Kudos
again to the Lykki Culture Club for all the fun events around Halloween. We
love to dress up all times of the year so when it hits October we are warmed up
and rarin' to go.
I
was traveling but it looks like the Lykkiites had a great time.
Cheers
Calvin
After
10 days in Japan I have a list of some pretty cool things that stood out
compared to Canada.
1.
Garbage cans are hard to find. Why? Because the Japanese take ownership for
their impact on the environment. If they had some trash, they just hold onto it
until they find a trash can. No need for a trash can on every block. You would
never see someone flick a cigarette butt.
2.
It's so clean. No gum on the floor, graffiti on buildings or junk in front
yards. Taxi and bus drivers are constantly cleaning their vehicles as they wait
in line ups to pick up passengers. Every taxi or bus I rode in looked like it
just came from a detail shop.
3.
The Japanese are just so friendly. Friendly in a respectful and humble way. I
loved being greeted when I walked into a shop or restaurant - by everyone. When
I mean everyone I mean the wait staff, the cooks, the hostess and who ever else
worked there. The same ritual was repeated when you left. So there was this
constant greeting and goodbye hum I became accustomed to - and something I
miss now that I'm back in Canada. All too rare to get that level of pure great
fullness in business as I saw in Japan.
I
see this post is getting long and honestly I could write 20 more things I found
interesting but I'll wrap up with one more.
4.
It was not crowded ! We are eating breakfast on the top floor of the
Westin Tokyo and looking down at the streets of the financial district on a
Friday. It's amazing how few cars and people there are. The city is so
efficient with trains and public transport that they are the masters of moving
people efficiently. I didn't see any traffic jams and when we did travel on the
freeway by car the traffic flow was smooth because everyone did the same speed
- no jerks speeding and slamming on their brakes.
Sure
the train stations were crowded and quite something to witness. But one you
understood the protocol like walk on the left, line up to enter and exit the
trains, basic stuff. Finally I must note how quiet Tokyo was. No loud Harley
motorcycles, no horn honks and people generally spoke very little in public.
Tokyo is many times the size of Vancouver but felt so organized, friendly and
calm..
Bonus
Round - OK, needed to mention there basically was very little crime, no
homelessness and from what we were told by our business hosts, very very little
in the way of drug abuse or alcoholism. I was told a story about a business
case left on a train seat and nobody touched it all day until the trains were
cleaned out at night and it was returned to the person who lost it.
definitely
a city I will go back and spend more time.
Sayonara,
Calvin
During
our tour of Japan, we were fortunate to spend a day in Tokyo with some local
business owners. This was a great opportunity to learn more about employee
culture, work ethics, and happiness at work.
A
highlight of the day ( other than the fantastic lunch) was each business made a
presentation about their culture at work and how employees are motivated. Some
interesting stories arose on the topic of "social drinking " as part
of the company culture. What we learned was many employees started work as early
as 6am and finish work at 6-8pm. Then they go out after hours several times a week with coworkers and managers for social drinking time
and karaoke. This practice was considered part of the job and the workers who
didn't participate didn't grow with the company. Wow, that really is dedication
to the company and limits work life balance by our standards but seems to work
for them.
Another
story was about hiring sales people. One company would send new sales people
out to call on businesses and bring back 70 business cards per day. If the
sales person couldn't bring back 70 cards, the sales person would just not
return to the office, they would quit out of honor.
There
seemed to be an extremely strong sense of honor and pride for not disappointing
the company they work for and as a result there were interesting dynamics that
we just would not usually see in North America.
Cheers
Calvin
This
week we are in Japan to visit Toyota.
Our
goal is to better understand the philosophy of Kaizen.
Kaizen (Kai = Change and Zen = Good) stands for Continual Improvement.
I
first became interested in the principle after reading the book - The Toyota
Way. The philosophy of Customer First - Respect For Humanity - Elimination of
Waste struck a cord with me.
At
Lykki we cherish all three of these principals and our commitment to continual
improvement runs deep in our company at all levels. Kaizen and the Toyota
way is a huge subject matter to take on in this blog post so I challenge
you to learn more if you are interested. Start with the book or check out http://www.kaizen.com/
I
was not able to take any pictures inside the Toyota plant but needless to say I
made a ton of notes. I was amazed to see how some systems right on the assembly
line we so basic and simple. One memorable time was when a person assembling a
dashboard in a Camry needed help fitting it in during the allotted time he was
allowed. He walked over and pulled a rope and the nursery rhyme song
"Itsy Bitsy Spider" music started to play over the loud speakers.
Next a supervisor walked over and observe as the line worker continued to
wrestle with the part till he finally got it into place. The supervisor did not
help manually or speak to the worker, he just watched and made notes on how to
improve the process. You could hear different tunes playing all the time in the
factory and each time that equaled communication between the front line
workers and their supervisor. How powerful is that to hear and see constant
improvement in real time. WOW!
Looking
forward to more factory tours and visits with other businesses in Japan.
Cheers
Calvin
Just
wrapped our Lykki Q3 All Hands Meeting. Awesome energy, great presentations and
learning - but the best part was the card from staff to Sandy and I. It's
things like this that get me jumping out of bed every morning. We handed out
profit sharing bonuses and received this awesome card of thanks and gratitude.
Calvin
