Terrie's Job Tips

The Nikkei reported in November that Nikko Cordial Securities was planning to substantially reduce its 7,000-person work force by offering employees “early retirement” packages, otherwise known as redundancy packages in the West. Apparently employees aged 40 are the main target and given that the company has a strong seniority culture, it is understandable that it would make the offer to the older, more expensive employees first.

The emerging recession looks like it could be bad. So bad in fact, that some economists are saying it will be the worst in a lifetime - certainly the worst in 50 years anyway. As with all recessions, this one features a spectacular loss of confidence on the stock markets and a number of market corrections before things settle down. But what’s different this time around, from, say, 2002, is not only is there a loss of confidence in Japan, the contagion is global - meaning there is no where safe for international investors to park their money and wait things out.

I frequently get email from readers overseas who have set their hearts on coming to Japan and who are trying to figure out how to find a job in their chosen field. But to get to that job they first need a visa.

The biggest threat to the security of any company’s data is not hackers or other external threats, it’s from the firm’s own employees. It is true that Japan is a little better than most countries, thanks to employees being more inclined to follow the rules. Nonetheless, a recent Cisco-funded survey found that about 21% of IT managers suspected that their users were sharing PCs and other devices with unauthorized users.

Last week I discussed a British legal case involving a large recruiting company called Hays which successfully sued one of its ex-consultants for stealing company information after that consultant issued invitations to Hay’s clients to join his personal group at the Social Network Service (SNS) called Linked In. The ex-employee admitted that he had set up a competing company but defended his actions by saying that he did not remove any data, the clients were able to respond of their own volition, and that Hays was encouraging the use of a public forum (the Linked In SNS) knowing that any data appearing on that forum would be in the public domain.

There was a very interesting court case in the UK in June of this year (2008), whereby a large recruiting company called Hays sued an ex-employee for the return of his database of contacts after he left the firm and set up a competing company. In the High Court, Hays argued that the ex-employee had unlawfully used confidential company client email addresses to create his own database in anticipation of starting his new business venture.

Although I advise any foreign firm doing business in Japan to show commitment by setting up a small representative office here, there is no doubt that it is an expensive exercise. At the very least you need a local country CEO, a sales/marketing manager, a technology person, and someone to look after the office.

Until recently, Japan has not been particularly serious about personal information and security of that information. Part of the reason was because people trusted each other, and another part was because even if someone did get their hands on a personal information list, the most they could do with it was to sell it to one of the underworld list brokers – something that the average person would never consider.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and since the cash flow problems were for good reasons, i.e., high growth, I felt that cutting back on employees or job-related costs wasn’t the right answer. Further, since I wasn’t getting paid a salary most months, in order to help the cash flow, adjusting my costs would have had no effect either. Finally I came to realize that what I really needed was more sales during the down months, but at no extra cost to the firm. In other words, I personally had to get back out on the street and start creating some new revenue.

The last four weeks have created unimaginable fall-out in the financial markets, with the USA going from five major investment banking firms in March 2008 to none in September. Of these, Lehman Brothers was allowed to go bankrupt, Bear Sterns was sold off to J.P. Morgan Chase, and Merrill Lynch was sold to the Bank of America. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs substantially shored up their capital with outside investors as well as converting into fully regulated banks.