95: John Flanagan, General Manager Japan and Regional Head of Programming and Marketing Asia, A+E Networks Japan G.K

John Flanagan is a General Manager Japan and Regional Head of
Programming and Marketing Asia at A+E Networks Japan G.K. Mr.
Flanagan has been in Japan for 30 years. Originally, he is from
Denver, Colorado in the United States. He studied Political
Economy for his undergraduate degree and was at Colorado College
in Colorado Springs. He has been based in Media and Marketing for
his career in Japan. Mr. Flanagan has a long history with Japan,
as he was born in Tokyo because his father was a Professor of
Japanese Political Science, but they returned to the US when Mr.
Flanagan was 2 years old. In 1985, he returned to Japan as his
college had an exchange opportunity with Waseda University and he
did an exchange in the third year of his college. He went back to
the US to graduate college and looked for ways to come back to
Japan, he says one of the easiest ways to come back was through
the well-known JET Programme. Mr. Flanagan applied to the JET
programme in the first year it started, and he was placed to the
sister state of Colorado which is Yamagata. The JET programme was
his first exposure to Japanese work life which led to a career in
Japan.


 


One thing Mr. Flanagan remarked was that the office location is
very important in Japan, which is different from the US. In the
US, people are more used to driving to work so location is not so
important and it’s alright to have an office in the suburbs. In
Japan, people rely on the trains so location needs to be central
so people can get into the office. Mr. Flanagan also remarks that
the Japanese style of working is much more risk averse than the
Western style. He emphasizes its important to understand why the
people are so risk-averse, he cites an example of a colleague who
revealed to him that he had made a mistake in the past and it is
like a black X in his career. Traditionally, Japanese people are
employed for life, so it is easier to be very risk-averse, not
make many mistakes and have a nice stable paycheque for the rest
of your working life. Mr. Flanagan talks about the Japanese
old-school system is typically to hide mistakes from upper
management because it can be common to be publicly scolded for
smaller mistakes. He tries to keep a positive, open culture so
people come to him when there is a mistake that has been made and
he asks them what they learned and how the mistake can be
rectified.


 


Mr. Flanagan would give someone coming into Japan from
headquarters for 3-5 years a lot of advice. He says that what
helped him the most was understanding the Japanese culture and
language. Being patient is another thing that he felt was
important and he overcame this by asking questions. Sometimes due
to the cultural aspect, people do not want to seem too critical
or point out faults, yet they may be trying to say something
indirectly. It can take some time to grasp this and try and
understand the point or hint someone is trying to make. In Japan,
harmony is more important than truth which can be seen as all
aspects of business and culture. Sometimes people coming from
headquarters are told to do things in the same manner as they are
done in that country and that won’t necessarily work in Japan.
Trying to learn the language, the culture and enjoying the food
can bring you closer to your staff. Trying to pick up the nuances
of Japanese culture can be difficult to grasp for some people so
being patient with that is helpful. A challenge that Mr. Flanagan
found that the time to take a decision is longer in Japan and
trying to understand that there is more convincing and more nuanc