My Turning Point in Business Leadership

After getting my Master of International Management degree and then MBA, I joined a fast-growing computer company in Texas and was initially given assignments that groomed me for general management. One particular learning experience changed my entire outlook. Two higher level bosses took me along with them to meet with a Japanese company to explore a proposed joint venture between our Texas-based company and their Japanese company. I was there mostly because my office was in the Bay Area where the first meeting was held, and my bosses had flown in from Texas, one originally from Boston, the other from Texas - both had strong accents.

Right at the start I became more of a focus than my bosses anticipated when the four Japanese men on the other side of the table seemed to look at and talk with me more than my bosses. This eventually frustrated one of my bosses enough that he asked why they talked only to me and not to the others, indicating I was obviously junior to either of them. The Japanese men expressed apologies for any offense, informing us that they were more familiar with California English than Texas English or Boston English.

I was given responsibility for maintaining the liaison from that meeting on. I tell this story for what happened next. After reaching a general agreement, we went back to our respective companies for more detailed planning. My boss’s boss assigned responsibility for this project to the general manager of our Fort Worth operation, who in just over a week produced a "well written" plan for our American end of things and sent it to me to follow up with the Japanese.

As weeks went by waiting for the Japanese to “get their act together” as my bosses would say, we grew increasingly frustrated. After over two months, I was told to tell them things like “fish or cut bait,” and “if you can’t make decisions, we’ll find someone who can,” etc. He later told me to call it off with them just as they finally submitted their plans. I was initially almost disgusted at how much “paperwork” they provided, feeling like it was so overdone, that they had made it all way too complicated, etc. We considered our plan succinct and to the point.

But the tables turned as planning was followed by implementation/execution. Virtually everything the Japanese had said they would do they did as promised or better, while our American end fell into disarray. The Fort Worth general manager had prepared his plan pretty much on his own. The fact that his bosses approved it was all that mattered to us. He had not involved the many others in his organization in the planning process, and I learned the great hazard of that style of planning when it came to execution. People were fired, and confusion reigned, and finally after six months, the Japanese told us they needed to replace us. I was in a position to see this episode up close and was embarrassed for us Americans and marveled at the Japanese.

In answer to my personal queries about why and how they did things, I was introduced to the work of Edwards Deming. This was 1979 and I had never heard of him. But I was captivated by his 14 points, and from that point on I made every effort to apply them in my business leadership roles. Deming’s points turned me into a longer-term value improvement version of a “turnaround specialist,” not the quick fix "slash & burn" type.