Working in Japanese MNC which took over my American firm some time back… gives me opportunity to work in a mixed culture comprising of people from diversified backgrounds.
On one hand we have counterparts from US trying and sometimes forcing their ideologies and on the other hand there are people from the country of rising sun –Japan!!! Each one with their perspectives, their mannerisms, their ideologies and their beliefs, make a good diversity indeed...
Where Americans believe in results, Japanese believe lot more in the process to achieve it. For them it is important to achieve same results using better technology and more innovations, although it may then compromise a bit on time. While we Indians who believe everything that Americans and Japanese believe in, also strive a lot more for quality, efficiency and timeliness( No hard feelings for either of Americans and Japanese people on the other attributes I mentioned for us… probably I am yet to know u guys more). For us it is extremely crucial to show results the way Americans want… to innovate and grasp new things the way Japanese expect…and at the same time have the efficient display of resources and time. We so like hearing good about ourselves and glorifying it even more (khudki laal karna…ie) but unfortunately this post isn’t aimed at glorifying us…instead it is aimed more to glitter out the striking characteristics that I came across while dealing with people from other nations…
In this series of articles… I am gonna start off with people who give me my bread and butter. It’s about them who handshakes with every new innovation and perserve hard enough to assimilate the good qualities of all others who are far ahead of them. Oh yeah, it’s about the Japanese people.
One striking feature that stood out in them was always their hard work to learn new things every single day. When they know that, they are far behind in terms of certain aspects of technology usage and wider domain application, they will seldom give importance to them being bosses. Instead they allow you to take center stage and to set things right and superior. They would go out of their way to learn, understand, and apply the newly acquired knowledge and would see to it that they are paying you for what they are getting outta you. Not even for a minute, have I ever felt that we have been taken-over or that now we are supposed to take orders!!! They aren’t lame … but I would call them shrewd!!!
They are by far the hardest working people I have ever come across in my life… what with my own CEO learning English in span of 20 days, so that he can converse with his entire fellow taken over employees in English!!! He didn’t need to…!!! He could have very well got himself a translator and lest assured the matter would have been solved. But he was so hell bent on speaking in English, that during one of his all employee dialogue- he fumbled not once but thousands of times trying to speak grammatically correct English… but he didn’t give up… he knew people are mocking him, but he kept speaking and correcting his own grammatical mistakes. He ended his dialogue with –“Takeover is not only about you people accepting the changes and accepting our culture but, it’s also about us accepting you. In these tough situations what we need is each other to make this happen and we will make it happen…I have made a small start with learning English…and I wish that each one here too, does whatever bit in their capacity to make this happen!!!”
Crowd gave him a big ‘Thumbs-Up’ … he changed the mindset of people so effortlessly that he became an instant role model for almost everyone!!! For a change we got a real enthusiastic leader who knew what he was setting up.
People often relate sad things and bitter experiences with M&A, Take-overs, but for us it had been a pleasant start to new creation and a new beginning towards a truly happening amalgamation!!!
Ohayoh Gozaimasu to everyone..!!!! (well that means good morning... and it is nice bright sunny morning when I am writing this...)
On one hand we have counterparts from US trying and sometimes forcing their ideologies and on the other hand there are people from the country of rising sun –Japan!!! Each one with their perspectives, their mannerisms, their ideologies and their beliefs, make a good diversity indeed...
Where Americans believe in results, Japanese believe lot more in the process to achieve it. For them it is important to achieve same results using better technology and more innovations, although it may then compromise a bit on time. While we Indians who believe everything that Americans and Japanese believe in, also strive a lot more for quality, efficiency and timeliness( No hard feelings for either of Americans and Japanese people on the other attributes I mentioned for us… probably I am yet to know u guys more). For us it is extremely crucial to show results the way Americans want… to innovate and grasp new things the way Japanese expect…and at the same time have the efficient display of resources and time. We so like hearing good about ourselves and glorifying it even more (khudki laal karna…ie) but unfortunately this post isn’t aimed at glorifying us…instead it is aimed more to glitter out the striking characteristics that I came across while dealing with people from other nations…
In this series of articles… I am gonna start off with people who give me my bread and butter. It’s about them who handshakes with every new innovation and perserve hard enough to assimilate the good qualities of all others who are far ahead of them. Oh yeah, it’s about the Japanese people.
One striking feature that stood out in them was always their hard work to learn new things every single day. When they know that, they are far behind in terms of certain aspects of technology usage and wider domain application, they will seldom give importance to them being bosses. Instead they allow you to take center stage and to set things right and superior. They would go out of their way to learn, understand, and apply the newly acquired knowledge and would see to it that they are paying you for what they are getting outta you. Not even for a minute, have I ever felt that we have been taken-over or that now we are supposed to take orders!!! They aren’t lame … but I would call them shrewd!!!
They are by far the hardest working people I have ever come across in my life… what with my own CEO learning English in span of 20 days, so that he can converse with his entire fellow taken over employees in English!!! He didn’t need to…!!! He could have very well got himself a translator and lest assured the matter would have been solved. But he was so hell bent on speaking in English, that during one of his all employee dialogue- he fumbled not once but thousands of times trying to speak grammatically correct English… but he didn’t give up… he knew people are mocking him, but he kept speaking and correcting his own grammatical mistakes. He ended his dialogue with –“Takeover is not only about you people accepting the changes and accepting our culture but, it’s also about us accepting you. In these tough situations what we need is each other to make this happen and we will make it happen…I have made a small start with learning English…and I wish that each one here too, does whatever bit in their capacity to make this happen!!!”
Crowd gave him a big ‘Thumbs-Up’ … he changed the mindset of people so effortlessly that he became an instant role model for almost everyone!!! For a change we got a real enthusiastic leader who knew what he was setting up.
People often relate sad things and bitter experiences with M&A, Take-overs, but for us it had been a pleasant start to new creation and a new beginning towards a truly happening amalgamation!!!
Ohayoh Gozaimasu to everyone..!!!! (well that means good morning... and it is nice bright sunny morning when I am writing this...)
Well written Aditi. Quite different to see all that incident from your angle.
ReplyDeletefirst time on your blog
ReplyDeletei really like your style and expression
hats off to such a CEO
such dertermination.
i wish we had people like your CEO in our motherland
hey thanks a lot... really appreciate the feedback...& as for my CEO ... he sure is the hero and totally deserves all the good things said about him..!!! :)
ReplyDeleteHappy blogging..!!!
Konichiwa Aditi San!
ReplyDeleteCame here from IndiBlogger and as a business consultant having worked with Japanese people myself, was very curious to read further.
You have described the experience well. I found the experience a mixture of things to learn, things I found surprising but got used to, and things that I still funny.
Like the first time I called a meeting, and reserved a room for the 3 people I had invited, I was in for a rude shock. Some 10 people turned up, and all of them reported directly to one of the people I had invited. That’s when I understood their concept of ever decision being approved by a team / committee, and every individual participating in every discussion, only if his sub ordinates were around.
But all said and done, it was a great experience.
Good blog :)
Cheers!
Vasu