“They’re hard working and very accurate – good attention to detail. I know I couldn’t get the same team spirit and loyalty and willingness to go over and above to get the task done in another country, but I can get it here. It would be extremely difficult even in Ireland. In Spain you would fear asking them to do some of the things that you ask them to do here. (CB: for example?) Making coffee (laughs)…even that…In Ireland I think there are some managers who fear that they might be violating the gender equality act by asking a secretary to go and make coffee but here they expect to do it and they do it well and they do it better than any other I have seen anywhere else in the world.”


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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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