Japanese Crisis Leadership

Japan is home of 40% of the world’s businesses older than 300 years. So how do successful companies react to crisis like 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident? Leaders respond with concern for community, employees and long term thinking. 

Hirotaka Takeuchi studied the reactions of several company leaders in the HBS article. 

Takeshi Niinami, CEO of Lawson gave the following order before the tsunami reached the shores of Tohoku: “Deliver food to disaster victims within seven days. And disregard cost.” During the two vulnerable weeks before government relief kicked in, Lawson delivered 200,000 prepared meals to victims, including onigiri rice balls, bread, and cups of noodles.

Makoto Kigawa, CEO of Yamato sent out the following message to all 10,000 or so employees in the Tohoku region: “If help is needed, then help. Don’t worry about profits.” Furthermore Yamato donated about 40% of profits over the next year to help with rebuilding.

The lesson is leaders were not thinking about next quarter’s profits, but building the future. They had spent time training the workforce and establishing values. When the crisis came, the people stepped up and lead from where they were. Lawson agreed to provide school lunches when the city needed help. However employees on their own included desserts for the children.

Every community has been affected by the Pandemic, which may take years to recover. How can you lead your company to support your community? Can you encourage and free your employees to act?

For more ideas suggest reading the Forbes and HBS articles below.

“If you do not think about the future, you cannot have one.” - John Galsworthy

Forbes - Why Japanese Businesses Are So Good At Surviving Crises

https://www.forbes.com/sites/hbsworkingknowledge/2020/08/27/why-japanese-businesses-are-so-good-at-surviving-crises/#3c375275e494 

HBS - Wise Leadership and Wise Capitalism 

https://www.kindai.ac.jp/rd/research-center/management-innovation/download-data/vol1_2.pdf 

Adapting to Uncertainty

 2020 Pandemic Recession put life’s uncertainty in front of us daily. Most of our careers, plans and routines are on hold or canceled. Add in a contentious 2020 Presidential Election (aren’t they all?). 

Parents trying to remote work and school children from home. Plexiglas checkouts in stores. Family, friend and/or ourselves not having work. Missing seeing family, friends, classmates and coworkers. Putting in extra hours to make working from home as productive as in office. It’s not and can be stressful.

2020 has been disruptive. But that is how life is lived. From one uncertainty to another.

 

Be kind to yourself and family. Create routines and include down time, fun and exercise. Workdays get up usual time and wear Friday casual clothes to go in my home office. Missing volleyball, so added lifting dumbbells and Sunday morning run before Facebook church services. Along the way take pictures of views, flowers and wildlife to share online for fun. My sister and aunt on east coast are fans of flowers. Have Sunday calls or video calls to family and friends.

 

Breaks are important too, find every 45 minutes to 1.5 hours need to get away from screen, stretch, read, drink or eat something. Same as in office. Had to work long hours including Saturday and Sunday to meet a Tuesday deadline. This weekend staying away from office computer to refresh. You work more productively refreshed.

 

People are more resilient than you know. Look more at what you accomplished than the to do list. Put away endless news programs scaring you for ratings. This election will take longer to count because of more mail in ballots. However the results will come, and regardless of who wins the US has checks and balances to correct overreaches. If you are struggling talk with friends or a professional. No one is not struggling now.

 

Life will go on and more discoveries and technologies will improve our future. Look at uncertainties we have overcome - wars, pandemics and recession: 

 

Cold War 1947-91

Asian Flu 1957

Recession 1958

Vietnam War 1959-1975

Recession 1960-61

Seventh cholera pandemic 1961

Cuban Missile Crisis 1962

Korean DMZ Conflict 1966-69

London Flu 1968

Recession 1969-70

Recession 1973-75

Smallpox 1974

Soviet Flu 1977

Anthrax 1979

Recession 1980

HIV/AIDS 1981

Recession 1981-82

Intervention in Lebanon 1982-84

Invasion of Grenada 1983

Bombing Libya 1986

Yellow Fever 1986-87, 2012, 2016

Tanker War 1987-88

Invasion of Panama 1989-90

Bosnian War 1992-95

Recession 1990-91

Gulf War 1990-91

Cholera 1991-93, 2001, 2004, 2006-08, 2010-20

Bubonic Plague 1994, 2008, 2014-17

Intervention in Haiti 1994-95

Kosovo War 1998-99

Dengue Fever 2000, 2004-05, 2007-09, 2013, 2017

Recession 2001

SARS 2002-2004

Afghanistan 2001-20

Iraq War 2003-12

Ebola 2004, 2007, 2013-16, 2018-20

Malaria 2006

Recession 2007-09

Mumps 2009

Swine Flu 2009, 2015

Measles 2010-14, 2019-20

MERS 2012-2020

Chikungunya 2013

Intervention in Syria 2014-20

Zika 2015

Seasonal Flu 2017

SARS Covid 19 2020

Recession 2020 

 

Total 14 conflicts, 22 diseases and 9 recessions during my life. There will be more and we will overcome. 

Thrive Through the Pandemic

 2020 is not a year we expected. Remote work. Travel canceled. Physical distancing. Zoom meetings. Church, sports and events cancelled. Family, friends or coworkers with coronavirus. Millions furloughed and laid off.

Take a long view. In one or two years vaccines and better treatments will be available. The fatality rate is already falling as medical treatments and knowledge improves. By 2022 economies will be growing, companies hiring and new businesses blooming. Which opportunity is yours?

 

What do you need to do now to be ready then? Every project takes time to plan and execute. What skill do you need to develop? Why do you want to help people? What books do you need to read? Do you need to improve interpersonal skills? Do you need therapy for stress? 

 

The future is coming. Answer these questions now to thrive then.

 

Picking Blackberries and Opportunities

 Similarities in picking wild blackberries and finding opportunities in life. When you see blackberries every year the joy of eating tasty sour berries for the next few weeks is here. Yet they must be harvested.

 

Look first. Are there bears? If not choose your footing carefully. Blackberries are thorny. First place your feet carefully. Step on the shoots and position yourself close as reasonable. Stumbling or falling into blackberries is painful!

 

That big juicy blackberry you saw that made you go in there? Look up and pick it. Ripe blackberries come off with a soft tug. Won’t come, it isn’t ready. Leave it for next week or the next person. Don’t be greedy. More berries grow every day.

 

Then look left and right, when there is one there are more around. Look up, but don’t be wistful about the blackberries out of reach. Unless you plan to come back with equipment, harvest the one available now. Look down, so few people do. The sweetest blackberries are hidden in the shade. Use the leaves to help push thorns out of the way to find more.

 

What has this to do with opportunities? They are plentiful like blackberries. You don’t get the assignment or job you want? Find more opportunities. They exist in your company or business now. If not there are more around. In one county there are over 100,000 businesses.

 

Don’t race after the first opportunity without checking it out. Scams where people try to get you to buy something or steal your identity abound. One company interviewed with was trying to recruit me for sales. However they couldn’t answer the business question how do you make money? My wife was contacted for sales job that sounded like fun for any social 20 year old, but didn’t seem to offer any services. They charged for their software to work for them, that is how they scammed people.

 

Opportunities outside your core business skills look enticing, but investigate first. Are they a shiny distraction? Does it interest you because it is novel? Exciting? Look easy? What is the strategic advantage of this opportunity? Who are the competitors? We are never the only person to see them. 

 

Is it profitable opportunity? Looked at several restaurant options over years, and had friends start restaurants. Anyone can open a restaurant, little qualifications other than signing a lease. Long days, health regulations, advertising, challenges finding help, and tiny profit margins await you. Several couples divorced over strain of running restaurants, often followed by bankruptcy.

 

Be strategic. Know who you are, your talents and skills so you can explain how you can help. In sales you want to know how you benefit the customer. To harvest your opportunities plan where and how to spend your time. Learn their pains and how you can contribute to customer’s well being. Then your reward is a bountiful harvest to enjoy.