Osaka – Sunday, December 18, 2011
It is over 9 months since the Japan disaster of earthquake and tsunami hit Tohoku district on March 11 this year. There are yet so many wreckages that need to be removed, people living in temporary housing, and so forth. Large-scale post-disaster reconstruction is about to start. The journey of the reconstruction, a nation-level issue, will be a long one.
In such a situation, Christmas Live Charity Events http://kitekesain.com/evtdisp.php?id=3905 have been held in Sendai, an important central city as the hub of Tohoku district that was hardly hit by the Japan disaster, in the afternoons of this weekend on 17th and 18th.
1. Who are the girls?
They are 8 members in early teens of a Japan pop group/idol unit called “Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI” http://orihimetai.com/. The girls are all from Sendai, Miyagi prefecture; i.e. they are the victims of the Japan disaster. “Micninoku” is a Japanese word that means “Tohoku”, the North Eastern Japan.
“Orihime” literally means a female weaver but in this case, ORIHIME is the legendary Princess Weaver for whom Sendai holds famous Star Festival called “Tanabata” festival. According to the legend, ORIHIME meets the prince she loves called Hikoboshi once a year on July 7. The day is called “Tanabata” day and on this day people write their wish on Origami papers and put it on a bamboo tree, which is decorated like a Christmas tree. 4 famous festivals are held in Tohoku in summer and Tanabata festival the one held in Sendai, often called “City of Trees”.
2. Who produced Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI?
It was a company called Muratac http://muratac.com/ based in Sendai. The company originally started its business from designing, manufacturing and supplying unique T-shirts upon request for events etc. and indeed it is the designer and supplier of the T-shirt for “24-Hour TV Programme” that has become a nationwide TV programme broadcasted every August. The events are also held aligning with the programme in major places/cities throughout Japan and the T-shirts are worn by the MCs and all staff members of the programme and the events.
The company has expanded the business to overall apparel such as stage costumes and festival costumes, and to planning and hosting events/stages including promotions (promotional goods, human resources for the events/stages).
With such business expansion, the company recently has entered scouting, developing and utilizing models and TV stars as well. For this reason, the company already had core competencies of producing and promoting a Japan pop group of Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI.
3. What has Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI been doing and why?
Since the group was produced in August, the members, although still amateurs, have been practicing hard to sing and dance day in day out so that they can deliver smile and courage to the people in the area where the progress in reconstruction has been slow through their stage event activities as well as reaching out to reconstruction-markets and visiting temporary houses.
With the earthquake and tsunami, everyone from adults to children has suffered from unprecedented damage, devastating them all. Everything from houses, schools and everything washed away and flattened.
The group wants to support areas which still face many hard-to-solve challenges in not only Miyagi but also Iwate and Fukushima. They also want to extend their gratitude to all people who sent money and goods from Japan and abroad for the sake of disaster victim children ever since immediately after the disaster outbreak.
They are determined to continue supporting not only disaster from victim children to elders side by side in the disaster-hit areas through their volunteer activities. Taking the advantage of their location, Sendai, they aim to send out information on not only the disaster but also wonderful charm of Sendai, Miyagi and Tohoku district to people around the globe.
They will be happy if readers of this blog post find people here in Tohoku forward-looking, cheerful and strong through ORIHIMETAI as seen in the lyric of ORI☆HIMETAI reconstruction supporting song “I’m Home” – “Once I was a bird I could not fly. But now no tear no time to cry. Believing you, it's nice to know you'll standby me〜”
It was with such a background that the Christmas live events performed by the group have been held in Sendai this weekend.
4. What are the author’s final thoughts?
The company and the group members must have overcome mental hardships as well as physical ones to have started this kind of initiative. It is because the author assumes that the victims of the disaster had been (or still are) mentally damaged and that there are so many things they would not really want to think or say about the disaster.
The author, just like many other people, feels it was with the characteristics of Tohoku people who are known for their patience that there has not been violence, chaos etc. even if the reconstruction process has been slow. If it had been in Kansai (western Japan), for example in Osaka, it probably had been quite different because Osaka people are known for being rather short-tempered.
The author is very much impressed with the initiative originated from Sendai by the company based in Sendai and their girls and that the initiative is planned to be spread to Iwate and Fukushima. Large-scale post-disaster reconstruction initiative is about to start and she believes there are things that each one of us around the globe can do to help drive such an initiative.
Resources:-
When post-disaster reconstruction has been slow, Muratac, an apparel company based in Sendai (an important city as a hub in Tohoku region, hardly hit by the Japan disaster in March 2011), produced Michinoku Sendai ORI☆HIMETAI, Japanese pop group of 8 girls in early teens from Sendai established in August to deliver smiles and encouragement through singing, dancing and visiting temporary housings. Large-scale reconstruction is about to start. Each one of us has something that we can do to help such an initiative.
2011年12月11日日曜日
Japan, China and South Korea Start FTA Negotiation
Osaka - Sunday, December 11, 2011
Nikkei, Japanese leading newspaper specialized in business and economy, reported today that Japan, China and South Korea are to start negotiation to conclude a FTA (Free Trade Agreement) in summer 2012. The three countries plan to define the direction of the negotiation start kickoff in the joint study about FTA among the three countries next week, and to officially confirm in the summit among the three countries to be held in spring 2012.
They also plan to reach a substantive agreement on Investment Agreement including such topics as preservation of intellectual properties.
1. Why Japan decided to start the negotiation now?
In November Japan expressed its intention of joining the negotiation to become a member of TPP. According to the analysis of the Japanese government, China and South Korea have become more proactive in negotiating with Japan about the topic in this trend and thus would like to take the opportunity to move forward on the FTA negotiation with the two countries.
2. How will the FTA negotiation proceed?
The 7th meeting of joint study among industry, academia and public sector to discuss conclusion of FTA among the three countries will be held in Pyeongchang December 14 – 16. It is anticipated that in the report to be announced on the last day a proposal to start the negotiation soon will be included, in addition to stance of each country regarding liberalization of trade and investment.
After the announcement of the report, governments of the three countries are to start drafting organization and schedule of the negotiation on the practical level. It is planned that in spring 2012 the official agreement discussion of the FTA is to be included in the summit agenda participated by the three countries to be held in China. The three countries aim to start the negotiation in summer 2012 to reach an agreement and sign smoothly and quickly.
3. What would be the focus of the negotiation?
It would be whether how cooperative the three countries can be to reach an agreement.
Japan would like to promote region scale economic alliance in Asia Pacific through Investment Agreement and FTA. China is rather reactive in lowering tariff of industrial products because they feel it would be a negative factor in developing the industry of their country.
In such a situation, it will not be easy for the three countries to reach an agreement. There are many hurdles to overcome regarding conditions even after the FTA negotiation started among the three countries.
4. What is the additional discussion planned between Japan and South Korea?
The Japanese government will also proceed simultaneously with negotiation to liberalize bi-lateral FTA with South Korea. The government started to coordinate to re-start in the first half of 2012 the negotiation of EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement) between Japan and South Korea that has been halted since 2004. This topic is planned to be included in the agenda of the meeting between Prime Minister Noda of Japan and President Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of Korea when the President visits Japan on December 17.
5. What is the plan of the Investment Agreement among the three countries?
It is anticipated that the substantive agreement is reached regarding the Investment Agreement among the three countries to deregulate investment from foreign capitals in the 14th meeting to be held on December 14. And then the leaders of the three countries are to sign the agreement in spring 2012 to make it effective by the end of 2012.
In the Investment Agreement, topics such as rules for intellectual property preservation and dispute settlement based on the International Law will be included. The agreement also aims to loosen the regulation of local content and technology transfer.
Resources:-
Japan, China and South Korea are to start negotiation to conclude FTA in summer 2012. The three countries plan to define the direction of the negotiation start in the joint study about FTA among the three countries next week, and to officially confirm in the summit among the three countries to be held in spring 2012. They also want to reach a substantive Investment Agreement including such topics as intellectual properties preservation.
Nikkei, Japanese leading newspaper specialized in business and economy, reported today that Japan, China and South Korea are to start negotiation to conclude a FTA (Free Trade Agreement) in summer 2012. The three countries plan to define the direction of the negotiation start kickoff in the joint study about FTA among the three countries next week, and to officially confirm in the summit among the three countries to be held in spring 2012.
They also plan to reach a substantive agreement on Investment Agreement including such topics as preservation of intellectual properties.
1. Why Japan decided to start the negotiation now?
In November Japan expressed its intention of joining the negotiation to become a member of TPP. According to the analysis of the Japanese government, China and South Korea have become more proactive in negotiating with Japan about the topic in this trend and thus would like to take the opportunity to move forward on the FTA negotiation with the two countries.
2. How will the FTA negotiation proceed?
The 7th meeting of joint study among industry, academia and public sector to discuss conclusion of FTA among the three countries will be held in Pyeongchang December 14 – 16. It is anticipated that in the report to be announced on the last day a proposal to start the negotiation soon will be included, in addition to stance of each country regarding liberalization of trade and investment.
After the announcement of the report, governments of the three countries are to start drafting organization and schedule of the negotiation on the practical level. It is planned that in spring 2012 the official agreement discussion of the FTA is to be included in the summit agenda participated by the three countries to be held in China. The three countries aim to start the negotiation in summer 2012 to reach an agreement and sign smoothly and quickly.
3. What would be the focus of the negotiation?
It would be whether how cooperative the three countries can be to reach an agreement.
Japan would like to promote region scale economic alliance in Asia Pacific through Investment Agreement and FTA. China is rather reactive in lowering tariff of industrial products because they feel it would be a negative factor in developing the industry of their country.
In such a situation, it will not be easy for the three countries to reach an agreement. There are many hurdles to overcome regarding conditions even after the FTA negotiation started among the three countries.
4. What is the additional discussion planned between Japan and South Korea?
The Japanese government will also proceed simultaneously with negotiation to liberalize bi-lateral FTA with South Korea. The government started to coordinate to re-start in the first half of 2012 the negotiation of EPA (Economic Partnership Agreement) between Japan and South Korea that has been halted since 2004. This topic is planned to be included in the agenda of the meeting between Prime Minister Noda of Japan and President Lee Myung-bak of the Republic of Korea when the President visits Japan on December 17.
5. What is the plan of the Investment Agreement among the three countries?
It is anticipated that the substantive agreement is reached regarding the Investment Agreement among the three countries to deregulate investment from foreign capitals in the 14th meeting to be held on December 14. And then the leaders of the three countries are to sign the agreement in spring 2012 to make it effective by the end of 2012.
In the Investment Agreement, topics such as rules for intellectual property preservation and dispute settlement based on the International Law will be included. The agreement also aims to loosen the regulation of local content and technology transfer.
Resources:-
Japan, China and South Korea are to start negotiation to conclude FTA in summer 2012. The three countries plan to define the direction of the negotiation start in the joint study about FTA among the three countries next week, and to officially confirm in the summit among the three countries to be held in spring 2012. They also want to reach a substantive Investment Agreement including such topics as intellectual properties preservation.
Japanese Companies Joining War for Global Talent (Part 2)
Osaka – Sunday, December 11, 2011
This is the succeeding article of the previous article Japanese Companies Joining War for Global Talent (Part 1) in which how Japanese companies started in earnest acquiring, developing and retaining global talent.
In this article, the author would like to introduce how 3 Japanese companies have started to develop global talent.
1. Hitachi
1) Overview of the company
Hitachi, established in 1910, is a leading Japanese company in electronics and heavy industry. The company initiates global businesses focusing on “society innovation business” that provide social infrastructure supported by information and telecommunication system businesses.
There are approximately 33,000 employees (non-consolidated) and 360,000 employees (consolidated) as of March 2011.
2) Basic concept of the global talent development
The objective of global talent development is to promote local driven management and accelerate business globalization by transforming to their management to a new human resource management from globalization perspective.
Their policy is to roll out human resource management and development aligning to each business of the variety of businesses the company is engaged in.
3) Main targets of the development programmes
The company has developed programmes for 4 types of global businesses; international (e.g. electron microscope business), global (e.g. semiconductor business), multi-national (e.g. home electronics business) and trans-national (e.g. large system business such as thermal power business. The company identified requirements and calculated the number of employees necessary for each type.
4) Main development programmes
(1) Globalization of Japanese employees working in Japan
Young employees are sent to International Assignments 1-3 months leveraging internal posting system.
(2) Developing global leaders
Off-JT developing programme for lines managers in Japan are reviewed focusing on developing leadership skills required in global business.
2. JGC Corporation
1) Overview of the company
JGC Corporation, established in 1928 as the Japan’s first engineering company, has been managing projects by engineers around the globe. Their business and management policy is to strengthen their core business and expand/grow business investment to become “Program Management Contractor & Investment Partner”.
There are 2,137 employees as of March 31, 2011.
2) Basic concept of the global talent development
The objective of global talent development is to develop employees so that they can lead diverse people of different background, work style and values, thus the company can initiate and manage projects as a global engineering company.
The total programme focuses on experience in real business OJT in addition to classroom lectures.
3) Main targets of the development programmes
The company aims to make all their employees be able to work globally, and not developing only selected employees as “global talent” or “employees to be sent to International Assignment”.
This is because the company believes that all employees in all functions in all layers of the organization require skills to lead and manage diverse people.
4) Main development programmes
The company provides various development programmes by layers of organization.
For example, all employees with work history in their company of maximum 4 years are sent to an International Assignment 3 – 6 months such as working in a shop floor of overseas plant construction. Also some employees with more work experience are selected to be sent to an International Assignment for 1 year such as working in western companies.
3. Fuji Xerox
1) Overview of the company
Fuji Xerox, a global company of copy/fax and information/communication equipments, was established in 1968 as the joint venture of Fuji Film (now Fuji Film Holdings) and Xerox (now Xerox Limited). The company has a slogan of “Best Partner, Fuji Xerox” and provides document services for office productivity improvement and management quality enhancement.
There are 9,627 employees as of March 31, 2011.
2) Basic concept of the global talent development
The comprehensive development programme is designed based on the philosophy that developing operation and communication skill required in live global business for practical use is more important than simply developing English language skills.
3) Main targets of the development programmes
The main target used to be a group of selected employees, who were sent overseas for International Assignment.
However, the company realized that all employees need to have a certain level of global business skill and mindset and therefore added a new course for sales person responsible for Japan market.
4) Main development programmes
(1) Overseas business training, integrating English language training and International Assignment
There used to be only a 1-1/2 year course for 10 employees a year. Now the company added a 2-1/2 year course for 20 employees a year, from which employees from in Japan domestic sales department also can benefit.
(2) Addition of global education in current training
Session of global business is added to current annual trainings and trainings for selected sales persons.
4. The author’s final thoughts
Japanese companies are far behind their western counterparts in global talent development. Most of their development programmes used to be targeting only on a selected employees who are to be appointed long-term International Assignment (3-5 years) and/or employees who are to be engaged in international and overseas related operation. Also their development and training programmes used to focus on English skills.
However, at least some of them started to realize all their employees need to have skills, competencies and mindset to work globally to certain extent. Also a few leaders in global talent development are now aware of the necessity and importance of leading and managing members of diverse team.
The author sincerely hopes that more Japanese companies would follower such companies. She hopes that they would implement programmes to make their employees learn from live experience the skills, competencies and mindset required to work in a global business environment, collaborating with members of the global network.
References:-
“Global Talent Development”, featured article of Vol. 3808 of Rosei Jiho issued on October 28, 2011, p10-p73 (in Japanese)
https://www.rosei.jp/readers
Resources:-
Japanese companies are still far behind their western counterparts but they have started to evolve their global talent development programme when they used to provide such programme to only selected employees, focusing on English language skills. Some of them started to provide programmes to all their employees including those in Japan sales department, aiming to develop their employees so that they can lead and manage diverse team members.
This is the succeeding article of the previous article Japanese Companies Joining War for Global Talent (Part 1) in which how Japanese companies started in earnest acquiring, developing and retaining global talent.
In this article, the author would like to introduce how 3 Japanese companies have started to develop global talent.
1. Hitachi
1) Overview of the company
Hitachi, established in 1910, is a leading Japanese company in electronics and heavy industry. The company initiates global businesses focusing on “society innovation business” that provide social infrastructure supported by information and telecommunication system businesses.
There are approximately 33,000 employees (non-consolidated) and 360,000 employees (consolidated) as of March 2011.
2) Basic concept of the global talent development
The objective of global talent development is to promote local driven management and accelerate business globalization by transforming to their management to a new human resource management from globalization perspective.
Their policy is to roll out human resource management and development aligning to each business of the variety of businesses the company is engaged in.
3) Main targets of the development programmes
The company has developed programmes for 4 types of global businesses; international (e.g. electron microscope business), global (e.g. semiconductor business), multi-national (e.g. home electronics business) and trans-national (e.g. large system business such as thermal power business. The company identified requirements and calculated the number of employees necessary for each type.
4) Main development programmes
(1) Globalization of Japanese employees working in Japan
Young employees are sent to International Assignments 1-3 months leveraging internal posting system.
(2) Developing global leaders
Off-JT developing programme for lines managers in Japan are reviewed focusing on developing leadership skills required in global business.
2. JGC Corporation
1) Overview of the company
JGC Corporation, established in 1928 as the Japan’s first engineering company, has been managing projects by engineers around the globe. Their business and management policy is to strengthen their core business and expand/grow business investment to become “Program Management Contractor & Investment Partner”.
There are 2,137 employees as of March 31, 2011.
2) Basic concept of the global talent development
The objective of global talent development is to develop employees so that they can lead diverse people of different background, work style and values, thus the company can initiate and manage projects as a global engineering company.
The total programme focuses on experience in real business OJT in addition to classroom lectures.
3) Main targets of the development programmes
The company aims to make all their employees be able to work globally, and not developing only selected employees as “global talent” or “employees to be sent to International Assignment”.
This is because the company believes that all employees in all functions in all layers of the organization require skills to lead and manage diverse people.
4) Main development programmes
The company provides various development programmes by layers of organization.
For example, all employees with work history in their company of maximum 4 years are sent to an International Assignment 3 – 6 months such as working in a shop floor of overseas plant construction. Also some employees with more work experience are selected to be sent to an International Assignment for 1 year such as working in western companies.
3. Fuji Xerox
1) Overview of the company
Fuji Xerox, a global company of copy/fax and information/communication equipments, was established in 1968 as the joint venture of Fuji Film (now Fuji Film Holdings) and Xerox (now Xerox Limited). The company has a slogan of “Best Partner, Fuji Xerox” and provides document services for office productivity improvement and management quality enhancement.
There are 9,627 employees as of March 31, 2011.
2) Basic concept of the global talent development
The comprehensive development programme is designed based on the philosophy that developing operation and communication skill required in live global business for practical use is more important than simply developing English language skills.
3) Main targets of the development programmes
The main target used to be a group of selected employees, who were sent overseas for International Assignment.
However, the company realized that all employees need to have a certain level of global business skill and mindset and therefore added a new course for sales person responsible for Japan market.
4) Main development programmes
(1) Overseas business training, integrating English language training and International Assignment
There used to be only a 1-1/2 year course for 10 employees a year. Now the company added a 2-1/2 year course for 20 employees a year, from which employees from in Japan domestic sales department also can benefit.
(2) Addition of global education in current training
Session of global business is added to current annual trainings and trainings for selected sales persons.
4. The author’s final thoughts
Japanese companies are far behind their western counterparts in global talent development. Most of their development programmes used to be targeting only on a selected employees who are to be appointed long-term International Assignment (3-5 years) and/or employees who are to be engaged in international and overseas related operation. Also their development and training programmes used to focus on English skills.
However, at least some of them started to realize all their employees need to have skills, competencies and mindset to work globally to certain extent. Also a few leaders in global talent development are now aware of the necessity and importance of leading and managing members of diverse team.
The author sincerely hopes that more Japanese companies would follower such companies. She hopes that they would implement programmes to make their employees learn from live experience the skills, competencies and mindset required to work in a global business environment, collaborating with members of the global network.
References:-
“Global Talent Development”, featured article of Vol. 3808 of Rosei Jiho issued on October 28, 2011, p10-p73 (in Japanese)
https://www.rosei.jp/readers
Resources:-
Japanese companies are still far behind their western counterparts but they have started to evolve their global talent development programme when they used to provide such programme to only selected employees, focusing on English language skills. Some of them started to provide programmes to all their employees including those in Japan sales department, aiming to develop their employees so that they can lead and manage diverse team members.
2011年12月4日日曜日
Japanese Companies Joining War for Global Talent (Part 1)
Osaka – Sunday, December 4, 2011
As explained in the previous articles How Japanese Companies Started Acquiring and Retaining Global Talent and Japanese Companies Are Changing Global Talent Development Strategy, globalization of their human to globalize their organization and business is now the focus of the Japanese companies to compete and survive in today’s global economy. That is to say they have entered the War for Global Talent with their competitors of non-Japanese global companies.
There have been online and offline articles in variety of media about this topic lately and having read them the author realized that there are 4 main things the Japanese companies are focusing on, which she would like to briefly introduce in this article.
1. Acquire Non-Japanese New Graduates
Recruiting non-Japanese employees used to be only done locally; i.e. local employees used to be hired, assigned and developed all locally and they were mostly assigned to local positions.
However, Japanese companies started to realize that they need to acquire talent from around the globe. And because recruiting mid-careers is still not so popular in Japan, they have started to recruit non-Japanese new graduates.
1) Recruit Non-Japanese Who Have Studied in Universities in Japan
This is the first attempt by the Japanese companies because non-Japanese students who have been studying in universities in Japan would be fluent in Japanese and are used to Japanese culture. This is extremely important for Japanese companies because one of the requirements that most Japanese companies present in recruiting non-Japanese new graduates is proficiency in Japanese.
This was the case of an American colleague of the author of her previous employer and the case of her colleagues in her current site. They are both very fluent in Japanese, especially the latter, who has married to a Japanese wife and has the visa with which he can to live in Japan forever.
2) Recruit Non-Japanese Who Have Studied in Universities Outside Japan
This option is quite new for Japanese companies. The new graduates who are recruited are mostly Chinese university students from prestigious universities in China.
For example, Nikkei, Japan’s leading newspaper specialized in business and economy, reported on December 3 that a Japanese leading recruiting company called Recruit planned and hosted events in Beijing and Shanghai in November. 42 Japanese companies including NTT, Kyocera, Kao and Mitsubishi Corporation participated in the event.
They interviewed university students who are to graduate from top class universities such as Tshinghua University in summer of 2012. They were successful in meeting and interviewing as many as 1,000 students who were fluent in Japanese as well as English. Such students are interested in working for Japanese companies because they want to see whether their competencies and skills are competitive outside their country. Approximately 150 students were offered the job.
The reason for Japanese companies now proactively recruiting Chinese new graduates is the fact that they would be able to hire globally competitive Chinese students, when China is an important market in their global business strategy. This attributes to the fact that there are as many as 7 million students in China in a year group, which is 10 times as many as in Japan.
Chinese students who attend such an event are in general more fluent in English than Japanese students, and can speak Japanese as well.
Also according to Mr. Obata, who had started his career in the company Recruit and has recently been engaged in business of recruiting Chinese university new graduates in China, Chinese university students are in general also more conscious than Japanese students in improving their competitiveness in the global labour market.
The company Recruit commented that majority of the 42 companies are expecting to hire students who could be potential candidates to fill key management positions in the future.
2. Assign Non-Japanese to Key Management Positions Throughout the Group Company
Most employees working in Global HQ in Japan have been Japanese and the top and/or senior management of the worldwide local sites have been Japanese expatriates from the Japan HQ; however, that will also change gradually.
1) Diversify Employees Working in Global HQ in Japan
According to Nikkei, Aeon, the leading retailer in Japan, has set a target of making half of their employees working in Global HQ in Japan non-Japanese by 2020.
This is why they only did seminar for recruiting new graduates only once in Japan this year and they spent all remaining resources to doing seminars abroad to recruit non-Japanese students. In fact, 400 students out of 2,000 who will join them in April 2012 are non-Japanese students who are to graduate from universities abroad.
2) Localize and/or Diversify Local Management
This had started in such companies as Panasonic around 2005 and according to Nikkei, Aeon and Hitachi also started.
This is to allocate optimum human resource to key management positions of worldwide local sites, breaking the “glass ceiling”. This very often is assigning high-performing local employees to such positions who better understand all the circumstances of the country thus they would have better chance of managing the site and the employees compared to Japanese expatriates from the Global HQ.
For this reason, Aeon assigned a Malaysian female who had been working with them throughout her career as the top management of their Malaysia site this June.
Hitachi started to review their human resources of senior management positions of their worldwide sites this year, with the objective of achieving optimum allocation of their human resources based on their HRM system around the globe, especially in emerging markets.
3. Integrate Worldwide Human Resource DB and Evaluation System
Global companies such as IBM and P&G have been going through globalization since 1990s to establish a system in which information of high-performing worldwide employees are shared so that they can allocate with optimization employees to key management positions around the globe. Senior management of the group company of global companies is composed of diverse talent, such as Nestle, whose senior management is composed from people from 9 different nationalities.
Such HR system inevitable to attract and retain best talent from around the globe had not been established in Japanese companies; however, a few innovative Japanese companies started to realize the necessity of such system.
According to Nikkei, Hitachi integrated information of their 370,000 group-wide human resources in their DB and grades of worldwide line managers earlier this year. This is to select optimum human resources from worldwide for key positions and projects in order to compete with their global counterparts.
Fuji Xerox also has a plan of establishing a similar human resource DB with the very same objective, according to Rosei Jiho, a Japanese HRM magazine. They are fully aware that they need to integrate HR system which is currently different from country to country to develop a common platform throughout the group, especially evaluation and rewards system.
4. Provide Ttraining and International Assignments
This has been the primary ways of developing global talents and similarly to their global counterparts, Japanese companies have been improving and evolving their global talent development.
The author would like to introduce some of the examples in the upcoming article.
References:-
Nikkei’s article on p1 issued on December 3, 2011, about leveraging human resources by Japanese companies (in Japanese)
“Global Talent Development”, featured article of Vol. 3808 of Rosei Jiho issued on October 28, 2011, p10-p73 (in Japanese)
https://www.rosei.jp/readers
Online articles about recent recruiting trends in China and Japan by Japanese companies written by Mr. Shigekazu Obata (in Japanese)
http://diamond.jp/category/s-syukatsurepo
Resources:-
Japanese companies have been far behind in acquiring, developing, retaining and allocating with optimization global talent but they have realized that globalization of their business and organization is critical to compete and survive in the today’s global economy and that they would need to join War for Global Talent. Thus they have in earnest started recruiting non-Japanese new graduates from around the globe, localizing and diversifying people assigned to key worldwide management positions, and integrate group-wide human resource information, in addition to improving training and International Assignments.
As explained in the previous articles How Japanese Companies Started Acquiring and Retaining Global Talent and Japanese Companies Are Changing Global Talent Development Strategy, globalization of their human to globalize their organization and business is now the focus of the Japanese companies to compete and survive in today’s global economy. That is to say they have entered the War for Global Talent with their competitors of non-Japanese global companies.
There have been online and offline articles in variety of media about this topic lately and having read them the author realized that there are 4 main things the Japanese companies are focusing on, which she would like to briefly introduce in this article.
1. Acquire Non-Japanese New Graduates
Recruiting non-Japanese employees used to be only done locally; i.e. local employees used to be hired, assigned and developed all locally and they were mostly assigned to local positions.
However, Japanese companies started to realize that they need to acquire talent from around the globe. And because recruiting mid-careers is still not so popular in Japan, they have started to recruit non-Japanese new graduates.
1) Recruit Non-Japanese Who Have Studied in Universities in Japan
This is the first attempt by the Japanese companies because non-Japanese students who have been studying in universities in Japan would be fluent in Japanese and are used to Japanese culture. This is extremely important for Japanese companies because one of the requirements that most Japanese companies present in recruiting non-Japanese new graduates is proficiency in Japanese.
This was the case of an American colleague of the author of her previous employer and the case of her colleagues in her current site. They are both very fluent in Japanese, especially the latter, who has married to a Japanese wife and has the visa with which he can to live in Japan forever.
2) Recruit Non-Japanese Who Have Studied in Universities Outside Japan
This option is quite new for Japanese companies. The new graduates who are recruited are mostly Chinese university students from prestigious universities in China.
For example, Nikkei, Japan’s leading newspaper specialized in business and economy, reported on December 3 that a Japanese leading recruiting company called Recruit planned and hosted events in Beijing and Shanghai in November. 42 Japanese companies including NTT, Kyocera, Kao and Mitsubishi Corporation participated in the event.
They interviewed university students who are to graduate from top class universities such as Tshinghua University in summer of 2012. They were successful in meeting and interviewing as many as 1,000 students who were fluent in Japanese as well as English. Such students are interested in working for Japanese companies because they want to see whether their competencies and skills are competitive outside their country. Approximately 150 students were offered the job.
The reason for Japanese companies now proactively recruiting Chinese new graduates is the fact that they would be able to hire globally competitive Chinese students, when China is an important market in their global business strategy. This attributes to the fact that there are as many as 7 million students in China in a year group, which is 10 times as many as in Japan.
Chinese students who attend such an event are in general more fluent in English than Japanese students, and can speak Japanese as well.
Also according to Mr. Obata, who had started his career in the company Recruit and has recently been engaged in business of recruiting Chinese university new graduates in China, Chinese university students are in general also more conscious than Japanese students in improving their competitiveness in the global labour market.
The company Recruit commented that majority of the 42 companies are expecting to hire students who could be potential candidates to fill key management positions in the future.
2. Assign Non-Japanese to Key Management Positions Throughout the Group Company
Most employees working in Global HQ in Japan have been Japanese and the top and/or senior management of the worldwide local sites have been Japanese expatriates from the Japan HQ; however, that will also change gradually.
1) Diversify Employees Working in Global HQ in Japan
According to Nikkei, Aeon, the leading retailer in Japan, has set a target of making half of their employees working in Global HQ in Japan non-Japanese by 2020.
This is why they only did seminar for recruiting new graduates only once in Japan this year and they spent all remaining resources to doing seminars abroad to recruit non-Japanese students. In fact, 400 students out of 2,000 who will join them in April 2012 are non-Japanese students who are to graduate from universities abroad.
2) Localize and/or Diversify Local Management
This had started in such companies as Panasonic around 2005 and according to Nikkei, Aeon and Hitachi also started.
This is to allocate optimum human resource to key management positions of worldwide local sites, breaking the “glass ceiling”. This very often is assigning high-performing local employees to such positions who better understand all the circumstances of the country thus they would have better chance of managing the site and the employees compared to Japanese expatriates from the Global HQ.
For this reason, Aeon assigned a Malaysian female who had been working with them throughout her career as the top management of their Malaysia site this June.
Hitachi started to review their human resources of senior management positions of their worldwide sites this year, with the objective of achieving optimum allocation of their human resources based on their HRM system around the globe, especially in emerging markets.
3. Integrate Worldwide Human Resource DB and Evaluation System
Global companies such as IBM and P&G have been going through globalization since 1990s to establish a system in which information of high-performing worldwide employees are shared so that they can allocate with optimization employees to key management positions around the globe. Senior management of the group company of global companies is composed of diverse talent, such as Nestle, whose senior management is composed from people from 9 different nationalities.
Such HR system inevitable to attract and retain best talent from around the globe had not been established in Japanese companies; however, a few innovative Japanese companies started to realize the necessity of such system.
According to Nikkei, Hitachi integrated information of their 370,000 group-wide human resources in their DB and grades of worldwide line managers earlier this year. This is to select optimum human resources from worldwide for key positions and projects in order to compete with their global counterparts.
Fuji Xerox also has a plan of establishing a similar human resource DB with the very same objective, according to Rosei Jiho, a Japanese HRM magazine. They are fully aware that they need to integrate HR system which is currently different from country to country to develop a common platform throughout the group, especially evaluation and rewards system.
4. Provide Ttraining and International Assignments
This has been the primary ways of developing global talents and similarly to their global counterparts, Japanese companies have been improving and evolving their global talent development.
The author would like to introduce some of the examples in the upcoming article.
References:-
Nikkei’s article on p1 issued on December 3, 2011, about leveraging human resources by Japanese companies (in Japanese)
“Global Talent Development”, featured article of Vol. 3808 of Rosei Jiho issued on October 28, 2011, p10-p73 (in Japanese)
https://www.rosei.jp/readers
Online articles about recent recruiting trends in China and Japan by Japanese companies written by Mr. Shigekazu Obata (in Japanese)
http://diamond.jp/category/s-syukatsurepo
Resources:-
Japanese companies have been far behind in acquiring, developing, retaining and allocating with optimization global talent but they have realized that globalization of their business and organization is critical to compete and survive in the today’s global economy and that they would need to join War for Global Talent. Thus they have in earnest started recruiting non-Japanese new graduates from around the globe, localizing and diversifying people assigned to key worldwide management positions, and integrate group-wide human resource information, in addition to improving training and International Assignments.
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