Magazine No 70 images

On the cover: Performance Creates Value

ValueCommerce's Brian Nelson Tells How it is Done

Winter 2006
(December 2006)
No. 70

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This Year has been a banner year for Japan. After something like 14 years of near recession, the country has discovered that there is such a thing as rebirth. Exporters are experiencing massive profit growth, and are busy reinvesting in plant, M&A, and R&D.

Watching TV last night reminded me, though, that this rebirth could be temporary. I can’t help noticing that Shinzo Abe, the nation’s new PM, is no Junichiro Koizumi. Maybe it’s just the foreigner in me, but I liked the way Koizumi jousted with the establishment and threatened the nation’s many cozy self-interest groups. I just don’t see that in the Abe government, so one wonders whether the period of reconstruction is now over. If it is, then that means the opportunities for foreigners will decrease as well, as the wagons are circled for the next down curve.

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Sitting down in the park one day, I got chatting to a Japanese mother of two about her son’s schooling. “When my son does drawing at school, the teacher tells him, ‘you have to hurry up!’ They tell him, ‘the tree has to go here, and the sun has to go there.’ They are very strict.”
Being of the laid-back Australian variety of person, I was slightly horrified at the prospect of my effervescent child being beaten into a creative box. I promptly crossed that school off my list, and realised why so many parents have the ‘school’ conversation long before their child is even out of nappies. (Note to myself: begin research much sooner next time…)
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There’s no doubt that placing your child in a Japanese school at a young age will be a valuable experience for them, immersing them in Japanese language and culture, but this can be tougher on older children with no Japanese skills. As excellent as many Japanese schools are, a sharp jump in the incidents of bullying are off-putting for many foreign parents, who are increasingly turning to international schools to provide a more familiar environment for their children. Whether in English, German, French, or Chinese, there is a virtual smorgasbord of international schools for parents to choose from. Now bilingual schools are beginning to fill a much-needed gap for children with both foreign and Japanese parents.

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Unlike many Japanese companies, which only want to do business while a customer’s business is stable and growing, JTP understands that foreign firms have global markets to take care of, and there is correspondingly an ebb and flow of interest and involvement in the Japanese marketplace. JTP feels that large companies may be a bit slower in paying their bills if they’re shutting down an operation, and smaller ones just getting ready to launch represent a possible credit risk. However, rather than be put off by this, the company simply factors such “alternative” business into its risk profile, making sure to do credit checks as appropriate and spending adequate face-to-face time with the clients, ensuring they are committed and capable.

This reality has given rise to the company’s well known SMS Strategy, representing the three phases of foreign company involvement in Japan and the different needs that each phase represents.

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Kazuaki Mori standing next to a powerful message to his clients and colleagues. It reads, "If you value fairness over profit, you will succeed."

JAPAN THIRD PARTY Co., Ltd.
Chairman of the Board: Kazuaki Mori

Shinagawa-Intercity A Bldg. 2-15-1
Kounan Minato-ku Tokyo 108-6021

Tel: 03-5782-7600
Email: market@jtp.co.jp
www.jtp.co.jp/english/index.html

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Although other outsourcing companies have gone public in the last few years, JTP managed to get listed and opened at a very respectable PER of 30, or JPY200,000 per share. By the end of trading on the first day, the price had risen to almost double, at JPY360,000 per share. The market’s enthusiastic reception for the company was mainly due to its story, which is both unique and robust. Not only does it compete in a bilingual niche that most Japanese majors are unable to participate in, JTP has also lined up some stellar brand name customers, including Sun Microsystems KK, SAP, Symantec, Nokia, Acer, and Hewlett Packard Japan. Yes, that’s right, JTP outsourcers to one of the world’s top ten outsourcing firms.

JAPAN THIRD PARTY Co., Ltd.
Chairman of the Board: Kazuaki Mori

Shinagawa-Intercity A Bldg. 2-15-1
Kounan Minato-ku Tokyo 108-6021

Tel: 03-5782-7600
Email: market@jtp.co.jp
www.jtp.co.jp/english/index.html

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Discovering the Third Party

The JTP story started in 1982 when CEO Kazuaki Mori was attending a Rotarian conference in Austin, Texas, on behalf of his Japanese employer. Mori worked in the Field Service division of Omron, and was at the conference to learn more about how to support Omron’s ATM business in the USA. As one of the few non-Americans in the room, he quickly struck up a conversation with the gentleman sitting next to him, and mentioned how Omron was struggling with how to support their ATM business in the States. The man asked him why Omron, an ATM maker, was trying to be a field service company. “Surely,” he said, “You would want someone with an already established third party service network to do the work?”

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Once there was the sweetest, smiley-est of toddlers–Tyler Ferris. There was just one problem. Tyler had a very aggressive and difficult-to-cure form of leukemia. In spite of nearly two years of treatment, including a bone marrow transplant, Tyler’s short life ended in June of 2005. His parents, Mark Ferris and I, Kim Forsythe, reeling from the unacceptable loss of our baby, took the only action we thought was acceptable to us, and created an NPO to provide support for kids and their families who face a similar experience. What seemed to us, the only possible action we created an NPO to support kids and their families going through what we had been through. With the blessing of Tyler’s doctor, Masaaki Kumagai (head of pediatric oncology/hematology at the National Center for Child Health and Development) and Tokyo Tocho, The Tyler Foundation was born.

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Once there was the sweetest, smiley-est of toddlers–Tyler Ferris. There was just one problem. Tyler had a very aggressive and difficult-to-cure form of leukemia. In spite of nearly two years of treatment, including a bone marrow transplant, Tyler’s short life ended in June of 2005. His parents, Mark Ferris and I, Kim Forsythe, reeling from the unacceptable loss of our baby, took the only action we thought was acceptable to us, and created an NPO to provide support for kids and their families who face a similar experience. What seemed to us, the only possible action we created an NPO to support kids and their families going through what we had been through. With the blessing of Tyler’s doctor, Masaaki Kumagai (head of pediatric oncology/hematology at the National Center for Child Health and Development) and Tokyo Tocho, The Tyler Foundation was born.

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