The Hindu Business Line : <i>Gou ni itte wa, gou ni shitagae </i>

Foxed by the headline? It's Japanese and its literal translation is `entering village, obey village.' It means, in Rome, do as the Romans do. This, and other distinct practices, make the Japanese stand out, found the visiting Indian CEO of an IT company.

STUNNED when faced with a language you might not know... ? A recent visitor to Japan felt as stunned by the difference in culture he saw, travelling from India. Interestingly, lack of English usage was only one issue that surprised him.

Ganesh Mandalam, CEO of Xerago, a company into customer management and business consulting, was in Japan for a month-and-a-half.

When he met Bharat Kumar of eWorld, he pointed out the three things that stood out during his visit: the average Japanese's consideration for others; the use of technology in daily life; and, structured thinking that is so widespread in the country. There are some very interesting technology applications that the Japanese use and which are not found elsewhere in the world. So what were these? Move onto excerpts from the conversation:

Online all the while

Most working Japanese are connected to the Internet. They keep fiddling with the character keys of their mobile phones when they travel. But still, typing out a string of characters continuously out of the mobile phone's pad is tedious. So, how do you get a mobile user to go to your Web site if he is interested in what he saw in your newspaper advertisement?

Simple. Use a new code called the QR Code (or `quick response' code) that Denso Wave Corporation has come up with.

Apparently, it's a code that can store data `several hundred times more than the average bar code can' (says the QR.com web site). All that a reader has to do is to use a camera phone, snap a picture of the QR Code in the ad and lo! his mobile phone readily displays the Web site of the company. In other words, the QR Code contains the coded URL for the Web site and the phone, compatible with the code, takes you to the site.

The QR code also stores contact and personal information that a camera phone could scan and store.

Prefer the machine

You folks must be familiar with automated teller machines or ATMs. Ever heard of the ALM? No, it's not asset liability management as any banker would tell you. It's the automated `loan application' machine.

The Japanese typically don't think highly of borrowing money. As a Japanese friend once said, "The Japanese don't live on future money." And given that their sense of identity is strongly aligned with what is socially acceptable, they are very comfortable borrowing money from machines rather than people in banks.Thus came about the ALMs, which are similar to the ATMs but a bit more complicated. They not only let you enter alphanumeric data required in a loan application but they also have the capability to scan images and documents (such as driving licences) to verify the identity of an individual. Once the system clears the application and sanctions the loan, the machine ejects a plastic card (much like the ATM card), which has electronic money in it. The applicant then uses the card in an ATM to withdraw money up to the amount sanctioned in the loan.

`True' broadband

Obviously, all these machines are hooked through a network to the backend servers that collect data or pump it out. Which brings us to the issue of connectivity in general.

I once downloaded a software application onto my laptop. It would have been about 20 MB. It would have taken about 30 minutes in an average broadband line in India. Out there, though, when I clicked on `download', it downloaded. Period. In other words, there was no waiting time, no box that showed papers flying from one folder to another. Most homes in Japan have true broadband connectivity going up to 100 Mbps.

Tech in travel

Most Japanese in big cities commute quite a bit to get to their workplace. It's only natural that technology worms its way into the travel and ticketing systems. Want to take the train to a particular station? Just buy a smart card, called the Felica Card (it works like the way RFID tags do). It has a certain monetary value stored in it, depending on what you paid for it. After you detrain and exit the destination station, you swipe the card on a reader and it automatically deducts the amount due for that journey.

Interestingly, Sony and DoCoMo and East Japan Railway have tied up to provide this facility in mobile phones. In other words, using mobile phones, you can shop for just about anything - groceries, tickets... And the amount would be billed to you through the telephone company.

Consideration for others

While travelling, most Japanese prefer communicating through text messages on the phones. You can't find loud conversations among them in trains. They avoid anything that they feel could disturb their neighbour or be thought of as bad manners. It's a part of their culture and anything that goes against that is looked down upon.

Structured thinking

Ask a business executive in Japan for a meeting and you'll find two things that happen regularly: he sends you an agenda for the meeting and he lands up right on time! The agenda is meant to help you prepare for the meeting. And if you stray from the intended line of conversation, you are gently reminded that the new topic was not suggested beforehand.

As a corollary to that, if you ask for some action, the person would promise a date and time by which he will come back to you with the results. Not once would he call back to check on something or to clarify a doubt. He would come back as promised and show you what he has been able to achieve along with the reasons why he wasn't able to achieve some of the objectives.

They are so process-driven. Nothing happens ad hoc there.

bharatk@thehindu.co.in

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Gou ni itte wa, gou ni shitagae

Quiz

Leveraging technology for optimal efficiency