Case
Study
' Fre? Boiley in Japon: Art Inrncent Abroa?
Fred Bailey gazed out the window of his trventy-fourthfloor office at the tranquil beauty of the lmperial Palace
amid the hustle and bustle of downtown Tokyo. It had
been only six months since Fred had arrived rvith his
rvife and iwo children for this three-year assignment as
the director of Kline & Associates'Tokyo office' Kline &
Associates was a large multinational consulting firm
with offices in nineteen countries worldwide' Fred rvas
now trying to decide whether he should simply pack up
ancl tell headquarters that he rvas coming home or
whether he should try to convince his rvife, and himself'
that they should stay and finish the assignment' Given
how excited they all were about the assignment to begin
with, it rvas a mystery to Fred how things had gotten to
this point. As Fred rvatched the swans glide across the
water in the moat that surrounds the Imperial Palace, he
reflected on the Past seven months.
Seven months ago, Dave Steiner, the managing partner of the main office in Boston, asked Fred to lunch to
discuss business. To Fred's surprise, the business they discussed was not about the major project that he and his
team had just finished; instead, it rvas about a very big
promotiort and career move. Fred rvas offered the posiiion of managing director of the firm's relatively new
Tokyo office, which had a staff of forty, including seven
Amlricans. Most of the Americans in the Tokyo office
rvere either'associate consultants or research analvsts'
Fred would be in charge of the whole office and rvould
report to a senior partner. Steiner implied to Fred that if
this assignment went as well as his past projects, it would
be the last step before becoming a partner in the firm'
When Fred told his rvife about the unbelievable
opportunity, he was shocked at her less than enthusiastic
,"rpont.. His wife, Jennifer (or Jenny as Fred called her)'
thought that it would be rather difficult to have the childrenlive and go to school in a foreign country for three
years, especially when Christine, the olclest, rvould be
starting middle school next year. Besides, norv that the
kids were in school, Jenny was thinking about going back
to work, at least part time. Jenny had a degree in lashion
merchanclising frorn a well-knolvrt private university and
hacl rvorked as an assistant buyer for a large rvotncn's
clothirrg store before having the two girls'
Fred explained that the career opportunitY rvas just
too good to pass up and that the company's overscas
package rvoultl make living overseas terrific' The company would pay all the expenses to move whatever the
buii"yt wanted to take rvith them' The company had a
very iice house in an expensive district of Tok-vo that
rvoirlcl be provided rent free' and the col'npany u'ould rerrt
their house in Boston during their absence' Moreover' thc
firm rvould provide a car and driver, education expenses
for the children to attend private schools, and a cost-of-
living adjustment and overseas compensation that rvould
neaity trlpte Fred's gross annual salary. After tu'o days of
consideralion and discussion, Fred told Steiner he rvould
accept the assignment'
The current Tokyo office managinq director rvas a
partner in the firm but had been in the neu Tokvo office
ior Iess than a year rvhen he rvas transferred to head a
long-established office in Eneland' Because the transfer
to England was taking place right arvaY' Fred and his
famill'136 about three rveeks to prepare for the move'
Betrveen transferring responsibilities at the. office to
Bob Nervcome, rvho was being promoted to Fred's position, and getting furniture and the like readv to be
moved. neither Fred nor his family had much time to
really find out much about Japan. other than u het rvas in
the encyclopedia.
When the Baileys arrived in Japan' thev rvere
greeted at the airport by one of the young Japanese asso-
fiate consultants and the senior American erpatriate'
Fred and his family were quite tired from the long trip'
and the trvo-hour ride to Tokl'o was a rather quiet one'
After a feu' days of just settlins, in, Fred spent his first
full day at the office.
Fred's first order of business was to ha'r'e a general
meeting rvith all the emplovees of associate consultant
rank aid higher. Although Frecl clidn't notice it at the
time, all the Japanese staff sat together and all the
Americans sat together. After Fred introduced himself
and his general idea about the potential ancl future
directioni of the Tokyo office. he called on a fcu individuals to get their ideas about how the things for which
they we"re responsible would likely fit into his overall
plan. From the Arnericans. Fred got a mi\ttlre of opinnright
ions with specific reasons abor'rt why certain things
or night not fit well. Fronr the Japanese' he got verv
vague"answers. When Fred pushed to get more specific
a couple of the
thcv breathed
as
sound
Japanese sirnply made i sucking
sc-nsed the
Fred
say.''
to
"difficult
and said that it was
thanked
he
so
objectives,
his
meeting lvas not achieving
to their
fors'ard
looked
he
said
ancl
.u".yoi" for coming
the
officc
Tokl'o
the
make
to
rvorking togethcr
information, he was surprised to find that
all
fastest-grorvirrg office in the corttpany'
AfGr thci:hacl bcen in Japan about a nrtuth' Fred's
to him aboLrt the difficultv sht' had get-
wife conrplairied
ting certain everyday prtlclucts likc maplc s)l'tlp' pealltlt
buiter, and good-quaiity bcef. She saicl that u hcrt she cotticl
get it at oni crf the spe'cialtv stores it cost threc' atrcl four
iinres ,vhat it *,ould cost i' thc States. She also c.'r'lained
that since the rvasher and dryer were much too small, she
had to spend ertra money by sending things out to be drycleancd. On top of all that, unless she rvent to the
American Club in dorvntorvn Tokyo' she never had anyone
to talk to. After all, Fred was gone ten to sixteen hours a
dar,. Unfortunately, while Jenny talked, Fred was preoccupied, thinking about a big upcoming me-eting between his
i'irm and a significant prospective ilient, a top-100
Japanese multinational comPanY.
The next day, Fred, alorlg rvith the lead U'S' consultant for the potential contract, Ralph Webster, and one of
the Japanese associate consultants, Kenichi Kurokawa,
rvho spoke perfect English' met with a team from the
Japanese firm. The Japanese team consisted of four
members: the vice president of administration, the director of international personnel, and trvo staff specialists'
After shaking hands and a ferv au'kward bows, Fred said
that he knew the Japanese gentlemen were busy and he
didn't want to rvaste their time, so he would get right to
the point. Fred then had the other American lay out
theii firm's proposal for the project and what the project
u'ould cost. After the presentation, Fred asked the
Japanese what their reactiorr to the proposal was' The
Japanese did not respond immediately, so Fred launched
inio his summary version of the proposal' thinking that
the translation might have been insufficient' Again, the
Japanese had only the vaguest of responses to his direct
questions.
The recollection of the frustration of that meeting
rvas enough to shake Fred back to reality. The reality was
that in the five months since that first meeting little
progress had been made and the contract between the
firms was yet to be signed. "I can never seem to get a
direct response from Japanese," he thought to himself'
This feeling of frustration led him to remember a related
incident that happened about a month after this first
meeting rvith this client.
Fred had decided that the reason not much progress
rvas being made with the client was that he and his group
just didn't knorv enough about the client to package the
in a way that was appealing to the client'
proposal
^Consequentlv.
he called in Ralph Webster, the senior
rvith the proposal' and asked him
associated
AmeriCan
the client so that the proposal
on
report
a
to develop
changed rvhere necessary'
and
reevaluated
be
could
of the more promising
one
that
decided
they
Jointly.
Japanbse research associates' Tashiro Watanabe, rvould
Ue ttre best person to take the lead on this report' To
impress upon Tashiro the importance of this task and the
g..ut pot"ntial they sarv in him, they decided to have the
young Japanese associate meet with both Fred and
natph. ln ttre meeting, Fred and Ralph laid out the
nature and importance of the task, at rvhich point Fred
leaned forward in his chair and said to Tashiro, "You can
see that this is an important assignment and that we are
placing a lot of confidence in you by giving it to you' We
need the report by this time next week so that we can
revise and represent our proposal. Can you do
it'l" After
a somewhat pregnant pause, Tashiro rcspolldcd hesitantly,
"I'm Irot sure what to sav." At that point, Fred
smiled, got up frorn his chair, rvalked over to lhc 1'oung
Japanese associate, extended his hand, and saicl. "Hey,
there's nothing to say. We're just giving you the opportunity you deserve."
ihe day before the report was due. Fred asked
Ralph horv the report rvas comins. Ralph said that. since
he had heard nothir.rg from Tasltiro, he assutned everything tvas undei control but that he would clout"rle-check'
Ralph later ran into one of the U.S. t'cscarclt rssociltes'
John Maynard. Ralph knew that John was hired for
Japan because of his Japanese language ability and that,
unlike any of the other Americans, John often weut out
after work with some of the Japanese reseal'ch associ-
if he kncw
thcn
John
report.
how Tashiro was coming on the
Tashiro
night
previous
recounted that at the office the
had asked if Americans sometimes fired enrployees for
being late with reports. John had sensed that this was
more than a hypothetical question and askcd Tashiro
why he wanted to know. Tashiro did not res;lond immediately, and since it was 8:30 in the evening. Johrt suggested they go out for a drink. At first Tashiro resisted'
but then John assured him that tl-rey would grab a clrink
at a nearby bar and come right back. At the bar, John got
ates, including Tashiro. So Ralph asked John
Tashiro to open up.
Tashiro explained the nature of the report that he
had been requested to produce. He continued to explain
that, even though he had rvorked long into the nigltt
every night to complete the report, it was just impossible
and that he had doubted from the beginning wltether he
could complete the report in a rveek.
At this point, Ralph asked John, "Why didn't he say
something in the first place?" Ralph didn't wait to hear
whether or not John had an answer to this question' He
headed straight to Tashiro's desk.
Ralph chewed out Tashiro and then went to Fred,
explaining that the report rvould not be read,v and that
Tashiro, from the start. didn't think it could be"'Then
rvhy didn't he say something?" Fred asked. No one had
any answers. and the rvhole episode left everyone more
suspect and uncomfortable u'ith each other.
Other incidents, big and small, had made the last two
months especially frustrating. but Fred was too tired to
remembeithem all.To Fred it seemed that rvorking rvith
Japanese both inside and outside the firm was like working with people from another planet. Fred felt he couldn't
communicate with them, and he never could figure out
what they were thinking. It drove him crazy.
On top of all this, Jennifer laid a bombshell on him'
She wanted to go home, and yesterday was not soon
enough. Even though the kids seemed to be doing all
right, Jennifer was tired of Japan-tired of begin stared
at, of not understanding anybody or being understood,
of not beine able to find what she wanted at the store, of
not being able to diive and read the road signs, of not
having anything to watch on television, of not being
involved in anything. She wanted to go home and could
not think of any reason why they shouldn't. After all, she
reasoned, they owed nothing to the company because
the company had led them to believe this rvas just
another assignment, like the two years they spent in San
Francisco, and it was anything but that!
Fred looked out the windorv once more, wishing that
somehow everything could be fixed, or turned back' or
something. The trafflc below rvas backed up' Though the
traffic lights changed, the cars and trucks didn't seem to
be movi-ng. Fortunately, beneath the ground' one of the
rvorld's most advanced, efficient, and clean subrvay systems moved hundreds of thousands of people about the
cit-v and to their homes.
CASE QUE,STIONS
1. You are Fred.What should you do now?
2. Turn back the clock to u'hen Fred rvas offered the
position in Toki'o. What. if anything. should have
been clone differently. and by whom?
Source: J. Steuart Black. in Internotional
htunan
ResLturce
(Boston:
trIanagentent.eds. NI. Mendenhall and Gary Oddou
P\\'S-Kent, 1991).