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.