I was at a meeting late last year where VP here in Japan said, “All Coca Cola products are healthy.” I couldn’t believe he could say that with a straight face.
Maybe he considered cancer a healthy condition?
Archive for category Business in Japan
Healthy Coca Cola Drinks
Feb 8
Alexander Kinmont of Morgan Stanley gave some interesting advice to the new Japanese prime minister today. Some very good insights-
1) Rescind the Bank of Japan law, and bring it under government control.
2) Fiscal Policy- Get away from politically motivated fiscal policy and move to economically motivated policy. Stop playing with interest rates and print money a bit.
3) Abolish the Inheritance Tax. This holds ups a lot of capital from going into the market.
Interesting thoughts to consider for Mr. Hatoyama.
Thank God for Softbank Mobile. Mr. Son has yet brought competition to the market. Ten years ago, Softbank invested in broadband and spent oodles on getting users signed up on Yahoo BB here in Japan. They were very successful and brought the pricing of NTT and KDDI into the competitive arena. Very effective strategy that I believe directly contributed to making Japan the fastest and cheapest internet in the world. Only South Korea comes close to the speed and cost we have in Japan.
Mr. Son initiated a similiar program after purchasing Vodafone’s Japan operation. Rumor is that he went into heavy debt doing that. He rolled out very cheap calling plans trying to mass up subscribers. The famous White Plan is advertised at 980 yen/month with free calls to any other Softbank users (Great marketing idea!). In actuality, they have a number of other fees that take it to over 2,000 yen and put you on a two year contract and tie you into a phone terminal.
From what I understand, SBM only has two operation centers for their mobile network. NTT Docomo has some 50 network centers throughout Japan. Can you imagine the difference in operational costs in staffing those centers? That would definitely give SBM the ability to pass on those savings to their clients.
I think the Softbank strategy is working. To make sure we can support our partners and their IT, I have three mobile phones. I have noticed the connection time on my softbank is lagging. There is a connection delay from yesterday.
Beginning to wonder if they may have oversold their network capacity… If you are in Japan and using Softbank, have you noticed?
I received an order of books and DVDs about two weeks ago from Amazon. One of the hardcover’s bindings was damaged. I sent in a return request as I expect to use the book a long time as it is my second copy. Their automated system asked me to return the book.
This morning, I received an email from Amazon saying keep the book or feel free to give it away, as we will send you another one no charge. Actually, I think about another company called CBD, their customer service is also excellent. I had similar issues in the past and they just sent a replacement copy. That is CS, customer service, at its best. Why? As a customer I was satisfied. I will go definitely go back to them and buy more.
In December, I bought a Tumi bag for work. It is my third bag from them. I remember, the first bag’s shoulder strap wore out and was looking a bit tacky and worn after about a year. I went to get a replacement, but was told I would be charged. I used the bag a bit longer and then decided to trash the bag. In the six months I’ve had the new bag, it’s ‘revolutionary’ zippers got caught on my suit pants twice. Unfortunately, the second time it ripped them as it got caught on the belt loop.
I was on the train for 30 minutes with a bag caught on my trousers. I got back to the office, to get someone to help me carefully remove the caught bag. All the way, with a Tumi bag stuck on my shoulder. (Now you know how those pack mules that go into the Grand Canyon feel). In the process, my suit got ripped as someone at the office tried to release me from the bit of this bag. I was very disappointed.
My PA (personal assistant) took the bag to the nearest Tumi store in Marunouchi. She explained the situation and explained that the boss was not too pleased with how easily the zippers caught on clothing. The store attendant said she was sorry to hear about it (this is common in Japanese) but clearly didn’t plan on doing anything about it. My PA said she needed to give me a report and wanted to know what Tumi would plan on doing about it as her boss concluded it was a design flaw that cost him a suit. The store attendant reluctantly promised she would get back to her.
Yesterday the woman called and said she and the store manager concluded that the problem occurred because of the “customer’s misuse of the product… “ What a great way to make your customer feel good.
Excuse me? I didn’t realize you could run windows on a Tumi bag or change the settings and damage the hardware. This is a bag with a shoulder strap you put over your shoulder.
I was literally “ripped off” by Tumi’s pathetic customer service person. You say, what do you mean? They could have done a number of things to make the customer feel good. But all they did was insult a repeat customer. The kicker is they said they would fix the bag with a new zipper that would not catch on clothing. Is that an admission of guilt or what?
Is Tumi a bad company? Absolutely not. I am sure they are a good company, otherwise they would not have made it this far. However the point is one of your CS people can not only kill your business, but if it becomes a prevalent attitude, they can destroy your brand.
Were they expected to pay $900 to replace a suit? No, not really. However, they dropped the ball as a customer service firm. While dropping it, they actually lost a repeat client in the meantime. They could have made a special arrangement for the purchase of another bag, given a brand new bag without these ‘revolutionary’ zippers, refunded the price of the bag , or any number of other things to keep their client.
Customer Service is essential to building your brand. It is not just about losing business. At this point they lost a fan. If your CS team is doing this to one customer, you can be assured they are doing it to others. That is why every customer facing person in your organization is so important to your business future. They can make or break you.
I know Coach Japan has an awesome customer service team that is clearly well managed. It looks like I better stick with someone I know and get my Coach briefcase out of the closet.
Since September, we’ve gotten busier and busier. It seems like most people are throwing out the IT department and trying to cut costs. It makes sense as most management teams are wanting to invest in their front lines.
We have a new media business. As I was talking with a friend at a large advertising company, we talked about managing engineers vs managing creatives. We talked about how is a bit like herding cats sometimes. He told me about this hilarious commercial of years past (below). Reminds me of me how great it is to be in IT.
AINEO Networks Rocks!
Feb 14
It is great to be a part of the work at AINEO. We work very hard and do a great job for the smart firms that select AINEO to do their IT.The year 2007 was a great year for us. We delivered product or services in every major city in Japan, and a lot of minor ones to boot. Our weakness has always been that we are an engineering company… our strength is that we are an engineering company.AINEO client satisfaction levels are the highest of our history in 2007. Of course, we are Asia Pacific’s best IT firm. We also continue to be the best Nortel reseller (distributor) in Japan. The number of NEC, Avaya, and Cisco PBX (or IP PBX in many cases), continues to increase.Due to the increase in hardware and software business, we have become the top buyer of HP, Dell, Microsoft, Canon, Polycom, Panduit, Lenel Systems, Rittal, and just about anything IT. With our business volume, we have been able to become the IT purchasing department for many Japanese and Multinational firms. We can get great prices for our clients. We are in the 10 ten shops for business volume in Tokyo now.Probably the most exciting area is a new service we will be launching in April. This product is designed specifically for out customers. We have named it AINEO Secure. Very excited about this as we have many people waiting for its introduction.Many thanks to the great AINEO team, and the AINEO partners. Without are partners and their faith in us in outsourcing their IT departments, entrusting their moves and other projects, and enlisting AINEO consultants to clean up their IT departments, we would not have the success that we have.
Many thanks to everyone involved with AINEO!
Fiber Abundance
Nov 23
You think Americans are into fiber for their cereal? Where fiber really counts is in the streets. In the US, the majority of consumers use internet access via a cable television company. The most predominant must be Comcast. Of course there is a lot of DSL as well as it allows broadband over a standard telephone.In Japan, we’ve got DSL but what we really have is fiber. Commonly known as FTTH (or fiber to the home). It is in the streets as you can see by the picture above. It is commonly available to both the consumer and to the office. With speeds of 100 mbps. Great!An expert recently said that Japan and Korea have the best broadband in the world right now. Japan actually has the cheapest broadband to top that on a per packet basis.
7 Ways To Impress Your Boss
May 28
In this world of so many types of business, we see a lot of people moving from job to job. A large percentage of the people changing jobs are the ones who cannot do the job they are leaving. Last year, I remember a president of a large Canadian technology firm saying how appreciative he was that his American competition hired two slackers (employees) that had been in his organization.
Clearly, there are some good folks to hire out there. However, the chances of recruiting ineffective and/or trouble-making employees is a high probability. You never know what you are going to get, especially since you cannot reference the current employer for performance feedback.
If you are working for someone, as most of us are. The true way to success is to be consistent. Consistency is the key to success. If you want to be successful in business you need have to be doing the right things every day. One of the first things you can do is get along with your boss. Learn how to impress him or her so that they know they can trust you. Let us give some suggestions on how to do just that.
1) Demonstrate that you are honorable.
Honor is doing the right thing when no one is looking. There is a saying, ‘when the cat is away the mice play’. There are many offices out there that when the boss is in everyone looks so busy and works so hard. When the boss is out, people start slacking off. Show that you honor the boss’ investment in yourself.
2) If you are asked to do something, do it.
If you don’t agree, a good boss will have an open ear and mind to suggestions. However, keep in mind that in most cases the boss was entrusted with management responsibility because they are competent. Too much questioning is a good way to hurt your standing with the boss.
3) Give the job 110% effort.
So many times we do our jobs halfway and send our resumes out there hoping for another job opportunity with pop up. Managers are not stupid. If they are any good, they are connected to the market and know a lot of people. Before you could imagine, they will know when someone starts putting out that resume (CV) and stop entrusting you with any new things. Work hard. But also, don’t forget to work smart.
4) Be sincere.
Good bosses are always founded on experience. A good technical service manager is good because they know both technology and how to deal with people. If one of their staff is having trouble, there is no doubt they will read that from customer results, other player feedback, or judging other factors that they have been dealing with in the business for years. If you have issues that you are not sure how to deal with, be sincere with your boss. They will respect you for it.
5) Always respect the time of others.
When you are supposed to be at meeting, always be at the site, at least 5 minutes before commencement. Always be to work on time. It is wrong for one person to be habitually late to a 9AM office start when everyone else is there drinking coffee 15 minutes before.
6) Be positive and proactive.
“Oh, that customer is this, that supplier is that. Why do you want me to do that? The boss is not a good such and such. I don’t want to learn about that.” No one likes to be around pessimists. The world is full of critics and no office needs negative voices. You were hired to do a job. No matter what happens, see ‘trouble’ as challenges. See ‘change’s as opportunities. As things happen throughout the week, be always open-minded. Bring ideas not dark words to a situation. If you help your boss resolve issues (especially ones that he has no exact experience or time to handle), you will prove your contribution to the team. Positive people are winners. Everyone loves to be around winners, not losers and quitters.
7) Be a good communicator.
It sounds amazing, but wars can be started by not communicating well with others. Good communicators are lacking in pretty much every company.
- People show up to do work and can be frustrated by sales people who haven’t told them the whole story about the site.
- Someone goes on vacation and neglects to give their manager or coworker information on what the consumer wanted from the shop. Both coworker and consumer get frustrated when the consumer comes back into the store.
- The logistics person ignores the email and sends the site foreman the wrong building materials in spite of the request. The customer care representative receives no new product information for something that was hit the retailers’ shelves a few days ago.
At AINEO, in our new player indoctrination (employee orientations) we always teach our incoming new team members to ‘set expectations’. If you are asked to do something, let people know when you anticipate you will be done. Think ahead. If you can’t do something, let the boss know and get some additional help.
In Closing
These seven steps are the most important ways to impress your boss. We’ve found if you can work well with people at the office, chances are you are going to be getting along well with people at home as well. Most divorces are caused by financial worries but more often than not, miscommunication. If you make an effort to apply these words of wisdom to your corporate life, you will find that these good things will spill over into your personal live as well. Life will be so much easier because you will be easier to work with, and even easier to live with.
(c)2007, Patrick Wolfe
Originally posted at
http://www.aineo.com/insights/entry/seven-ways-to-impress-your-boss/
In Japan, it seems like many businesses are outsourcing their work. They make the sale but all the delivery is outsourced to other companies.
A friend is currently building a house in Tokyo. He selected a company called Tokyu Home to do the work. The company seems to be a great company. Once the work began on the house, there wasn’t a Tokyu employee to be seen. The foundation was demolition of the existing house was done by one company, the foundation installed by another, the electricity by another company and so forth. This type of outsourcing, which really is subcontracting, seems to be very common.
Within every corporation, there are many departments. One department that is common to all is IT. Check out whether or not it makes sense to have your own IT department, or get professionals to help in this area at the AINEO website.
Ready For 2007!
Jan 1
The year of 2006 has been a great year for us! We have seen such growith in our team both in what we do technical and in physical numbers. As we look back over the year, we find that it has been an eventful year. A friend of mine has put together an good summary of what happened in Japanese business in 2006. You can find it here. As time is limited for all of us, it is good to look back at what we have been through. But more importantly, it is important to look to the future.
Information tends to disappear off websites, we will copy and paste a shortened version below.
2006 has been an eventful and productive year for business
in Japan. This was the year that we marked the longest
period of business expansion since War II, longer even, than
the Izanagi boom in the mid-1960′s. Being immersed in the
noise and bustle which is Tokyo, it is easy to forget that
these are the good times that we’ll
be reflecting upon over the next few years. Hereunder we
list a number of seminal events that we think will let
readers take the pulse of the economy and opportunities
that have punctuated the year.
*** January:
-> Japanese and US military announce that they will connect
Japan’s missile radar and command systems. The deadline for
the new system will be March 2007, and over the last 12
months, both countries have been rapidly rolling out PAC-3
missiles around Japan at a cost of JPY150bn (US$1.28bn).
The impetus for setting up the new system was the increasing
concern over North Korea and its supposed nuclear capabilities
– fears which turned out to be well-founded with North Korea’s
October underground test.
A Rodong missile can hit Japan just 10 minutes after launch.
The economic importance of the newly pledged alliance is that
Japan is expected to significantly increase its military
spending and it will start using foreign systems and
technology instead of trying to invent it all at home.
*** Feburary:
-> High-flying Livedoor president Takafumi Horie is
arrested under suspicion of breaking Japanese tax laws and
the commercial code. Along with 4 of his executive team,
he was accused of window dressing several firms in the
group, to make it appear as if Livedoor had a group pretax
profit of JPY5bn for the tax year through September 2004
when in fact the group lost JPY300m. Horie was eventually
released on bail after an extraordinary 97 days in detention
and his case only went to court in September this year. The
prosecution started out strongly, but it has turned out that
one of the key witnesses, Miyuachi, is less than saintly and
some of his testimony has been called into doubt. Horie’s
trial will continue on at least into the first quarter of
2007. The business implications of this trial are that
Japan is finally getting serious about corporate ethics
and insider trading.
*** April:
-> Softbank makes the shock announcement that it will buy
out the complete wireless operations of Vodafone Japan, for
a record JPY1.7trn (US$15bn). Just months earlier, Softbank
had successfully tendered for a 3G wireless licence,
indicating that the opportunity to buy Vodafone Japan
happened very quickly. While everyone wondered if Son
could really afford the purchase price, based on both
bank and vendor finance he has so far managed both the
initial short-term payments and the first major refinancing.
17 domestic and foreign banks were involved in the overall
financing consortium, meaning that Japan is now officially
open for mega-mergers. As of writing, Son still hasn’t figured
out how to stem the hemorraging of profits from the new brand,
but then neither did Vodafone. He probably has several years
before the losses signficantly impact his other businesses.
*** May:
-> It’s the peak of the Japanese earnings reporting season
and the first half of 2006 has been kind to exporters, who got
so badly hammered by Chinese competition in the 1990′s.
Many major companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange reported
record earnings, and none higher than that of Toyota, which
had a 17.2% year on year increase in profit to JPY1.37trn
(US$12bn) on sales of JPY20trn (US$171bn). Toyota is the
first Japanese company to have sales of JPY20trn. Not that
the others missed out. No less than 43 Japanese companies
had profits of more than JPY100bn (US$855m) for FY2005.
The Japanese tax man is very, very happy.
*** June:
-> In a conference in Tokyo, the audience is
stunned when a Dell laptop explodes into flames. Hotel
employees flock with fire extinguishers and put the fire
out after about 5 minutes. While the conflagration is not
major, the incident was caught on cell phone video and
within days the world was talking about whether Sony
Lithium batteries are safe. The incident marked the
beginning of a hugely damaging incident for Sony.
The final accounting has not been done yet, but the company
will probably lose more than JPY51bn (US$432m) on the 9.6m
units being recalled, not to mention the losses caused by
damage to the brand.
*** July:
-> A review of M&A activity over the previous 6 months
reinforces views that companies are reinvesting their
significant profits not on employee salaries but on
acquiring more assets instead. M&A broker Recof Corporation
puts out a report stating that there were a record 1,409
deals in the first 6 months of the year, up 10% on the
same period in 2005. Half of the top ten transactions
involved overseas businesses, with such buyouts including
Softbank-Vodafone, Toshiba-Westinghouse (Toshiba paid
JPY620bn for the US nuclear power plant maker), and Daikin-OYL
(a JPY232bn takeover of the Malaysian manufacturer). A growing
number of Japanese companies are looking overseas for business
expansion. Accenture says that the trend will continue and
announces plans to increase its M&A advisory team 500% to
50 people.
*** September:
-> Architect of Japan’s strongest restructuring in some
decades, prime minister Junichi Koizumi, stepped down and
was replaced by conservative politician Shinzo Abe. Koizumi
was an outsider and loner before taking power in April of
2001. He ran against Ryutaro Hashimoto, who was seeking his
second term in office and who represented the “business as
usual” approach to government, despite the impending financial
disaster facing Japan. The factions representing younger
politicians knew that they had to act, and Koizumi became
the nation’s poster child for reform. He went on to introduce
many legislative changes which earned him political enemies.
The privatization of Japan Post represented the peak of the
tussle, and Koizumi called a snap election on the issue.
He surprised everyone, including himself, by winning by a
landslide on September 11, 2005. The big question now is
whether Abe will continue the reforms or succumb to the
pleasures of fraternizing with the old boys in the party.
Unfortunately to date, it looks like he is leaning towards
the latter option. Already he has lost a battle with the
“Doro-zoku,” politicians who favor using petrol taxes for
roads only, rather than allocating the funds to help reduce
the national debt.
-> Also in September was the listing of Social Networking
Service (SNS), Mixi, Japan’s answer to MySpace.com of the
USA. A company which had barely any revenues a year earlier
IPO’d with the unbelievable market capitalization of JPY109bn
(US$947m), after which the shares continued to soar, creating
a market cap of JPY219.9bn (US$1.879bn) just
4 days later. The IPO came at a time when IPO fervor in Japan
was starting to drop off and was seen as an opportunity to
shake a moribund market into activity again.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t happened, and more and more IPO
issues are trading at significantly lower prices than the
initial IPO price. Not least of these has been the Cerberus-
sponsored IPO of Aozora Bank. From an IPO price of JPY570
per share, the first trade started 13% lower at JPY495.
Cerberus was happy enough, though, having earned a profit
of JPY100bn (US$850m) on the 3-year deal. Cerberus bought
Aozora off Softbank after the IT company needed the cash
to fund such purchases as Japan Telecom.
*** October:
-> North Korea announces on October 9th that it has
conducted an underground test of a nuclear bomb, and has
thus entered the nuclear club through the back door. The
only trouble is that no one could tell if the test really
happened or not, because the seismic readings were so weak.
Later the US stated that a test probably did happen and it
was a one-kiloton plutonium device. While you might think
that the Japanese markets would go into a tizzy over the
news, but the fact that the test was so low-key led the
investing public to assume that it wasn’t much of a threat.
We believe that North Korea will continue to improve its
technology and that in the near future it will conduct
other tests that will indeed spook the Japanese markets.
This could well be their intention and we wouldn’t be
surprised to see some pragmatic horse-trading going on
as Japan tries to buy some peace (and quiet) from the
North Koreans. In the meantime, business is brisk for
military technology companies supplying the Japan Self
Defence Force.
*** November:
-> The government announces that Japan is now
officially in a longer period of economic expansion than the
go-go years of the 1960′s — represented by the 57-month
Izanagi boom which lasted from from 1965 to 1970.
That boom was largely driven by domestic demand, whereas
the current one, which has no name yet, has been driven by
exports. In case you don’t see how this is possible, remember
that Japan’s exports fall into two categories:
direct, as finished goods to consuming nations, and indirect,
through parts and tools sold to Chinese factories.
*** December:
-> The game and gadget market is alive and well, as
highlighted by the astoundingly successful release of
Nintendo’s JPY25,000 (US$214) Wii video game console on
December 2. Most of the 400,000 units it stocked at major
city retailers in Japan sold out within hours. Nintendo
expects to sell 4m units worldwide by the end of December
and 6m by the end of March, 2007. The special point of the
Wii is its multi-axis motion detecting wireless controller
which lets gamers stand and play motion-oriented sports
such as golfing, tennis, bowling, and sword fights. As of
writing, Nintendo is selling every unit it can produce,
and in November in the USA was the number two selling game
console. It sold 476,000 units, just behind the 511,000
Microsoft Xboxes sold, and 197,000 Sony PS3s. Sony says that
the Wii is simply trading on novelty value and a low price.
The Wii retails for US$250, while the PS3 is US$600 and Xbox
360 is US$400. Whatever the reason, Nintendo is raking in
$100m+ a month in sales on the toy.