Managing for Creativity in Japan Talking with Foreign Executives in Japan

Stable Client Relationships

“You get stable client relationships over an extended period of time. This equates to stability of income for us. Of course you like growing but the one thing that businesses hate is uncertainty. You do not want to wake up one day and find that your key client services person has left to join the competition. You don’t want to wake up to find that your key client has gone to your competitor. Here, I can at least be reasonably certain that the client-staff relationships which are the key to our business are relatively stable. I would manage the situation a bit differently if I wasn’t so certain – I would be more interventionist – but it’s not necessary. Everyone is comfortable and we get along – like a family. But the trade off is that it’s not creative.”