You are cordially invited for “Moshi moshi, Japan?“, in Geneva on Friday, 17 April.
“Moshi moshi, Japan?” is an informal meet-up with people who are doing business with Japan. Though Japan is a fascinating market, its business culture is nothing like others. In addition, handling the culture well is the key to success with Japan.
What are other people doing to work well with Japan?
What works and what doesn’t?
What breakthrough did other people make?
Let’s exchange experiences and discuss your questions and experience on Japan over coffee!
Mr. Shaban Shaame, CEO & Founder, EverdreamSoft
on “Japanese market for innovative startups“
Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.
Date and time: From 18h00 to 19h15, Friday,17 April
Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area
Languages: French and English
Organisation fee: CHF 10.-
The meeting was originally planned for 13 March, and postponed to 17 April. It is a chance for those who had to miss the session in March.
Please register: By e-mail or phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics
You are cordially invited for “Moshimoshi, Japan?“, Geneva on Friday, 13 March.
“Moshimoshi, Japan?” is an informal meet-up with people who are doing business with Japan. Though Japan is a fascinating market, its business culture is nothing like others. In addition, handling the culture well is the key to success with Japan.
South Entrance, Shinjuku Station, Tokyo
What are other people doing to work well with Japan?
What works and what doesn’t?
What breakthrough did other people make?
Let’s exchange experiences and discuss over coffee!
Mr. Shaban Shaame, CEO & Founder, EverdreamSoft
on “Japanese market for innovative startups“
Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.
Date and time: From 18h00 to 19h15, Friday,13 March
Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area
Languages: French and English
Organisation fee: CHF 10.-
Please register: By e-mail or phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics
“Moshi moshi, Japan?”, held in Geneva, 13 February 2015
Serge, who worked as a recruiter of the Japanese in Tokyo for two years, was the theme setter this time. We learned interesting insights on Japanese candidates and discussed their work mind-set.
Photo by Haruko SATO
Key words:
Foreign companies want to hire the Japanese, as the Westners are too aggressive for the Japanese culture.
The Japanese are very timid in speaking English. A non-Japanese recruiter must speak Japanese.
Three major challenges; 1) to convince a candidate to meet me for the first time, 2) fear of change, and 3) strong loyalty to the present company, even if he wants to change it.
“It is almost a babysitting” — Must accompany the candidate from A to Z; from listening to his fear of departure, his partner’s opinions, through to how to explain his departure to his boss.
Women candidates were more autonomous then men and less fearful.
“Responsibility ” for the Japanese: A killer word of his boss, “Do you leave your responsibility?”. The sense of “responsibility by the Japanese is much stronger than Europeans’. It’s a life commitment. Some candidates change their minds at the last moment, due to the sense of loyalty to the present company coupled with the sense of “responsibility”.
Japanese employers are much more submissive to their employers than Europeans.
A recruiter must establish the confidence with a candidate first. Empathy is important. Drink after works.
Thank you very much for all the people who participated in the meeting.
Forthcoming meetings —
Friday 13 March, Japanese market for innovative start-ups
Friday 17 April, Uchi and Soto, the key concepts of the Japanese relationship building
Friday 26 June, Negotiations with Japanese companies (To be confirmed)
Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.
Tme: From 18h00 to 19h15
Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area
Languages: French and English
Organisation fee: CHF 10.-
Registration: By e-mail or phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics
You are cordially invited for “Moshi moshi, Japan?“, in Geneva on Friday, 13 February
Tokyo Sky Tree
“Moshi moshi, Japan?” is an informal meet-up with people who are doing business with Japan. Though Japan is a fascinating market, its business culture is nothing like others. In addition, handling the culture well is the key to success with Japan.
What are other people doing to work well with Japan?
What works and what doesn’t?
What breakthrough did other people make?
Let’s exchange experiences and discuss over coffee!
Mr. Serge Biro, Head of IT Recruitment, SCS hr solutions
on “The Japanese mindset seen from a recruiter“
Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.
Date and time: From 18h00 to 19h15, Friday,13 February
Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area
Languages: French and English
Organisation fee: CHF 10.-
Please register: By e-mail or phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics
We enjoyed the first meeting of “Moshi moshi, Japan?”, held Geneva, 23 January 2015.
Tokyo railway station conserves its history surrounded by hi-rise buildings
Anne opened the floor by presenting her experience with a sales team in Tokyo. All the people around the table shared his/her experience and insights on Japan.
Key words:
“We wanted the branch in Japan to adhere to the global process. The Japanese team said, ‘yes’, but in practice, there was no change. They continued doing it in their own way as before.”
“To do business with Japan, one must meet people regularly, say, 3 to 5 times a year.”
“Meeting with the Japanese in informal opportunity is important.”
“It is annoying though that one must think what’s behind all the time.”
“Be careful, the Japanese don’t say ‘No’, but say it in very different manners.”
“Japan is at the highest end of the ‘High context culture’. Emotional intelligence counts in communication.”
“Stay open-minded, accept what it is and build the trust, before business.”
Thank you very much for all the people who participated in the meeting.
Forthcoming meetings —
Friday 13 February, The Japanese mindset seen from a recruiter
Friday 13 March, Japanese market for innovative start-ups
Friday 17 April, Uchi and Soto, the key concepts of the Japanese relationship building
Friday 26 June, Negotiations with Japanese companies (To be confirmed)
Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.
Time: From 18h00 to 19h15
Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area
Languages: French and English
Organisation fee: CHF 10.-
Registration: By e-mail or phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics
At the beginning of the new year of the sheep, you are cordially invited for the first meeting of “Moshi moshi, Japan?” to be held in Geneva on Friday, 23 January.
“Moshi moshi, Japan?” is an informal meet-up with people who are doing business with Japan. Though Japan is a fascinating market, its business culture is nothing like other cultures. In addition, handling the culture well is the key to success in business with Japan.
What are other people doing to work well with Japan?
What works and what doesn’t?
What breakthrough did other people make?
Let’s exchange experiences and discuss over coffee!
Mme. Anne Van Walleghem, Head of Compensation & Benefits, Global HR, Nobel Biocare, will share her experience on “How do we work with Japan over the distance?”
Participants: Anyone interested in business with Japan.
Date and time: From 18h00 to 19h15, Friday,23 January
Place: Starbucks, Rive, Geneva central area
Languages: French and English
Organisation fee: CHF 10.-
Registration: By e-mail of phone call to Yoshiko Kurisaki, Europe-Japan Dynamics
The digital life has been well established in Japan and Switzerland. In contrast, however, the presence of women in the ICT (information and communication technologies) conferences and the industries is surprisingly low — twenty percent (20%) of all the workers in the ICT industry, and only five percent who speak at ICT conferences!
To encourage women to participate in and become visible in the ICT scene, Ms Taïssa Charlier launched “Women in Digital Switzerland” (WDS, hereafter), a group created in LinkedIn in January 2014. Starting with about 20 people in the group, WSD had grown to host 200 members in a few months! These members came to know WSD only via word of the mouth.
Portal of Women in Digital Switzerland.
Need to push forward more opinions from women
Taïssa is a young and dynamic professional of digital marketing. The original reason that made her to stand up to unite women via WDS was a prohibitively high cost of the kindergarten in Switzerland. Being a single mother, she needs a kindergarten to keep her child while she works in daytime. She soon found that the fee for the kindergarten is almost the same as her monthly salary. “Women can’t work outside home! We must make the opinions of women heard in society”, she thought.
Taïssa soon realised that women are heavily under represented in the ICT industry, despite an increasing number of professional women in the industry. “Something must be done”, she thought. Her answer was to create a system on the network for women to inspire and to be inspired, to be connected with peers, to share best practices and, thus, to increase their visibility and presence profession.
Mutual support by information exchange and discussion
WDS rightly hit the needs of professional women, who have been scattered around and rather isolated in digital profession in Switzerland.
Taïssa said, “I wish WSD to grow starting from the information exchange to become a platform for women to inspire each other. I wish WSD become a media to empower women in the future.”
The language of WSD is English. Taïssa, though she is a Franco phone herself, decided to use English as the language of the group so that women in other language groups of Switzerland may join and exchange information across the different language zones in the country.
“It’s my giving back project”
For Taïssa, having a large number of participants is not a major purpose of the WSD. “I wish to give back to those wonderful people I met by providing WSD for women to meet wonderful people.”
She further went on to say that fully utilising women’s talent is a part of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for companies. Giving opportunities to women and grow them is a contribution to the society.
The author has come to know a workingwomen’s network launched based on a similar idea in Japan. The social media helps you to be connected with like-minded people even though you find none around. With the policy of the Prime Minister Abe to utilise women for the economic development of Japan, networks of professional women’s mutual support based on the social media will grow.
“Clues for success in doing business with Japan – Highlights of the interviews with Swiss business people”, published at CCIG (Chambre de commerce, d’industrie et des services de Genève) web site.
「日本のビジネス文化をどう読み解く？日本人と仕事をした14人のスイス人ビジネスパーソンに聞く」ージュネーブ商工会議所のウェブサイトに掲載されました。
Date :Thursday 6th of November 2014 from 08:00 to 10:30
Lieu :CCIG, bd du Théâtre 4, Geneva
Organisation :CCIG in collaboration with the Europe-Japan Dynamics and Vdf Coaching and Cultures
Do you want to know how to kick-start your business with Japan ?
The year 2014 commemorates the 150th anniversary of the beginning of official relations between Switzerland and Japan, 1864 – 2014. The CCIG in collaboration with the Europe-Japan Dynamics and Vdf Coaching and Cultures.is seizing this opportunity to organise a seminar exploring the embedded role of Japanese culture in business.
The intercultural concept needs to be fully understood and implemented in doing business with Japan, as the cultural gap between Switzerland and Japan is unimaginably wide.
“75% of all international ventures do not achieve the expected results due to cultural issues.” KPMG, 2009.
Crossing the culture gap
Through a presentation and exercises, you will learn how to go beyond your own mental and cultural programming to work better with your international business partners. The seminar will highlight the essential importance of cultural differences in business, lay out a set of values underlying the Japanese business culture, and guide you towards the right entrance into understanding how to do business with Japan. At the end of the seminar, you will better understand the reasons why Japan looks so unique and why the country appears so complex when seen from the point of view of a European set of values. You will be at ease with “How to read Japan” !
