A conversation with Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neeley on the strong connection between language and globalization.
In 2010, Japan’s largest e-commerce platform Rakuten was rapidly expanding into global markets when CEO Hiroshi Mikitani made a surprising announcement: Rakuten’s internal language would be changing to English.
Today we bring you a conversation about the thinking behind Mikitani’s mandate and the results it achieved with Harvard Business School professor, Tsedal Neeley. In this episode, you’ll learn about the early challenges that accompanied such enormous upheaval, including loss of productivity and employees who questioned the relevance of the new mandate. You’ll also learn how the shift to English shaped Rakuten’s long-term working culture and productivity.
BRIAN KENNY: Now, Englishnization is a hard thing to say. Is that a real word? What’s the story with that?TSEDAL NEELEY: And in a sense, it’s a tough word, and I hear that all the time, just like you experienced it. But the word in a sense shows that there’s a transition to English and how an organization can go through that transition, and ultimately it’s a global strategy.
TSEDAL NEELEY: Actually, your observation is spot on. And interestingly enough, when Mikitani mandates English for his entire organization, he’s also looking to push the boundaries, the national boundaries of the Japanese society around English and globalization. And although English is part of the educational system, so each Japanese student is exposed to English when they’re quite young, but they never use it. It’s not used in business. It’s not used in cross-border work.
He’s extremely bright, the capacity to process a ton of information across many domains. He’s the son of a famous economist, and sometimes you can see him and hear him almost like a teacher, professor, leader when he’s thinking and talk is very charismatic too. TSEDAL NEELEY: Absolutely. And since this case has been written, they’ve expanded dramatically. So they were in about six, seven countries when the case was written, and now they’re really covering the globe partly through their acquisitions, their partnerships, their joint ventures, and in fact, they today are the key sponsors for FC Barcelona’s soccer team.TSEDAL NEELEY: So, instead of Qatar Air, you’re going to see Rakuten with Messi running around in the Rakuten jersey.
Now, the Japanese employees struggled and struggled and struggled. In fact, for a period of two years, they worked harder than they’d ever worked in their lives. They were filled with anxiety and they struggled, but that changed. Within two years, they were speaking with their counterparts in English around the world.
BRIAN KENNY: So, as a manager, if you’re advising a manager on what kind of employees to hire, that sounds like a pretty good criteria, right?
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