NEC: Creating a "Harmony" Culture

Are Japanese companies the best employers? This question mark lingered in my head for a long time before interviewing NEC. There are three reasons why I have question marks: First, the mention of Japanese companies brings people to mind the tradition of "lifetime employment". The lifetime employment system not only restricts the rational flow of talents, but also is not conducive to the creative development of employees' abilities and the optimal combination of labor. Secondly, in Japanese companies that advocate "collective leadership", focus on the concept of "harmony is the most important", and emphasize the harmony of the group and the mutual trust between people, the individual's spirit of struggle may be inhibited. Third, as an enterprise in the communication electronics industry, NEC attaches great importance to innovation, and innovation requires a relaxed and open environment, and strict institutional constraints will go against the requirements of innovation.

“This is all caused by the lack of understanding of Japanese companies.” said Du Jun, executive vice president of NEC (China) Co., Ltd., “The characteristic of Japanese corporate culture is 'harmony', which combines team and individual, system and innovation. The seemingly contradictory two sides are organically unified, just like the yin and yang pattern in the Tai Chi gossip, I have you, you have me."

NEC is special, it not only inherits the characteristics of oriental culture, but also will look like Contradictory Western cultures are also integrated into the company, as it is the first Japanese-American joint venture in Japan.

Such dual characteristics attract a large number of powerful fighters. Du Jun and NEC (China) HR Manager Zhao Rong are two of them. In China, there are 17,000 people who made the same choice as Du Jun and Zhao Rong. These people are distributed in NEC's 72 wholly-owned and joint ventures in China.

Japanese-style management VS American-style management

NEC is the first Japanese-US joint venture in Japan, and is also engaged in IT, communication and electronic high-tech industries. What are the characteristics of NEC's human resource management? After arriving in China, what is the difference between NEC China and European and American companies?

Du Jun: The main difference is the difference in human resource management methods between Japanese and European and American companies. In Japanese, there is a word called "quick combat power", which means that you can do it when you come. European and American companies are looking for quick combat power. In the past few decades, Japan has paid attention to lifelong employment. When recruiting, companies don't focus on skills, but on quality. , that is to say, we need to pick a good material, and then carry out deep processing after entering the enterprise, and implement complex and systematic training. Enterprises are willing to spend so much effort, and I believe you will work here for the rest of your life.

In addition, it originated from the lifetime employment system. Since Japanese companies are in a stable development stage compared with the rapidly developing Chinese companies, there is a phenomenon of seniority ranking, which is called "seniority sequence" in Japanese. In Chinese, the ranking of seniority is somewhat derogatory, but in Japanese it is neutral, and it is not purely based on seniority as imagined, but everyone works hard. In the case of everyone working the same, in fact, the performance difference is not big. In this way, the achievements and experience of the employees are proportional to the working years of the employees. This naturally results in more years and higher qualifications. "Breakthrough" in the previous Japanese companies is still very few.

In Japan, due to life-long employment, employees do not change jobs, and the company does not poach people. It is less likely to poach young and promising people like European and American companies, breaking the pattern of queuing by age. Therefore, talents can only be cultivated in their own enterprises, and everyone works hard. In the end, whoever has more work experience and wide customer relationships will have higher qualifications. Most of the Japanese companies in Japan are still like this. There are also advantages to this approach. In the Japanese companies I have contacted, this tradition of judging seniority makes people have a next goal before retirement and work hard for it.

However, after arriving in China, because of China's rapid changes, new companies will always come in, new opportunities will appear, and there are many opportunities for young people. Therefore, NEC China retains its excellent traditional management methods, and also Refer to European and American business management methods. For example, we still attach great importance to personnel training. When the joint venture company Beijing Integrated Circuit Design Company was established, 200 people were sent to Japan for training. The year before last, we established Shanghai NEC LCD Company, recruited more than 500 people, and sent 200 people to Japan for training. Now there is a cadre rotation training system. For example, the managers here are still managers when they arrive in Japan, and they will come back after two years of training.

In the past, in Japanese companies, employees worked in the same company for a lifetime, and the company believed that it was worth investing in these people. This concept faced challenges after arriving in China. Many employees finally finished training but left. Other companies saw After we finished training, we came to poach people. This situation made Japanese companies seem to be at a disadvantage in the talent competition. But we believe that good people will be retained by the charm of the company. Therefore, this concept has not changed much. What has changed is that when we recruit people, in addition to quality, we also add the content of quick combat power.

Is NEC China any different from other Japanese companies?

Du Jun: The difference from other Japanese companies is that localization is much faster than other companies. When I joined NEC China three and a half years ago, the leader of the Ministry of Information Industry said that in a large Japanese company like NEC in China, the deputy general manager and above had never been Chinese. After that, we established the China Research Institute, and the president was Chinese. The president of NEC Communications Company was hired by Lu Lei, who was the former head of Motorola.

Training vs. Jobs

You just mentioned that the company places great emphasis on training. What forms of company training are there?

Du Jun: For new employees, the first is the training of the company's history, business philosophy and personnel system, and then the training of professional quality. For example, those who do personnel work will receive training in personnel management and personnel operation skills. There are also regular basic training, including training in writing documents, communication skills, etc.

NEC Research Institute has only been established for two years, but it has sent many people to research institutes in other countries for exchange, and recently sent people to study at Stanford University in the United States. The standard for sending out communication is generally to look at the research direction.

In addition, employees at different levels have different training, such as training before and after promotion, and each promotion should have at least one week of training. We will also train Japanese permanent residents in China and teach them about Chinese culture, Chinese economy and so on. In NEC China, the average person has one week to 10 days of training per year.

Zhao Rong: Staff training and personal development plans are integrated. At the beginning of each year, employees should make an annual plan, and they should put forward the expected improvement plan in terms of personal ability, and it should be written in detail. For example, what areas do you hope to improve this year, how many levels of English and how many levels of Japanese. Some employees want to improve their expression skills this year, and they should write some ways to improve, such as giving three speeches in the company, hoping that the company will provide opportunities, and similar plans.

Du Jun: At the end of the year, I will ask employees to come up with the goals set at the beginning of the year and see if you have implemented them. In addition to short-term plans, I also ask them to write long-term plans. For example, in which direction it will develop in the future, and even what level of plan it will reach in a few years, employees are also encouraged to write it out. We encourage employees to strive for a five-year personal plan.

Our company has many departments and many affiliated companies in China. There are more than 30 NEC head offices directly under our company, and more than 70 head offices of subsidiaries. There is also a lot of room for flow between companies, so Can do personnel deployment, to provide employees with opportunities for development.

For example, our company has a cadre who is in charge of general affairs, who used to be in personnel affairs; there used to be an employee in personnel affairs who was transferred to the business development department two years ago and is now sent to Japan; not long ago, there was a software center as a secretary Yes, now transferred to personnel. There are too many such examples.

Japanese companies pay attention to the sequence of seniority. Do employees of advanced companies have the responsibility to bring new employees to work?

Du Jun: We will have OJT (On Job Training) for new employees. There is a characteristic of Japanese society, whether it is a factory or a school, there are seniors taking care of it. In Japanese words, seniors come a year earlier than new employees. Seniors should be responsible for newcomers and lead juniors.

Japanese companies usually focus on OJT training. For example, we once bought a set of communication equipment from the Japanese side, and the Japanese side promised to send engineers to install and train. After the Japanese came, they told the technicians some knowledge of installation and debugging during the installation, saying that this was training, but the technicians felt that it was unacceptable. It's also a culture clash.

Now at NEC China, new employees are told what OJT is when they first arrive, so everyone should pay attention to this training method. This is a kind of communication, if you have questions, you can ask the seniors.

Senior is often the direct boss of a new employee, and how well the subordinate is trained will be reflected in his performance appraisal. At the end of the year, if the boss is doing a good job, the mess of the subordinate will definitely affect his performance.

Zhao Rong: The content of OJT can involve any aspect. When I first came back to work, my boss was a human resources director in his fifties, and the first thing he taught me was how to organize documents, making a folder of messy documents that collect all kinds of information. It may seem like a trivial matter, but when using it, a small folder can show a person's ability to organize and summarize information.

I heard that Japanese companies are nominated by their direct supervisors when they are promoted. Does that mean that whoever has a good relationship with the supervisor is likely to be promoted?

Du Jun: I don't know what the situation is in China, but it will never occur in an international company. If I had to answer, it can only be said that most managers still have professional ethics, not just relying on personal preferences to recommend talents, especially in foreign-funded enterprises.

And the nomination is only a process at the beginning of the promotion, and the later process is more complicated. After the nomination, there will be a review team, usually five or six employees from the personnel department above the deputy general manager and the relevant supervision department. Candidates should make a report, the content of the report is a report on their past performance, and if they are promoted to that position, what is the future work goal, how to achieve the goal, etc. It's not like taking the form at that stage, and there are people who can't be rated, and those who can't be rated are also under a lot of pressure.

Are there any employees who do not want to be promoted, or feel that there is no hope of promotion and are unwilling to participate in training?

Du Jun: There is an idiom in China called rowing a boat against the current. If you don't advance, you will retreat. Therefore, the company does not want employees to be satisfied with the status quo, and encourages everyone to make progress. We have not yet met any employees who are satisfied with the status quo and are waiting to retire, and all of them are very motivated to participate in the training. Some newly promoted people also took the initiative to participate in the training.

Japanese companies have a tradition of not laying off workers easily. Is this the case with NEC China?

Du Jun: Relatively speaking, Japanese companies are relatively stable. This is the responsible side of Japanese companies, and it is also the advantage of Japanese companies, but we will also terminate the contract for poor employees.

Innovation VS System

I heard that employees in Japanese companies often report their work to their bosses. Will this make them feel bored and negative emotions?

Du Jun: US Secretary of State Powell wrote an autobiography in which he talks about how he dealt with similar issues. Powell said that at each level there is a period of time to regularly complete tasks assigned by superiors, fill out reports, make reports, etc., many of which are routines that are boring in his opinion. He used the highest priority and the shortest time to finish this matter quickly, and then do what he thinks is meaningful.

I always tell this story to my subordinates. I say that there are some things that you think are boring, but as an organization and a company, it is necessary, and what must be done must be done seriously.

Second, I mobilize everyone not to look at this kind of thing negatively, but to look at it positively. For example, to write weekly reports, we require employees to write reports, work summaries and plans every week, but some employees are reluctant to write them. I told them that you keep these weekly newspapers, it will be very useful when you write your memoirs when you are old. They all laughed. So now employees write weekly reports very vividly.

I read every employee's weekly report, and the reply should be answered. Last night I had dinner with the software manager of our other company. He is a Japanese. He said that he writes a report to his employees every week. Sometimes it is very short, such as my new discoveries in China. Everyone actively communicates and hopes to get everyone's feedback. He is proud to receive feedback from his employees every week.

In answering your question, do employees get bored and waste their time? We also maximize efficiency. For example, when writing a weekly report, you don’t need a hundred words. The more refined it is, the better. Just make it clear. Of course, if I can't understand what you said through your 100 words, and I am interested in what you said, I will ask you to tell me about this issue again. It is enough to understand, and it is not so complicated for employees, and it is also a supervision for each employee.

In fact, other foreign companies have this habit. When I was working in Australia 20 years ago, in an Australian state-owned enterprise, the management was very loose and it was a big pot of rice. Every week I had to think about what to do this week. Although the weekly report is a form, the role of supervision is still quite large. My boss also asks me to tell me in detail what is written in the weekly newspaper, which I think is pretty good too.

Under strict system requirements, how to encourage employees' innovative consciousness?

Du Jun: Innovation is a very fashionable word nowadays, but in many occasions innovation is not particularly special, it is actually the initiative of work.

After the rise of Japan, everyone began to study the way to success in Japan, and they said anything, but one thing everyone admitted is that the Japanese encourage everyone to participate in innovation, and everyone participates in company management.

When I was in Japan visiting factories, they were calling on employees to suggest reforms, which in my opinion tended to be brutal. Their production efficiency is already very high, and it is still researching whether there is a need for improvement somewhere to increase the efficiency of 3 seconds.

At NEC China, we have always encouraged everyone to make suggestions in our work. When leaders have any ideas, they first seek the opinions of their subordinates. There is also an "innovation board" posted on the wall in the office for everyone to express their opinions. These are decades of habits. We also have material rewards for employees whose suggestions are adopted. Employees have a sense of achievement, and then accept the bonus, they will be more active to participate.

Team VS Individual

I see that your company's desks are not partitioned, and employees can see everything at a glance. Why is this?

Du Jun: We only have separate desks in the research institute, because employees need to think independently. The open office is to encourage everyone to communicate and cooperate more. For example, if the phone of the person next to you rings and the person is not there, they will answer it. At the beginning, some employees were not used to this. They could see everything they did and hear them when they called. This also avoids some public-private situations.

The company has many channels to encourage employee communication. For example, taking family members to travel in summer, there will be a year-end party at the end of the year, and each department will also hold events from time to time. In addition, there is a welcome party for new employees, and a farewell party for employees when they leave. There are too many networking events. Often together across departments. Another example is that employees often exchange work experience through e-mail and the company's internal website. When his communication gets feedback and help, he will like to communicate more. In Japanese companies, employees do not regard their work as their own, which is related to Japanese social culture. The atmosphere that Japanese companies have cultivated over the years makes it possible for a new employee to be asked for help when he first arrives at the company. He may help him just because he is in the country, but after he has helped, he will feel that he has gained something. When it is difficult, I will ask others to help, and these habits are gradually cultivated in the work.

Will there be any employees who think that the responsibility is everyone's responsibility, and then slack off?

Du Jun: No, each job must have a main person in charge. Generally speaking, the recipient of the email is the person in charge, and the responsibilities should be clearly distinguished. The cc address is the person assisting. If it is sent to several people at a time, it is easy to be unclear about the responsibility.

How to reflect team and individual performance in performance appraisal?

Du Jun: During performance appraisal, each department has a collective indicator. For example, the sales department must reach a certain amount of sales before they can get bonuses, and only when the team reaches a certain standard can the individual be good or bad. Before evaluating the performance of each individual, first assess the performance of the department. The emphasis on individuality is also based on team performance.

Sometimes team and individual performance appraisals also conflict. For example, the efficiency of the department is poor, and the rewards for individuals who stand out are limited. However, we encourage the heads of departments to make differences within the department and try to break the big pot of rice as much as possible.

In addition, we also select outstanding employees and outstanding teams for awards every year.

NEC: Creating a "Harmony" Culture

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