In overseas business, you may be required to have different skills from when you work in Japan. Companies aiming to expand overseas and companies with overseas bases need to recruit human resources with the necessary skills unique to overseas business. Also, people who work overseas or work with foreigners are required to consciously acquire such skills.
目次
Skills required for overseas business and domestic business are different.
In recent years, an increasing number of companies are aiming to expand overseas, and the number of foreign workers is also increasing. Even if we are not directly involved in overseas business, we are now familiar with global human resources. However, the know-how and skills that Japanese have built up in Japan may not be accessible or useful to foreign workers. This is the reason why they have a hard time even when they advance overseas.
In order to succeed in overseas business, it is not perfect to simply transfer the skills and excellent human resources that were used in Japan to overseas. This is because, on the whole, there is a lack of communication and friction with local employees overseas, and business does not progress as expected. If you intend to expand your business overseas, it is necessary to gather human resources with the skills required overseas after understanding them.
Global human resources required for overseas business
In recent years, when overseas business has become popular, there has been a growing trend among companies seeking “Global Human Resources” and promoting the development of such human resources. The government has also established the “Global Human Resource Development Promotion Committee”.
These movements require not only the ability to speak a foreign language, but also a high level of communication and negotiation skills, as well as the ability to act independently overseas, cross-cultural understanding based on situations in which people interact with other cultures, and identity as Japanese.
Human resources who are actually involved in starting up businesses overseas also need to have overseas business experience, leadership skills, and mental strength. In terms of language skills, you will be required not to speak English but to have negotiation and presentation skills.
Naturally, skills for planning and implementing overseas expansion include information organization, logical thinking, management skills and team management skills regardless of whether they are domestic or foreign. When Japanese companies aim to expand overseas, they rarely allocate large numbers of human resources regardless of the size of the company. As a result, they rely on consultants and local partners for much of their information gathering. Negotiations with external parties and liaison with the head office and overseas business managers are also necessary.
Securing human resources necessary for overseas business
If you don’t have the skills you need for an international business, you need to hire someone. There are cases in which successful sales representatives in Japan are selected for overseas business, but there are many cases in which the skills required in Japan and overseas are different and it is not successful. In the first place, excellent employees are busy with domestic business, so it is more efficient to have them focus on them. We need funds to start overseas business, so it is worthwhile to further stabilize our business in Japan. After that, you can secure human resources for overseas business.
In order to select people for overseas business, you need the skills and achievements mentioned above, but the most important thing is cross-cultural correspondence. Many Japanese companies and expatriates have trouble dealing with local employees with different cultures. It is difficult to understand the customs, manners and cultures that are different depending on the country or region, and it may cause trouble by sticking to the Japanese way.
In order to smoothly carry out overseas business, it is necessary to respond flexibly to different cultures by respecting the other party’s position rather than your own scale. If there is a problem, think of a way to solve it quickly and put it into practice instead of pressing each other to take responsibility. Also, it is important to have a sense of balance that you don’t have an attitude and thought that look down on local people and don’t expect too much. Preserving each other’s identities will help to ensure the smooth operation of our overseas offices without damaging the positive aspects of the Japanese people.
These skills don’t come overnight. For this reason, it is important to search for human resources from a wide range of options, such as providing education from the time you are a new employee, hiring people with overseas experience as potential employees, and hiring Japanese nationals living overseas.
Summary
In order to succeed in overseas business, it is essential to introduce and appropriately deploy personnel with skills suitable for overseas business. Even the most talented people in our domestic business may not have the skills to work overseas, so we may not be able to procure them from within the company. Developing human resources on a global scale is attracting a great deal of attention in Japan, but it is not easy to develop human resources because it involves not only techniques but also mental aspects and qualities. However, since it is essential to secure suitable human resources for overseas business, it is important to have a wide range of options and carefully evaluate skills.
著者情報
X-HUB TOKYO
Webマガジン編集部
企業の海外進出に関する
様々な情報を発信しています。
