MBA & Corporate Training

Excel As A Team

A Masters in Business Administration can pave the way for a host of opportunities—in finance, investment banking, corporate consulting, wealth management or even starting up your own business. But most importantly, the right preparation can give you the ability and confidence to manage your own career. The following universities and special programs can equip you with the map, compass and key on your journey to success.

The aftermath of the Lehman Shock and the tremors of the global economic crisis following it spurred many foreign-affiliated companies to press ahead with bold internal restructurings. Reflecting frustrations over sluggish Japanese operations, in stark contrast to the strong performance of Chinese corporations, many global head offices tightened their control over their Japanese units, introducing management strategies with a proven global track record.

Most companies would agree that 2010 is a watershed year for the Japanese economy—there are signs of an economic recovery, but corporate leadership will also face many hurdles. Many firms have lowered their sales targets compared to the trending lines with the determination to achieve these goals at any cost—or finally throw in the towel.

This sense of desperation is understandable given the rising attraction of China and other emerging markets as alternatives to Japan. If, despite all these attempts, the Japanese operations still fail to deliver results, their global headquarters are likely to decide to pull out from Japan’s graying market.

As part of these turnaround initiatives, some overseas head offices are now trying to transplant their global business strategies by parachuting experienced leadership teams into Japanese operations. While this approach may seem promising on paper, IWNC is afraid that this may also actually backfire.

Legendary Japanese teamwork that functions like clockwork has now become a thing of the past. This is especially true in foreign-affiliated companies where the senior leadership team typically comprises people who gathered experience in other companies prior to joining their present company. It is hard for this type of patchwork leadership to function seamlessly. From interviews with top leaders, IWNC found a common lament amongst them to be the dysfunctional state of such leadership.

In general, Japanese businesses invest substantial time in team-building. This is partly because they believe that trust within the team and the feeling of security it provides is very important. To develop a sense of security, people involved have to know each other well and be able to empathize with each other. Once this relationship of trust has been established, they can then communicate on the same wavelength. The communication among Japanese is therefore described of highly contextual. If this sharing of context does not occur and each stakeholder lives only within his sense of value, a true basis of communication cannot be developed and the team fails to perform effectively.

Hence, regardless of how great the strategy or the people, a team may not be able to deliver results. And in these critical times where there is little, or no, room for failure, a disunited team may become a burden to the organization.

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