In Japan, One Box of "Magic" Cookies and an Apology is Worth Millions!

In Japan, when someone makes a mistake at your company, and you are the boss, you can never berate that employee in public nor can you, as boss, tell the offended client or customer that your employees is to blame. You can never blame the mistakes on your staff. You have to take the blame.

No matter what happens, as captain of the ship, you must be the responsible person for whatever goes on. It can be a thankless job too. If things go well, you must give credit to your staff. If things go bad, you must take all the blame.

THE JAPANESE TRADITION: APOLOGIZING

Sometimes, even the Japanese laugh at these traditions....

(well, older folks don't... No sense of humor!)

That is the honorable and smart was way to do business in Japan.


Last week, my company royally screwed up a campaign for a client. That client had over 300 complaints from customers in less than a few hours! The error was 100% the fault of my company and it was an embarrassingly foolish mistake; we had incorrectly written bank information for money transfers on an online document. This made a situation whereby hundreds of people couldn't transfer the money to the appropriate account in order to received the goods they wanted.


As I said, over 300 people had complained to our client and the client was, understandably, furious at us. I was furious at my staff for making such an amateurish mistake but I couldn't say that to the client. Nor did I berate my staff openly.


First we calmly rectified the account information. That night I called the people in charge at the client company and apologized. They were noticeably upset. This client is my companies #1 most important customer. Their account is worth tens of millions of yen to us. But because of this mistake, we were in danger of losing that account forever.


And all because of a careless Jr. high school level mistake.


I knew what I had to do.... I had to buy a box of cookies.... Not just any cookies. "Magic" cookies. The good stuff.


Yes. That's right. A box of quality cookies, a sincere apology, accepting complete responsibility along with bowing profusely to the in-charge at the client company.... Just might make things all right.


It certainly couldn't hurt and is worth the risk in order to save the contract.


In Japan, no matter what happens, the Japanese like it if you take complete responsibility and humbly apologize for your errors. Being able to say "I'm sorry" and saying it like a man and not someone who wishes to blame someone else, will make the Japanese respect you as a person and a businessman much more.


I went to a ritzy department store and bought the best box of cookies they had. The box cost ¥5,600 (about $73!) pretty expensive for  a dozen cookies! I went to the client company with the cookies. I knew that the in-charge showed up for work around 1 ~ 3 pm everyday. 


But he doesn't know that I know that.


I showed up at his office at 11:00 and let the receptionist know I was there.


She said, "Do you have an appointment?"


"No." I replied, "But my company made a serious mistake last night and I must apologize so I came here. I will wait until he arrives. Please tell him that I am waiting." Of course, I asked the receptionist what time it was so that she would make a mental note of it.


Then, I sat in the lobby and waited. Well, actually, I did work on my laptop. Work I would have done had I been at my office. But here, I could do the work and show diligence in making sure that I met with the in-charge.


I waited and the girl asked me a couple of times if I still wanted to wait. "Of course," I replied.


Finally, at 2:30 pm, the in-charge showed up. He was so surprised to see me.


He said, "You've been sitting here for a few hours!?"


"Yes. I needed to see you and apologize." I replied.


We sat and talked and I explained everything all the while taking full responsibility. I bowed over and over and handed over the box of "Magic" cookies and asked that he share it with his staff who we had bothered with our stupid mistake.


After thirty or so minutes of talking he became much calmer and actually smiled. I told him that they were the #1 most important client to us and that we would do anything to make it all right - even forfeit all of our commissions for this one event. He thanked me and asked that we be more careful next time and he promised me that, on his side too, they'd try to be more organized so that things weren't done so rush-rush and last minute.


I thanked him and we shook hands. The contract was saved and we won't be penalized for the error. We just must be more careful next time.


With this 3.5 hour effort of waiting and a $73 dollar box of cookies I saved a multi-million yen contract.  I also saved us from losing all commissions from this particular event. This one event was worth about $60,000 to us. I saved it with a short wait, a bunch of humility, a lot of bowing and taking responsibility... 


...And a $70 box of cookies.


Now, if those cookies aren't magic, I don't know what is.  

THE JAPANESE TRADITION: DOGEZA

Obfuscation from Groupon Japan?

Update below


The CEO of Groupon made an apology video for their New Year's farce in Japan. This has now become world wide news. Now, I discovered another tidy bit that points to a very loose and flippant attitude about this affair either by the CEO or by Groupon Japan.


Is this an example of obfuscation by Groupon in their apology video? What he says in English is different than what it says in Japanese:

There are lots of things in this video that make me go, "Hmmm?" But one of the worst comes at about 23 seconds into the video, the CEO of Groupon says, 


"...the business couldn't process the volume of orders and ended up delivering food late to many of our customers and in terrible condition to others."


Now, it is obvious that this guy hasn't bothered to find out what really happened and that this was not just a problem of late deliveries and damaged product. It was mostly a problem of "bait and switch" or out and out fraud.

Advertised product at top, delivered product below. Does this look like merely a problem of late deliveries and damaged product to you?

Even though the CEO makes no mention of this, the Japanese translation is written so that it can be construed to say what the CEO didn't. It says,

"今回は、時間内にお客様に配送することができず、そしてひどい状態で配送されたという事態を招き多くのお客様にご迷惑をおかけしてしまいました"。


Translation of Japanese subtitles : "This time, our product was late and the ingredients were completely different (than what was advertised)."


Like I said, the CEO of Groupon makes no mention of this problem. Is he completely unaware of it? Has his Japanese staff not told him the truth or has he not bothered to find out what really went on?


Probably a bit of both. Either way, it doesn't point to diligent management. 


On the other hand, of course, 97% of the Japanese can't understand English well enough to understand what the CEO is saying; they will all just read the subtitles. Is this rewriting what the CEO said an attempt to fool the Japanese public? You certainly cannot call this a straight translation. 


The ultimate lesson that I think can be drawn from this is that the CEO of Groupon, like most company CEO's who find themselves in a similar position, actually thinks, "Yeah. My  company is all screwed up. So what's new? I'll just go make an apology and act like I care, then this will all go away."


Will it?


I think Mr. Mason needs to take acting lessons. He needs to be able to shed crocodile tears on cue. He also needs to get his act together with his script writers and translators before making another mistake.


Update:


Whenever I make a mistake or screwup, I want to admit my mistakes clearly. Some people have written to debate the translation the has been rendered above. While no one debates the point that the apology from the CEO is - how shall I say it? - insufficient. A few have debated the translation of his words. Specifically the existence or non existence of the word, "advertising."


A Japanese national who has been a  professional translator for over 25 years and I discussed this translation before posting. She works off the concept of translating Culture Specific concepts with emphasis on allusions. That is defined as, "Allusions are potential problems of the translation process due to the fact that allusions have particular connotations and implications in the source language and the foreign culture but not necessarily in the translation and the domestic culture. There are some procedures and strategies for rendering Culture Specific Concepts and allusions respectively."


While I must admit that it is true that the word, "advertising" does not appear in the Japanese text, I know that this word is implied in the Japanese translation and, as such, embellishes the words of the CEO. Thus the use of the term "Obfuscation."  


For a full rebuttal to complaints about the translation, from a Japanese national who has been a professional translator with over 25 years experience see here: http://modernmarketingjapan.blogspot.com/2011/01/lost-in-translation-translation-for.html