Managing for Creativity in Japan » technology http://a-small-lab.com/managing-for-creativity-in-japan Talking with Foreign Executives in Japan Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:02:14 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Technology Use http://a-small-lab.com/managing-for-creativity-in-japan/technology-use/ http://a-small-lab.com/managing-for-creativity-in-japan/technology-use/#comments Sun, 20 Dec 2009 23:00:11 +0000 Chris Berthelsen http://a-small-lab.com/managing-for-creativity-in-japan/?p=148 “I find it hard to get people excited about this, which is surprising. I am fascinated by how low the level of ITC and technology is in market research in Japan. It’s way behind America. (C: For example?) Say you have a central location test, an ad test. You may have a hall in Shibuya or Jiyugaoka or wherever. In the States that’s all computerized. I understand that there are issues with people not being able to type in Japan but that is not the real reason (that they are not computerized here). The technology is available to provide the data at the time the fieldwork ends, not a week later. There is a lack of (in my mind) openness to technology, which is weird because Japanese companies produce so much technological innovation.

I do think that technology can be a creative response to a problem – looking at a process and thinking about how that process could be made more efficient. There was one piece of software, for example, which (while I wouldn’t say I had to force people to use it) I couldn’t get my people to buy into until it became extremely necessary for them to use it. And now that they use it things have improved out of sight.”



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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.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail

]]> http://a-small-lab.com/managing-for-creativity-in-japan/technology-use/feed/ 1 Formula Based Creativity http://a-small-lab.com/managing-for-creativity-in-japan/formula-based-creativity/ http://a-small-lab.com/managing-for-creativity-in-japan/formula-based-creativity/#comments Sun, 15 Nov 2009 23:00:01 +0000 Chris Berthelsen http://a-small-lab.com/managing-for-creativity-in-japan/?p=14 “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 a field like technology for instance, ground-breaking is a difficult thing to find in Japan. The incremental improvement – taking an idea and really making it better and working it out – is their real strength.”


****************************************************
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.
We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences in relation to this topic. Please feel free to comment directly on this site or get in touch at chris@a-small-lab.com (Chris Berthelsen)
All content on this IDEAS and DISCUSSION blog is provided by a-small-lab under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License: You can SHARE this content as long as you CITE this work, and TELL US about your work (and send us a copy or link!). See Creative Commons for more detail

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