JWH Author's Voice Vol. 15 interview with Tetsuya Abe
In his book "World Class Leadership," Tetsuya Abe, representative for the consulting firm EQ Partners, Inc., provides an easy-to-understand explanation of essential leadership skills for our times. Q: What were the circumstances that led you to write a book on the concept of world class leadership? I used to work for Matsushita Electric Industries (currently Panasonic). At that time, I became firmly convinced that leadership style had quite a significant impact on teams and their achievements. Sticking to the fundamentals of leadership is extremely important, more so than anything else. When people work independently without regard for the fundamentals, things fall apart when the environment changes. When I was in the corporate world, I spent some time in Hong Kong. I didn't understand the basics at that time, so I made a lot of mistakes. The topic of leadership raises vigorous debate in the West. I wanted to add to that debate in this book, by writing about leadership in Japan. The uniquely Japanese form of leadership, implemented by Konosuke Matsushita of Matsushita Electric Industries and Soichiro Honda of Honda Corporation, is also very important. In my book, "World Class Leadership," I write about how ways of thinking in Japan and abroad have blended. Q: You not only offer seminars aimed at businesses, but also teach in the graduate school of Rikkyo University. How is the notion of world class leadership received by your audiences? Quite a number of them reflect on their own way of doing things, and go on to formulate individual plans of action for the future, or plans to build leadership. In my opinion, a discussion of leadership is easier to grasp when considered from four aspects: self leadership, team leadership, group leadership, and social leadership. Asking yourself which of the four is your weak area makes it easier to envision. Q: You've also been conducting leadership seminars for AOTS, an organization related to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, seminars aimed at managers in numerous countries throughout Asia, Africa, and South America. How have these been received? At first, I was really surprised by their enthusiasm. After a one hour lecture, the questions would continue for another hour and a half. These countries are experiencing rapid economic growth, so there is much they can learn from the precedents set by Japan during its period of rapid economic growth following World War II. Many of these managers hold MBAs, so they have already studied Western theories of leadership, but few have any knowledge of leadership in the East. For example, they find the notion of "creating people before creating products" quite informative. Q:For the final question, will you tell us something about your next project? I'm thinking of writing something on "the leadership of wa [harmony]." When wa is expressed with one Chinese character in Japan, we use a character which is read as "wa." And when we express the notion of team unity in Chinese characters, we use this same "wa." When leadership in the East and West is analyzed from a comparative perspective, Japanese take a second look, and reexamine the notion of leadership from the Japanese side. For foreigners, however, Japanese business style seems to be understood on the basis of its merits. In Japan, there are more than 300 companies which have been in existence for more than 200 years. This is the most anywhere in the world. What kind of corporate endeavors is this ongoing existence of more than 200 years based upon? For example, if we go back more than 200 years in Japan, merchants held the opinion that "three directions was good." (Looking out in three directions meant good conditions.) The three directions were oneself, one's competitor, and the world. I'd like to pull some of these thoughts together in my next project. We'll be looking forward to your next book. Thank you very much. 
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