As part of NASSCOM's Emerging Companies Forum - Marketing, this was the 30th meeting of NCR companies on 14th December 2007 (Friday) on "Doing Business in Japan"
There was a good blend of professionals gathered to listen to Ashoke Ghosh, President, Delivery Services of GrapeCity India.
Are you exploring Japan as a business market? Or are you already doing business in Japan? Read on to know why is doing business in Japan difficult, and what can we do about it?
Challenges & Solutions
1. Linguistic capabilities – having a local partner is always a good idea. And to help you further in getting connected with a right local partner, you could contact JETRO ( a government-related organization that works to promote mutual trade and investment between Japan and the rest of the world )
2. Building relationship – it always takes time to build relationships, in japan it takes a little longer. One needs to be patient while managing business relationships in japan. Below are some facts to be kept in mind while doing business in Japan.
a. Japanese do business on trust therefore it makes sense to invest to build trust.
b. Don’t expect quick returns as ROI would take time.
c. Decision making takes longer. Also when Japanese come on the discussion table, it’s quite likely that he’s already made a decision in him mind.
d. Japanese are very humble in nature and like to see same quality in others.
Some more interesting facts:
-- Japanese predominately use MS – excel for everything and are formatting and accuracy conscious.
-- Japanese are man of their words so if Japanese says he’ll do it, consider it done!
-- Attrition isn’t that big a problem for them however the Indian attrition scenario surely concerns them for getting into deals with India.Hard sell doesn’t work with them. So if you are a hard seller, try another country as its surely not going to work in Japan :)
In a nutshell, if you want to be successful doing business in Japan then the mantra is “be local, start small and focus on building trust and the growth would flow in automatically”.
Thanks again to Mr. Ashoke Ghosh for an interesting and knowledge enhancing session.
More the NASSCOM's Emerge Blog
Hi Ankur,
I found some interestinf information on the below mentioned link about "doing Business in Japan". Please take a look...
http://eurotechnology.com/doing-business-in-japan/index.html
Thanks & Regards,
Chetan
Anonymous said...
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 11:49:00 PM
@ Chetan,
Interesting facts!.
Thanks for sharing it.
Regards,
Ankur
Ankur Sethi said...
Thursday, December 20, 2007 12:45:00 AM
Japan is a very difficult market.
So I recommend to look for a Japanese partner / agent.
Not that product (if tangible) really need to comply to the Japanese Standards. The quality must be outstanding
Anonymous said...
Sunday, December 23, 2007 9:15:00 PM
Hi Ankur
In my experience Japan is very unlike other countries.
Big Challenges: Personal/Business
1. Japanese Language
2. Japanese Culture & Food
3. Building Relationship & Trust
Selling in Japan is not usually direct. You have to use trusted network to get access to customers. So to start with working with Partners/agents is a good idea. To find one who can perform is not easy. Last thing you want is to have access to potential customers but your partner lacks influence/relationship to make business happen. You have to be very proactive in these partnerships and work very closely with them to ensure your success. In future you could use direct marketing coupled with indirect marketing.
Once you establish 3 to 5 good customers then you can start to look at using them as reference provided you did great work for them. Word of mouth reference/sales is very BIG in Japan.
You need to have patience. Japan needs long term sustainable strategy. Be prepared to sweat for 1 to 3 years. Once you get a customer, they will remain loyal to you. They believe in partnership relationship rather vendor/customer relationship.
Negotiations never end. Their Expectations are very high. They demand nothing less than perfection. Quality is of at most importance.
Japan provides greatest of platforms to build your foundation in Processes, Quality, technology & Delivery.
Once you have your ways, it will be fun. You need to know how to sing songs and entertain your Japanese friend in Karaoke bar.
Anonymous said...
Sunday, December 23, 2007 9:16:00 PM
Hello Ankur
The Avish's answer is perfect, however I would like to add that it doesn't take too much time in order to make a good business in Japan.
It's long if your service or product is already provided by japanese companies or if you only bring an improvement.
But in the case that you are able to provide new things, the sucess is really fast and durable.
I establish several companies each year in Japan so I have a good vision regarding that point.
You will find many interesting topics on the JETRO website
Sincerely
Cedric
Links:
http://www.jetro.go.jp/
Anonymous said...
Sunday, December 23, 2007 9:18:00 PM
Dear Ankur,
I make my home in Japan (30 plus years) and work on many projects related to Japan. Regarding challenges, every sector, product, service and market network has its challenges.
Are there specific projects you are interested in? I've worked with automobile related products, construction products and training services retaled. Some were export related (from Japan) others import related. All of them presented different challenges.
I know this is a weak answer, but if I had more details on what you're interested in maybe I can be more helpful.
Best wishes,
Ron McFarland
Tokyo, Japan
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