There was a time in Japan when clans, such as the Taira and Minamoto, were at war to protect their interests and a time when the Mongols wanted to conquer the world. There were events during those times that showed Japanese adaptability, which the newer generations were able to inherit and bring to business practice.

Though the Samurai is not purely a Japanese creation, it has a long history in Japan and evolved to benefit the Japanese society. The concept of Samurai was learned from China’s warrior class but social unrest made the Samurai’s identity the way we know them today: Adaptable among others.

In one account, the Mongol Armada attacked Japan through the bay. The Japanese, within their “war code”, were used to fighting based in ranks, which was not present with the Mongols. This culture difference made the Mongols shower the Samurais with arrows and stones from their ship.  Japanese being inferior in navy warfare devised a way to beat the Mongols. The Mongols were anticipating a night attack coming from the land so the Mongols prepared for a land combat, but the ingenious Samurais went around and attached from the sea, using smaller unmanned boats which they allowed to float near the big Mongol ships. Once the boats were near the Armada, the Samurais shot their fire-lit arrows setting the small boats on fire causing fire on the bigger Mongol ships.

This characteristic of adaptability is also present in the Emperors that time driven by the need to survive. Here’s a story from Hogen Monogatari (tale).

Emperor Nijo, son of Emperor Go-Shirakawa, came under siege when he was 13. In order to escape safely, he disguised as a young girl. His young physique, make up and heavy kimono, made it easier to fool the enemy guards. His father, Emperor Go Shirakawa escaped by dressing as a lowly attendant on a horse. He was able to pass gates without attracting attention.

In another attack, his older brother, Prince Mochihito, adopted the ruse that worked before. He let his hair down, put on a woman’s robe and shielded his face with a large hat. A group of samurai holding an umbrella over the Prince’s head accompanied him as they hurried down the street. He was such in a hurry to reach his destination that he didn’t mind his demeanor. Faced with a large ditch on the road, He athletically jumped across, making the passers-by shake their heads in disbelief seeing a “woman’s” lack of ladylike air.

Adaptability

In the Mongol attack, the Japanese knew they had no match against the fierce Mongols if they allowed them to a land combat, and the Emperors knew that they were no match against the enemies if they fought against them. Instead of fighting, they turned to understanding the situation and responding to the needs of the situation. They were adaptable.

These stories tell us that adaptability is part of Japanese culture which they brought in how they do their business. The roots of the world renowed Kaizen principle, the principle of continous improvement, can be traced back to Edward Deming. Deming, a management consultant from the US, introduced Total Quality Management in post-war Japan. Both TQM & Kaizen tackle continous improvement.  Understanding the difference between the 2 will help us understand why Japan did not just adopt TQM. A paper called An Analysis of Relationship between Total Quality Management and Kaizen, has this to say on the difference between the 2, “TQM features primarily focus on customer’s satisfaction through improvement of quality. It is both a top down and bottom up approach whereas kaizen is processes focused and a bottom up approach of small incremental changes. Implementation of TQM is more costly as compared to Kaizen. Through kaizen, improvements are made using organization’s available resources.” This paper gives me a clue that if Japan used TQM instead creating TPS, it would have not worked.

One of the first applications of TQM in Japan was when Taichi Ono converted the principle of TQM into Toyota Production System (TPS), which also uses the principle of Kaizen. Here we see that the Japanese did not just adopt and use TQM, if they did, it would have not worked. Remember that that was post war and Japan had very little resource and if they used TQM, which is resource heavy, they would either borrow money or close. So, instead of using TQM they adopted its principles and made TPS, which is something, the fits their needs.

Aside from principles, Japan is also known for their technology. Comparing them with the west where part of grand vision is to dominate planets and space travel, most of Japan’s technology is used for practical reasons, adapting for social needs such as those robots for the elderly care, automating agriculture to make it efficient for home delivery or safer mobility. This can be seen in their society 5.0 policy.

The Japanese adaptability is something to admire. It made them survive and win against their enemies, and it is also something they used to bolster their economy after the war. In such a short period of time after the war, they were able to bring their economy back.

I had the privilege of having a conversation with Shuang-Min Chang (SMC). What’s remarkable about her is her 15-year experience in the luxury brand industry. She lived in Europe, India and China before going back to her homeland Taiwan after her retirement. Currently she is a life coach. She helps executives chart their path or understand changes in their lives.

In the course of our conversation, I asked her thoughts on being a master or expert of something or being a Jack-of-all-trades. I asked her because I think this is one of a modern man’s dilemma where a society favors experts over generalists. This is evident in what is seen in media. I also tackled this thought and I wanted to know what she thinks about it. For her, who loves to do many things, she prefers a holistic approach and finds that one can be successful not by being great in one thing but greatness is a combination on many things. In other words, a manager can not be great if all he knows are technical matters but do not know how to communicate. I would like to put it this way: A master was once a student who explored many things to come to the one thing he is great at. I must say that I agree with her. Being social beings, we communicate ideas and ideas or knowledge can only be power if it can be used to influence and create something.

Another topic we tackled is the difference between eastern and western coaching philosophy. For her what matters is the person being coached. In her experience, someone heavily influenced by the west is easier to coach because they are more straightforward than someone influenced by east.

We also discussed about perspectives. For her, this pandemic created many positive events compared to how it is portrayed in media. She has gained more time for family, and she has since socialized better. I do feel the same. The pandemic gave people more time to think and discover themselves. Stopping made us look from outside the circle where we have always been.

It was an insightful 40 minutes of interview. My biggest takeaway that I can bring to business is that expertise or being known comes from knowing a lot and putting them all together to create what your are.

An innovative company is one that challenges status quo and welcomes new ideas into its methods and processes. In the past few years, there has been an increase in training human capital in the topics of creativity, innovation and design in the hope of creating a new product. However, the failure to implement the outcome of the training can be traced to management who likes the idea of new but does not want to take risk in the implementation. Such company is in tug of war between change and tradition. It takes more than wanting the idea of change to drive change.

Creating an innovative company begins with the commitment to change and resources. Change carries more than the idea of shift. Creating paradigm shift requires plenty of energy because one is not only changing the culture of the company, it also changes the established habits of the people used to doing certain things previously. I know of a company who wishes to implement a simple after sales survey. All the necessary questions and survey were done, but even after 2 years, it is still in the upcoming project. This company is no small or medium company. This company employs hundreds of people. 

If you wonder why some learning programs do not work, it is not because the training is ineffective, it is the structure that has to be checked. There has to be a champion who needs to see to it that the desired outcome is coming to fruition.

Commitment and change requires a champion. Every company who wishes to drive change can only change its culture by changing its structure and having a champion committed to change is what is needed. This champion is someone who needs to have authority and solely focused on realizing change. That person may be a project manager but the key is that the person needs to be bestowed with authority and listened to by the management.

If you are thinking of bringing innovation to your company check if everyone is committed to change, there is ample resource to bring change and a champion the will drive the movement.

I love watching videos made by Great Big Story. I like it because they create extremely viral videos of objects and people we did not even know existed. They are viral because the stories are unique and entertaining. One I can’t forget is a video about an instrument used for horror movies and the man behind the game solitaire. Great Big Story reminds me of an entrepreneur who sees the 1% everyone misses and turns it into a cultural phenomenon.

It will be valuable for a company to have someone or a department who sees that 1%. Imagine if you have one, you will always have that innovative idea that can bring competitive advantage to your business.

Almost all who ate at Jollibee would buy another rice but it was Mang Inasal who was culture sensitive and offered unli-rice to Filipinos who are big rice eaters. After that, almost every business copied the unli-rice concept. In 1920’s Japan, Matsushita created a battery powered bike lamp that lasted 10x longer out of frustration with what was currently available then. To be able to see that 1% everyone misses, one must have a keen sense of how a culture is, its flaws, wants and needs, technology and information available at hand.

Can this keen sense of seeing potential be acquired? The answer is yes. I have college students who never saw themselves as entrepreneurs but were able to start a business of their own. I have another student who did not come from a family of entrepreneurs; this is relevant because almost everyone who chose entrepreneurship as a course comes from an entrepreneurial family. This student of mine really saw himself as a successful entrepreneur, he studied the lives of entrepreneurs and read a lot of books. In short, he worked to become one. He is one of my students who became a serial entrepreneur.

To be able to start training to sense potentials, one must think that entrepreneurial opportunities are made out of things put together (not necessarily add or take away. Jobs did not add anything with the first iphone or take away something, instead, he put touch screen and phone technology to come up with a minimalist phone) for the purpose of solving a problem. It may be a style of doing something applied to another discipline. I have a student who is into arts and she sells personalized portraits based on her own style of drawing, so that is putting her style into art. Jeff Bezos put together books and ecommerce. This was after he saw a data of a big growth of internet users. Going back to Mang Inasal, they put together culture and dining. This question maybe asked: what can I put together that will make sense to my target.

To think like an entrepreneur is to see opportunities as ideas put together to come up with a solution.

Value proposition is what you are offering to your prospective customers. I can be convenience, lower cost or service. It is also what differentiates you from your competitors.

How do you find your VP?

The VP mainly comes from what the competitor can’t offer or what their current customers do not get from them. By turning their weakness into a solution you can offer, then you come up with your VP or differentiation.

There are ways of finding their weakness: It can come from your personal experience or by asking their customers, through research. There are also those unspoken dissatisfaction, those things that dissatisfiers that customers are not aware off but can be sensed by the sensitive entrepreneur. This unspoken or unknown dissatisfaction are those that create the greatest value. Who would have thought that unlinrice from Mang Inasal will make them successful or the first Apple PC. Those behavior-changing products are beyond the current framework of innovation and academic entrepreneurship, which is only known to those who are sensitive enough to find and exploit them.

A Value proposition can be derived from a customer or one’s dissatisfaction as well as that unspoken dissatisfaction known only through the eyes of the sensitive entrepreneur.