Recently I wrote about Japanese Diligence. The following is a real situation where the consequences of cross-cultural assumptions about diligence created extensive unnecessary work for the Japanese to undo damage unknowingly caused by a foreign visitor. Something similar could happen to you!
CASE
At TIC headquarters in Japan, a subsidiary visitor needed to have their name initially registered with the hosting Department/Division to get into the main building. No name, no badge, meant no entry. Pre-registration was important. Otherwise, Security would complain to the hosting department about poor preparation and last-minute requests.
A second badge was needed for the R&D Department and a third one for the Design Department. Each of these steps required pre-registration so there would be no last-minute surprises. Also, at the end of each pre-registered building visit, the specific visitor’s badge would need to be returned to the main security of each Division/building.
Cory was visiting from Middle/Upper Management at TIC’s American subsidiary. Just as he was leaving he couldn’t find his Design Department badge and since he had to catch a plane, he asked the Japanese if they could just take care of it. They had no choice but to say they would, and he didn’t give it another thought.
To the Japanese, however, this was a serious transgression. Competition in the industry was intense, and a missing badge could potentially mean access by a competitor and loss of top secret information.
The assistant staff of the hosting department had to apologize to the group manager (even though the badge loss was no responsibility/fault of the assistant staff). The group manager had to apologize to the General Manager of Product Planning. The Product Planning General Manager had to apologize to the General Manager of the Design Division.
In addition, once they had thoroughly analyzed the root cause, they had to write a letter of apology to the Design Division that contained a detailed description of the countermeasures they were taking to make sure it never happened again.
Think about it. Do you really want to tie up all these people’s time, cause a loss of face, and ruin credibility for future subsidiary visitors? Following protocol in Japan is exceedingly important, and there is absolutely no respect for people who are careless, blasé, or who casually “winging it.”
