The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

If you are called upon at an internal meeting with the big bosses, or during an external public event, to suddenly speak on a topic, do you say, “whoopee, here is my lucky day, it is time for me to s…

“What anchors their behavior is the salaryman’s desire to protect himself – no one wants to put their position at risk by telling the truth”.  This little gem of an insight was made by a retired nucl…

Are you failing in sales yourself or do you have sales staff reporting to you who are not making their numbers?  Sales is a brutal, metrics based activity where there are no hiding places or at least…

I am infamous in Tokyo.  I always ask the first question of the speaker at an event.  “Oh Greg, you always ask the first question”, people say, as if it was a bad thing.  They don’t get it.  In my ca…

In the military, junior officers are the equivalent of middle management in business.  In times of warfare these middle managers are often wounded or killed in battle.  There are no replacements from…

There is a saying in Japan, Kuki wo Yomu, which means read the air or be aware of the atmosphere or subtexts in the meeting.  In sales, we need to be on high alert all the time for what is the atmosp…

Usually when we hear the term “presentation”, we think of a public arena, a big crowd and a lot of formality.  These public occasions are important because this is your personal and professional bran…

Wayne Gretzky is famous for the ice hockey quote “skate to where the puck is going to be”  about anticipating where and when the critical actions have to be taken, rather than just following what is …

“We Don’t Have Any Budget”.  

Yes You Do!

In the profession of sales, this is one of the most widespread pushbacks on our sterling offer.  It also a false flag as well.  We should never believe it wh…

This was a gala affair for a very worthy cause.  A grand setting. Beautiful ladies in evening gowns, men resplendent in their tuxedos.  The host of the charity event was duly introduced, to give an o…

How do we set up a positive mindset?  More importantly how do we set it up from morning when we awake and when we start work?  What are we feeding our mind?  What things are occupying our thoughts?  …

In the profession of sales, “We Don’t Have Any Budget”  is one of the most widespread pushbacks from buyers to our sterling offer. It also a false flag as well.  We should never believe it when we he…

A businessman reached out to me after attending my speech on “The Seven Deadly Fails Of Selling In Japan”, which I gave to the American Chamber of Commerce here in Tokyo.  He wasn’t interested in hea…

When we are writing, we can create a style of our own.  The way we use certain vocabulary, the phrasing we apply in our sentences, the types of subjects we tackle.  What about when we are speaking?  …

Rising in a company in Japan requires talent, but this is often held hostage to time. Your age, longevity and seniority in the system are factors that often trump talent.  The usual internal talent d…

Former American President John F. Kennedy left us with a great quote: “Let’s never negotiate out of fear.  But let us never fear to negotiate”.  Actually, we do fear to negotiate though, don’t we.  W…

A businessman reached out to me after attending my recent speech on “The Seven Deadly Fails Of Selling In Japan”, which I gave to the American Chamber of Commerce here in Tokyo.  He wasn’t interested…

Dynamic, powerful, driven, single-minded leaders get stuff done.  They are resourceful, disciplined, patient, highly demanding of themselves.  They are often poor listeners.  They are so focused on m…

This is a pretty big subject, so I will pick up a few of the more noteworthy differences.  In the West, salespeople, for the most part, are involved in an occupation for which they have received no t…

Sometimes we read that when we are presenting it should be just like a conversation with your friend.  The idea is we should be relaxed, inclusive, totally focused on the people we are speaking to.  …