advertising is key here, folks

[summerskin]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/asiaview/2010/07/japanese_corporate_culture

Uh, don't take this the wrong way. I am all about multiculturalism, and mixed work ethic, and exporting management models across cultures and adapting them to suit different needs.

To be honest, I'm more about other countries not falling from their competitive advantage like the US in the 1970s and then tending to (badly) adapt techniques from rivaling companies from abroad. Also, I'm about tradition, in a way.

I like the fact that there is a way of doing things in a country that would not work in another because it emphasises the fact that there is a cultural heritage that is diverse and specific and beautiful in its own way. Not everyone might be able to cope with what is required of them in a certain model of business, but this is an age of globalisation as we seem to be told at every corner. The truth is that it's easier these days than it has ever been to do business abroad and leave for a job thousands of kilometres away without batting an eyelash. And it's quite the advantage no other generation has had before.

Taking advantage of that is key, but it won't work if companies decide they could be doing so much better if only they changed the core of business methodology in favour of adapting a model that has, until now, only worked for a certain segment of the business world.

If it ain't broke, why fix it with your neighbour's tools?

But that's just me and I'm a bit conservative in that way.

I like change as much as the next progressive socio-politically minded liberal, but I like to see progress and evolution within the bounds of a model rather than a forced hybridisation.

Am I in the wrong here? Perhaps, but I'd rather be proven wrong than right (well, just a little) because Japan is dear to my heart and I'm all for revolution (even in economics) as a rule.

However, the one thing that makes me giggle uncontrollably is the whole running newspaper adverts to attract them" strategy. That's... original. I mean, considering we are talking here about hiring a new president for the company. Hell, I might just send in my CV. I have good English skills, a strong grasp of Japanese culture (probably more than most foreigners who have never been in Japan, I bet), and I'm available right now.

Yeah.

Oh, and the ad is going to be in Japanese. Priceless.