A perspective on global project management
Mr. Shinichi Takahashi, Director of Japan Strategy, Global Project Design LLC

We often hear the term “globalization” in our daily life, and it has become a vital element in country-level policies, a variety of businesses, education and communications. It is becoming crucial to success in modern businesses. Unlike before, people involved in business projects today seek solutions that can increase efficiency, productivity, and team unity with consideration for global differences in distance, time, language and culture. This month’s Bridge Builder is Mr. Shinichi Takahashi, Director of Japan Strategy at Global Project Design, a firm that that provides consulting, software, and services for Project Management with a unique approach to global teams.

Q. Mr. Takahashi, will you tell us about your background and your career with Global Project Design?

A. After I graduated The University of Tokyo with an engineering major in 1998, I joined Nihon Silicon Graphics (current SGI Japan) in workstation product marketing. After that, I began working at Engineous Japan, a subsidiary of Engineous Software based in North Carolina, as one of the starting members and was in charge of marketing and technical support there. I realize now that both of these firms are foreign-backed, and I felt some concerns in working in Japan in the same way many Japanese workers now feel. There was a certain notion that it is acceptable for people “to hop around” companies from the U.S.A. In this special environment at that time in Japan, my concerns were related to the uncertain future, such as what do I want to do; will my current career be satisfactory; what will happen to Japan; why do U.S. firms think so little of Japanese ones. In order to find the answers to these questions, I started being interested in putting myself in the U.S.A., which had been still pretty powerful. Living in the U.S.A. has been always in the back of my mind, partially because I stayed in the Midwest for my father’s business before grade school and it was the same for me to live in Japan or in the U.S.A.

But the actual opportunity finally came through an American friend who was a visiting researcher at The University of Tokyo. When I was trying to look into U.S. grad schools about 2 years ago, that person (who is my current boss) asked me for help in Japanese market entry at his start-up company. To be honest with you, it was not an easy decision to make, but here I am now. Mostly I became greatly impressed by the company’s concept – providing smarter ways for global team management- which inspired my interest in international business. I thought it would never be too late for grad school and I wanted to grasp this great opportunity now to gain English skills and gain experience with a start-up company while expanding my business network. That was a year and a half ago.

Q. Global Project Design provides solutions for project design and simulation. Would you explain your products in detail?

A. Traditionally, project managers spend enormous amount of time to set up so called “perfect and precise” schedules and pay careful attention not to delay critical paths. However, it is pretty normal that some unexpected changes happen in the middle of a project. Under such circumstances, these project managers usually do not have enough time to reschedule it, and they just keep the original plan as time goes by.

Since this type of approach emerged in the era of the Industrial Revolution, it is no longer sufficient to satisfy complicated modern projects-which are about globalization of project teams over different communication styles, locations, times, cultures and languages Our solution’s key words are “Natural”, “Adaptive”, “Dynamic”, “Rapid”, and “Global”. We have software and services based on consulting, and offer a smart infrastructure to let teams work efficiently and systematically with flexibility to adapt dynamic and global projects and business processes. From now on projects will not be managed by tools and schedules, but by raising teams’ productivity drastically through the personal utilization of schedules and tools. Our approach is to design projects like CAD by using GUI in order to help project management avoid becoming available only to certain project managers. In fact actual staff need to manage business processes such as projects more than project managers do. In project design, users form a network which connects different elements such as Products, Teams, and Tasks and simulation is executed. As a result, people can check master schedules, communication schedules, accurate prediction of time and cost, and sensitivity analysis of projects, e.g. forecasting of the comprehensive effect when skills and/or members in team change. That way all the participants can have a consistent vision, understand bottlenecks even before executing a project, and reschedule it after it’s started. This “insight” is a theory that was not included in legacy project management, and our software is built upon that feature.

Q. What is your current role at Global Project Design?

A. As my title suggests, I’m dealing with almost everything related to Japan all by myself. My responsibility covers marketing and support to Japanese companies/partners based in both Japan and the U.S.A., localization of software and marketing materials, and preparation for Japan office establishment. At this point, I visit Japan once every few months, but the frequency might increase when operations in Japan get more active. I guess I need to learn how to handle jet lag better then. Since this is a start-up company, each of our staff takes several roles. For instance, on top of the above responsibilities, I sometimes take care of comprehensive marketing support and office management, and other times I can become a Web master, president’s secretary, and advisor. I am l literally Mr. All-in-one!

Q. What is interesting and/or challenging to you in terms of working in the U.S.A.?

A. Since I haven’t worked for a traditional Japanese firm in past, I can’t clearly compare U.S. and Japanese companies. But the reality at a U.S. company is not far from what we have been hearing about- one’s effort speaks all. It has nothing to do with one’s age, but crucial responsibility is given to one who proves his/her skills with lots of effort in the end. A Japanese proverb saying “the nail that sticks out gets banged down (deru kui wa utareru)”, which describes Japanese society that treasures uniformity, doesn’t work in America. I would describe American companies by saying “the nail that stick out is polished up.” This is one of the positive things in working for a start-up company, but also I feel like I have to keep moving forward to grow.

I don’t really feel the presence of hierarchical relations here. The boss is perceived as a person who gets reports and gives advise to staff. I share anything I want to with my boss, because “yes man” can be misunderstood as “absence of knowledge” in America. Although I was pretty blunt to people at companies in Japan, I feel like I am in my element already.

Another advantage of working for a start-up company is that everyone can be engaged with management instead of being just a small part of a gearwheel. The distance between the president and staff is short, I can directly learn a great deal of lessons through everyday work. I have also noticed that American people, especially from the Bay Area, cherish their private time as well as work. They work hard from early in the morning till evening, then either spend time with family or enjoy hobbies. Since I came here, I also began being interested in lots of things. Keeping a good balance between work and private life is one of the things that I’m learning in America.

On the other hand, one challenging thing to me is language and cultural barrier. I’m usually at ease in foreign countries, but working abroad is totally different. For instance, when I had just started working here, I experienced a hard time of expressing my thoughts in a proper way, and missed something crucial in a meeting. It was even harder because coworkers were trying to communicate with me based on the assumption that I spoke English perfectly. Taking a big responsibility at a company is wonderful, but it also gives me the same amount of pressure. I basically started working here without any mentor, so had no choice but to try out things by myself until I find right answer. It is true that I sometimes feel frustrated with what I can and can’t do.

Q. Generally speaking, do you perceive any differences between Japan and the U.S.A. in terms of Project Management Solution Market?

A. In the U.S.A., project management has been widely used at NASA, DoD, and for the nation’s deficit reduction under Clinton Administration. And standardization of project management is currently being processed by an organization called PMI. By contrast in Japan, only the construction industry has adopted a methodology that is compliant with PMI. It is still common for other industries, especially design and development sectors, to use less systematic approaches that are based on people’s experiences and hunches. Due to the necessity of managing different cultural groups at companies in the U.S.A., the concept of project management has naturally emerged here. On the other hand, Japanese companies consist of life-time employment and affiliate companies that have been able to complete everything without any problems as long as things are processed in a traditional way. But now times are changing and the legacy process is almost reaching its limitation because globalization is growing and the life-time employment system is disappearing in Japan. As a matter of fact, the PMI branch in Japan was been established a few years ago, and project management itself has been rapidly getting attention.

In spite of this movement, I guess it will take a while for project management to take root in Japanese society because it requires advanced knowledge and experience. Our company has been established as the result of research by our CEO at The University of Tokyo. Thus, our solutions are well-mixed with the good aspects of US project management and Japanese teamwork. Because of that, we think Japanese companies can easily introduce our solutions. Moreover, our solutions are specialized for preparation for the actual execution of project management, therefore, they are perfect for Japanese companies that are unfamiliar to project management, but would like to know about it.

Q. In the future, is there anything that you would like to try through your company?

A. I’m in the position that I can observe the entire picture of this company in terms of management. I would like to gain lots of knowledge and experience through my work that can become a foundation of my “American dream” someday. I also can perceive both positive and negative aspects of Japan and the U.S.A. through marketing business between those countries. Although globalization over the world will be accelerated even more than now, I believe that each country goes forward with her own unique way. In my opinion, the words “global person” and/or “cosmopolitan” describe those who can deeply understand and appreciate a diversity of countries and regions instead of viewing all the countries the same. Well, it sounds pretty clear, but actually is very difficult to be that way. But I would like to continue trying to reach for those words with my actions.

Thank you Mr. Takahashi. Mr. Takahashi can be reached via e-mail at shin@gpdesign.com  . For more information regarding Global Project Design, please take a look at their website at http://www.gpdesign.com  .

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