Koei Canada is uncomfortably Japanese

Koei needs to take some advice from the Starbucks book on international business. Sure, we all know the jokes about how Starbucks is on every corner, but they know how to do international business well. They allow the local employees to create the culture and not force a standard on them. This makes them capable of operating well in any country they go to. The employees are happy because they can decide how the culture goes and Starbucks is happy because they can be profitable regardless of culture.

Koei is taking a very ethnocentric view on things. Westerners behave wildly different in business culture. We see things like chorei and daily calisthetics as a joke, who's only purpose is to get in the way of productivity. Such concepts work in Japan, where the high energy corporate world conflicts with the more laid back culture the nation has housed for over two millenia.

I've been in environments that tried to mimic Japanese corporate ideas. During that 15 minute workout, all I was thinking was, "I could be using this time to be getting something done." Most of the new West culture, particularly in North America, doesn't like downtime.

Ethnocentrism kills business, and if Koei ever wants to be a big player outside of Japan, they will have to realize it and release control and do what Starbucks does.

Do Koei Canada employees have to go drinking with their bosses and get so drunk that they can hardly stand?

That seems to be standard practice in Japan. The evening subways smell like booze and cigarettes.

"Most of the new West culture, particularly in North America, doesn't like downtime."

Nothing special about North America. Every other Western company is the same, though I suppose telling an American that is like telling a gold-fish that there's life outside of the bowl that he's swimming around.

"I suppose telling an American that is like telling a gold-fish that there's life outside of the bowl that he's swimming around."

Dont be so hard on americans. Theyve improved alot over the years and so has the rest of the world, even japan.

Japan used to be notorious about ignoring the rest of the world. I used to play on a japanese server in Ultima Online, Wakoku to be specific. It was like playing with a bullseye painted on my character, I enjoyed that though ;)

Still, average Joe will allways be ignorant about stuff. But the very definition of average Joe is ignorance so he will unfortunatly for him never escape that label.

I'm sure there's more to it than productivity than what a lot of those things are for. Maybe they think that stuff like calesthenics would make for a dynamic, well-energized workforce. I'm probably wrong though, as businesses like McDonalds adapt to being in Japan, making products that suit their consumers instead of the same exact thing.

I think that the end result should be that however they operate they can make games that still suit both the eastern and western markets. Hopefully.

Fan, you're right. I shouldn't be so tough. When their leader that comes up with the kind of stuff on http://www.dubyaspeak.com, Americans deserve a break.

I'm sorry, Americans. :)

Gareth is ignorant.

North American includes Canada too, scholar!

It's the karoshi that would worry me.

Gareth, I certainly hope you're not Canadian, I dont need one more idiot representing my country. Please go take your place in line with Mr Harper if you are.

Actually, its a little bit different here in Canuckville for the implementation of other cultures. From what I see on a daily basis, it usually doesnt bother us to be having to adapt to other peoples ways. Take a look at Toronto/Montreal for example, there are huge chunks of the city where average Canadian whitey is spending his free time enjoying some other culture/subculture.

I guess its going a little extreme in the Koei example, but Im all for a little creativeness in the workplace.

Enigma, that it does, but since Canadians are educated beyond the point of assuming that every other country on earth exists somewhere on their East coast, I didn't include them. :)

"I suppose telling an American that is like telling a gold-fish that there's life outside of the bowl that he's swimming around."

I work for the german susidiary of a north american company.
May i use this sentence at office? I regulary have situations where it fits...

Discussions along these lines inevitably remind me of the saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." I personally imagine that pretty much every company that ends up going international has issues like this. I would hardly say it's restricted to American or Japanese companies.

"Most of the new West culture, particularly in North America, doesn't like downtime."

And you're saying Japan does?

Japan has calisthenics, the west had endless and pointless meetings that run on forever and accomplish nothing. 50% of my day is sitting in a chair and listening to someone else talk about something that has nothing to do with me. I wouldn't say we have any monopoly on "getting things done", that's for sure.

If you ask me, our corporate culture could use a little shaking up. It's nothing to be proud of.

Yes, America has changed. Clearly.

In the past, people would have said:
Are they breaking any law? No? Then, you have a choice to work for them or for another company. Let's not interfere with the way they run their business.

I wonder when Domino's employees will refuse to wear their ridiculous uniform. I wonder when Hooters' employees will decide to file a complaint for sexual harassment.

Just curious - the Japanese cultural work practices that Koei Canada instituted replaced what traditionally Canadian work practices?

Perhaps some of the following:

1. No work during the week of the Stanley Cup finals?
2. The "pin the tail on the Mountie" festival?
3. The ritualized Westerners vs Les Quebecois death-matches held each month to the soundtrack of West Side Story?
4. The civilized (and jingoism-free) discourse on politics, culture and religion that are the hallmark of most conversations I've ever had with a Canadian?
5. The communal consumption of back-bacon and Bredors?

Am I missing a few?

Let it be statated and known that as a Canadian who deals all day with Americans, I stuck up for you guys. Having an idiot in charge of your country does not instantly make you all idiots, and I understand that.

Gareth does not represent our country, merely one of the darker sides of it that is slowly going away. Lets not turn this into Canada-America bad time.

Honestly, I see it like working at a japanese restaurant. If you're typical caucasian street slacker and you go to work there, well, you must obey restaurant policy because that is your environment. If anything, its kind of a good thing, opens your mind a little.

And its not like any of these 'enforced rules' are overly extreme. Except maybe asking the women to go get coffee... thats funny, but sexist all the same. Otherwise I think the goodmorning thing, however stupid sounding, is harmless, and I like the fact that EVERYONE, regardless of level in the company, is responsible for keeping the place clean.

I dont agree with 'uncomfortably' japanese at all. I wanna go work at Koei now. :)

Well said, Komrade. I'm out.

Don't blame all Japanese companies. Some of them are damn chilled out. When Hiroshi Yamauchi sent his son-in-law, Minoru Arakawa out to tame the wild west, NoA was pretty much almost an autonomous company. He let Awakawa do whatever he want. And Arakwa was known for being chilled out and a notorious prankster. He even helped keep the Mariners in Seattle just for the hell of it.

Koei need to be more like Nintendo. Everybody needs to be more like Nintendo. Everybody else sucks compared to Nintendo. Y'all niggas too weak.

@ Komrade Kayce

I'm not Canadian. ;)

He said "particularly in North America" not "ONLY in the USA" you fucking douche bags.

Jesus christ learn how to read.

Everything he said was about Westerners not Americans.

Some of you think Americans are ignorant. Take a close look at your selves. You think your one sided views are any better? Stop acting like a bunch of racist morons.

I don't find anything particularly extraordinary about any of that except for the part about asking female employee's to serve guests tea. Unless of course that is their job, tea server. But I know someone at my work would get slapped, and rightly so, if someone asked one of our female engineers to serve tea.

Man, that's a great idea though. I should ask one of them where my god damned tea is next time I hold a meeting.

Wow, I'm surprised the semantics of a single sentance that pointed at Western culture, normally signified as North America and Western Europe, would be the top debate here.

Alright, here are some facts. International business scholars have broken down the world into two main cultural archetypes: American and Traditional (please note, it was a couple of French guys that named them, so avoid the whole "fishbowl" comment for a moment). It was named the American culture mainly because it was the United States that was the first in known history to establish various behavior patterns or took them far to the extreme when compared to traditionalist cultures.

Traditional cultures, relevant to this story, have the following aspects:

1. High power distance. This means there is a significant difference between the boss and the worker. Japan is quite fond of this, which is shown by their steep corporate pyramids and other cultural norms such as the suffix sempai when addressing upperclassmen, among other formalities when addressing superiors. They believe superiors are, in fact, superior to them, and are afforded a separate set of standards.

2. Traditional cultures have the idea of working to live, not living to work. This means they are not focused on pure productivity and are more apt to working fewer hours and have more downtime. This is exemplified in the fact that a Japanese worker contributes $58,000 each toward their total economy while a worker in the United States contributes $83,000 as well as a faster growth rate in the United States (2.1% compared to 3.5%). Canada has a $66,000 per worker contribution and a 2.9% growth rate. Huge difference in numbers indicates huge difference in attitude toward work.

3. Traditional cultures have stringent attitudes toward gender differences. This is again shown in Japanese language as there are different ways to speak depending on gender.

Those three do not fly in the American cultural trend. The United States and Canada, respectively, have the smallest and second smallest pyramid structure in the corporate world. Both of these nations are apt to speaking with the boss, be it your direct supervisor or CEO, by their first name, and don't view them superior simply be being the boss and respect is easily lost if performance doesn't match.

The differences of work attitudes were already shown. The gender relations also is a major breaking point. American style cultures have a strong equality streak. Treat everyone equally regardless of gender. By making women serve tea shows a lack of understanding of cultural differences.

There is something I want everyone to understand in all of this: I am not advocating any one culture is better than the other. It is understood, though, that one culture IS better when within that culture's territory.

Yes, Japanese do value down-time. They enjoy the pep-talk from the boss as if they were children and view a lack of attention as a sign they are not doing well. In contrast, most Westerners hate down-time and see attention as a sign of poor performance and prefer to be left alone.

Again, Koei needs to understand the mechanics of being a multinational company if they want their products to succeed outside their native lands.

Can I read this article anywhere without paying money? It is only this one article I am interested in ;(