Global Interaction : No.43 Biz Trip グアテマラ、コスタリカ

さて、現在、Ronさんとは新たなマネジメント手法 Open Organization を研究しています。トップダウンの意思決定ではなく、ボトムアップの組織づくり。
Red Hatという米国のソフトウェア会社が20年以上採用し成功しているマネジメント手法です。現在のRonさんのGlobal Interactionが終了しましたら、ご紹介させていただきます。

今回からは1987年の中南米への8週間の旅です。当時の中南米は、危険な面も多々あったと思いますが、写真を見る限りきちんとした国だなとの印象を受けますね。エコツーリズムが盛んなコスタリカは訪ねてみたい国の一つです。

ちなみに、『FACTFULNESS』（日経BP、ハンス・ロスリング他著、上杉周作・関美和訳）によると現在、グアテマラはレベル2のトップクラス（アジアでいうとフィリピンと同じくらいの所得レベル）、コスタリカはレベル3のミドルクラス（タイと同じくらい、ただし、寿命は長い）です。

Latin America & the Caribbean

8週間の旅に
With the success throughout Southeast Asia and Turkey the word was starting to get around. As I mentioned earlier, Isuzu had a joint venture with General Motors to distribute to the smaller, non-assembly plant countries of the world IMODC (Isuzu Motors Overseas Distribution Corporation). In that company were three consultants from General Motors and one active member of its board. One consultant was to cover the Middle East and was stationed in Dubai, UAE, one to cover Africa and was stationed Abidjan, Ivory Coast and one covering Latin America in Puerto Rico.

Well, the General Motors consultant to Latin America got interested in all the training work I was doing and asked if I could set up training in Spanish for his region. That led to not only doing training in three of his countries (Costa Rica, Guatemala and Panama) but one General Motor’s plant country (Venezuela) and one Isuzu territory (Puerto Rico). I was on the road for eight weeks, the longest business trip I ever took and ever will take. I was exhausted at the end of that trip.

The trip started in Puerto Rico where the liaison office was. We finished the Spanish training manual there, and I explained anything in the manual, which was difficult to translate. Then, the interpreter, the General Motors consultant and I set out to do the training. First was Guatemala, then Costa Rica and finally for IMODC was Panama.

農業国グアテマラ
I found all of the little countries very different. Guatemala has a very large local Indian population, about 75% of the people. It is an agricultural country with bananas and coffee. Also, there is tourism with famous Maya ruins and the Spanish city of Antiqua. Antiqua was a major Spanish city for the continent when Spain colonized the region. Unfortunately, Guatemala was a poor country with crime and political unrest. All in all though, the people are very warm and friendly.



Guatemala, El Salvador, GM Latin America Managers



Guatemala Training

コスタリカ、安全で豊か、教育の行き届いた国
Costa Rica, on the other hand, is very safe and more prosperous. Its population is similar to the United States in that most of the population is from European decent, although mostly Spain and southern Europe. Like the United States, most of the local Indian population had been killed or melted into the European population. The country has a very strong Spanish feel about it. The number one industry is tourism. It has very famous tropical rain forests around the country. Also, there is a population of retired North Americans there, enjoying the warm weather, lower cost and friendly people. Furthermore, on both coasts bananas are produced. The Costa Ricans are considered the most educated in Central America having good education and medical facilities.



First Costa Rica Sales Seminar





Panama Sales Training, January 1987

Global Interaction : No.42 Biz Trip サウジ・アラビア

さて、今日はサウジアラビア。

数年前、反体制派のジャーナリストが、自国の大使館内で殺害されるなどとても民主的な国とはいえないとこと。

今から30年以上前はどうだったのでしょうか。

ちなみに、『FACTFULNESS』（日経BP、ハンス・ロスリング他著、上杉周作・関美和訳）によると現在、サウジアラビアの平均所得は日本を抜いています。

Saudi Arabia

At the end of 1986, I was asked to give sales training in Jeddah and then Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Jeddah is the main business center of the country. It is also the gateway to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.

My work there was quite uneventful except for one dinner I went to with one of the salesmen. After traveling to many developing countries I grew accustomed to taking care of my health regarding poor quality food, water and dangerous areas. This salesman was a Bedouin (Arab families that live in the dessert) from Yemen originally but then made his home in Jeddah. His English was poor, but I knew he wanted to take me out to dinner to a very traditional local restaurant.

時には食事も冒険！？本当にそうですね。私も行くたびにお腹を壊した国がありました。
It was a lamb restaurant, but I was very worried about it being clean and the food fresh. He assured me the meat was very fresh and clean and many foreign people go there. As we approached the restaurant, I noticed a long line of barbeque pits in front. The salesmen took me through a hallway of the restaurant with the kitchen on the right and the dining rooms on the left to the back yard where there was a herd of sheep fenced in. I didn’t think anything of it at the time.

Then, we went into one of the dining rooms. The room had no furniture at all, only wall-to-wall carpet. In various corners of the carpet people were sitting on the floor eating off of newspapers. We found a corner and sat on the floor, and the waiter laid down a newspaper in front of us and took our order. We ordered their popular barbequed lamb and soft drinks. Our drinks came quickly but he said it would take time for the lamb, as preparations were not ready yet. We did not mind; as my training seminar was finished, and all I had to do was go back to the hotel, pack for the next day’s travel to Riyadh.

お祈りの時間
As I relaxed chimes went off to signal that it was prayer time. I did not notice it, but my friend did. He excused himself and went over to a corner to do his prayers.

Shortly after he came back, we heard very loud animal screams. I asked what all the noise was about. He said they were preparing the lamb for cooking! Yes, they were slaughtering the lamb in the next room. He was right. It was fresh.

電気も冷蔵庫もない砂漠で食事することを考えると、その場で動物を殺してフレッシュな肉を食べるという調理法・習慣は普通にありかなと思いますね。

写真があれば良かったのに
After about a half an hour, the waiter came in with a bowl of rice, which he poured on the newspaper. Then, a dish of the lamb came. It was laid on top of the rice. Sitting around the newspaper with the food on it, we ate with our hands. Our hands got so oily that we were afraid to touch anything except the food until the meal was finished. Then we washed our hand.

That is the life of a Saudi Bedouin family on the weekend. They go out into the dessert in the evening with their family and the sheep tagging along. They pitch tents, start a barbeque, have a meal, camp for the night and return to the city the next day before it gets too hot.

From Jeddah I went to Riyadh, the capital of the country. It is right in the middle of nowhere. The main business center in the country is Jeddah on the Red Sea. Jeddah is the gateway to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and that region is overrun with Muslim people on pilgrimage every year coming from all over the world. That is not the case in Riyadh. In terms of wealth, Saudi Arabia is the big boy in the Middle East. It has massive resources of oil and natural gas and a very low population to support.



A camel trail outside Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Global Interaction : No.4１ Biz Trip タンザニア

Tanzania

Ronさん、ついにアフリカへ。1986年10月の出来事です。その頃、何をしてましたか。

私は米国赴任を終え、帰国し、MBA留学の勉強をしているころでした。
この頃の私の頭の中にアフリカはありませんでした。
この時代にビジネストリップでアフリカに行ったRonさんは凄い。

さて、タンザニア。実際にビジネスをしているのはインド人、パキスタン人などだそうです。
インド人、パキスタン人のグローバル化は日本人より進んでいたかもしれません。

『Factfullness』によるとタンザニアは現在、所得レベル1と２の境界、パキスタンは所得レベル2の中間、インドは所得レベル2の上位です。平均寿命はいずれも65～70歳。

In 1986, I was asked to give a sales seminar by the general manager of the dealership in Tanzania. Like most of Eastern Africa, people from the sub-continent, like India, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea or Sri Lanka administer the businesses in the country and many services. The general manager at that time was a Sikh from Bombay. He was on contract to work there and asked me if I could help him develop the sales staff. I traveled around the country visiting their sales and service branches as well as toured one of their game parks.



Training in Tanzania



Most people are on foot in Tanzania

Along with India and Indonesia, Tanzania is one of the poorest countries I have ever been to. It does have a few export products, and there is tourism with their game parks, but Tanzania has nowhere the quality of the game parks as Kenya to their north or South Africa do. They literally cannot buy anything outside of their country without getting financial assistants or AID. The country has no real social infrastructure, and subsistence living is the norm.



Mikumi National Park, Tanzania, October 1986

Throughout the country most of the people live in the cities, but there is a famous nomadic tribe that still is active in the countryside and travels to where there is water and moves with the seasons. They live off the blood of their goats. On a rare occasion, they will kill a goat and have a feast. With their ability to live off their animals without killing them, they have become quite wealthy and in recent times some have moved into cities and become very successful. Other than those few, the Masai are wild and uncivilized. I took a picture of three of them going down the road in the car at high speeds. Who knows, they might have thrown one of their spears at me.



Elephants in the game park



The Masai nomadic people in Tanzania, Kenya & Ethiopia

Global Interaction : No.40 Biz Trip ニュジーランド

Ron-sanのニュージーランド出張です。
Ron-sanは「アジアのスイス」と言っていますが、そもそもニュージーランドは、アジアではなくオセアニア。
まあ、読んでみてください。

New Zealand

GMが統括する国での初トレーニング。
In August and September of 1986, I did training in New Zealand. That was my first General Motors country. GM New Zealand is very organized and has well educated staff. I shared the training presentations with two GM NZ staff, and we traveled around the country together. One person gave training on heavy-duty trucks, one on light-duty trucks and I presented selling techniques.





New Zealand Sales Seminar

アジアのスイス
New Zealand is very rural with a low population and is mostly agricultural. I like to think of it as the Switzerland of Asia. I traveled through both the North Island and the South Island. Three quarters of the population is on the North Island, particularly around Auckland in the north.

Unlike its larger neighbor Australia, New Zealand has a lot of greenery and has very good northern hemisphere off-season snow skiing like Chile. Being in the southern hemisphere, the winters are in July and August. It is one of the most scenic countries I have every traveled to.



Sightseeing between training seminars