Graham Harris OBE, Management Consultant, former President Lloyds Bank of Japan, and former President British Chamber of Commerce in Japan
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Back by popular demand, long-time Japan resident, Mr. Harris
returned to talk about Change, Challenge and Opportunities for foreign
capital companies in Japan. Mr. Harris had a very successful career in
international banking and is now a consultant to foreign capital
companies in Japan, helping them enter and be more successful in the
market. With all his experience, Mr. Harris provided us great insight
into business ventures in Japan.
Mr. Harris had his speech organized under three main topics.
First, why do foreign companies choose Japan? Secondly, the key points
to success, and thirdly, the Hard and Soft resources of a company.
Upon why come to Japan, Mr. Harris pointed out that the
greatest attraction for foreign companies is unquestionably Japan's
enormous market. With a GDP larger than that of Germany, France and UK
added together, and a size per capita of 5.5 million yen per person,
Japanese is high upon the ladder as one of the richest population on
earth. Its size per capita not only beat that of the United States,
but also all the neighboring Asian countries. The huge and prosperous
market is very tempting. Though it is true that due to recent recession
in the Japanese economy, the market is no longer growing. But the changes
that the recession brought provide new opportunities. For example,
deregulation was introduced to combat the recession. Deregulation in the
financial services includes the Big Bang whose effects are yet to be seen
but are undoubtedly great. Deregulation also helps in areas like
distribution, the oil industry, and the Health Care system. Especially with
Japan's aging population, an estimation of a 25% population over 65 by 2025,
businesses concerning the Health Care are opened to many new opportunities.
Mr. Harris introduced us to a fundamental equation of what
"success" means to the foreign companies. Instead of the traditional Japanese
view of success based on the number of employees, plants and market share,
many foreign companies determine success by "Percentage Returned on Capital
": (Profit/Capital)% It is based on this principal that the headquarters
determine the success of an overseas department.
Mr. Harris then talked about the Hard and the Soft issues.
He said every company has its hard issues. Product, quality, cheap price,
good distribution, etc, etc. Not only these, many companies have basically
the same products and share the same markets. At this point, it is the People
(in the company and/or people in charge of advertisement) that become
responsible for determining the success of a product. The Soft issue that
Mr. Harris talked about concerns the people, in other words, the human resource
that is crucial to the company's success.
For a foreign staff to be able to succeed in Japan, he said,
learning about Japan through books is a good start. Japanese have their special
system of Nenkoujoretsu, (N), the Seniority System, shusinkoyou, (Igٗp),
life-long employment, not to forget Kaizen. But the greatest difficulty lies in the
differentiation of the Japanese honne ({), or real intention, and tatemae (đO),
one's public words. This is a Japanese art of language which would take a long time
to master.
If you are a top man, added Mr. Harris, the ability to expalin is
very essential. Explaining not only in one direction, but in two directions. To make
the Japanese company understands what the head office asks for, and to report what
the Japanese company want from the head office. Mutual understanding and communication
determine the fate of a company.
To many students, they may have found "On the challenge for Japanese
staff working in foreign companies" to be most interesting for most of the students in
the class were Japanese. Mr. Harris brought up the formula again and emphasized that it
is important that the Japanese staff understands and accepts the western measurement
standard (Percent Returned in Capitals). Japanese staff should also maintain a good
relationship with head office while learning how to speak out and ask for demands.
Finally, Mr. Harris gave up a simple diagram on how the Anglo Saxon,
Latin, and Oriental way of speaking differ. Each culture has its distinct speech
pattern and only through the understanding of these patterns, Mr. Harris stressed,
would an international team come together and succeed.
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| This page was written by Kenjiro Tsujino, Gina Pei-Chun Liao and designed by Kaoru Tanaka for Prof.Tobin's "Change & Creativity" seminar. |