory operation. Given the amount of tea drunk in Japan, the size of the farm was considerable. The factory was basically an automated process with very specific steps in the process designed to maximize quality and preserve taste.This one factory produces over a million kg of tea every harvest season, which only lasts 4 months. The factory lies dormant in the interim.
Lastly, the informal tea ceremony gave us a chance to appreciate the very tea we encountered at the farm as well as the preferred process of consumption which is very respectful and representative of what the leaves mean to Japan.
Tsukiji Fish Market, AMEX, Edo-Tokyo Museum
The early bird gets the.....well fish in this case. According to all the literature I have read prior to leaving for Japan, the Tsukiji Fish Market is one of the tourist must sees while in Japan. However, there is a catch. The fish market is an open auction for fish from all around the world. The tourist attraction is largely based around the "silent" auctions between vendors and local restaurant chefs, among others.
Unfortunately, upon our arrival we discovered that the fish market was closed to tourists due to the recent events of the earthquake. Although I'm unaware of the connection between the two, many things in Japan have been limited out of respect.
Not all was lost. In fact, I would sit down to have the best sushi in my entire life as a sushi breakfast is associated with the fish market experience. Yummy.
Moving on to our final business meeting, we rode the metro to the offices of American Express in Japan. We were given an excellent presentation on the Japanese consumer credit market and some of the new technology being used to drive spend. One of the problems faced by AMEX and others is determining their NPS (Net Promoter Score). NPS is a measure of how likely cardholders would be to promote AMEX products to their friends, family, co-workers. The issue is that on a 1-10 scale, Japanese, reflective of the cultural expectation of quality, often rank experiences a 5 or 6 making it very difficult to draw any information about what is working well or not. My suggestion was to change the scale to emoticons to relate more to feeling than analysis but something tells me it might not be a winner.
After the AMEX meet we headed for the Edo-Tokyo museum which is right next to a Sumo arena. We caught a few glimpses of some Sumo wrestlers but tickets were unavailable. The museum was very nice and informative about Japanese history. With exhibits grand and small I was really impressed with the level of detail and care put into everything. Pictures say a thousand words so I will let them tell pick up the story from here..
Unfortunately, upon our arrival we discovered that the fish market was closed to tourists due to the recent events of the earthquake. Although I'm unaware of the connection between the two, many things in Japan have been limited out of respect.
Not all was lost. In fact, I would sit down to have the best sushi in my entire life as a sushi breakfast is associated with the fish market experience. Yummy.
Moving on to our final business meeting, we rode the metro to the offices of American Express in Japan. We were given an excellent presentation on the Japanese consumer credit market and some of the new technology being used to drive spend. One of the problems faced by AMEX and others is determining their NPS (Net Promoter Score). NPS is a measure of how likely cardholders would be to promote AMEX products to their friends, family, co-workers. The issue is that on a 1-10 scale, Japanese, reflective of the cultural expectation of quality, often rank experiences a 5 or 6 making it very difficult to draw any information about what is working well or not. My suggestion was to change the scale to emoticons to relate more to feeling than analysis but something tells me it might not be a winner.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Chuo University, ACCJ, Itochu, Shibuya
Today we returned to our academic roots with a visit to Dr. Suzuki at Chuo University, a private school in Tokyo. Dr. Suzuki, who has visited UMaine, was by far one of the best experiences of the trip. His presentation was excellent and he is clearly a brilliant finance professor. For folks back home, he is basically the Japanese version of "Pank" and that is said to the credit of both professors and their brilliance both as experts and educators.
Dr. Suzuki spoke directly to us about the current situation facing Japan from a macro-economic perspective. The issues the country are facing include population decline, the recent disaster and political/financial turmoil. I absolutely believe we as Americans have a lot to learn from how Japan will navigate through these tough times.A point of interest for me was Dr. Suzuki's comments about how the Japanese are beginning to come to terms with their traditional values and how they may have to flex in order to facilitate the next era of prosperity for future generations. I appreciated Dr. Suzuki's candor and openness to discuss the negative as well as the positive aspects of the situation faced by the Japanese.
Our next stop was a visit to the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ). Our meeting with Michael Alfant the president of the ACCJ and CEO of Fusion Systems (a small sized software firm) was arranged after Paul heard a brief interview that aired on NPR. Michael Alfant, originally from Brooklyn, came to Japan and with nothing but sheer entrepreneurial determination, and arguably a pretty good stroke of luck. He rose to be one of the most valuable assets to American companies in Japan. He had some excellent insights into the B2B environment in Japan and the media's handling of the recent disaster in both Japanese and American contexts. He is not a fan of CNN's Anderson Cooper....enough said.
Clearly, Michael's experience of over 20 years in Japan is impressive and very unique, however, considering my experience growing up overseas I felt like if I met him in a a different context I would never have known he was from anywhere but New York. Maybe that is a testament to his strong values as being first and foremost an American or maybe it is an observation of a stereotypical caricature. Nonetheless an excellent discussion and one of the most valuable meetings so far.
Itochu was the last stop on our very busy day. Itochu is a Japanese Kerietsu (Conglomerate) involved in 6 primary areas of investment including Food, Electronic systems and shipbuilding among others. Maime and Shinya, former USM ESOL students, now working for Itochu gave us a brief presentation of their business sections and insight into working for a Japanese company. Being selected for positions in Itochu from a pool of 30,000 applicants is about 0.4%. Unlike in the west where we learn specific skills prior to job aquisition, Japanese new hires are given all the training they need on the job. To me this shows the faith the Japanese have in their people to succeed in any capacity. In the US, we have a very limited understanding of this concept. I think there is a lot of value within it, with limitations of course. The other striking difference between working for a western company compared to a traditional Japanese company is the work environment. Employees work next to each other in very close proximity with their manager. It was commented that this style would probably breed a huge spike in workplace violence if implemented in a western environment.
Last up was a visit to Shibuya, the Times Square of Tokyo. The crowd was a much younger demographic and we had a very enjoyable time walking around and taking in the sites. For those of you who have visited Taipei, this is Ximending at a scale factor of 10x.
Dr. Suzuki spoke directly to us about the current situation facing Japan from a macro-economic perspective. The issues the country are facing include population decline, the recent disaster and political/financial turmoil. I absolutely believe we as Americans have a lot to learn from how Japan will navigate through these tough times.A point of interest for me was Dr. Suzuki's comments about how the Japanese are beginning to come to terms with their traditional values and how they may have to flex in order to facilitate the next era of prosperity for future generations. I appreciated Dr. Suzuki's candor and openness to discuss the negative as well as the positive aspects of the situation faced by the Japanese.
Our next stop was a visit to the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan (ACCJ). Our meeting with Michael Alfant the president of the ACCJ and CEO of Fusion Systems (a small sized software firm) was arranged after Paul heard a brief interview that aired on NPR. Michael Alfant, originally from Brooklyn, came to Japan and with nothing but sheer entrepreneurial determination, and arguably a pretty good stroke of luck. He rose to be one of the most valuable assets to American companies in Japan. He had some excellent insights into the B2B environment in Japan and the media's handling of the recent disaster in both Japanese and American contexts. He is not a fan of CNN's Anderson Cooper....enough said.
Clearly, Michael's experience of over 20 years in Japan is impressive and very unique, however, considering my experience growing up overseas I felt like if I met him in a a different context I would never have known he was from anywhere but New York. Maybe that is a testament to his strong values as being first and foremost an American or maybe it is an observation of a stereotypical caricature. Nonetheless an excellent discussion and one of the most valuable meetings so far.
Itochu was the last stop on our very busy day. Itochu is a Japanese Kerietsu (Conglomerate) involved in 6 primary areas of investment including Food, Electronic systems and shipbuilding among others. Maime and Shinya, former USM ESOL students, now working for Itochu gave us a brief presentation of their business sections and insight into working for a Japanese company. Being selected for positions in Itochu from a pool of 30,000 applicants is about 0.4%. Unlike in the west where we learn specific skills prior to job aquisition, Japanese new hires are given all the training they need on the job. To me this shows the faith the Japanese have in their people to succeed in any capacity. In the US, we have a very limited understanding of this concept. I think there is a lot of value within it, with limitations of course. The other striking difference between working for a western company compared to a traditional Japanese company is the work environment. Employees work next to each other in very close proximity with their manager. It was commented that this style would probably breed a huge spike in workplace violence if implemented in a western environment.
Last up was a visit to Shibuya, the Times Square of Tokyo. The crowd was a much younger demographic and we had a very enjoyable time walking around and taking in the sites. For those of you who have visited Taipei, this is Ximending at a scale factor of 10x.
Intralink, Avaya, DoCoMo, Electric City (Akihabara)
Keeping the good times rolling, we headed off to visit a private British consulting firm in Tokyo called Intralink. They, like JETRO, assist companies looking to get operations going in Japan. It was clear after a few minutes into the meeting that Intralink's value to foreign companies would far exceed JETRO. The meeting was largely a Q&A which really was very informative and engaging. I find the discussion based meetings we have had to be far more informative than the straight presentations.
Intralink's business model was something I hadn't expected. They actually serve as agents of their clients on the ground in Tokyo doing a lot of the heavy lifting through networking and getting sales leads. Although they are legally unable to actually make sales on their clients behalf the service they provide seemingly would add a lot of value in a business environment very different from traditional western "transactional" type models.
Intralink also has an office in Taiwan. Talking with Jeremy, the contact we met at Intralink, I discovered that most of the employees are foreigners who first came to the country as English teachers. Had I stayed in Taipei for a few more years I could certainly see myself on that career path. Never say never...
Moving on, our next visit was to Avaya, a telecom company that spawned from Lucent (AT&T) that Paul and Keiko helped start. After a brief overview of the company we were given a presentation from one of the regional sales managers, Gary. Avaya is a very unique company in Japan because it managed as a hybrid of Japanese and Western cultures (high context vs. low context). Gary mostly discussed the dynamic of being a foreigner in Japan but he could have done more justice to the great organization that Avaya has become but nonetheless an informative and good experience. Although I had known how important quality or "product stability" is to the Japanese, Gary's insight helped me understand how to practically approach Japanese clients who have raised concerns over quality issues. Gary relayed a story about how at Avaya quality issues are resolved remotely but that in once instance he had sent engineers to a Japanese client even with the joint understanding that they would be unable to help or speed up the repair.
I could write a lot about our visit to Docomo, a large technology company in mobile handsets but the best word I can use to describe it is "stunning". During the tour we were taken on, we were able to interact with the company's products as well as gain insight into their vision for the future. I have to admit Docomo's vision for the future impressed me, and I'm a Star Trek geek.
The tourist element of this day was a visit to Akihabara popularly known as the "Electric City". Stores upon stores of electronic equipment and components. I enjoyed playing a few arcade games at "Club Sega" and eating some excellent tempura for dinner.
Intralink's business model was something I hadn't expected. They actually serve as agents of their clients on the ground in Tokyo doing a lot of the heavy lifting through networking and getting sales leads. Although they are legally unable to actually make sales on their clients behalf the service they provide seemingly would add a lot of value in a business environment very different from traditional western "transactional" type models.
Intralink also has an office in Taiwan. Talking with Jeremy, the contact we met at Intralink, I discovered that most of the employees are foreigners who first came to the country as English teachers. Had I stayed in Taipei for a few more years I could certainly see myself on that career path. Never say never...
Moving on, our next visit was to Avaya, a telecom company that spawned from Lucent (AT&T) that Paul and Keiko helped start. After a brief overview of the company we were given a presentation from one of the regional sales managers, Gary. Avaya is a very unique company in Japan because it managed as a hybrid of Japanese and Western cultures (high context vs. low context). Gary mostly discussed the dynamic of being a foreigner in Japan but he could have done more justice to the great organization that Avaya has become but nonetheless an informative and good experience. Although I had known how important quality or "product stability" is to the Japanese, Gary's insight helped me understand how to practically approach Japanese clients who have raised concerns over quality issues. Gary relayed a story about how at Avaya quality issues are resolved remotely but that in once instance he had sent engineers to a Japanese client even with the joint understanding that they would be unable to help or speed up the repair.
I could write a lot about our visit to Docomo, a large technology company in mobile handsets but the best word I can use to describe it is "stunning". During the tour we were taken on, we were able to interact with the company's products as well as gain insight into their vision for the future. I have to admit Docomo's vision for the future impressed me, and I'm a Star Trek geek.
The tourist element of this day was a visit to Akihabara popularly known as the "Electric City". Stores upon stores of electronic equipment and components. I enjoyed playing a few arcade games at "Club Sega" and eating some excellent tempura for dinner.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
JETRO, Imperial Palace, Ginza
Our first business meeting was at JETRO, or the Japanese External Trade Organization. This governmental agency offers services to foreign companies considering entering the Japanese market. The presentation was very informative and a great way to kick off our time here in Tokyo.
After a quick change back at the hotel we were taken to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo which has served as the emperor's official residence since 1968.The guided tour was somewhat brief and very controlled. The Japanese certainly have no shortage of respect when it comes to their heritage.
Crossing over Hibiya park in central Tokyo we arrived at the famous Ginza district in Tokyo. This high-end retail shopping center reminded me of the area in and around Taipei 101 although on a much larger scale. Our group walked around for a while until we found our way into the Sony building where we, for good reason, stayed for the next hour. Sony has 5 floors of showrooms where you can interact with the company's latest products. I especially enjoyed the 3D Gran Turismo driving simulator. I may return to purchase a set of high-end headphones.
For dinner, we met up with a few former colleagues of Paul and Keiko during their employment with Avaya. The dinner was an all you can eat/drink place that is very popular all over Asia. It was a great time of bonding and getting to know each other better..
*pictures to follow
After a quick change back at the hotel we were taken to the Imperial Palace in Tokyo which has served as the emperor's official residence since 1968.The guided tour was somewhat brief and very controlled. The Japanese certainly have no shortage of respect when it comes to their heritage.
Crossing over Hibiya park in central Tokyo we arrived at the famous Ginza district in Tokyo. This high-end retail shopping center reminded me of the area in and around Taipei 101 although on a much larger scale. Our group walked around for a while until we found our way into the Sony building where we, for good reason, stayed for the next hour. Sony has 5 floors of showrooms where you can interact with the company's latest products. I especially enjoyed the 3D Gran Turismo driving simulator. I may return to purchase a set of high-end headphones.
For dinner, we met up with a few former colleagues of Paul and Keiko during their employment with Avaya. The dinner was an all you can eat/drink place that is very popular all over Asia. It was a great time of bonding and getting to know each other better..
*pictures to follow
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