Learning from history

I’m reading the book titled “Strong men armed” by Robert Leckie. His story in the book as well as others (such as “Helmet for my pillow”) was featured in HBO mini-series “The Pacific”. It is interesting to know that the reason for Japan’s failure in Guadalcanal was attributed to bad information and piece meal commitments of troops. In other words, Japanese generals thought like lieutenants (they rushed to get a quick win without grasping the information about the whole situation) and made poor judgments.


Japanese side of historical accounts often characterize the failure as the result of significant numerical disadvantages. However, Japanese troops didn’t have significant numerical disadvantages in the beginning of the battle. If Japanese generals had planned the troop gathering and logistics carefully and realistically, the US marines would have had much tougher time winning the battle.


After many years since the end of the war, it seems that Japanese large organizations didn’t completely shake off the problem. In 90’s Japanese CEOs thought like managers and couldn’t grasp the changes in businesses and technologies. They made bad judgments and caused two decades of economic decline. Some Japanese business leaders try to hire more foreign employees and make English an official language of their companies. Although they are right moves they failed to address the key issue.


The core issue of Japanese organizations is the lack of meritocracy. They usually don’t demote bad managers and promote good managers quickly enough. As a result, you will see Japanese CEOs who think more like managers in organizations with a long history. In Japan once you hopped on the escalator of social promotion you will be OK for the rest of your career. Some people may say it won’t work that way anymore, but I don’t hear large scale layoffs of mid managers in major Japanese companies often.


The past efforts to introduce meritocracy in Japanese companies had mixed results at best. Some Japanese people seriously argue that it’s impossible to assess a person’s performance. To me, assessing the performance of workers based on their job descriptions and commitments is a basic task for managers.


Japanese companies should reintroduce meritocracy in the following ways.
1. Hire employees based on the job descriptions. Stop the outdated custom of finding employees fresh out of collages.
2. Make labor laws more flexible. Allow companies to lay off workers with certain amount of severance pay. It will create a more flexible labor market.
3. Set realistic and measurable goals for each worker so that managers can assess his/her performance. Each employee should be the advocate of his/her own career and demonstrate their skills and achievements to his/her supervisors and other managers.
4. End life time employment and social promotion.