Institutional Investor (October 3)
“Two and half years after the beginning of the pandemic — and the mass migration into remote work — some of the biggest asset managers have decided that it’s finally time to get back to the office.” While a range of plans are being prepared, CEOs seem to be favoring the “3-2 model” with three office days and two remote days. “Besides concerns over corporate culture and employee burnout, decision-makers in the asset management industry also cited better innovations, teamwork, and apprenticeship as reasons for returning to the office.”
Tags: 3-2 model, Apprenticeship, Asset managers, CEOs, Corporate culture, Decision-makers, Employee burnout, Innovations, Office, Pandemic, Remote work, Teamwork
Washington Post (September 30)
Few nations “have been upended like Japan” by the coronavirus. “Working from home was almost unthinkable before the pandemic but now appears to be gathering some momentum.” Pasona is even moving its headquarters from Tokyo to Awaji Island. “It’s a revolutionary idea in Japan’s rigid corporate culture—and a sign of how the coronavirus pandemic is reimagining where and how people work worldwide.”
Tags: Awaji, Coronavirus, Corporate culture, Headquarters, Home, Japan, Pandemic, Pasona, Revolutionary, Rigid, Tokyo, Upended, Work
Inc (November Issue)
“Culture is not about providing a company keg. It’s hiring people who actually want to have beers together.”
Tags: Corporate culture, Hiring, Kegs, Together
Institutional Investor (May 24)
Quants may be able to “fundamentally transform the ability of investors to find companies that embrace ESG principles.” Beyond crunching more widely available ESG data, some hope that unstructured data, ranging “from people’s comments on social media to data mined from online retailers,” can reveal “hard-to-measure issues like corporate culture or a commitment to the environment.”
Tags: Commitment, Corporate culture, Data mining, Environment, ESG, Hard-to-measure, Investors, Quants, Social media, Unstructured data
Bloomberg (July 21)
“Japan’s corporate-governance code, introduced only a month ago, raised hopes that the country’s ossified corporate culture might finally crack open. The $1.2 billion accounting scandal at Toshiba…underscores how much further the country has to go.”
Tags: Accounting, Corporate culture, Corporate governance, Hopes, Japan, Scandal, Toshiba
Financial Times (April 9)
Japan’s corporate culture “had a certain rationale in the catch-up era” of the 1960s and 1970s. Today, however, “it makes no sense at all.” Today, Japan needs “a multidisciplinary workforce capable of switching mid-career, not only between different companies but also between entirely different fields. It needs to bring more women into the workforce, not to make up the numbers but to usher in new thinking.”
Tags: Corporate culture, Japan, Mid-career, Multidisciplinary, New thinking, Rationale, Women, Workforce
The Economist (March 29)
“Women’s lowly status in the Japanese workplace has barely improved in decades, and the country suffers as a result.” Though difficult to quantify, the cost of this lost potential is enormous. “Japan educates its women to a higher level than nearly anywhere else in the world…. But when they leave university their potential is often squandered, as far as the economy is concerned.” If Prime Minister Abe and “the country’s policymakers can find the right ways to help them, those women could boost the economy and reform corporate culture.”
Tags: Abe, Corporate culture, Economy, Japan, Lost potential, Policymakers, Status, University, Women, Workplace
The Economist (September 21)
“Nine of the world’s ten most valuable firms are American.” A rising stock market and the euro crisis are partly responsible, but the reasons go deeper. “First, America’s mix of resilience and renewal. Three of its nine biggest firms have their roots in a 16-year period in the late 19th century—Exxon, General Electric and Johnson & Johnson. Their durability reflects their powerful corporate cultures. But the country still does creative destruction, too. IBM and Intel have slid down the rankings to be replaced by Apple and Google. Chevron, an energy firm, has gone from a laggard to a world-beater. Success has been anything but parochial. Six of the nine biggest firms sell more abroad than at home.”
Tags: Apple, Chevron, Corporate culture, Creative destruction, Durability, Euro crisis, Exxon, General electric, Google, IBM, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Rankings, Stock market, Success, U.S., Value
New York Times (March 14)
An opinion piece by Greg Smith is creating a PR nightmare for his former employer. Entitled “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs,” Smith’s article has become the newspaper’s most e-mailed article. After working nearly twelve years at the firm, Smith wrote the letter on his last day. Smith longs for the once-proud culture that placed value on clients and bemoans the firm’s present atmosphere, which he describes as “toxic and destructive,” focused on making money off clients rather than providing them with the best solutions. “Goldman Sachs today has become too much about shortcuts and not enough about achievement. It just doesn’t feel right to me anymore.” Smith hopes his letter will wake up the Board of Directors. He urges them to “Make the client the focal point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist.”
An opinion piece by Greg Smith is creating a PR nightmare for his former employer. Entitled “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs,” Smith’s article has become the newspaper’s most e-mailed article. After working nearly twelve years at the firm, Smith wrote the letter on his last day. Smith longs for the once-proud culture that placed value on clients and bemoans the firm’s present atmosphere, which he describes as “toxic and destructive,” focused on making money off of clients rather than providing them with the best solutions. “Goldman Sachs today has become too much about shortcuts and not enough about achievement. It just doesn’t feel right to me anymore.” Smith hopes his letter will wake up the Board of Directors. He urges them to “Make the client the focal point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist.”
Tags: Clients, Corporate culture, Goldman Sachs, Greg Smith, PR
The Economist (October 1)
“Now the world’s biggest technology firm, measured by sales,” Samsung Electronics “makes more televisions than any other company.” Samsung is emerging as Asia’s version of General Electric, having “outstripped the Japanese firms it once mimicked.” But the secret of Samsung’s success is nothing new. Samsung is “a well-run family firm, with a strong culture and a focus on the long term, which has made good use of an indulgent state.”
“Now the world’s biggest technology firm, measured by sales,” Samsung Electronics “makes more televisions than any other company.” Samsung is emerging as Asia’s version of General Electric, having “outstripped the Japanese firms it once mimicked.” But the secret of Samsung’s success is nothing new. Samsung is “a well-run family firm, with a strong culture and a focus on the long term, which has made good use of an indulgent state.”
