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one-thing-a-day meets the light of day

I am happy to introduce you my new blog
http://one-thing-a-day.blogspot.com/
on which I record my one-a-day projects, starting with one-person-a-day. I am thinking of actualizing 4-5 different versions of one-a-day projects consequtively.

Japanese Ways resemble the Turkish Ways

Take a leaf out of his book / Economist Aug 7th2008

Japanese bosses can learn from the country’s favourite businessman—even if he does not exist.

Kenshi Hirokane-Kodansha Ltd

YAMATO, the ancient name of Japan, essentially means “big harmony”. To achieve such balance, Japanese society has refined a plethora of cultural traits: humility, loyalty, respect and consensus. In the field of business, however, this often results in a lack of leaders who are willing to stand out from the crowd, promote themselves and act decisively. “The nail that sticks up gets hammered down” is a common Japanese refrain; “the hawk with talent hides his talons” is another. Whereas American and European bosses like to appear on the covers of global business magazines, their Japanese counterparts are comfortable in their obscurity. Business in Japan is generally run as a group endeavour.

Such democratic virtues served the country well in the post-war period. But today they hold too many Japanese firms back. Japan boasts some of the best companies in the world: Toyota, Canon and Nintendo are the envy of their industries. But they operate on a global scale and have tentatively embraced some unconsensual American methods. In much of the Japanese economy—especially its huge domestic services sector—managers are in something of a funk. Firms do not give promising youngsters responsibility early on, but allocate jobs by age. Unnecessarily long working hours are the norm, sapping productivity. And there are few women and foreigners in senior roles, which narrows the talent pool.

So how pleasing it is to be able to report the success of a business leader who breaks the mould. Young, dynamic and clever, he is not afraid to push aside old, conservative know-nothings. He disdains corporate politics and promotes people based on merit rather than seniority. He can make mistakes (he got involved in a questionable takeover-defence scheme), but he is wildly popular with salarymen: his every move is chronicled weekly. In June he was given the top job at one of Japan’s biggest firms. Kosaku Shima of Hatsushiba Goyo Holdings has only one serious shortcoming: he is not a real person, but a manga, or cartoon, character (see article).

For many critics of Japan, that says it all: Mr Shima could exist only in fiction. In fact there is room for the country’s managers and even its politicians to learn from him.

Most of the lessons are for Japan’s managers. At present, bosses rarely say what they think because it might disrupt the harmony, or be seen as immodest. Their subordinates are reluctant to challenge ideas because that would cause the boss to lose face. So daft strategies fester rather than getting culled quickly. There is little risk-taking or initiative. The crux of the problem is Japanese companies’ culture of consensus-based decision-making. Called nemawashi (literally, “going around the roots”) or ringi (bottom-up decisions), it helped to establish an egalitarian workplace. In the 1980s Western management consultants cooed that it was the source of Japan’s competitive strength. Sometimes it can be, as in periods of crisis when an entire firm needs to accept new marching orders quickly. But most of the time it strangles a company.

Relying on consensus means that decisions are made slowly, if at all. With so many people to please, the result is often a mediocre morass of compromises. And with so many hands involved, there is no accountability; no reason for individuals to excel; no sanction against bad decisions so that there are fewer of them in future. Of course, sometimes the consensus of the Japanese workplace is just a veneer and decisions are still made from on high. But then why persist with the pretence, particularly if it drains a company’s efficiency?

Time to turn the page

If the onus is on Japanese managers to change, then it is fair to say that the government does not make it very easy for them to do so. The biggest problems lie in the labour market. Change jobs in mid-career and you risk losing your pension. The rigid seniority system also discriminates against women: if they get off the ladder to have children, they cannot get back on. And although there is no law against closing down loss-making businesses, most bosses and politicians act as if there were. If Japan’s leaders decide their country needs more people like Mr Shima—and it surely does—then they might reflect on all the ways that they prevent him from becoming a reality.

one a day

Words have queued behind my lips for long, waiting in the dark for the day they’ll see the dim light of day. I give them due respect for only a few seconds, form lame sentences by putting them in a certain order, and watch them fade under the rushing feet of newcommer words, even less patient then the faded ones. 

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I am spending my first-employed-year's holidays in the Mediterranean.
I am back from my first holiday that was full of water and full of sun, now sitting on the dearest massage couch in the world, recovering for my second holiday which is in a few days.
And for the third one, I have special plans... I'll be on Greek islands, conducting mini-interviews with local people in each island we go. In an earlier post I told you that I didn't like vacation projects like this one (because vacations are meant to be purposeless illusions of freedom), I still don't. I also told you that I like going against myself :)

Oh, and on Rhodes I'll make my way into the Guinness World Records, by dancing. 

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I decided to get to know more people, and know people I already met better, simply because it makes me feel better. For this, I will have a "one a day" approach. Each day, I will either:

- meet a new person -alive or virtual- (a foreigner or someone living abroad is a plus)
- get in contact with people I lost contact with
- learn a secret of one of my close friends (through perfectly ethical means)

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In addition to that I might -just might- write one sentence summary of each day which gives me a perfect summary of the year in 360+ sentences. I did this 10 years ago and the result is enchanting.

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FILL IN THE BLANKS SECTION 

 

• Georgia conflict must be resolved which resembles a very similar break down before WW1 called _______. (By the way, now I have more interest and less will to learn Russian)

• The movie Lemmings is about the dark side of the human-core. Not "the evil": the darkness that remains once innocence is challanged, similar to disbelief, kin to doubt. It is the opposite of the cinematographic terminology _______ __ _______.   

• There are people who like living life horizontally, and people who like the vertical version. The horizontal is said to be shallow and the vertical is said to be deep - though I don't agree with this single-minded simplification. For the ones who enjoy their life horizontal, the problems are lack of concentration and frequent critiques from ruthless society. For the vertical types, the problem is choosing where to dig deep. These people focus and spend significant effort on a few issues for long periods of time. The ones who dig deep enough get what they want if the conditions are favorable (or if they are able to turn the tide). One vital motto for them is: Be careful what you ____ ___.

• If you do not like how people perceive you, first fine tune your seriousness.  The problem may be due to the distance between you and the others: loss of communication due to excess seriousness or levity due to lack of seriousness. If you see no problem with the established personal space, then check the setting (a.k.a.___  ______) and yourself at the same time. And please don't go blaming anyone, be constructive.

• I just watched a silly movie on house-swapping. It was about exchanging houses temporarily with someone you don't know.  Thinking about the other movie "____ ___" which is about a guy who breaks into houses only to live there temporarily, and how breathlessly-peaceful I feel when I stay over somewhere new, I love the idea! 

• Whatever causes you chronic problems, leave behind. Find an alternative way. Think twice before doing so but not three times.  Some problems are just not worth solving. Don't make it about your ego or don't go crying over the time&effort you invested already. Run for ___ ____ or you will run out of ____ ___.