E-BULLETIN EXCLUSIVE
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Temporary Staffing Options to Support Your Business
The benefits of a flexible workforce are well known in many parts of the world. However, some businesses in Japan remain cautious about hiring professional contractors.
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Finding Everyday Sustainability
From newspapers and magazines to advertisements, we hear how a product is sustainable (or not) and why we should (or shouldn’t) use it to add sustainability to our lives.
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Handling Nasty Questions from Nasty People
We have probably all been on the receiving end of it or have been a witness to it. The presentation is completed, after which come the questions; some are fact finding, some seek clarification, while some are just plain nasty.
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UK–Japan: Closer Than You Think?
Shimaguni konjo (island nation mentality) is a term I have often heard applied to the seeming similarities between Japan and the UK.
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How to Retain Your Best Talent
You’ve secured the perfect candidate for a role and they are starting next week. Considering the time and money invested in the new employee’s recruitment, you will want them to remain engaged in a productive career with your firm over the long term.
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Slapping No Sense into Them
The Sakuranomiya senior high school basketball captain chose death rather than experience another demeaning day of face slaps from his coach.E-bulletin
How to Manage those Meeting Monsters
In the December issue of BCCJ ACUMEN, I wrote an article on meeting monsters (“Are You a Meeting Monster?”, page 29) that has elicited some interesting responses. I thought it would be a good idea to provide some solutions concerning how to deal with these monsters.
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Something Green around Every Corner
At almost any given moment in spring, somewhere in Japan people can be found seated under boughs heavy with the pale pink blooms of the sakura (ornamental cherry blossom tree).
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Networking that Works
How big is your database of contacts? How many business cards have you collected and filed? How many people do you know? Turns out these are all rather pointless questions!
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Protect Your Health
In 2013, from a feng shui perspective, women will tend to experience complaints affecting the stomach, tummy and womb.
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Sustainable Recovery Taking Root in Tohoku
As the rebuilding of the region’s economic and social infrastructure continues, sustainable entrepreneurship is helping to keep afloat the aspirations of shattered localities.
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Flexible Japan—Stop Dreaming!
Around the world, the service industry is the most obvious area where we come in contact with classic inflexible attitudes on the part of staff.
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Investment Advice: A Review
Financial advice is a perplexing subject, so let’s start with the negatives. i) Markets are inherently unpredictable, chaotic in the technical sense of the word, and we can’t know what the future will bring.
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Green Cleaning Tips
Household cleaning is a necessary part of life, but can be fraught with hazards. Many modern cleaners easily remove stains and dirt, but often leave behind residue and damage the environment.
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Mobile Websites: Not Only an Option
According to a recent Microsoft Tag report, mobile internet usage is set to overtake that of desktop computers by 2014. Another prediction—that the number of mobile devices will soon be greater than the world population—highlights the sea change in how people access information.
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Business Embraces Video
Seen a good video lately? If you are like most corporate executives, you probably have. Chances are you’ve viewed YouTube to catch up on industry trends or best practises.
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Feng Shui Business Forecast 2013
According to the ancient Chinese lunar calendar, 2013—the year of the water snake—starts on 10 February.
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Engaged, Energised, Motivated Employees
This title sounds good doesn’t it or, after a spot of self-reflection, is depression beginning to seep in? Why don’t we have more engaged, energised and motivated employees?
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Engaging Japan’s Next Generation of Leaders
“Leadership” and “Japan”. Using these two words in the same sentence in conversation among expats often arouses a wry chuckle.
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Beyond the Cotton Fields
It all began on a doorstep in India. Patrick Hohmann, on a routine business trip for his Switzerland-based textile firm, Remei AG, spoke with a spinner and asked where he obtained his cotton.
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Growing Solutions in Tohoku
Aragon St-Charles could hardly believe his eyes on seeing the TV images of the 11 March 2011 tsunami. It swept across the landscape of north-east Japan and explosions rocked the damaged Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. Later, there were images of farmers gazing at land rendered useless either by the tsunami’s salt-laden toxic cocktail, or radioactive fallout.
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Reward Staff to Motivate Them
Visionary leaders are always looking for ways to unlock the potential of their workers. Yet many seem to miss the one approach that spurs people on in most cases—purpose-based recognition.
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Stressed Out in Japan
Have you ever stood on a railway platform and wondered why trains are sometimes delayed in Tokyo?
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Tokyo Farmer's Markets
Why take the extra time to visit a farmers’ market when supermarkets and convenience stores are on nearly every corner in Tokyo and food co-ops deliver right to your door?
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Paul Kerr
London-based Small Luxury Hotels of the World (SLH) is all about helping small, independently owned luxury hotels by providing economies of scale similar to those achieved by the large international hotel chains, while allowing them to maintain their individuality and independence.
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Attitude Makes Altitude
Getting someone to buy whatever you are selling can be fraught with difficulty. Sales managers and teams need to succeed or it’s game over for them.
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Beat the Heat
Tokyo is not only the biggest city in which I’ve ever lived, but also one of the hottest. In my native US midwest, the heat and humidity usually settle for one week at a time, only to be chased away by dramatic thunderstorms.
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Generating Ideas With Focus Maps
Witnessing the silent rows of downcast eyes around the meeting room after your heroic call for ideas and input can be a character-building experience in Japan. You may wonder, “How did this country get to where it is, when nobody seems to have any ideas?” Or, even, “Is my leadership insufficient to the task?”
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Beware the Year of the Water Dragon
Since the beginning of 2012, we have seen the word Libor in newspaper headlines almost every day. The scandal surrounding the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR)—the inter-bank lending rate—involved a series of fraudulent actions that resulted in numerous investigations. It will lead to a substantial change in the financial system, and has been one of the biggest issues so far this year. I am very sure that there is a feng shui connection.
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