Interviews with 34 Japanese Leaders and Employees Reveal the Secrets of Success and Long-Term Survival of Japanese Companies

Abstract

Japanese leadership style has encompassed worldwide success and criticism. For example, Toyota is an example of a leading and successful Japanese company in industry. With its new and creative ideas, this company was able to rebuild the marginalized image of Japanese cars in the international business scene and take a large share of the car market in the world. Our interviews with 34 Japanese leaders and employees and our observations as senior consultants in Japanese organizations have shown that the innovative and agile organization of these organizations minimizes inefficiencies in the two prominent areas of human resource and leadership development. However, a quote from a Japanese business leader posits that “non-Japanese employees of Japanese firms frequently mention the penchant that many Japanese managers have for public criticism. Whereas Americans would prefer to receive negative feedback in private, Japanese seem to prefer to give it in public. And in some cases, the negative feedback goes one step beyond into the realm of “chewing out,” or just plain yelling.” We identified 5 secrets of success and long-term Survival of Japanese companies. They are strategy, social capital, new competencies, leadership development and systems approach. Now we will look at the five secrets of the success of these organizations so that managers can use them.