Calm voice of reason

Since the 3/11 Japan triumvirate of crises there has been a veritable blizzard of conflicting opinion - particularly on the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant situation.

One of the clearest and most consistent voices of reason has been Mike (in Tokyo) Rogers.

Read his blogs here: http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.com/

Western expatriate executives in Japan - rats deserting sinking ships?

During the past week since the 3/11 Japanese triple-witching disasters there has been a lot of talk and a certain amount of controversy over how expatriate heads of Western corporate subsidiaries are personally responding to the situation.

Quite a bit of “news” coverage has reported the large-scale retreat of subsidiary presidents and country managers out of Japan - supposedly leaving their Japanese teams to fend for themselves. As with much reporting there probably is a kernel of truth in there somewhere but more often than not it has been blown out of proportion wither by the journalist or more often the editorial head to give it more punch.

Alarmist announcements by the French Embassy were harmful and misleading, followed later by the US and British embassies offering government chartered aircraft to “evacuate” any citizens of their respective countries to other “safe-haven” countries did not do anything to help the image of the foreign corporation and their executives.

I am not a journalist nor am I an editor. I run the Japan office of a global consulting firm specialized in helping corporations build their top leadership teams. Over the past several days I have had telephone discussions directly with the Japan and regional leaders of several globally-known companies. As these were privileged off the record discussions I will not mention names.

One of the top multinational enterprise software companies, had been receiving criticism that 2 of the top 3 expat leaders were not in Japan. What was not reported is that the Japan CEO and his executive team immediately announced to all Japanese (and other) employees that they were not required to come to the office and could work remotely. Next the Japan CEO convinced corporate HQ to fully fund relocation of up to 100% of Japanese employees AND THEIR ENTIRE FAMILIES to other cities in Japan, specifically Osaka and Fukuoka where the company has significant offices - on a voluntary basis of course. Already they have secured around 250 hotel rooms and other living facilities in Osaka and are working on a similar amount in the Fukuoka area. Journalistic reports neglected to mention that the reason some of the expat execs were not in Japan was that they were already attending a global meeting offshore when the earthquake hit and it was decided they could be equally effective anywhere in the world - also not reported was the fact that several Japanese executives were also on overseas business trips and they were treated in exactly the same manner - recommended they stay offshore until the situation stabilized. As of yesterday afternoon the relocation of Japanese employees to Osaka and Fukuoka was well underway. The expat execs will be back in Japan in a few days - one of them in Tokyo, the other in Osaka.

A global communications consultancy Japan President moved quickly to announce to all it’s employees that no one was required to report to the office and in fact were encouraged to work remotely from home or other location of their own choice.

The European President in Japan of one of the best-known consumer brands had along conversation with me Monday - he had called to ask my opinion and learn what other executives were doing. at the end of our discussion he decided to move his family to the Kansai area (Osaka/Kobe/Kyoto) and he would stay in Tokyo. He personally felt that the top corporate executive leaving for a safe haven is analogous to the Captain abandoning his ship and crew in a violent storm.

In my own firm we had the entire team in the office half a day on Monday and decided to close the physical office for the rest of the week, encouraging staff to be with their families wherever in Japan they might be, and work remotely via email and mobile communications.

The true test of leaders often comes in times of crisis and extreme stress. This is one of those times. How is YOUR company and it's leadership responding to the situation?

We are sitting safe in Tokyo but feeling extremely strange as we see hour after hour of devastating footage on TV. The disaster area is only about 300 km (less than 200 miles) away yet it feels to us as if we are disassociated voyeurs. Images remind me of Cormack McCarthy’s book “The Road” http://amzn.to/gfS7yf

Daily multiple aftershocks of varying magnitudes are now a way of life. A quake of magnitude 3 that a week ago would have been news we now shrug off a just another small quiver. What is bothersome to me is the multiple shakes that are not technically aftershocks. The epicenters are reported from varying locations all over Japan. Just this morning we were shaken out of bed by a relatively mild M3 that was reported centered under Tokyo Bay – a highly unusual location. Although it may not be totally scientific, some of us can’t help but wonder if the whole Pacific basin “ring of fire” – or even a greater range of tectonic plates – has been unbalanced. After all, the main island of Japan itself is supposedly 2.4 meters East of where they were last Friday morning. http://bit.ly/fnEJCw

Not to mention the potential nuclear contamination issue and related power outages. The wildly varying analyses – not of what is happening in the reactors, but what the consequences are/could be/will be – is not at all comforting. Just because the Fukushima Daiichi plants are of the BWR type and therefore impossible (there’s that word again) to turn into a Chernobyl type of incident does not bring a feeling of comfort. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, the Japanese nuclear power regulator IAEA, and Tepco seem to be doing as good a job as anyone could expect under the almost impossible circumstances, yet their communication or lack of openness leaves much to be desired and does not increase confidence. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12733393

Other than that everything is fine here in Tokyo.

Nuclear Stress in Japan

With a few rare exceptions we in Tokyo are all fine - I walked home from the office Friday after the initial quake (see video of the office here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6bCXiuerqg . Never seen so many thousands of people WALKING in Tokyo.

Several of the Tokyo office team slept over at my house Friday. Tohoku (300 km northeast of Tokyo) is a total disaster. The earthquake itself was bad enough, but the awesome power and total obliterating destruction of the tsunami is just too much for words to describe.

Psychologically many of us in Tokyo are far more stressed about the nuclear power plant issues, although for the moment is may (or more likely may not) be under control. And at least for the next 24 to 36 hours the wind is blowing northerly away from us.

Today (Monday the 14^th) most of us were in the office for half a day then we sent everyone home. Pretty much the rest of the week we will be working remotely from our homes or elsewhere.

TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power utility) has announced a plan to begin rolling blackouts around the greater Tokyo metropolitan area. Most supermarkets and convenience stores have frighteningly bare shelves – TOTALLY sold out of milk, eggs, fresh vegetables, toilet paper, etc. This afternoon we found most gasoline service stations had long lines of cars waiting to fuel up. One near my home had at a queue of least 40 cars, and at another we were able to handily scoot into ahead of others we were told that all service stations are now strictly limiting purchases to a maximum 20 liters.

2011/03/14 19:12 - Tokyo Electric Embarks On Power Outages, To Last By April

e.nikkei.com

Nikkei.com delivers round-the-clock business news on Japan, The Nikkei Weekly Online, real-time Nikkei 225 figures, news from around Asia and more.

http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilNews/idAFL3E7EE18820110314

Numerous multinational companies are sending their key expat executives out of Japan temporarily. Some are moving to Osaka or Kyoto for a while. Others have elected to send the families out and keep the executive here. Over the weekend a good friend who heads up the Japan subsidiary of a major multinational software company flew his wife, daughter, and himself to their house in Honolulu. His intention was to turn right around and fly back to Tokyo alone. However his head office and his wife (one & the same??) convinced him he could be just as effective working remotely – so he is now temporarily based out of Hawaii. His number two in command returned form a European business trip yesterday morning, and he called me this evening from his car to say he is on the way with his wife to catch a flight to Singapore. Seems he will work out their Asia office until the nuclear issue is settled in Japan.

Another senior American executive of a huge retail operation in Japan told me he just out his wife and kids on a plane for the US, but he will stay in Tokyo to run the business. This afternoon I had a long phone conversation with a European executive who is president of a famous luxury goods importer and retailer. He said he would personally like to get out of Tokyo but he cannot imagine walking out on his Japanese team – it would be like the captain leaving a sinking ship before the crew could escape. He may send his family to Kyoto or another western Japan city while he stays in Tokyo.

If you were a Western businessman based in Tokyo what would YOU do?

Feel-good promotions?

Everyone wants to feel good about themselves. Are you associating yourself or your company with that good feeling? If you are not, you should be.

Great companies and great leaders have a talent for nurturing and bringing out the best in their people and making their clients and customers feel delighted and positive.

It is amazing to me how many companies either don’t realize this or don’t know how to go about it. Here’s a short blog on a couple of great examples that made me feel on top of the world. Could these ideas help you too?

One of the first times I had such and experience was during the Internet dot.com days. I flew from Tokyo to California to attend a Red Herring “NDA” Conference. Red Herring had set up a booth with a photographer. The photographer took my portrait and, within an hour, I had my face on the cover of the latest edition of Red Herring Magazine – billed as “Entrepreneur of the Year”!

Over a decade later people who come into my office and see it framed on the wall still comment on it. Of course it was a fake magazine cover. But it made me feel like a real million dollars!

Talk about great long-term promotion!

Another great - and even better and totally unexpected - one was when the Autodesk head of Asia Pacific presented me with a mounted crystal (OK – OK, Plexiglas) plaque stating the company “Recognizes Roger J. Marshall of Odgers Berndtson for Business Partner Excellence”. What did I do to deserve this great award? Not much. I merely handled a key regional retained executive search engagement for them in Japan.

As opposed to the fake magazine cover, this award was for real!

Can you believe that? I do my job the right way AND I get an award? Wow! Call me a sucker but I was totally pumped.

This award also still sits proudly in my office and still garners positive comment from all who see it.

Awards and promotions like this make people feel good about themselves. When people feel good, and associate that good feeling with your company, then you win.

Is there anything your company can do to make your people and customers feel great about themselves?