Akio Toyoda meeting the US Congress has been getting a lot of coverage on the news. As I was reading some peripheral information on Japanese management style and culture, I stumbled across a concept called nemawashi (根回し).
Now that I have read about nemawashi, I realize that I have seen it being practiced. And I am surprised and fascinated that there is actually a specific term for such technique. This reaction resembles the feeling from the first economics course at college. Diminishing marginal return. Consumer surplus. Negative externalities. I was in awe; learning usually involved knowing the theory and then applying it to practice, but this time I understood its application even before knowing that a theory existed.
And many Japanese business models put an emphasis on the reduction of muda, i.e. waste. Meanwhile, the culture embraces the importance of form.
While results matter, achieving the desired result in the “right” way is of equal significance… Westerners are often similarly nonplussed in the Japanese business world. The Japanese emphasis on form is counterintuitive from a Western perspective, as substance (“Cut to the chase!”) is almost universally given disproportionate emphasis in our society.
However, isn’t adherence to form a hindrance to the reduction of waste?
I love concepts. Whenever I read about some interesting ideas, I grow a bit impatient. If only I have been wiser.
