HR Diaries: Chapter 4: Japanesefully Yours
A story, that I heard long back (don't remember the source), is something, I would like to share. It is not my original work and I would love to share credit with the one, who is the original narrator.
Anyways, there used to be a big American Pharma giant. They were good in everything! The company had always been at the top of its game for a long time.
They started a new plant. It was good. Good technology, heavy financial investment, best of the engineers- everything was just perfect! But then, still, somehow, that plant was struggling to give the best output. (Engineers, please don't ask for evidence or try to find any technical errors please, as this is a write up by an HR professional!).
After trying every trick in the book, the company hired an American consultant to look into the problems. He failed. Another American consultant was hired. She failed. Many failed!
The company, then hired, a Japanese consultant (I must have been too young then, you know!). The Japanese guy laid one tough condition before accepting the assignment. His condition was-he should be allowed to visit the company's corporate office, apart from plant, anytime. And not only that, he must be allowed to attend all the meetings, inspect all the documents, meet anyone, any number of times, and be allowed to ask any questions. Plus, he categorically denied, by what time, he would be able to solve the problem.
The company very hesitantly agreed to his conditions because of his reputation. After a long observation of everything mentioned above, he had a meeting with the CEO of the company. He offered only one line solution in that, "It is not enough to have transparent walls in the corporate office, the policies, practices and communication need to be equally transparent too!"
