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June 8, 2007
BI and EPM in Japan
For a few years now, I have had this thought in the back of my mind that I would like to research BI and EPM deployments in Japan. I have often read in the press and in analyst comments that BI and EPM are lagging in adoption in Japan, and it always did strike me as somewhat odd. How can the country that has had such a massive impact on global management practices on quality management and operational management, NOT be at the forefront of performance management. Are Japanese managers not interested in numbers? Not that I have seen the times I visited the country!
I recently read a well-known paper on control principles, by Ouchi (*), a famous management professor. He writes:
... Japanese firms rely to a great extent upon hiring inexperienced workers, socializing them to accept the companys goals as their own, and compensating them accordingly to length of service, number of dependents and other nonperformance criteria. It is not necessary for these organizations to measure performance to control or direct their employees, since the employees natural (socialized) inclination is to do what is best for the firm. It is also unnecessary to derive explicit, verifiable measures of value added, since rewards are distributed according to nonperformance-related criteria which are relatively inexpensive to determine (lenght of service and number of dependents can be ascertained at relatively low costs).
The article is from 1980, and much has changed, but this is a very interesting view. Perhaps BI and EPM principles are not universal, and can be rejected, which is not the same as not adopted. There are other ways of getting grip on an organization, in this case much more behavioral of nature.
Is it coincidence that the concept of Keiretsu is Japanese as well? Not only can we socialize our employees to adopt the overall objectives as their own (as Ouchi writes), but we can do the same with our complete business environment (what Keiretsu stands for).
Interesting... exactly the topic of my research these days. Unfortunately I am not an expert in intercultural management. Does anyone care to shed some light on Keiretsu style BI and EPM.
frank
(*) Ouchi, W.G., (1980), Markets, Bureaucracies, and Clans, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 25., No. 1, pp. 129-141.
Posted by Frank Buytenkijk at June 8, 2007 8:11 AM
