When I was in Japan this year it struck me how accurate things can be there and I began to wonder what I could learn and introduce to my business from everyday happenings around me.
So far, it’s been tough.
Everything kind of slotted into place about the Accuracy when I was starting the journey back from the mountains in Koriyama to Tokyo. I stood on the platform waiting for a 9.40 am train inside the designated yellow lines. The train pulled up stopping silently within a centimetre of its marks at 9.38. I stepped on, sat in my numbered seat, popped the beer can and watched the clock tick to exactly 9.40 when the train moved. (By the way, for reasons I’ve never known it’s OK to drink beer on a 9.40 business train in Japan, fine place.) Even the vending machine had carefully provided me with change and reminded me to take it before thanking me for my business.
When I’d made this journey in the other direction previously I found it was possible to know exactly which incomprehensible station I was at just by looking at my watch. If it’s 4.17 this is Funehiki. No exceptions.
Arriving at the station I’d been greeted by two old fellas acting as attendants for the fifty or so spaces in the car park. They’d diligently guided our vehicle inch by inch into the space, directed traffic and pedestrians perfectly allowing us all to arrive unscathed and perfectly in time.
Back in Tokyo I headed to a kaiten sushi that always has a queue of 30 people waiting to sit (the food’s excellent and ¥100 a plate). Thanks to the incredible organisation inside, you’re always eating within minutes of joining the party. They do that for 23 hours and 50 minutes a day, every day. In the department store I’m welcomed like clockwork by every assistant. When I purchase something it’s wrapped, bagged and walked around the counter to be handed to me face to face.
I was a little too late in Enoki that night chatting with the usual odd mix of clientele (if I recall, a bank manager, a French vineyard owner and an actress) and arrived out of time for the Narita Express. A guard explained I could hit the last local stopping train and make a connection somewhere or other. It all worked like clockwork and arriving at the airport hotel it wasn’t a suprise that the desk clerk had my paperwork in front of her almost without effort.
Everything works, generally. When it doesn’t, all hell breaks loose. We’d bought a couple of phones and connectivity in Tokyo before heading to the boondocks and they hadn’t worked at our house (we were told they would). We called to say there was a problem and were thrown into an endless loop of customer service people phoning us (note – phoning us, not the other way round) eventually culminating in a delivery guy turning up to collect our gear. There was so much effort put into fixing the issue it was clear that such things didn’t usually happen – in the UK there would be a slick set of defences and procedures set up for lodging your complaint through official channels… In Japan it almost cut straight to the heart of the organisation because there was no precedent.
So… I’m trying to bring a little of that home, starting with the small stuff like filing… The tricky thing will be striking a balance between doing perfectly, and doing fast. If we can master both, we’re laughing..
