Managing for Creativity in Japan » Japanese Work Practices

On NPD

Chris Berthelsen — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 07:00:33 +0000

“(CB: And that new product development function, where is that located in Japan? Who takes on that role?)

Advertising agencies don’t take on that role here, it’s usually companies. This is one of the issues that we find. A lot of Japanese companies do innovate but they do it incrementally. For example they will take a product and next week it will be in green paper and the week after that it might be in washi (Japanese-style paper)..the week after that they might change the design. It’s just incremental. They will never think something like ‘oh let’s put this in a see-through plastic container…or let’s not put it in a container at all let’s hand it over to consumers and get them to take it home in their own furoshiki to make it more eco…’ things that might be a big jump. Innovation here is incremental as opposed to reinventing the wheel. And the other thing is that in Japan it is almost never done with consumer insight. It’s almost like a bunch of scientists in an office in their white coats who walk around saying “ooh must come up with an idea, here’s a wacky idea, let’s see if it resonates”.
Consumers will never tell you what they want so never ask them directly but what you can do is study them, talk to them, and see what their issues are. And then using those insights you can then go away and come up with some real ideas. I think that that is the big problem here, they don’t do that. (CB: Do you have any idea why it is this way?). No I don’t, not really…..Companies here like to innovate because it is such an innovative market. They have to innovate incrementally because it’s so competitive that you need to have a product on the shelf in two weeks. It’s all about how you produce, not picking a product that will resonate and sit on the shelf for not just one year but perhaps even five years.”

On Being a Foreign Employer

Chris Berthelsen — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 02:00:44 +0000

“First of all, it’s a risk to work for foreigners. Two, it’s not a safe, established Japanese company – there isn’t that cliché status of working for a well known Japanese company. Even if you are an established company like Unilever or something people still think ‘oooh no, a foreign company’ even though they are like the biggest manufacturer in the world.
Also, people like security and hierarchy and they like to know their position. They don’t like to know that they have to do a bit of everything whereas in a foreign start-up they do have to do a bit of everything. Our people who do research do have to do client presentations and this, that and the other and you know what? If there are bowls in the sink at the end of the night we don’t have an office manager who just sits there all day waiting for people to go home so he can wash the dishes we wash our own dishes. For some people that is shocking.
Also, younger companies, especially foreign start-ups, tend to be a lot less structured. We don’t say ‘this is what you need to do, this is the checklist’ we tend to be a bit more creative and say ‘this is your time, we need you to achieve this…and what else can you come up with’. People don’t know what to do with that. (CB: So how have you dealt with that in your company?) There has to be a lot of mentoring and that’s an area that we really need to improve on. You have to mentor people, hold their hands, give them the confidence to say ‘I know I’m doing this but there is a possibility that I could do this or this’. In contrast, I think that people in London and New York are very keen to prove themselves. They also know that it’s not a job for life and they want to get the most out of it that they can and then go on to the next bigger, better place. Here the attitude is that you join a company and might possibly stay there for a long time. So perhaps they have a view that longevity is better than immediate results.”

Obstacles Involved with being Non-Japanese

Chris Berthelsen — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 02:00:28 +0000

“One major obstacle is that you have to speak the language. If you can’t speak Japanese you better be really good at what you do. You need good personal introductions. You need to prove yourself quite quickly. You need to be there. Also, I think that foreign companies are still viewed with suspicion. There is still a sense of ‘what can someone as a foreigner tell me about Japan?’ I think that is a problem. As a foreigner myself, if another foreigner came up to me and said ‘I’m a marketing consultant, I can do this that and the other’ I would say ‘Well what do you know about Japan?…are you Japanese? ‘no’ Well do you speak Japanese ‘no’….well then what are you basing this insight on?

I don’t speak fluent Japanese but you need to at the very least be able to navigate around an office and understand how protocol and meetings work. At least play the game. You can’t not speak the language and not play the game either. You have to know what you’re doing, for example, turning up for meetings. You might think that the meeting is pointless and that you don’t need to go along but you do…they want to see your face. That’s important. In the West you might get away with not turning up to meetings…you really do have to play the game here.”

Advice for New Managers

Chris Berthelsen — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 02:00:17 +0000

“You have to be enormously thick skinned. When a client says “no I’m not interested in that” three months later you have to be able to ask them what they are interested in. Then you need to be able to get enough information from them so that you can write a proposal. If you are entrepreneurial you have to be able to not take no for an answer and think about how you can make it a yes. I have been told ‘no’ so many times but I have turned them into a ‘yes’ a lot of times.
Perseverance is important. Client relationships take a long time to establish. If they don’t happen in five minutes (and they won’t) you have to believe that they might happen in a year’s time. You need to be able to keep up the cheery demeanor the whole time because it might turn into something.
Never burn bridges and never piss of a client. Once trust is broken it’s pretty much permanent. You can’t go back – this is true for all clients but particularly for Japanese. In Japan people tend to stay in their jobs for 30 years but overseas that marketing role is going to be filled by someone different in two year’s time, you know it is.
Also, don’t discount your rate too much. If you discount they might wonder what your problem is and start thinking that you might not be very good. Always have a good attitude about your pricing and stick with it. It’s not a barter society and I don’t think people are overly impressed if you come back with something cheaper because that is an indicator of being substandard.”

Handwritten

Chris Berthelsen — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:00:06 +0000

Previously everything was hand written and while I find that disgusting Japanese people really like hand written stuff. I find it inefficient, slow, ugly, and also I can’t read it. I also figure that, from an international viewpoint it just looks unprofessional. The Japanese agencies we deal with don’t view it that way, but I do.

What’s the Reward for Being Creative?

Chris Berthelsen — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 23:00:21 +0000

“What’s the reward for taking a risk here? As I said earlier, creativity and risk taking are one in the same and if you are going to take a risk you want the prospect of a reward. What’s the reward for taking a risk in Japan? I don’t know. Are you going to get paid more? Probably not, and as I mentioned earlier that’s not a big motivator anyway. If you take a risk and it goes wrong then you are singled out as the person that stuffed up. So, why be creative? There is no incentive….”

Kaisha vs. Company

Chris Berthelsen — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:00:54 +0000

“The concept of a company in Japan is I think different. The term ‘kaisha’ (Japanese for company) is in my mind a group. The word itself has more of a nuance of a group of people doing something together than does the term ‘limited liability company’ (which is a non-person). The Western idea of a company is that of a non-person – a non-human legal entity with no objective other than to make a profit. Of course they have to exist in society and have good human relations (which are good for business) though.

You may have seen the movie ‘The Company’ which likens a company to a psychopath – obsessed with its own survival, lacking empathy and whatever….That’s not really how it is in Japan. Everybody has a vested interest in the stability of the system rather than, perhaps, genuine progress. It’s not that genuine progress doesn’t occur but it occurs within that controlled and less chaotic environment. People will experiment with concepts and products but they won’t touch the core of the organization so readily.”

Fuck Ups

Chris Berthelsen — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:00:06 +0000

The companies we deal with constantly, constantly, fuck up in their dealings with the West – you know all that ‘shou ga nai’ (‘it can’t be helped’) attitude. That kind of thinking just doesn’t cut it when you are dealing with international brands in the international stage. The Japanese way, you know, works in Japan but it doesn’t work anywhere else. You have to like it or lump it. Japanese companies that are smart are working out that it is very important to have a more Western way of thinking if you are going to be working internationally.

Broad Minded Employees

Chris Berthelsen — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 23:00:45 +0000

My staff are foreign educated. One went to the London School of Economics, has lived in Paris, speaks three languages and really loves our industry. Another was educated in America. So, we are dealing with people who are a little bit different, who have a different way of looking at things and have seen other systems in other parts of the world. They are young, and not necessarily steeped in the old ways. 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. They have a Western outlook towards work, but they are still respectful Japanese individuals…the Japanese companies we deal with on the other hand are just ridiculous.

Need a Japanese Face

Chris Berthelsen — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:00:41 +0000

It is important for me to have [Japanese staff in my company] because we need to have a strong Japanese face – I don’t want to be seen as just a gaijin company. I want to have a certain level of respect from Japanese people and because there are very specific Japanese ways of doing things here I need to have Japanese staff. I hope to start to implement more international ways of looking at things into the industry but this is still the beginning.