An Oriental Fingerprint

When the Japanese go negotiating, they go farming. They plant a seed, put water, add fertilisers and they let the tree grow. It takes time but it is firm, says management consultant Walter E Viera, who heads Marketing Advisory Services Group.

On the other hand, when the American goes negotiating, he goes hunting. He carries a rifle and shoots -- he either gets it or he misses it, he adds.

The analogy underscores the cultural differences between the two nationalities. And the Indian doing business with the Japanese will have to learn to appreciate that difference. A Study on Japanese Investments by accounting and management consultancy firms S R Batliboi & Co and Ernst & Young says, The differences in the Indian and Japanese business mentality and work culture pose certain problems for Japanese investors.

 

It points to the difference in the approach to returns on investments. Japanese companies claim to possess longer investment horizons as compared with their Indian partners, it says.

Also, the Japanese dont rush into business. They take a long time to study the market and generally start off with small investments. As Nayan Mirani, deputy managing director, Sakura Capital India Ltd, says, The biggest thing Indian companies need to learn about the Japanese is patience. Miranis group, Khimji Visram & Sons, has tied up with Sakura Bank to form the finance company.

The slow approach stems from the bottom-up and consensus building work culture of Japanese companies. This is in contrast to the top-down approach in Indian companies. Theres the famous story of one American search firm which placed two executives in a Japanese consumer electronics firm in USA. While one of the executives lasted a week, the other lasted 15 years. Thats because the first kept sending memos to do this and that while the other suggested. I think we should look at these options....

The Japanese are not alone in their conservatism. According to Arvind Mahajan, director, A F Ferguson & Co, they are quite akin to the Germans in this respect. The engineering- and quality-driven German companies also do a lot of risk assessment and take small initial

steps. The Japanese fall somewhere in between the Americans and the Germans. They are conservative but they tend

to be more optimistic in terms of projections, he says.

However, while Indian companies know where the Americans or Europeans are coming from, they have little exposure to Japanese philosophy and culture. And similarities like the stress on family values or respect for seniority are just not enough.

There is a limited experience base of working with Japan. So in the begining, most Indian partners are not sure how they should deal with their counterparts, says Mahajan.

Kozo Otsubo, chief representative at The Sumitomo Banks rep office in Mumbai, believes the cultural imbalance is partly due to lack of effort on the Japanese part as well. Indian culture came to Japan via Buddhism but there has been no reverse flow, he says.

This lack of knowledge comes across in small but important ways. For instance, an Indian could break the ice with the Americans or Europeans by talking about sports or films or even politics. With the Japanese, there are few conversational gambits as most Indians are unfamiliar with Japanese music or the arts. Language is another barrier.

The famous Oriental impassivity doesnt help matters since Indians are used to more vocal agreements or disagreements on any issue while the Japanese tend to absorb information rather than respond to it. Some Japanese practices come as a surprise to their Indian employee. One Indian working with a Japanese bank was shocked to find that having a company car meant just that -- access only from 9.30 to 5.30.

For the Japanese too, differences in work cultures cause concern. For instance, Toshiaki Kobayashi, managing director, Sakura Capital, is astonished at how easy it is for companies to say they will delay loan repayments by a few days, or even that they need to be reminded to repay loans. This is a very difficult thing for us to understand. Puntuality and inability to honour promises are a big problem, he says.

Consultants like Viera and Mahajan believe that Indian companies need to understand that it is not enough to research the businesses they are entering in. Equal attention must be paid to protocol, cultural background and norms.

But few Indian companies realise this. On the other hand, the Japanese are said to spend as much as $700 million a year in proper etiquette training and consulting for their employees. They believe that a lacunae here can cost a company billions of dollars in lost business deals.

Viera offers a programme in business protocol which informs managers about the cultural norms of different nationalities so that they know how to interact and react in certain situations and thus be truly global managers. It covers all kinds of things from dress codes and appearance to conversational skills and punctuality. Companies like Mafatlal Industries, Arvind Mills and Hindalco have adopted it.

For instance, the Japanese are very courteous and they expect a similar conduct from whoever they are dealing with, says Viera. This goes right from the stage of bowing a couple of times and knowing when to stop to exchanging a visiting card, which is a ceremony in itself. The number of times one bows depends on the status of the person, for instance. While one bows three to four times to the president of a company, a junior manager merits only a couple of bows.

They are equally particular in their work practices. Viera, who has done market studies for Japanese companies, says that they want deadlines to be maintained at all costs. Any lack on the Indian part here frustrates them. We always try to deliver before the deadline to instill confidence in the Japanese, he says.

The same goes for communication. Vierra recalls an instance involving a large Japanese legal firm, which was approached by a representative of a leading Indian corporation. The job: to find a collaborator for manufacturing elevators. The legal firm hurried through and got a big Japanese company interested in the proposal. It then sent six faxes to this representative

but never got a single reply. Such things cause a certain crisis of confidence, he points out.

On the other hand, lifestyle differences are a problem area for Japanese expatriates based in India. According to K N Memani, country managing partner, S R Batliboi, one reason why many senior Japanese exexutives dont want to come to

India is the lack of social amenities. Like the Japanese love to go out for a drink after work or to nightclubs and karaoke bars.

The legendary Japanese love for golf, could however be exploited. In fact, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry realised it was the best way of winning friends and influencing the Japanese, when it hosted a golf competition last year. It attracted more participants than a normal business meet would have done.

With inputs by Geeta Nair.