I have just completed the first phase of research into how diverse the European subsidiary boards of the biggest Japanese companies in Europe are, both in terms of the nationality mix of Japanese and European directors, and also the number …
Read MoreMost countries have rival cities – usually the official capital city versus other cities which consider themselves to be the real business, historical or cultural heart of the country – think London versus Manchester or Birmingham, Berlin versus Dusseldorf or …
Read MoreHitachi is seen as inward looking, conservative and lacking in commercial sense by business people in Japan, but outside Japan it is seen as a motivating place to work, exciting and cool by employees of Hitachi’s overseas subsidiaries such as …
Read MoreIn the UK I would be regarded as part of Generation X but in Japan I am in the Bubble Gang, of people aged 45-49 who joined a major Japanese company straight out of university between 1988 and 1992 – …
Read MoreAlong with “tako tsubo” (octopus pot), another Japanese concept “gobou nuki” (plucking out burdock roots) used in HR has been deemed harmful to corporate Japan’s global prospects.
The term has been used frequently in the Japanese media recently, …
Read MoreI’ve just been updating our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database of Japanese companies and their suppliers in Europe. I recently shifted the database to a new cloud-based provider, which enables me to cross reference our customer data with social networking …
Read MoreTakeo Shiina became president of IBM Japan in 1974, at the age of 45. He joined IBM Japan just after studying in the US in 1953. “In those days, gaishi (foreign owned companies) were seen as bad. A major newspaper …
Read MoreSomebody writing a white paper on the reason for low engagement amongst Japanese workers contacted me this week with some questions, which I answered (possibly in more detail than was helpful!) as follows:
As you may have gathered from the
An interview with George Hara, currently Chairman of Alliance Forum and former board member of various Silicon Valley start ups as a venture capitalist kicks off Nikkei Business’s attempt at finding a new standard for evaluating Japanese companies, beyond …
Read MoreMy old employer Fujitsu’s latest attempt to resolve the “European regional headquarters” conundrum that many multinationals face is to create a region called EMEIA – Europe, Middle East, India and Africa. This is partly a reflection of the IT industry …
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