Bad and Incompetent Management? It's Everywhere!

You've got to wonder how people, who are so clueless to even their own industry, get into management positions. 

Bored

But, come to think of it, actually, you and I don't have to wonder; someone wondered about it long ago and wrote a book on it in the 1970s. It was all explained in the seminal book, The Peter Principle. That book explained the phenomenon of how, in a hierarchy, everyone rises to their top level of incompetence. Then because they are incompetent, they remain in that position, unable to advance or, because of politics, be demoted.

Wikipedia says:

The Peter Principle is a belief that, in an organization where promotion is based on achievement, success, and merit, that organization's members will eventually be promoted beyond their level of ability. The principle is commonly phrased, "Employees tend to rise to their level of incompetence." In more formal parlance, the effect could be stated as: employees tend to be given more authority until they cannot continue to work competently.

Yep. That's it. 

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have railed on incompetent management at broadcasting stations for years. Just to prove that even a broken clock is right twice a day, almost 4 years ago, I wrote (on July 24, 2010) in One More Phase in the Shattering of Mainstream Media:

I rode the Tokyo subway today and saw a sign inside the car that notified the passengers that as of July 24, 2011, terrestrial television stations will no longer broadcast analogue signals in Japan and will finally make the switch to digital.   

This signals the final nail in the coffin of many of the FM radio stations in this country and the collapse of TV Tokyo and TBS.    

I predict that *****FM will either be bankrupt or sold to a new owner by 2014 and TV Tokyo will be in the same situation: insolvent or absorbed by another company by 2016. 

I picked the first one correctly (polite applause here). The FM station was sold to another company in the summer of 2012. My prediction came true two years ahead of schedule. 

I've got a few more years left on my TV Tokyo prediction and I'm feeling very good about that. Especially since TV Tokyo is unable to payback a $5 billion dollar loan from Mizuho bank they made in Feb. of 2010 and keeps rolling that loan over every year... I wonder how long the rollover will be allowed by Mizuho bank especially since the new Japanese government has publicly stated a policy of 2% inflation which will lead to much higher interest rates.

(TV Tokyo share price was around ¥4,400 at that time. Today, TV Tokyo Holdings shares run at ¥1768 - a rise of over ¥800 from the 2011 lows - due to Abenomics?)

I haven't been writing about these stations recently, but a while ago I had a meeting with management at a broadcasting station that just made my head spin. The boss of the station said to me in an incredulous manner,

"Mike! We have to do something to get people back to listening to the car radio... Did you know that Toyota stopped putting radios in cars? Did you know that??"

Simply astounding! Doesn't this manager read business publications at all? 

It was in 2007 that Toyota had publicly announced that they were phasing out analogue radio in the automobiles within three years and that they would no longer be standard equipment in 2011 (that was two years ago!) Taking that obvious clue, I even blogged three years ago that the future of radio lay in the hands of, not the stations, but Toyota. How could a station manager, almost seven years later, just be finding this out? 

Please refer once again to July 24, 2010: One More Phase in the Shattering of Mainstream Media

The future of FM radio doesn't lay in what they broadcast or how they up the ante of quality of content (but, of course, it will always be a competition between stations for dwindling audience and sponsorship dollars)...

The future of FM radio depends on what Toyota does.

That's right. Toyota is the one who decides what is going to happen. In my opinion, it is obvious that FM  is is serious trouble and that we are now witnessing the end of an era; and it's happening, in slow motion, right in front of our eyes.

But, don't take my word for it, decide for yourself. Let me explain further...

Think about this: Where do most people listen to FM radio? In cars, right?

The Japanese government and all the big manufacturers in this country, Sony, Panasonic, etc. (who, by the way, all have an incestuous relationship with each other and Toyota in stock holdings) are pushing for the digital conversion big time. These manufacturers need their flagging fortunes to get an injection of sales and profits that new broadcasting and new equipment will generate. Digital equipment costs anywhere from $500 - $2,000 (USD) a set. The Japanese manufacturers want and need for the Japanese public to go whole-hog into digital broadcasting. They need the public to dispose of their analogue equipment and buy the new digital equipment... (By the way, a cursory check of analogue equipment at Bic Camera the other day - what little I could find - showed that all the analogue products were all manufactured outside of Japan).

If digital broadcasting is a failure in this country, then it's going to hurt Japanese manufacturing for a very long time... The analogue equipment I saw was all manufactured in Malaysia, Indonesia, and I found some from Taiwan (which was surprising).

Now, how does Toyota fit into this equation?

Imagine your car dashboard. It has a GPS, CD player, and television/radio set all built together. Most people have an analogue device (with terrible TV reception!) From July 2011 there will be no cars that come with that device. They will all be digital.

After July 2011, on your dashboard, you will have a digital GPS, Internet, digital TV and digital radio. Want to do Social Media, YouTube, Twitter, U-Stream, blog? Got you covered. Need to Google or Yahoo search? Sure. When you need traffic conditions, just a click on your GPS will give you up to the minute details on traffic and road conditions. All the TV channels? No problem. Throw on top of that 6 digital radio channels and, of course, a CD player and probably an iPod connection, and you have the next generation of car entertainment system. 

Now where does that leave radio in the equation? Especially when you consider the fact that radio, unlike TV and the Internet, cannot give data on exactly how many users it has and cannot give ratings... 

Why does it matter that radio cannot give ratings? Well, because any advertising campaign expenditures from sponsors must be justified at accounting at the sponsor company. How can one justify a radio campaign in Japan when clients cannot be told how many people listen and who is listening? They can, though, get data on viewers for TV and Internet and numbers for print media.

That upper management at a station can be serious and tell me in an incredulous tone, a full seven years after Toyota's announcement, that they just found out that the world's largest car maker stopped making radios for their cars shows just how completely out of touch with reality some people are with what's going on with people's lives and the world and society they live in.

But, gee, far be it from me to tell people what to do, but I think it is the duty of management to keep apace with the market and conditions. Anything less is gross negligence. The shareholders should be, and will be, furious. It's a simple matter of time.

You be the judge! Do you think people like that, who are so unaware of the market - and even their own business merits and demerits - who seem to not read business publications on market trends - can run a successful business? They should be fired! There are employees working under them who have families to support; management has a responsibility! 

Of course, if the guilty parties ever read this, they would probably be angry at me for stating the obvious... I don't know why. I am doing them a favor.... 

But, as you know, when the tyrant king doesn't like the message, they will not consider where they went wrong, they will just kill the messenger boy... 

What was I saying about the Peter Principle?

It Doesn't Matter If It's Food, Fashion, Music, Cars or? Branding is a Science

I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody - Bill Cosby

I had a meeting with a nice gentleman the other day who is working on the branding of his company. I was a bit alarmed at what he said. It was obvious that this person wasn't exactly clear as to what Branding means.

He is in the restaurant industry and said to me,

"We can't be sure the age of our customers or who they are so we can't decide on what kind of food we will serve, we just have to make sure that the food we serve always tastes great."

Well, yes and no. He can't decide what kind of customers he's going to get or their age. That's true... But if he thinks he is making things to please everyone, he certainly can't do that either. He's wrong there. Also, if he's thinking is that his only competition are other restaurants, then he is dead wrong on that issue too. 

I'll explain why in a moment. 

Just like the old adage that Bill Cosby made into his own above, this kind of thinking is a time proven key to failure. It astounds me that to this day, with all the many example around us on why this sort of thinking doesn't work anymore (please think: Apple, Google, famous fashion makers, etc.) When you try to please everyone, you please no one. This is obvious and has been repeated over and over again throughout history since the Industrial Revolution. The serve-all method is a sure-fire way to fail.

Here's why...

The success of corporations like Coca-Cola, Apple, Google and Mercedes Benz, just to name a few; proves that specialization is the key to success in this day and age.

The sushi-ya is good at what they do. "But they can't be sure of the customers or their age!" Should the sushi-ya now add Chinese Food, Hamburgers, Indian Curry, etc. to the menu? Of course not!

There are lessons around us everywhere. Let's look at the restaurant industry for an easy example. Quick name one highly successful and profitable family restaurant? Denny's? Nope. They are rumored to be on the verge of bankruptcy. How about in Japan? What others are there? There's Gusto and Jonathans and Skylark to name a few. All rumored to be nearing bankruptcy. Skylark did go belly up.

How about Royal Host and Sizzler? Well, the Royal Host chain isn't doing well, but is better off financially than Gusto and Jonathans... Why? They own Sizzler in Japan.

Sizzler?! Well, yes, folks, Sizzler is doing well in Japan, thank you. Why? They specialize. They realized years ago that they needed to set themselves apart from the others in their market space. Sizzler is a steak house and its steak meals start at over ¥3,190 a plate! (about $35.77). Sizzler may be considered a family restaurant but they are doing all they can to destroy that image and change to a higher end steak restaurant.

That's Branding. That's smart. That niche marketing.

Branding is doing thorough market research and then focusing on one part of the market.

The example above I gave where the boss said, "We can't be sure the age of our customers so we can't decide on what kind of food we will serve, we just have to make sure that the food we serve always tastes great." He is so completely wrong on that point that it makes me wonder if he has ever bothered to read any books on Branding and Marketing? Or, does he even understand the concept? I don't think so, that sort of thinking is like something out of the 1950s.

Let me get back to that point and prove to you why the other restaurants are not his only competition in this day and age and why trying to please everyone will fail with a simple example.

Imagine: It is your free time, say lunch time. You have one hour. There are so many things for you to do and to choose from on how you spend your one hour. You could go shopping or you could go to the gym, or for a walk, or to a coffee shop. You could go to a book store or meet friends, you could listen to music on your iPod or iPhone or Android or at a record store nearby. You could eat your own homemade lunch or, you could go to a restaurant. The choices are endless.

But, since it is lunch time, and you didn't bring your own lunch, you are hungry. 

In your immediate area there are 5 family restaurants. There's the Denny's, the Skylark, Gusto, Jonathan's or Royal Host... Those restaurants have everything, but I'm sure you'll agree that even though they do have everything, everything is not particularly delicious.

Besides the above, there's also a plethora of choices. There's a McDonalds (Definitely a niche restaurant), a standing soba shop, a delicious sushi restaurant, Chinese food, Indian food, Korean Barbeque, Japanese lunch of baked fish and miso soup, Wendy's, Pizza, etc...

Now, it's not rocket science but most people would go to the specialty shops. 

"How to triple your users and sales by doing just one thing..."

This movement of the market and people's tastes have dictated why this science of Branding is so very important.

Once again, take Apple Store for example. What if they thought that, "...there's all sorts of people who come here of all different ages. We need to please them!" Do you think Apple store would then start carrying Epson printers and ink cartridges? How about printer paper and office supplies? Should Apple start carrying Android phone or old-fashioned cell phones to please the older crowd? See? If one were to stop and think about this for just one second, they'd realize the absurdity of not specializing towards a niche market...

And, I'm sorry, food, music, fashions, etc. are all very broad topics. Anyone who thinks they can't be treated in a scientific fashion for Branding purposes simply just hasn't been paying attention.

For more on the Scientific Method and how Branding is a science, may I recommend: Brands and Brand Management - Contemporary Research Perspectives  

From the publisher review: "Very few books exist that meaningfully integrate the rich and vast body of scientific research and theories that have accumulated in the field, relating to both traditional and contemporary topics in branding. This book accomplishes that task, with contributions from leading experts in the science of branding, national and international. The book should appeal to all students, faculty, and marketing professionals with an interest in research findings about brands, and an interest in deepening their understanding of how consumers view brands."

Thanks to Kevin Riley for the TED link.

Be Professional! Working at a Japanese Company - Any Company - Filled With Low Quality, Dysfunctional People and Management - Don't Do That to Yourself!

In one of my jobs, I give advice to major corporations on marketing and promotions. I work with some great folks. Usually, these big companies ask me for advice (or how to get tickets to sold-out concerts - yep. I can even do that!) Sometimes, in order to create new business, I put on my sales hat and approach companies that are in serious need of help. Today's post is about that kind of company; I mean a company in serious need of help. There's lots of companies like that. Here's an example.

The following is a true story. In the last two days, I've had some experiences that are just hilarious and just go to show how dysfunctional the people are who are in the employ of this one particular well known to be hereinafter called, "the Inertia Company" in Tokyo.  Everyone in Japan knows this company but it is not very respected. It used to be. But not today. It once was rich and profitable but, over these last 15 years, due to the Internet and not being able to adapt to the times (think Bronotosaurus), this company has fallen into serious financial troubles and disrepair. After hearing this story as just one microcosm of the whole problem, you'll see why.


It is all I can do to keep from laughing out loud at just how incompetent the employees as well as the upper management are at Inertia. This story would make a funny TV comedy show but, it is so ridiculous that, well, it might be too hard to believe. Here is what happened:


Over the past few months, I have met with the new director of Inertia. The guy before this new director didn't last 3 years. The guy before that one was gone after one year. When companies lose millions of dollars, that tends to create a high turnover rate in manglement... Er, I spelled that wrong, I mean, "management." In spite of the high turnover, like a good trooper, I've been trying to help them all with sales. And why not? Even if I think they are not good management people, if I can help them sell and make money, then I make money. Everyone's happy, right? 


But, with corporations like today's example of Inertia, I think God makes me do this sort of thing as a kind of "purgatory on earth" or, perhaps, to make me a better person and teach me patience. 


The Inertia Company has been losing more than one million dollars a year for the last 3 years. The new director and I met to discuss new ways to create new business revenue streams. In our last meeting, he told me that he, "Totally and completely agreed with my ideas..." and he added that he wanted me to give him "a few months to reorganize the company so that we could move forward with this new way." He also told me to contact him after that time.

Artist's rendition of Inertia Company Tokyo

As an aside, I go to that company sometimes and know that nothing has been reorganized by him since our meeting three months ago. Nevertheless I have been contacting him and trying to arrange a follow up meeting to discuss organization and operational implementation of this new plan.


By the way, I have already sold this new plan that I shared with the new director of Inertia to a few of Japan's most successful and profitable companies. In June of last year I presented it to one of Japan's most respected and profitable corporations and by August 1st, they had fully adopted the plan and now use it to boost sales - which they have done quite successfully - thank you!


Anyhow, over these past few weeks, I have been contacting this gentleman as he asked me to do. I repeatedly sent him very polite and professional business letters discussing items like CRM "Customer Relations Management," and very cost effective digital systems on how to use this new plan to obtain customers. With these notes, I have been asking for follow up meetings.


Finally, I offered him a lunch meeting whereby I could bring one of my top salesmen. This salesman is responsible for bringing this new CRM system to some of Japan's top sports teams whereby they use the system. Actually, using the system to give clients what they want is a no-brainer. I expected the director of this company to set a firm date soon.


That is, until yesterday. Yesterday he sent me a mail that just shocked me. I'd expect a mail like the one he sent me from a junior staff or a newbie or a junior high school student, but from a 50+ year old man who is a director at a company?! Extraordinary!


Here's a flow of the mails so you can get a feeling for the conversation. My mails (a total of four in four weeks) said something like this:


Dear Mr. Director,


How are you today, sir?


As you know, some of the biggest and most influential companies in Japan have just started using the CRM tool I mentioned to you at our first meeting. I'd like to continue that conversation. I know you are terribly busy so perhaps I could meet you over lunch to discuss implementation on how you can use a CRM marketing tool (at no cost) in order to provide your potential clients with the data they need on their users and thereby gain a mutually beneficial business relationship with those potential clients? Won't you please arrange a suitable time so that we can discuss over lunch? I will arrange my schedule to fit yours at any time. Please advise.


Mike Rogers


The director of Inertia dropped my jaw yesterday with his mail. He answered me something along these lines:


Mr. Rojers (sic)


We like you but cannot work with your company. 


We cannot work with you as there is a person at your company who used to work together with us at our parent company. When he worked here, he hurt the feelings of people at that parent company in the past. As you know, people are animals and their feelings do not heal so quickly. Therefore, even though your idea is good, we have no intention of working with your company because of him.


Mr. Director


I was flabbergasted. Here I am writing professional business correspondence, talking about increasing sales for a company that is losing over a million dollars a year, and this guy writes back to me talking about his internal family problems and squabbles! (No big deal, but he even spelled my name wrong!) I mean I talk about money and he starts telling me about his squabbles with brothers who were fighting.


I have no problem with them not working with us. But I'd expect some sort of reply like, "We have decided on another avenue to increase our sales. Thank you for time. Let's stay in touch and perhaps we can work together in the very near future." You know? This is what I'd expect from a professional.... But I am not dealing with professionals. This is like dealing with a room full of kids!


I have never worked at that company and have no idea what he is talking about. I don't really care. The above example is in English, but his original letter was in Japanese. At first I thought I was misreading it. To double check, I showed it to my Japanese wife and she was so surprised too. I mean, really, this is a business letter from the director (president) of a company!? My wife said, "I've never seen anything like that before. Do you think he wrote this letter when he was drunk? He sounds drunk."


I checked the time stamp on the email. I suppose it's possible that he was drunk. I mean, perhaps he was drinking at 11:30 in the morning on a Tuesday. Hell, I could see it. If I were running a company that was losing a million dollars a year, I'd be drinking all the time too!


Like I said, I was so surprised to see this letter. No. "Surprised" is not the word. "Totally and completely dumbfounded and floored" is more like it. I have never seen anything like that before. I'm the kind of guy who doesn't need to like people to work with them. All we need is professionalism and that's fine with me. We don't need to be bosom buddies to make money with them. Isn't that a part of professionalism?


I wrote back and decided that I should ignore his comments about hurt feelings and events that happened years ago. I wrote:


Dear Mr. Director,


Thank you so very much for your honest feelings.


Anyway, in order to implement a CRM system that can help boost your sales (as your competitors are doing and your former sales partners are now doing also) then let me introduce another company that has a similar system to mine. It is not as advanced, but can still do the job better than nothing. This system too, can allow your sales department to sell what the customers need and gain clients.


I am quite sure that there is no one at your company who understands this sort of new system so I can, at anytime, and for absolutely no charge, come down to your company and help tutor your sales folks on how to use this system effectively. Please let me know.


Mike Rogers


And that was that. He didn't answer my mail. I'd imagine that if I had written such a silly letter and then received back a professional "adult" attitude letter, I might be ashamed or embarrassed. But shaming or embarrassing this guy is not my intention at all. My entire intention was to help his company increase sales. I am not interested in his "family affairs" and they are none of my business! I can't believe he'd tell me about them!


Does anyone wonder why the Inertia Company is losing so much money? What a mess! Their president basically said to me, "I don't like you so I don't want to make money with you!" Laughable. How did this guy get to be president? 


Well, maybe I don't like someone like Bill Gates either but I don't have any problem using his stuff to make money for me! (Actually, I am a Apple guy, but you get my point).


And now, after that incredible story, what's the point of all this? How does something like this apply to you? Folks, life is short. If you are in a company like this, get out. After that experience and this absurd correspondence from a company director with the emotional baggage of a 12-year-old I don't want to help them. I hope they don't ask me ever again (they have asked many times!) But fear that they will.

There's lots of companies run by nincompoops like this example above. Companies that are struggling along, barely making ends meet; the yearly sales targets are never met and the mood of the company and the employees goes down. The quality of management sinks and an ever lower standard, and dare I say, IQ? comes in and begins taking the ship to even lower depths. Of course it does. Why? Because the good, talented people see the writing on the wall and get out of these sorts of companies while they can and take better jobs somewhere else. The people who are left over? They are the low quality ones who have no where to go. They have nowhere to go because they are left without gumption, drive, motivation and, sadly, without a clue. They can't go anywhere even if hey wanted to!


When a company is left with low quality people like that where is there to go but down?


People look at a companies like Apple Computer, Softbank or Google and think, "Oh! But they had a good idea and a good product or service!" Sure, that's true. But even more than that, they have good people. They know what it takes to make a good company. After all, what is a good company but a gathering of good people?


A company like Apple is filled with such good high-quality people that even if they didn't sell killer products, even if they sold chopsticks, they could make a profit and a good company. Apple people are like that. Apple could even make ice seem cool! Apple could rebrand ice and sell it to Eskimos!


A bad company like the one above I mentioned? A bad company could take great products like Apple has and they'd soon find some way to turn them into a loser and quickly be bordering on bankruptcy. That's what a bad company is.


Like I said, I work at several different places during the week. I get to see up close and inside of some of the finest companies in Japan and in the world. I've been to Apple Japan, Google Japan, All Nippon Airways, Softbank, Air New Zealand and Recruit, just to name a few, more times than I can count. I've worked with them and organized many promotions with them. I am doing so now.


I've also worked at some of the most dysfunctional and incompetent companies in all of Japan too; like the Inertia Company. I won't bother to mention their real names. Why? It pains me to do so. Why name them? Bashing these poor people is like kicking a mangy disease ridden one legged dog; it's not necessary or desirable at all. I don't even want to touch or get close to them.


That's what this blog post is about; not touching or getting too close to sick companies. Like a diseased animal, you need to stay away from them or you will become like them. For people who are young; for people who want to have a future; for people who want to give their children the best that they can; for people who want to escape and live their life to the fullest, this blog post is for you (and me). Don't take a job with a bad company. If you find that you are with a bad company, then get out as fast as you can.

As a multi-millionaire friend once told me, "Sometimes the jobs you reject are just as important as the jobs you accept."


Of course a job and food on the table is important. But, while you work at that poorly run company, you must make the effort to learn all you can and use your connections to get out and get a better job.


Remember birds of a feather flock together. If you are always working with poor quality and incompetent people you will probably become that way or, at least, be perceived by others as being that way.


So, if you work at a place like the one I described above; get out as quickly as you can. A life is too short having to work in a place where you cannot dream and be your best. Don't do that to yourself.


Find a good company with good people. Have a dream aspire to be the best you can be...


And above all be professional.

Doing and Playing are Two Very Different Things

"Do or do not. There is no try." - Yoda

I know way too many people who play all the time. Of course, like anyone else, I like playing too. But there comes a time when we must all "do" and not "play."


I suppose, in this example, my use of the word, "play" could also be used interchangeably with "pose." There are far too many poseurs around.

People think they understand the difference between "do" and "play." But allow me to explain the big difference here.

I learned a great lesson about not "playing" when I was a student. In High School, I was president of the Science Club. I don't really remember how I got that title, it's just that a Biology teacher thought my grades were good enough and the other geeks decided that they'd vote me in as president.


Being president of the Science Club was sort of fun, I guess.


As president of the Science Club, I was King Geek. In Science classes and Biology, I didn't have to attend classes like the other kids did. I was the guy who assisted the Science instructor with handing out Petri dishes and feeding the pets in the Science Department.


I also learned that the cutest girls in my school were basically stupid in Biology so they were nice to me so that I would tell them the answers to test questions. I thought that this would translate to me being popular outside of Science class but I was totally wrong on that front.


While the classes were going on, I'd get to sit in the back room and do "experiments." Mr. Holts, my biology instructor allowed me to do any sort of experiments that I wanted to. I grew plants, did experiments with bacteria and learned all sorts of things about feeding and breeding animals and fish.


I learned stuff like most lizards won't eat food when they are in captivity so you have to force feed them. I also learned that mice are so freaked out by snakes that if you put a mouse in a snakes cage or terrarium, often times the mouse will freeze up and just sit there in fear.


Well, back to the difference between "do" and "play"....


One day, I was bored out of my wits as I sat in the back room at the Science department. There, I spied a cockroach and some silverfish. I captured them as I intended to use them for lizard or fish food... As I was searching for a container to put them in, I spotted a large glass beaker and, to my surprise, a bottle of Hydrochloric acid.

That gave me an idea... The devil horns slowly creeped up on the sides of my head.


I put the insects in the large beaker and saw that they could not climb up the sides. They were trapped. I then pulled up a chair and took an eyedropper and squeezed out a drop of acid and dropped it into the beaker.


The cockroaches and silverfish would run as mightily as they could towards the top of the beaker trying to get out. But run as hard as they may, they would give up and slowly slide back down the sides of the glass until their tails hit the acid at which time they'd take off again, full speed, up the sides of the glass.


They did this over and over. 


To make a lame o excuse for my deliberately torturing some of god's creatures, I found it interesting how and why the insects seemed to run as hard as they could up the glass but then "get tired," give up and slide back down. I mean, insects don't have muscles! How can they get tired.


Well, as a twisted little high school brat (and president of the Science Club) I got my jollies torturing these insects (I was probably laughing like a mad scientist too) when a big hand slapped right down on my shoulder. It was Mr. Holts. He said to me,


"Mister Rogers! You have so much talent and ability but you waste it. Do you know what your problem is? Your problem is that you don't want to "do" science; you want to "play" science. There is a big difference."


He was right. I have never forgotten that moment. 


I think about that and I can see his face whenever I see people doing crappy work. Or people whose primary concern at work (mostly middle management people) having the protection of their position as the number one priority over the success of the project. I can also hear his words whenever I feel that I am not doing my best and letting other people down.


Life is too short for us to waste it on dead end efforts. In my thinking, there is no such thing as a dead-end job. A job is a dead-end if you make it that way. If you view it as a opportunity, then how can it be a dead-end if you use it to motivate yourself for bigger and better things? 


Never sell yourself short.


Remember to always do and not play.

Sometimes You Do Have to Put Your Foot Down? Maybe Not!

I've been re-reading Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friend's and Influence People" for the umpteenth time.  I must be a poor reader because I am guilty of doing what Carnegie says not to do:


Be an as*hole and jump on other people (who are acting like as*holes). Of course, Carnegie is a great writer so he doesn't say it as eloquently as I do.


I'd like to take this short post and use it to remind myself how criticizing people - especially in front of others - is one of the worst things you can do.


I run a talent agency. Of course there are a very many people, "Talent," who work there. "Talent" are often very insecure people. Of course they are... They are in a very insecure job in a very insecure business that could end at any time... Not only could it end at any time, but there are no guarantees; you could have a job today and be out of a job tomorrow.


It's kind of like being a professional sports athlete: You'd better have your act together or you are done real soon. Half-assed people need not apply.


I've also worked as a producer, general manager and company president and founder. I've even taken a company that lost $140 million dollars in ten years, turned it around and put it into profitability within 2 years. Of course I didn't do that alone, I had a great team and was smart enough to get great people around me.


I'm doing the same at my newest venture: I may not be an expert in the tech field or even a top quality salesman or expert in our field, but I am expert enough to get the best people around me who do know what they are doing. And I am smart enough to know how to motivate people to do and be their best.


The ideas in "How to Win Friend's and Influence People" have worked to help me over an over so many times that I can't count them all. At my new venture, I have one of the best technical engineers on my staff... Even so, I suspect that this gentleman isn't very happy with the direction things are going.


You see, as a technical engineer and creator, this gentleman is an artist. Often, in the course of business, we have to make decisions that accommodate business and profitability over creativity. This sometimes leads towards unhappiness amongst the creative staff. I have suspected that this person might be dis-satisfied and wanting to quit.


What to do?


Of course, appreciation and sincere compliments are in order. And, of course, these should be done in the presence of others. Before a meeting started this morning, I arose and said, 


"The other day, I was at Apple Japan. There, I met the director of marketing for all of Apple Asia. I showed him our new service and he was mightily impressed. He told me that our service was a winner and that we were sure to succeed... I told him that I believe that we can because we have the best staff and engineers in all of Japan."


And, this was a true story. I could have said to the Apple boss,


"Yes. Thank you." And not chosen to compliment my staff, but I saw the opportunity to be able to pass on praise where praise was past due. Relating this story in front of the engineer to the entire company staff made him blush with pride. That's what I wanted to do. It was honest and sincere praise spoken in a humble manner.


Do you think that made him proud? Do you think that motivated him to do more?


Of course it did. Praise is a powerful motivator and people - all people - desperately desire to be recognized and appreciated for their efforts. Nothing beats sincere praise, especially if it is delivered in front of other people...


I also overheard a story about how an executive belittled one of his staff in front of other people the other day. The person on the receiving end of this criticism told me she was so embarrassed and ashamed. She didn't feel good at all and she told me that she wanted to quit.


Nothing will earn your scorn more than criticizing your staff in front of others. It is a self-defeating process. Do you think that girl will work harder for this boss? If she, and every one else loses their motivation, how does that help this boss?


Nothing will earn you more respect and admiration from your staff, and getting more out of them, than praising them in public as much as possible and always thanking them for your success.

I believe, as my dear old dad used to say, "You can catch as many flies with sugar as you can with sh*t! So why give people sh*t?"

He's right. You can get great results with praise. You can never make yourself look better by criticizing others.  

You can motivate ordinary people to do great things by utilizing this basic understanding of the human psychology and human mind.  


I see this psychology at work in the sports and sports marketing business. I rarely see it in action in the music business. Perhaps because, sports are almost always a team effort. Music is often a dog eat dog competition between individuals. Sports is almost always a team effort. 


In the last month have had the experience of working with people inside a huge 20,000 person concert event and a 20,000 person sports event. I was behind the scenes of both events. I saw how people were treated and how the management structures were set up.


All I can really say is that I get the distinct impression that the people working in the sports marketing field are of much higher quality and much more intelligent and competent than the people working in music. It makes sense too, when you stop to think about it:


In high school, especially in Japan, a certain group of kids leaned towards music and a different group levitated towards sports. Of course not everyone, but it seems to me that the kids who studied the hardest and got the best grades moved to sports. Since they studied hard and did sports, they got good grades and went to good universities. There, after that, the got good jobs hat paid well.


Musicians and music people? Hmmm? Am I confused when I say that not too many musicians even go to college?


Anyway, I digress... The point is not a comparison of the quality of the average worker in the sports market versus the average worker in the music business. The point is that, after witnessing two very different world's: One through a sports event and one through a music event, I can say that motivating your people as a team - like a sports organization - is a much better way to increase your chances of success, whether your business is music, sports, fashion, whatever...


Winning teams are built on respect and pride... You won't get it criticizing people. Criticism is no way to motivate people. It your own worst enemy. Don't do it. Praise people and make them feel good. 


Praising your staff is just smart business!

Repercussions of Irresponsible Flyjin Management

Immediately after the March 11, 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident, many foreigners panicked and fled Japan. At that time, I was sharply critical of many members of the foreign community for doing so.

As a seasoned veteran of the mass media, I knew from decades of experience that one must always take with a huge grain of salt what is broadcast on the mass media as "news." On this very blog I reported about many past exaggerations. On March 18, in the midst of the disaster, and while events were unfolding, I warned people not to believe the mass media sensationalism. In the post entitled: Japan Nuclear Disaster Update and Strong Criticism of Western Media Sensationalism I wrote: 

The western media is having a field day with the nuclear accident in Japan. If you believe them, you'd think all of Japan were underwater and that we are all about to die. This sort of crass sensationalism is a damned disgrace and you should be very skeptical of what these idiots are telling you. The guys working in the news are wishing for big stories. If they can't get them, they make them.

Remember my Golden Rule about TV: "90% of everything you see on TV is bullshit; the other 10% are commercials."

Actually, it astounds me that people do accept what what the media says as gospel truth. Don't forget that this is the very same media that told us 3 years ago that Swine Flu was going to kill more than 50 million people worldwide. This was the same media that told us that the USA had to invade Iraq because of Saddam's nooklar weapons. This was the same media that told us that SARS also was a killer virus that was going to wipe out entire populations. This was the same media that told us that Bird Flu was going to do the same.

As of today, worldwide deaths from Swine Flu: 82. No nuclear weapons for Saddam (if he had any, do you really think we would have invaded Iraq?). Worldwide deaths from SARS: 100. Worldwide deaths from Bird Flu: 80. Don't even get me started on Man Made Global Warming!

Fact of the matter is that this is the same media who constantly exaggerates stories in order to sell advertising space to an extremely gullible public. When will people ever learn? If history is any example then the answer is: Never. They'll never learn.

Even so, that some people - especially those with pregnant wives or small children - decided to send their families away just to be on the safe side, these people deserve no criticism. The ones who deserve strong criticism are the foreign management who left their positions of management all the while claiming to take business trips while leaving their Japanese staff to hold the fort.

If they thought it was so dangerous that they had to leave then, as management, they had a duty to take care of their Japanese staff first. The captian is not the first to abandon ship. 

Besides deserving scorn and ridicule those people don't deserve their jobs.

I wrote about this sort of poor management in Tokyo Crisis Update: Nuclear Meltdowns, Drama Queens, TV News and Coca Cola

....all the foreign upper-management have gone on unspecified "business trips" (with their families) and have left no return date to their staff. I could tell from the way she said it and her attitude  that she and her husband were disgusted at these people. What dedicated and responsible management, eh? What a great way to build respect for management.

I will, here, take this chance to strongly criticize the foreign management of Coca-Cola Japan for showing such a compete lack of responsibility to their employees and to the Japanese people. So much for Corporate Social Responsibility, eh Coca-Cola? Also, so much for dedication to your work and company. Leaving on a "business trip"? Disgusting. Don't you clowns have the guts to even say that you are running away? Saying that it is a "business trip" allows you to get paid from your company at the same time you skirt your responsibilities all the while you expect that your staff and workers continue on like everyday? If I were your boss, we'd definitely have more than a few words about this. I'd probably fire you.

I can understand you sending your family away... But you running away too? And then expecting to get paid and your employees to carry on in your absence at the same time!? 

Scandalous.

So much for the days of the captain being the last to leave a sinking ship. And, in this case, the ship is not even close to sinking. Coca-Cola wussies. I'll never drink that stuff again.

At that time, I also warned that fleeing foreign management and their corporations one extremely important message. That was a message of trust and respect between the Japanese staff and their foreign management. Never forget that, in any relationship, be it work or personal, it takes years of effort and dedication to build trust. It takes just but one action to destroy that trust.

That's what this post is about. It is a report from a conversation I had last night with a Japanese staff person and what she told me that her 25 or so Japanese colleagues think of their foreign boss because he ran away, lied and claimed he was on a business trip so that he could collect money (call this what you want, but I think most people with common sense would call it theft) and yet left the Japanese to stay on at work as if nothing happened.

Now, let me say a word about this company that this lady works at; I have been to that company many times over these past 8 years. This is a very demoralized company. The atmosphere in the company is very negative and the staff, when not in the office, ridicule the management openly... (it is strange that some of them would so easily and quickly ridicule management to me as I am a stranger to many of them). This company has all the makings of a company heading for bankruptcy. It reminds me of a run down government office. It is dirty, dark and the employees are not motivated at all to do a good job. The employees at that company are all just sliding by doing the minimum of effort they need to do to get by. 

And why not? Why should they do more than their "leader" does?

This lady told me with gritted teeth that their boss ran away during the crisis and returned as if nothing happened. She was still very angry five months later! The Japanese staff were dumbfounded when he ran away. They felt that they were expected to stay and work everyday (they did). Their boss took his family away to Okinawa and stayed in a 5 star hotel sending his meeting itinerary to the office everyday. She mockingly told me that he, 

"Sent us his itinerary as if he had business meeting in a Okinawa hotel three times a day for three weeks! Everyone in the office knew he had no such meetings. He just sent in those forms and schedule so that he could get paid. Unbelievable!"

That's just scandalous and, no matter how you slice it, claiming a business meeting in an Okinawa hotel everyday for three weeks is just plain stealing from the company. Talk about just asking for his staff to disrespect him. 

When he returned, there was no apology, no nothing. Here's a guy who exhorts the troops to go out a do a good job? What a disgrace.

Let me give another important aspect of this case to you, dear reader to consider. 

One of the biggest complaints that foreigners and foreign management have of the Japanese is that they do not take initiative and that they do not take responsibility. It is commonly complained about by the foreigners that the Japanese must be told what to do or they will do nothing. I am not here to argue this point at all. I am just passing along what is a common complaint about the Japanese.

I have, though, heard this very same foreign boss say this exact thing to me before.

This woman also related this part: Just before this foreigner left his company, he hurriedly called the staff and told them that he was going on a business trip to Okinawa and that, during the Fukushima disaster, that they can decide what to do by themselves. Then he left in a rush.

This woman who relayed this story to me told me that the Japanese staff held a meeting after that and they didn't know what to do. She said they didn't understand what he meant. She did say though that people were scathing about this foreigner and sharply critical of his lack of leadership. 

By his saying that they could "decide what to do" mean that they could leave and go home? Did it mean that they would still keep their jobs if they did so? If they did go home, would they still get paid? This incompetent foreigner failed to do the minimum that was required of him.

On the one hand, he complains that the Japanese can't decide what to do by themselves, then on the other hand, he tells them to decide what to do by themselves?! What a dimwit.

Any competent leader would have said, "I am leaving with my family until the situation is clear. Please go home to take care of your families and wait for my contact on what to do after that and when it is safe to return to work. If you need me, here is my contact. I am available for you anytime."

Like I said, this is what a competent leader would have said. But, then again this guy is far from competent.

Now, after reading the above, is it any wonder why the Japanese staff do not work hard at this company? Is it any wonder why they are completely demoralized? Is it any wonder why they don't respect their boss? What is a wonder is why the owners of this company do not fire this guy and the second wonder of the world is why the Japanese staff don't hate this guy with a passion and openly revolt! 


(An interesting side note, though... this guy must know that his staff hate him and have zero respect for him... How can he stand his job? Or, gulp, is he really that clueless and incompetent?)

It's been now nearly 5 months after the Fukushima disaster began. The radiation situation in Tokyo is no worse or no better than it was 5 months ago. The foreigners have for the most part returned.

The only thing that has changed is the disregard and lack of respect that the Japanese staff now have for their foreign management that ran away.

It seems to be would now be wise for corporations in Japan to investigate and review how their "leaders" acted in this crisis and take appropriate actions to remedy situations that are not conducive to company culture and profits.