I AM currently in Tokyo to attend one of its biggest expos.
It counts, among other things, well over a thousand companies on exhibit, including many from China. Everything is all under one roof--software, hardware, gadgets, Internet-of-Things, machine automation, embedded systems, robotics, artificial intelligence and the like The Japanese market is the world’s third largest, and the show is brimming with activity and people. It is a big wonder because in the last 15 years, many exhibits and expos all over the world have been experiencing declines in participation and attendance . With the advent of the internet, joining shows has become less of a strong marketing or sales tool.
This year, however, the Japanese organizers reported record attendance. I guess this can also be attributed to the specific and cultural characteristics of the way of the Japanese do business, where relationships and face-to-face meetings are almost always necessary.
I have been coming to Japan for the last 20 years, and would like to share some specific observations about Japan.
In my experience, the Japanese way of doing business and their technology and investments should be our prime aim for the Philippines to grow economically. And to attract them as investors, we need to understand more their way of doing business.
I remember that I was here 12 years ago, and the Philippine booth was about the same size as the Vietnam booth. This year, Vietnam’s booth was almost 40 companies and was about three or four times bigger than ours. In terms of penetrating the Japanese market and getting Japanese investments, I guess the Japanese are more at home with the Vietnamese, because both are Confucian in their education and thinking.
But it is more than that. The Vietnamese booths were teeming with Japanese speakers while our booth in the Philippines promoted our English proficiency. Guess what? The Japanese like them better.
Our English can be a great promotional tool in Australia or the United States, but I think if we want to be successful in Japan, we have to be more aware of the Japanese language and thinking. If it is any consolation, India also does not seem to have that much success here.
One thing I am pretty envious of though is the discipline and honesty of the Japanese. Everywhere we go, gadgets, smartphones, tablets, and many other things are just lying around. They have a society that believes in being honest, and I think for them to just leave things here and there, the theft is very minimal, if there is any at all. A trustful society will progress faster because people trust each other, and concentrate on building bridges instead of walls. There is focus on getting things done, instead of putting a lot of resources to constantly check against being cheated.
The other thing we noticed is almost every male (I think almost 80 percent of the attendees are male) are almost all in black suits. Japan is a conformist society, and everybody tends to not be different. It makes me remember Steve Jobs, founder of Apple. He has dozens of black sweaters and denim jeans, and that is what he wears every day. He says he does not want to waste his mind power making small decisions. Maybe the Japanese are progressive in the sense, that most of them dress alike and do not spend that much time thinking of what to wear every day, at least for the men. This is contrary to Philippine society, where we spend a lot of time just deciding on what to wear.
I think the lesson we learn is that to do big things, we have to focus on the big things, and not the little ones.