| 作者 |
 Discovering Japanese inns (from japantoday.com) |
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| 所跟贴 |
Discovering Japanese inns (from japantoday.com) -- 暗八仙 - (6699 Byte) 2006-2-01 周三, 05:56 (525 reads) |
暗八仙
头衔: 海归上校
声望: 院士
性别: 
加入时间: 2005/08/19
文章: 5359
来自: 北京
海归分: 76190
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作者：暗八仙 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
Nicole Watanabe
Director of int'l marketing and sales - Japan
Japan Intercultural Consulting
January 16, 2006
Flicking your business card across the boardroom table might work in America, but do it in Japan and you will have committed one of the many cross-cultural blunders that very often hinder the smooth flow of business between Japanese and foreign businesspeople.
Japan Intercultural Consulting (JIC), an international training and consulting firm specializing in cross-cultural communications and Japanese business practices, helps clients improve working relationships and minimize those embarrassing cultural faux pas in multicultural environments.
With 40 experienced team members working in Chicago, Tokyo and London and a client list boasting some of the biggest names in the automobile, electronics and banking industries, JIC (www.japanintercultural.com) provides training, team-building, and executive coaching services that enable clients to better achieve their business goals. In addition, the company helps clients and their employees deal with the cross-cultural situations by providing deep insights into cultural differences.
Founded in 1994, JIC focuses on cross-cultural training, pre-departure training for expatriates, training for employees involved in international business activities, training for non-Japanese employees, training for skills development, teambuilding, and sexual harassment prevention training.
Business reporter Jonathon Walsh meets Nicole Watanabe, director of international marketing and sales for Japan, to discover how JIC helps smooth the rough edges of cross-cultural business.
What is your role?
As an executive, I wear many hats. One of my roles is marketing our seminars and consulting to Japanese and foreign multinational corporations in Japan. In this role, I give presentations at business events, take part in public panel discussions, and occasionally give open seminars on cross-cultural HR and management issues.
Another role is training new facilitators to execute a variety of seminar content using the JIC framework. Yet another role is as a facilitator myself, conducting seminars for our clients on topics such as cross-cultural communication, leadership skills for managers, sexual harassment prevention, presentation skills, negotiation skills and team-building.
How did you get involved in this business?
I came to Japan immediately after graduating high school to study Japanese in a one-year intensive program. I stayed with a host family in Kyoto and studied at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. My host parents, being close family friends, took it upon themselves to teach me not only Japanese language, but Japanese culture as well.
While many Japanese may have tried to accommodate the American style of doing things, my host parents sincerely wanted to give me the ability to form good relationships with Japanese people in various contexts, so they never hesitated to tell me when I was committing a cultural faux pas. They also encouraged me to continue my studies in Kyoto so I could become completely fluent in Japanese.
So, rather than going back to the U.S. for my undergraduate degree, I took the entrance examinations to Doshisha University and studied there under the regular Japanese curriculum. I graduated with a B.A. in Japanese language and literature. After spending some time in Taiwan studying Mandarin Chinese, I moved to New York and worked for the U.S. subsidiary of a large Japanese trading firm. There I was able to use the language and cultural skills I had gained in Kyoto, working with Japanese and locally-hired staff on international business projects.
Then what?
I realized the value of the cultural knowledge I had. American professionals from inside and outside the company often asked me for advice on Japanese business culture, and Japanese staff and management often asked for my assistance in mastering the American business communication style. I found working as a liaison between cultures so rewarding, I decided I wanted to deepen my knowledge of human interaction and communication. I obtained a master's degree program in sociolinguistics at Georgetown University, focusing my research on communication between Japanese and non-Japanese professionals, and joined JIC soon after that. As a consultant and facilitator with JIC, I get to work with a wide variety of nationalities and industries, so there is always more for me to learn.
Who are you mainly marketing to?
Our clients are both Japanese and foreign firms operating in Japan. Typically, our clients' employees are engaged in some sort of cross-cultural contact, either internally or with customers, suppliers, or joint venture partners. For example, Japanese working with non-Japanese, whether they are working side-by-side in Japan, are about to go on an overseas assignment, or are working in "virtual" work teams using email and teleconferencing, benefit immensely from our seminars. Similarly, non-Japanese working in Japan benefit from the insights into Japanese business culture we provide.
Also, our multicultural teambuilding seminars are quite popular now due to the increasing diversity of the labor market here in Japan. Our seminars on presentation skills, negotiation skills, feedback skills and team management skills are increasingly popular with Japanese participants including those who are not necessarily working across cultures, but who want to enhance their communication abilities.
How do you market JIC?
Public speaking events are a large part of my marketing activities. I and others on our team also write about cross-cultural issues in regular publications as well as books. Our website is also a valuable marketing tool. In addition to this, I participate in networking activities to market JIC. One of the most rewarding ways of marketing is through recommendations from current clients. As a matter of fact, word of mouth has been one of our most successful marketing tools.
What are JIC's main points of difference?
Because our clients are businesspeople, we provide programs that are relevant, practical, and impactful, rather than abstract or academic. We focus on helping our clients achieve their business goals, through improved working relationships and optimized performance in multicultural environments. At the same time, our training is based on a solid theoretical framework. We have developed our framework from a wealth of sociological and business research, and each of our facilitators builds upon that with their own experience on the front lines of business.
What about your seminars?
Our seminars are designed so that each individual participant links the content to their own experiences, past and present, using the framework to organize what they have encountered so far and as a guide to future situations. Also, our seminars are focused on active participation, so the participants define the scope of the discussion, which ensures that the content is directly relevant to their work.
The focus of all our seminars is on communication and building strong professional relationships. This means our text materials and our facilitators are consistently focused on the desired end-result for the participants, which is more effective working relationships, rather than language proficiency or generalized information.
Another key point of differentiation is our firm's international nature. With our headquarters operation in the U.S., a branch in Europe, and our new Mexico City branch opening up this spring, we are poised to offer our clients globally-coordinated programs. This might mean a pre-departure program conducted in the U.S. would be coordinated with a post-arrival program for the same participants once they have arrived in Japan. Or coordinated training might be offered to staff at a Japanese company's headquarters in Japan as well as for the locally-hired staff they work with at American and European operations.
How is business going?
Very well. We have been steadily growing our client base and expanding our seminar content since our Japan branch was established in 1999. We have built on our original Japan-U.S. business culture seminars to provide seminars on Japan-European, Japan-China, and Japan-Korea business issues; and have recently launched seminars on Japan-India cultural issues. Recently, we have also seen an increase in requests for coaching.
In addition, we have an established team of expert, bilingual facilitators who possess a wealth of international business experience, advanced knowledge of cross-cultural communication, and a high level of enthusiasm for corporate training. Our team of experts is our most valuable asset as a company, and they continue to build our good reputation.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing your industry?
It's always a challenge to stay abreast of cultural issues in business. As we remind participants in our seminars, culture is dynamic, not static. It is always changing and developing and we must continue to study and keep on top of how globalization and development are affecting the business cultures of various countries and industries, and how cultural issues are playing out in daily business. It is vital to our success to keep our seminars relevant to the front lines of business.
Another challenge is raising awareness of the importance of cultural issues in business and distinguishing that from language issues. While language is probably the most obvious barrier in the minds of most business people working in a cross-cultural environment, it is not language, per se, that causes most communication problems in international business.
We have seen a large increase in the demand for cultural training, but it still surprises me how many companies send employees on overseas assignments or put employees into international work teams without any training or guidance on how to communicate effectively with co-workers of different cultural backgrounds. Many companies still simply send employees on assignment and "hope for the best." The challenge for us is to convince these companies that the information we provide can significantly shorten the learning curve and make the assignment much more successful and rewarding to the company and to the individual.
What is the most frustrating aspect of your role?
It would be nice if all of our management and facilitators had more opportunities to spend time together. Since we are all very busy and travel frequently, it is hard to find time to get together and brainstorm or just enjoy each other's company. When we do manage to meet in the same place at the same time, we have a great time.
What motivates you the most?
Knowing that I am helping people connect and build good relationships. The most rewarding thing about my job is getting detailed and difficult questions from audiences or participants in seminars. This shows me that they are really thinking about how to effectively communicate with their counterparts or co-workers and my insights are helping them do so. It also gives me the opportunity to think about cross-cultural issues from their real-life standpoint, not just in a theoretical sense.
The other most rewarding thing is getting feedback from people saying their day in training was well-spent. I recently had a participant tell me he had not looked forward to participating in my seminar and thought he was too busy to take time out of work for it, but after attending, he found it extremely useful, and he asked to set up a follow-up session to discuss certain issues in more depth. That kind of comment makes my day.
How competitive is the Japanese market?
I would say it is more and more competitive these days. When I first started in this business here in Japan, I was concerned that the extended economic recession would mean not many companies were investing in training such as ours. However, I was surprised to find that, on the contrary, many companies were looking for ways to gain an edge, and accelerated globalization has made cross-cultural communications skills a necessity, not a perk.
In Japan, and especially in Tokyo, there are many very talented individuals who are making the most of their international business experience by marketing consulting services and training. However, I am happy that many of the most talented are part of our team. Also, our company has been in this business for a long time and our instruction framework is the best I've seen, so I am confident we are providing top-quality service.
Are you on the lookout for more staff?
I am proud to say we have built a very strong team of experts, and I think our staff is our greatest strength. Of course, we are always on the lookout for very enthusiastic people who have a background in cross-cultural or international relations, significant business experience, are fully bilingual (Japanese Language Proficiency Test Ikkyu level), and want to share their experiences to help professionals be more effective.
What areas in the industry in Japan would you most like to see improved or reformed?
Culture is dynamic and complex, and so are human relationships. Cross-cultural business relationships cannot be sufficiently understood through generalizations and "cookie-cutter" type approaches to training. In our industry, great care needs to be taken in providing relevant, useful insights without strengthening stereotypes.
Some providers in our industry use a mass-production approach to cultural training which leads to generalized content and does not take into account the complex nature of people and multicultural dynamics. This ends up selling clients short because they don't get the specific information they need to be effective and they don't gain an understanding of how to approach cross-cultural communication. This applies in the context of purely "cross-cultural" training, such as Japanese/non-Japanese communication, as well as diversity training, leadership training, and other skills.
I would like to see more people in our industry show a higher level of understanding in this area, because in order to truly help people connect with each other, we cannot pretend that communication fits into one cookie-cutter pattern.
What is a typical day for you?
There are no typical days for me. I have two small children who keep my life quite unpredictable and fun, and as any working mom can tell you, life is a rollercoaster ride of surprises and rewards. I sometimes have to switch identities at the drop of a hat, from mom to professional and back again. Sometimes, I spend my whole day in the office, writing, preparing for seminars, composing proposals for new clients, etc. Some days I am out on sales calls, consultations, or networking events for most of the day, and some days, of course, I am leading a seminar from morning until evening, sometimes for days in a row. This variety is one thing I love about the job.
Do you have any other interesting projects on the boil?
I have recently completed my first book in Japanese, co-authored with our Chicago-based managing principal, Rochelle Kopp. It's a handbook on presentation skills for Japanese businesspeople, entitled "Presentations Aren't Scary! Americans Teach You 53 Presentation Secrets" (Purezen Nante Kowaku nai! Amerikajin ga Oshieru Purezentation no Hikketsu 53). It will be available in late January from Japan Productivity Center Press.
I have also been asked to teach a course on business presentations at the new international MBA program at Tsukuba University's Tokyo campus, and will start the class this month. The students (Japanese and non-Japanese) are all full-time professionals working in Tokyo and are highly motivated, so I am looking forward to working with them.
How do you relax when you are not working?
I enjoy traveling and spending time with my husband and two children. In particular, we like to visit Japanese onsen together as well as travel overseas. One of my favorite ways to relax is long-distance running and I am looking forward to running a full marathon this year.
What are your future business plans?
To continue providing the same high-quality services, and continue our expansion in Japan.
作者：暗八仙 在 海归商务 发贴, 来自【海归网】 http://www.haiguinet.com
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