The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

The classic half-time locker room Churchillian oratory from the coach, whipping the team into a frenzy for the coming onslaught is now gathering dust in Hollywood's archives.  Today's most successful coaches are masters of human psychology, combining insight with superb communication skills.  What about leaders in business?  Conferences, off-sites, retreats are supplying substantial income for spo...

All of the sales text books tell us, use case studies with clients who have been successful, to sell the next client.  Case studies are great for gaining credibility with potential cients, so it all makes so much sense.  If only it was that easy to do in Japan.    Getting client cooperation to create sale's case studies in Japan is tough.  Japanese companies are very careful about how much informa...

Engaging our audience is one of the prerequisites for having persuasion power.  Smart people sometimes make simple errors which diminishes their ability to get their messages accepted.     Lawyers in Japan are an elite group.  Senior lawyers are the elite of the super elite.  When I landed in Tokyo on April 1st, 1979, Tokyo was completely different city than what it is today.  A low rise, rambling...

Conflict with bosses can often be a fundamental difference in personality types.  These differences are usually reflected in communication styles which don't match.  If we know these things about others, bosses we can more easily deal with the differences.   Are you the engagement survey assassin carving up your boss or are you the victim having to explain to senior management why your team's scor...

Understanding why people don't buy immediately after your brilliant presentation in Japan is a critical component of success here.  Aggressive American style wrangling with the buyer just won't work here.  We need to understand the limitations facing the person we are meeting and how the company decision making structure works.    In Japan, this "We will get back to you" response is often the resu...

You have genius within you, as yet untapped and never before displayed.  You have seen the good, the bad and the ugly in business.  You have witnessed folly, fun and the fantastic.  Your collection of experiences is a tremendous resource for stories in your presentations. Gripping material worthy of a movie or a book abounds and just perfect for your next presentation.  Let's look for opportunitie...

Rage, blind rage destroys relationships and intercompany teamwork.  We are all working around with super sort fuses today, impatient, irritated and volatile. Today let's look at how we can head this type of disaster off at the pass and keep the focus on the rivals and destroying them rather than each other.   "All of our problems walk on two legs and talk back".  I can't recall when I first came a...

Mistakes are either great learning exercises or catastrophes damaging the trust in the brand.  Step one is getting people to admit they made a mistake.  Finding out about a major mistake when it is too late is every bosses nightmare.  You have the authority, the power the money to fix it, but that window has closed out.    Sometimes things go wrong.  Mistakes are made, errors pop up, best laid pla...

Most of the presentations we listen to are a tour de force of data and less than fascinating facts.  Yet the rest of our lives are overflowing with dialogue.  Today we will look at what we can do with dialogue to make our talks more interesting and impressive.   Normally when we give presentations, they tend to be pretty dry affairs.  We marshal the facts, relate what happened, tell stories perhap...

We are running out of young people in Japan.  Covid has slowed down some major structural changes which must happen.  The implications of staff shortages are dynamic for Japan.  Let's explore some of these in today's show.   There is a great Simon Sinek video floating around about how companies say employees are important, but don't really act like it.  He lines up the typical CEO hit list of grow...

Having a buying need and doing something about it can often be quite disparate ideas.  There are many things we would all like to do in business to grow our companies.  The constraints are usually money and people.  The lack of resources holds us back and so we persevere, always hoping that somehow, we will be able to bridge that gap between where we are now and where we want to be.    At the CEO...

Positivity in life is electric and it can impact others very quickly. Our mindset and energy output are engines driven on the fuel of enthusiasm. In this week's show we take a look at why being enthusiastic is so important.   Enthusiasm of the seller for the product or service to the buyer". What are we doing when we are speaking? We are selling! "Hang on a minute there Greg. I am a professional,...

The brain when triggered by fight or flight impulses, releases adrenalin into the larger muscle groups.  It also fires up the brain and the mouth, but not always in the right order.  Today we look at how to control the chemical surges that can get leaders into serious trouble.   Our cave dwelling ancestor past is still with us today.  Rather than sabre tooth tigers though, we are reacting to anyon...

Sales is easy if you know what you are doing.  It is a flow, where each step intersects with the previous one and is a build toward a "yes".  Once we get to the final stages of the sales cycle, we have to really be on our game.  The wrong move, the wrong communication, the wrong timing and the deal is lost.   Finding clients is an art and so is building trust and credibility that you can help them...

Owning the room is doable with an audience of one hundred people but much more challenging when there are five thousand people in an auditorium.  Today we look at how to own the huge room.   This is what caught my attention lately: Japan's disease control center has been hit by cyberattacks amid virus   A key disease control center in Japan in the fight against the virus experienced a huge surge i...

Running a business in Japan is not for the faint hearted.  Plenty of big companies with deep pockets have failed here.  There are plenty who have succeeded though.  Let's pull back the velvet curtain and get real on leading a business here in Japan.   Running your own business is challenging anywhere, but Japan adds a bit of spice to the broth.  According to official statistics, seventy percent of...

Getting an objection from a buyer is a joy.  Getting nothing is a pain.  At least when they object, they are displaying some level of interest to know more.  Many salespeople fear objections, but when you know what you are doing, trust me, you welcome them.   This is what caught my attention lately: Legal action against Line is being considered. Line is a popular messaging app in Japan and I am a...

Presenting exposes a lot about us to our listeners.  In this modern age it is more and more important that we can be professionals when we present.  Knowledge is power in the presenting stakes, so the safest course is to develop the skill rather than bumbling along like a loser.   This is what caught my attention lately: Religious institutions have been suffering during the pandemic.  Japan has mo...

As a species, we like to dominate rather than be dominated, which is why we are trashing the planet so vigorously.  Given we like to be the boss, robots are not going to get very far whipping us up into a state of extreme engagement with the Vision and Mission statements.  We need the human touch and we still have got a long way to go just getting on with each other.   Here is what caught my atten...

The sale waits for no man.  Either you make that sale or your competitor does.  If it is a non-starter then start moving on to the next prospect.  Life is Latin for TIME.  That is all we have, so in sales we have to get moving and keep moving and moving.   Here is what caught my attention lately: Average land prices have fallen for first time in six years. Land in all categories, including residen...

Practice makes Perfect except when presenting.  Why?  Because as businesspeople, we just don't get enough speaking opportunities to become really excellent.  Repetition is key and with it frequency.  Today we look at the problem and what we can do about it.   The usual frequency for most people for giving formal presentations is once in a blue moon.  In other words, we don't do so many in a year. ...

Japan doesn't appreciate embarrassing truths.  The temptation to be right can be overwhelming to Western business people and is a fatal mistake in Japan.  This is a land founded on harmony and truth gets sacrificed on that alter every day.  Today we look at how to navigate our way through this mine field.   You have to tell people how it is or you will lose power and authority.  If you swallow wha...

Jan Carlzon wrote a fascinating book called Moments of Truth on how to maintain the trust in your brand, through the many changing touchpoints the company has with the consumer.  Today we look at what happens when we get it wrong and the damage is does to our brand.   You really appreciate the importance of brand, when you see it being trashed.  Companies spend millions over decades constructing t...

How much is enough data in a presentation?  How much is too much?  Generally speaking, most presenters have a problem with too much, rather than too little information.  Your slide deck is brimming over with goodness.  And you just can't bring yourself to trim it down. After all the effort you went to assembling that tour de force, you want to get it all out there in the public arena.  You have sp...

"Born to lead" is nonsense.  Many things shaped that person in order for them to achieve credibility with others.  Of course, we can become a "leader" as part of our company designated hierarchy.  We sit somewhere in an organizational chart above others, with various reporting lines elevating us above the hoi polloi.  We know many people with that august title of "leader", who we would never willi...