The Solutions Focus

Today I joined the workshop related to the solution focus.

One of the ways to apply the NLP to consulting service is the solution focus approach for me.

Before I learned NLP, I could understand why the Solution Focus Approach (SFA) works. But now I sometimes use this SFA in my consulting and always utilize it when I manage my team members.

SFA can be contrasted with Problem Focus Approach (PFA).
Traditional consulting approach to solving problems is PFA, where you analyze the problems, identify the root causes, and discuss how to solve them.
On the other hand, SFA looks for what you want to have happen (=solution) and find what has already taking you towards the solution, amplifying the useful things that are going on.

Especially for the problems related to human being, analyzing the problems does not always work. It tends to be discussion who is to blame. Cause of problem is not always linked to solution.

So, depends on the situation, using SFA as well as PFA is very important to my consulting service. I will pursue this multiple approaches to enhance my consulting service.

TEMOMIN

I had been working on translation last couple of months and just finished it this morning.
The book is about creativity written by British authors ten years ago. I hope it will be published by this Spring and many business persons will read it.

Due to the hard work, I felt very tired today,
so went to TEMOMIN, a nationally known chain store of relaxation salon.
Global Sport INC. runs the stores and has been aggressively expanding its business last ten years. Basically massage service used to be given by old acupressure therapists in Japan, but this company changed the custom, and started to use young people for it with lower cost.

Its competitors also started to hire young staffs. Moreover, some of them have opened the career colleges for therapy. This creates a virtuous cycle because the companies can get tuition money from the prospective staffs then easily hire young low cost staffs after their graduation.

Considering this, securing staff resources is the key factor for success, and the risk would be the maintenance of staff quality in this business. How can we apply this system for other business ?

Daruma

I visited the Kawasaki Daishi, a big temple near to Tokyo, to pray for happiness for the year.
Every year, I buy the Daruma doll which is round Japanese wish doll from Zen (maybe..)

There are a lot of Daruma shops around the temple. I bought a red one (red is typical color, but there are yellow, green, while, even gold currently). It's a little bigger than last year to achieve the bigger goal.

Dalma's eyes color is alway white. One eye is filled in with Block colore while thinking of a wish. Then, when the wish comes true, the other eye is filled in. Traditionally, the left eye should be filled in first and the right eye is left blank until the wish come true. So, I went home and enjoyed filling in the left eyes wishing my dream.

Mochitsuki

The music event that my band organized took place yesterday and was very successful.

4 bands including my band joined the event. Interesting thing is that besides music we did "Mochitsuki"
It is the event of pounding sticky rice to make a kind of rice cake, which is traditional new year event in Japan.

People pound the sticky rice stored in a kind of wood bucket with a wood hammer by turns.


The Japanese traditional event was took place in a club with live music and many foregners joins too. For Japanese, it looked really unusual, but all of us enjoyed it a lot.

Temporary Workers

Due to the current worldwide recession, the manufactures such as Nissan, Toyota, Mitsubishi and so on have started to cut temporary workers. It is called "Haken-Giri" meaning temporary worker cutback in Japan. Government says 85K temp workers will lose their jobs over next six months, and it has become a big social issue in Japan.

I've watched the discussion between politicians and activists in TV programs.
They were saying that Japanese companies used to guarantee lifetime job security and
use the retained earnings in the economic slump instead of laying off. But the recent American type of management values ROE (Return On Equity) too much for shareholders so Japanese companies are no longer allowed to do so. Most of them were criticizing Japanese companies cutting temporary workers.

Of course, we should avoid that thousands of people become homeless after job cuts.
But it is more safety net issue that the politicians should care.
I'm not sure if the companies should be criticized on this matter, because the companies hired temporary staffs for flexible cost control. Most of the temporary workers could get the jobs because it's temporary employment contract. If not, the companies might have obtained labor forces from other countries. So the temporary employment is one of good opportunities for labors. Of course, the management is morally responsible for employment.

I do not support the system of lifetime job security, because it's too risky for companies.
On the other hand, the government should organize the social safety net immediately to avoid this social collapse.

FAIRLADY Z

Led by Mr. Carlos Ghosn, Nissan revitalized.
FAIRLADY Z symbolized the company's reconstruction.

The first model of Z was released in 1967.
But its production was stopped due to Nissan's slumping business.
Then, it's back in 2002 as a 5th model.
Since Nissan's employees were very proud of Z, its revitalization motivated them a lot.

The unit sales of 5th model were 245,000 in global and 37,000 in Japan.
Then, now, the 6th model was just released.

There is a Nissan's exhibit space in Ginza, a center of Tokyo, and I visited there today.
Z looks so cool ! I wish I could buy one..

self-introduction

My name is Takashi Izumoto.

I am a business consultant in Tokyo, Japan.

My main fields are Strategy and Operation consultation, and business development support.


My career started with a music company where I was in overseas division and involved in importing musical instruments.

Then, I went to a business school, Thunderbird in Arizona, US, and studied International business in very multinational environment for 2 years.

With MBA in International Management, I joined a consulting firm, Deloitte Consulting, where I joined a lot of projects

such as strategy formulation, global market research, business process re-engineering, system implementation, and so on.

After that, I worked for Dell Inc. as a manager of Customer Experience (CE), where my role was to enhance CE

so I led many cross-functional teams for BPI (business process improvement) projects in Sales and Operation activities areas.

As an in-house consultant in Dell, I worked as a business trainer and mentor of BPI projects

conducted in each department of the company.

After Dell, I joined a venture firm and support its establishment of businesses and created their business systems.

Now, I’m a president of a consulting firm, Outbrain Inc. supporting the companies, especially foreign companies

to start and expand their business in Japan market as well as establish management system to support their growth.

In the weekend, I am a musician J I love music and have been playing the drums for more than 20 years in my band.

My band’s name is Bermudapants and you can check our sound by visiting at http://www.bermudapants.com/.

We have a gig once a month so please come and see us.

I’m interested in human “Brain” as you can guess by my company name, outBRAIN.

Currently my special interest is NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming). After obtained its license,

I’ve been pursuing to understand the mechanism of human brain deeply.

My career has been basically business consulting so I’ve been involved in very logical thinking approach.

But as you know, you can not manage people by logic only . Understanding the mechanism how people feel, think and act is

very beneficial to be successful in business and life.

My exciting challenge is to create a fusion of my logical consulting approach and NLP emotional/mental field

to find new way or methodology to help people doing business and life more smoothly.

My purpose of this Blog is just to share what I think and feel in Japan with worldwide people.

As you can see, my English is not perfect at all but I will try my best to make my English understandable

and would like to connect with people throughout the world.