Can "The Octopus" Save the Gaishikei? How to adapt to local condition and grow - while keeping aligned with HQ.
Join us for fresh pastries, charcuterie, fresh fruit, strong coffee and a main course of your choice at this Delphi breakfast salon.
Re-formatting the Friction Between Tokyo and Global HQ
It could be said that the premise on which Delphi Networks exists is the need to upgrade the performance of Western firms in Japan, which frequently have a market share in the single digits despite stunning success globally.
Even the best companies often fail to crack Japan, colloquially known as the "country managers' graveyard"! (One of those companies is top UK supermarket Tesco - where one of the speakers worked!).
Country managers often struggle with adapting a hodgepodge of local subsidiary "micro-cultures" to the clear-cut, sharp, but often quite impractical directives from HQ.
So, it’s always a breath of fresh air when top US company executives sweep through Tokyo. Their can-do optimism reflects the reach and success of US business, and can offer a great tonic to Japan country managers.
We are fortunate to have two speakers, Phil Le-Brun and Dr. Jana Werner, whose recent book has adopted the brilliant metaphor of the octopus for improving corporate performance. (You can find their the book here). Both are seasoned global executives across both old-economy firms, such as McDonald’s, and cutting-edge superstars, like Amazon Web Services.
The octopus has become famous in the last few years for its high but decentralized intelligence. Its powerful and supple arms can sense, think, and act independently of each other, and even of the central brain. Phil and Jana use this image to help country managers with a most pressing problem: how to resolve the friction between Japan and HQ. HQ is obsessed with “scale,” and wants perfect, machine-like uniformity across the globe to achieve it (or so it believes).
But deep, old, and sophisticated markets like Japan, which operate according to their own powerful rules, often become dysfunctional when these two forces collide—to the great frustration of the country manager.
If you want a fresh, more productive way to interact with HQ, our speakers can equip you with the vocabulary, concepts, and strategic frameworks needed to re-inspire the relationship with HQ. By learning how to “unleash your corporate octopus,” you can turn your local operations into a hotbed of autonomous growth and experimentation. This could generate a high-yield path that is both unique to Japan and aligns perfectly with global ambitions.
Any Country Manager or CEO ambitious to ruthlessly strip out what the authors call “antipatterns” (dysfunctional processes baked into your company’s DNA) and find fresh inspiration and tools should attend this event!