For example, Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani, as part of his efforts to create a culture that supports global business, decided to make English the lingua franca of the company for all meetings and communications, a process he calls "Englishnization."He required all workers to become proficient in English within three years or face termination. In Japan, where a widespread aversion toward and lack of ability in English persists, Englishnization is culturally audacious, so much so that former Honda Motor CEO Takanobu Ito was prompted to ridicule Mikitani's initiative as "stupid."
Yet despite being so unconventional in Japanese culture, Mikitani made Englishnization part of Rakuten's culture, and boasts of an more than 80% adoption rate of the initiative. Other companies in Japan have since imitated and repeated Rakuten's success. Honda would likely benefit from an Englishnization initiative of its own.
While Ito was reacting to Rakuten's initiative in calling it "stupid," one has to wonder how he may have reacted to bold ideas in his own company that might have been culturally audacious. Have a look at Honda's business performance compared to Rakuten's during the same period.
(snip)
In my experience, the most successful business leaders in Japan have four practices in common.
They never blame Japanese culture for their business problems or allow supposed cultural obstacles to drive strategic decision-making.
They identify what they want to change in their businesses and focus on that unapologetically.
They have a penchant for action first, culture change later. They do not wait for culture to change before implementing strategic change.
They understand that it is not culturally insensitive to be culturally unconventional. Successful Japanese leaders like Fast Retailing's Tadashi Yanai and Cyberdyne's Yoshiyuki Sankai serve as their role models.
http://asia.nikkei.com/Viewpoints/Steve ... ist?page=1
