Managing for Creativity in Japan

Approach to Brainstorming

Chris Berthelsen — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:00:42 +0000

“The Western approach to brainstorming is to get as many ideas out there as possible and look good and show off and be the person that came up with the best idea in the room. It’s almost competition based whereas the Japanese approach to brainstorming is to sit there, possibly in silence, until they think of things. That’s not a brainstorm in the classic sense. You’re not supposed to be thinking of the ideas in your head….you need to say it, and then we can start to build on it.”

Smoking Husks

Chris Berthelsen — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 02:00:05 +0000

“The education system is based on rote learning and not asking questions. By the time people pop out of the education system (where the goal is to get the highest marks possible so you can get into one of the good universities) they are intellectually burnt out. They are smoking husks. The exam system just burns everyone out. They become good at acquiring information but creativity is more than that, it is making new connections between different concepts and ideas and things.”

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.”

Marking Territory vs. Teaching a Race

Chris Berthelsen — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 07:00:07 +0000

“I think that there are a couple of levels at play here. One level is ‘who’ the person is. For example when I worked in New York, I saw someone come from another market to take on a very senior position there and to me it looked like a dog pissing on fire hydrants marking territory – so that stuff does happen. Here in Japan, because the culture is so different and because people don’t understand it right off people tend to jump to conclusions very quickly – “Oh you guys don’t know? I’m going to show you” – that happens much more. (CB: So maybe the guy going from London to Chicago or whatever, that kind of thing is more status or hierarchy driven?) Yes. I also think that it is more individually driven compared to here where they think they are teaching the Japanese people as a whole race “you guys just don’t know, let me show you”. I find the reactions to this rather interesting because sometimes the Japanese people that they are talking to just play along like “wow isn’t that interesting, that’s amazing”. Later though you find out that they were thinking “what an asshole”. Of course there are other times where they fight and disagree right from the start though.
I think that the Japanese way is not to reveal yourself or the cards that you hold right away. It takes time. They’re just more careful. Whereas in America and the U.K. it’s all just out there right away – take it or leave it. And also if someone challenges something you do or say people are usually thick-skinned enough to say “oh you’re right that’s a better way thank you”. In Japan though people don’t want to be embarrassed and they try very hard to avoid that. If they’re wrong about something they are punished or very harsh on themselves.”

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.”

Advantages to being Non-Japanese

Chris Berthelsen — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:00:02 +0000

“There are advantages to not being Japanese though. You can start jumping up and down and yelling ‘come on!’ but you could not do that if you were a Japanese person. There would be too many rules and obligations. Being a foreigner means that I can break those rules. I’ve been in brainstorming sessions with Japanese people sitting there silently and me thinking that the whole thing is rubbish. In order to liven things up a bit I have been able to say ‘come on, we can do this’ and start getting excited and acting like a cheerleader. And you know what? You start to get results. Maybe they feel that they can talk because it’s not a formal Japanese room.
We’ve done workshops in Japanese with foreigners in the room who spoke fluent Japanese and it’s learning the devices that people need to use – the icebreakers etcetera to get things moving. It’s having that cultural knowledge that the ‘brainstorm’ in the classic sense of the word does not work in Japan. You need to understand what works and what doesn’t work, and how you get the same results but in a different format. I don’t think that a Japanese person would put themselves in the same positions that I do. Sometimes I have seen moderators here, when we have used them to facilitate conversations and I have wanted to go over and shake them and tell them that we’re not getting what we need…that’s a bit frustrating….”

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This post is part of a series of excerpts from interviews with foreign executives in Japan, focusing on creativity. Excerpts have been edited for confidentiality.
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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.”

Hard to Pinpoint

Chris Berthelsen — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 07:00:43 +0000

Because I don’t speak Japanese I was treated pretty rough – everyone was fascinated with me but not fascinated enough to employ me. I think one reason for this was that they couldn’t pinpoint me. They couldn’t say “well you’re a computer engineer” or “OK you’re a this or a that”. What I do is very creative and therefore hard to summarize in a couple of words.

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.