A Kiwi among the Megatrons

If you want to find your way around Japanese business culture, Dan's your man, writes Nick Churchouse.

Japan is full of social quandaries, business Megatrons and opportunity. Former Wellingtonian Dan Underwood has been embroiled in Japanese business culture since 1998 and, using his experience and Kiwi innovation, has jointly headed Ashton Consulting for the past five years.

Together with Englishman John Sunley, he works with a team of Japanese and expatriate communications experts helping Japanese and international businesses talk to each other.

Fluent in Japanese and proficient at writing the difficult language, he is honest about the fact he is still learning the ins and outs of how Japanese business works.

But that culture also has some hang-ups that allow two foreigners to carve a niche in which companies can see the value. "These big companies in Japan have all kinds of needs, and if they have a trusted link into the foreign communications world they will approach you with all kinds of work, and not necessarily what you initially started with," he says.

With stamps and seals, a million divisions for myriad purposes and hierarchical frameworks that would beggar belief in other countries, finding someone with international contacts who can move quickly, adapt and swiftly understand a business' needs is worth their weight in gold to some companies.

"There's a lot of inertia in Japanese companies. If they are doing something one way, it takes a great deal to change them, like an ocean liner. The seals - you have to get a stamp from every department to do anything."

For an ocean liner to turn on a pinhead, fast thinking and faster learning is required. "It's the Barry Crump approach: you tell them you can and, by the time they find out you can't, you can. To start with, there was a bit of that."

Ashton requires seamless Japanese and English fluency of its 10-strong team, which works as a unit, with any staff member able to pick up the phone and solve a client's query, he says.

But the separate thinking pattern is the key to the niche business and, more importantly, knowing when to use it. The mix of its staff helps Ashton tailor each business approach to an individual company; Mr Sunley, a veteran communications and banking expert, is sometimes useful as a "visibly senior man", whereas a young telecommunications company might want to see someone in a T-shirt and jeans.

Dealing with companies earning revenues equal to half of new Zealand's gdp, a slight irreverence can be helpful, Mr Underwood says - something only a "naive" Kiwi might get away with. "Sometimes it pays to be the foreigner ringing up, speaking Japanese and asking for something. There can be a sense of obligation there."

For an outsider looking in, the mammoth haze of corporate giants is a formidable outlook, and Ashton takes its cue from knowing exactly where to push.

With clients such as Mitsubishi, Mr Underwood is no stranger to the multi-storeyed labyrinth of bureaucracy and says the key is knowing where and how to start asking. "These huge companies have many divisions; often the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing. The scale is so huge, it is hard to comprehend."

When introducing companies from Europe and the United States to Japan, Ashton's contacts are its bread and butter as much as its expertise, he says. "For example, a massive company with trillions of revenue, there are 18 business units, which have any number of divisions, and there is a person in there who is responsible for finding potential areas of investment in electro-conducive material or some obscure thing.

"If you know someone, you can ask them who handles this. And they'll know who out of 10,000 people you can talk to."

The mega-corporation culture has grown at the expense of investor value, backed by some arcane case law on investor rights, Mr Underwood says, but businesses are starting to feel the pressure from investors. "Some of these companies have massive surpluses and the investors want that money back. It's a big shift, and it is happening."

The attitude to investors has been unchallenged for years, and arguably made a difference.

"I have a lot of respect for these companies. They are quite incredible what they achieve sometimes, when they decide to. They just do it, and very often it works.

"Long-term thinking is a big part of it, and capital resources to back that up. A cynic would say it is because they have ignored investors for decades - looked after each other, the classic argument that they have pursued market share at the cost of profits. But that is changing."

As a New Zealander in Japan, married to a Japanese woman and with three children, Mr Underwood has personal experience of the foothold Kiwis have ready and waiting for them in the Japanese market.

A huge amount of goodwill lends itself to a plethora of opportunities in a market full of gaps waiting to be filled. "That is a great starting point."

There is renewed emphasis on producing items in small amounts, and quickly. "New Zealand can do that, whereas manufacturers in Japan may not be able to."

His own business is a classic example of adding to the traditional Japanese way of business - "let's work out everything right now before we do a thing" - with a "work it out as we go" way of thinking, and establishing something unique and of value to Japanese businesses.

"There's a huge scope to go bigger, for us it is about making sure we are the kind of company we want to be, and in the environment we want to be in. We need to maintain the type of work that has helped us grow so far."