Nik,
that's very interesting for me what you are saying.
Just like you, I am just trying to puzzle together a picture about
Vodafone/Japan - and now about SoftBank Japan, because I need
this picture for my job.
You are totally right that failing in Japan is not a privilege of
foreigners -
there are plenty of Japanese firms with zero foreigners who
fail spectacularly in Japan, and there are lost of foreign companies
in Japan which are spectacularly successful.
I am really interested in any more pieces of the Vodafone-puzzle that
you can contribute.
I am sure that the regional company integration was a problem
for J-Phone/Vodafone, but I am not sure how big a factor that
was - I simply don't know enough about that
I am not racist at all - its not about race - its about being intensely
in touch. My 12 year old kid - with him I speak Japanese - and
who goes to school in Tokyo here, just knows a hell of a lot more
about many things in Japan than I do. He is 1/2 Japanese 1/2 Western -
I am the last person to be racist either way. The point I was trying
to make is about deep knowledge - not about race.
Gerhard
On 2007/02/14, at 19:18, Nik Frengle wrote:
> Gerhard,
> On 2/14/07, Gerhard Fasol <fasol@eurotechnology.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>> If it was so easy as you think - then Vodafone for example would have
>> easily
>> succeeded in Japan etc.
>
>
> You have been tossing stones at Vodafone for quite a while, and
> some of the
> stones have hit close to a mark, but one thing to keep in mind:
> Vodafone
> Japan was 99% Japanese. I counted. Sure, there were lots of foreign
> managers
> at the top, and our former COO there in particular was that most
> venal of
> parachuted foreign manager, who is too arrogant to listen to anyone
> with
> local knowledge, takes decisions based on flawed and unworkable
> assumptions,
> and so on. No doubt. But at base the problems were not because the
> company
> was foreign but because the transition from 9 different regional
> companies
> in Japan to one central one was handled poorly, and led to a real
> issue with
> organisational initiative and innovation. There was way too much
> bureaucracy
> in the way of offering new services and doing the things that would
> have
> made Vodafone Japan more competitive, a bureaucracy that came about
> during
> consolidation. And that bureaucracy was nearly completely Japanese.
> J-Phone
> transitioned very poorly from a nimble and spunky loose
> conglomeration of
> companies in regions, able to respond very quickly to market
> conditions, and
> to release innovative products first, to a big clunky central
> company with
> too much bureaucracy. There were certainly other issues, and idiot
> foreigners played as great or greater a role in that as anyone else at
> Vodafone Japan, but my feeling is that it is simplistic, and simply
> misses
> the mark to blame Vodafone Japan's problems solely on foreigners not
> understanding the Japanese market.
>
> Best,
> Nik
Received on Wed Feb 14 13:55:50 2007