The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

Let’s talk about sales, and why the new year always feels like a repeat performance.

Greek myths rarely have happy endings. They are mostly cautionary tales, reminders of how the Gods treated humans …

At some stage in every career, the moment arrives: you’re asked to give a presentation. Early on, it may be a straightforward project update delivered to colleagues or a report shared with your manag…

Negotiating in Japan is never just about numbers on a contract. It is about trust, credibility, and ensuring that the relationship remains intact long after the ink is dry. Unlike in Western business…

Our image of negotiating tends to be highly influenced by the winner takes all model.  This is the transactional process where one side outwits the other and receives the majority of the value.  Thin…

Presenting isn’t always adoration, adulation, regard and agreement.  Sometimes, we have to go into hostile territory with a message that is not welcomed, appreciated or believed.  Think meetings with…

So many sad cases of people dying here in Japan from what is called karoshi and the media constantly talks about death through overwork.  This is nonsense and the media are doing us all a disservice.…

Presenting to buying teams is very tricky in Japan.  Because of the convoluted decision making process here, there will be many voices involved in the final decision. What makes it even harder is tha…

How should we dress when presenting and does it actually matter?  Yep, it matters - particularly in Japan.  Japan is a very formal country, in love with ceremony, pomp and circumstance.  Always up yo…

We don’t run perfect organisations stocked with perfect people, led by perfect bosses.  There are always going to be failings, inadequacies, mistakes, shortcomings and downright stupidity in play.  I…

We see Japan as a modern, high tech country very advanced in so many sectors.  Sales is not one of them.  Consultative selling is very passé in the West, yet it has hardly swum ashore here as yet.  T…

Storytelling is one of those things that we all know about, but where we could do a much better job of utilising this facility in business.  It allows us to engage the audience in a way that makes ou…

 We are often good talkers, but poor listeners. We have many things we want to say, share, expound and elaborate on. For this we need someone to be talking it all in. We like it when people do that f…

Selling to companies in Japan usually means sitting in a meeting room with a single buyer or perhaps two people.  There are occasions though where we may need to present to a larger number of buyers …

We often hear about the need for bosses to do more to engage with their teams. The boss looks at their schedule and then just checks out of that idea right then and there because it seems impossible.…

 Today is a good time to start reviewing and reflecting upon the presentations you have over the past few years.  What have you learnt not to do and what have you learnt to keep doing?  Those who don…

Here is an important mantra: We don’t want a sale, we want the re-orders.

That task however is getting harder and harder.  Customers today are more educated, better prepared and have more alternative…

The New Year’s resolutions concept is ridiculous, but only because we are weak, lazy, inconsistent and lacking in discipline.  Apart from those small barriers to execution of desires, the concept wor…

351 My Boss Isn't Listening

f you reading this title and thinking “this has nothing to do with my leadership”, you might want to think again. We hear this comment a lot from the participants in our t…

350 The Rule Of Three

  Our financial year ended in August and we were up over 20% on the previous year’s revenue results. I should have been ebullient, chipper, sanguine, fired up for the new year, …

 I was invited to an English Speech contest for Middle School students.  The students must have home grown skills and are not eligible to compete if they have spent more than six months abroad, in an…