LESSONS FROM MY CAREER: SYNTHESISING MANAGEMENT THEORY WITH PRACTICE – PART 8

It was a selection by chance. I had barely completed my first year at the Ceylon Tyre Corporation when an opportunity arose to follow a three-month course in Japan. This course was for Industrial Engineers in Manufacturing organisations. As the Industrial Engineer at the Tyre Corporation it suited me well. I applied with much hope. But only to be informed that three years of service at the corporation is required to be entitled to a fellowship.

This was an internal rule at the corporation. My assistant applied and was selected, but some procedural delays prevented him from being selected for the final stage. The following year, he applied again, but something went wrong and he missed out again. I applied the following year because I had now completed three years. I was selected, and I ensured that there would be no slip-ups until the last step.

There seems to be some merit in the saying, “Your time must come.” It came for me, although I felt so sorry for my assistant, who missed it twice. The course was on “Industrial and Systems Engineering”. I was very glad to find that the other participant from Sri Lanka, was known to me at State Engineering Corporation. The course was organised by the Asian Productivity Organisation (APO) and implemented by the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS).

The APO was formed in 1961 as an intergovernmental organisation of Asian countries after it was noted that Asia’s productivity was very low compared to the West. Defining its role as a disseminator of productivity concepts and tools to play a catch-up game, the APO is very active and has been playing its role effectively.

Precise pre-departure preparation

The pre-departure documents were unbelievably precise. I had never come across such precision. This was a lesson even before departure. The documents included details such as what we must do just after baggage clearance on arrival at Narita airport. It included unique baggage tags, too. There was a map of the airport, a map of how we could find the limousine bus counter, and details of how much it would cost and how long the bus journey would take to the City Air Terminal (CAT) in downtown Tokyo.

Once we got to the CAT, we had to open another map which showed precisely where to find the taxi stand. Finally, there was another small slip we needed to give the taxi driver after getting into the taxi. It was all in Japanese, indicating our final destination, “Ajia Kaikan”, the Asia Centre Hotel. No words were needed. There were instructions about how to cash money at the airport and even suggesting the amount to be cashed. You can imagine how smooth the arrival was.

At check-in at the hotel, there was another packet including some preliminary instructions about the course, the weather forecast for the week, and a map showing the important places in the vicinity, such as restaurants, supermarkets, small grocery shops, coin laundries, post office, etc. All this made me resolve to do everything in the future with a similar high level of precision and demanded all my future subordinates to do the same.

Having arrived past midnight on a Saturday, my Sri Lankan colleague and I thought we would have a nap in the afternoon and then go for a walk in the vicinity. We were in deep slumber when the bed suddenly shook, and I felt dizzy. I jumped out and called my colleague, who had experienced a similar shaking. When we looked out of the window, everything seemed normal.

We went back to sleep and, going for a walk later, we found some pieces of ceiling plaster had come out, but everything looked normal. The streets were perfectly normal, and there were no signs of panic. Since Japan was famous for earthquakes, we just brushed it aside as probably a daily occurrence!

Responding to the earthquake

The next morning, we went to the lobby earlier than expected. That was to be the rendezvous for the APO officials to meet us. Reading the papers, we were shocked to find pictures of broken bridges, twisted highways, and major disruptions. There had, in fact, been an earthquake, but fortunately, it was far away from Tokyo.

The APO officials arrived and informed us that many resource persons arriving for the opening ceremony would not make it in time because of the disruptions, but they would use alternative routes and be present by afternoon. Therefore, the opening ceremony was rescheduled for the afternoon, and we began our lectures on the dot at 0900 am that day.

It was like giving us our first lesson: punctuality will be maintained whatever the disruption is. In contrast, I was involved in organising a seminar by Japanese experts at the Trans Asia Hotel in Colombo (now Cinnamon Lakeside), and even half an hour after the start time, only half the participants had arrived. The Japanese were uneasy and asked me what the delay was. I had to sheepishly say that it was raining outside, hence the delay in the arrival of participants.

College students volunteering to clean railway station toilets on Sundays

In Japan, even an earthquake was not a reason to delay, but in Sri Lanka, light rain is an excuse for a delay. We must change this habit rather than repeating “Sri Lanka time, no?” I have done my part: five minutes after the start of a meeting, I would lock the room door. I was always able to start meetings on the dot.

The Asian group

Although our group of about 20 participants were from the APO member countries in Asia, our cultures differed. Those of us from the former British colonies such as India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Hong Kong were always dressed in office attire, formal in behaviour and manners; the Philippines and the Thai participants were more casual, perhaps due to the American influence. The Indians were more boastful and were show-offs, while the others, even with superior knowledge, were more humble. Studying the behaviours of the participants was itself a good sociological study. Despite these differences, we gelled well and often went out in the evenings and weekends.

The culture shock

The most striking feature of Japan was its widespread cleanliness and the Japanese obsession with it. Any country can be clean, but the difference here is that everyone cleans. Every place, every road, and every toilet was spotless. Their slogan was “Everybody is a janitor”. We, too, were taught the basics in an introductory video on cleanliness. If you use any facility in common areas, you are expected to clean the place so that the next user will find it very clean.

I have watched with amazement how the cleaning staff cleans the common toilets in Japan. It was not just a superficial cleaning; they would squat on the floor near the toilet bowl and carry out a thorough cleaning. In the hotel restaurant, every chair and table legs were cleaned daily to remove the marks made by the shoes. The concept was “bring it back to the original condition”. It was fascinating to watch. Every telephone in our training facility and the hotel rooms smelt of disinfectant. Cleanliness and hygiene were a high priority.

The politeness was terrific. It was a concept of respecting the other person and making him comfortable. This “other person gets priority” concept meant that you would never pour a drink for yourself first; you first pour for the other person. It is an endless list stemming from their culture of “Omotenashi“; selfless service to the other person. I was told that this culture of selflessly serving others and the obsession with cleanliness came from a synthesis of Shintoism and Buddhism. The Shinto influenced Japan long before Buddhism pervaded many areas of the Japanese culture, including their respect for nature and their detestation of waste.

The alien registration

All foreigners are “aliens,” and although I was quite amused by the term, we had no alternative but to register at the Alien Registration Office. I suppose it was to ensure that all long—and medium-stay foreigners were properly documented. It became necessary when we opened bank accounts, too.

The technology shock

Everything in Japan ran on advanced technology. Even the hotel bathrooms were high-tech. You had to figure out how to buy train tickets in an unmanned subway station. There were microcomputers for every two students during the course, and all the lectures, exercises and demonstrations were on these. The two of us from Sri Lanka had never seen such small computers before, let alone known how to use them.

The first exercise was one of three assignments: prepare a programme to rank a given set of marks, improve the execution time of a given programme, and make a beautiful design on the computer. Most students from South Asian countries and India were familiar with these microcomputers, but we were clueless. We decided to design the Singapore Airlines logo by programming line by line. That was all we could do. It worked, and we won competition number three, much to the chagrin of the Indian counterparts who challenged that it was not an original design. The challenge was overruled. Very soon, we were able to use these computers successfully.

A week after the course started, my Sri Lankan colleague and I were comparing Japan and Sri Lanka, wondering how long it would take to catch up with Japan of 1980. Perhaps 25 years, said my colleague. It is 45 years now, and we are nowhere near.

The next episode will continue with lessons in Japan.

by Sunil. G. Wijesinha