Managing for Creativity in Japan Talking with Foreign Executives in Japan
Creativity Skills
Approach to Brainstorming
“….the Japanese approach to brainstorming is to sit there, possibly in silence, until they think of things…”
Smoking Husks
“…By the time people pop out of the education system….they are smoking husks….”
Advantages to being Non-Japanese
“….There would be too many rules and obligations. Being a foreigner means that I can break those rules….”
Be the Template Bringer
“….If you as a manager provide a template or formula and say ‘go for it’, they’ll do a beautiful job…..”
Influence and Losing Your Edge
“…you are forced in a sense to reign back your ‘blue-sky tendencies” and so in a way I think it does put a damper on your creativity…”
In-Betweens add the Polish
“….It takes a long time to build trust and relationships. You can’t just walk in and do it overnight….”
Mid-Level Creativity Killers
“…if you want to offer something which is a bit creative and involves some level of risk then you might find that very frustrating….”
Working with Established Models
“…Because they are risk averse they want to work with proven approaches and methods….”
Broad Minded Employees
“…They haven’t worked underneath other Japanese companies in our industry so they don’t have this kind of robotic (or moronic) way of working instilled in them…”
On Choosing your Successor
“…I would be looking for somebody who can embrace change….”
The Weirdo
“..You can’t have him as one of the battery hens, how can you have creativity in that scenario? It’s impossible….”
Slow Moving (2)
“…Creativity doesn’t really work that way, it happens when it happens…”
No Research-Based Judgment
“..everybody wants to be in the middle…you are never going to advance…”
Pyramids and Funnels
Pyramids and Funnels
Approaching Innovation
“…if you can meet their expectations and it does go into product development then I guess it is going to work out a bit better..”
Slow Moving
“Well I guess the biggest negative factor is that people don’t in general move as swiftly in the decision making process in Japan when compared to a lot of other places around the world. Even if you look at it from an historical/military perspective for example, in terms of military strategy or political decision making [...]
Process Focused Behaviour
“One thing I have noticed is that while people always talk about how polite the Japanese are I don’t really think that it is politeness. Actually I think that it is formality. It is a process driven way of doing things. There’s a way to drink tea, there’s a way to place your chopsticks on [...]
Deconstructive Creativity
“Something that I find interesting about Japan in creative terms is that creativity is expressed in Japan using a kind of deconstructive method. The design motifs and everything, for example, are Western but it is put together in a way that is entirely Japanese and there is nothing Western about it. Everything is borrowed – [...]
Following the Person Before You
“Initially however, it was assumed that the way they were doing it was the only way to do it. We had to sit down and say “no, you are free to do what you want as long as you meet the needs of these internal customers”. To assume that the person before you must have [...]
Holistic Decision Making
“It is very rare that a client in Japan would make a decision based on a survey – they tend to be more holistic in their thinking. The ideal is to get as much information as possible from different sources and then sort of see where things are at and how it feels. Then, someone [...]
Not Blue Sky
“I would never say that the Japanese are not creative or even less creative, but their orientation and their approach is not blue sky. They have a great deal of difficulty with blue-sky thinking.” “Look at Japan, it’s the home of more than 50 global headquarters. More than double that of either the U.S. or [...]
On Being Creative
“In terms of being creative it’s a bit of a paradox. You come here and it is definitely the most creative place in Asia but that doesn’t mean that it’s creative. People think that it’s creative and crazy but it’s not. It’s not creative. If it was a creative place then brainstorms would be a [...]
Formula Based Creativity
“When you look at art and design, it’s all based on formulas and templates. There is very little Japanese art which isn’t kaizen (incremental improvement). If you study Japanese art like sumi-e or ikebana you will notice that everything is run by rules. It is a very rule-laden culture. In a corporate environment working in [...]
