Episode #301: Should I Copy The Style of Japanese Presentations When Doing Business In Japan?

I get this question quite often: “should I follow the logic of ‘when in Rome, do as the Romans do’ with regard to doing business with Japanese companies?”. Their question is usually related to how to present to buyers. The Western “pitch deck” is usually well designed, professionally laid out and zen like in its simplicity. Ironically, the equivalent decks from companies in the land of zen, are usually more reminiscent of the Baroque period, highly ornate and florid in design. Polar opposites in fact. The style of the actual delivery of the decks is usually also a world apart and it is quite shocking when you first encounter this phenomenon. What should we be doing to be effective in winning business from Japanese companies?

Very, very occasionally, when teaching presentation skills here to Japanese people, we will encounter a preference for the “Japanese way” of presenting, rather than the global standard that we are advocating. What do they mean by the “Japanese way”? We should speak in a monotone, with no energy, have our back to the audience and read everything on the screen to those in the room. It also means having a slide with 5 different fonts and a similar number of colours, packed to gunwales with data. If using graphs is a good idea, then let’s put up five on the one slide, so that everything is so tiny, you cannot make much sense of it. If proffering information is considered important, then let’s affix vast slabs of impenetrable text to the slide and then read it to the audience. Another favourite is to put up the entire spreadsheet, packed with microscopic numbers in the cells. Just to spice it up, let’s add some animation and have various bits move around.

Why are the Japanese decks and every other collection of information offered often so crammed and dense? I discovered the reason when I was a university student here in Tokyo. Back in 1979, I attended an academic conference on Sino-Japanese relations, which was my chosen field of study at that time. One of the professors was relating a point about the difference in thinking between Chinese people and Japanese people. Zen travelled from India, through China to Japan and so at various points in history, Japanese Buddhist priests would go to China to study. There was an allegorical zen tale regarding a well and a bucket, which in the Chinese version, made a macro point about the condition of humanity in the world. The good Professor made the observation that when that allegorical tale was translated into Japanese, in addition to the macro point, there was a tremendous amount of micro detail about the construction of the well, how the rope was made, the dimensions of everything, etc., etc.

Japan Is A Data Consuming Tornado

This is the point – Japanese buyers have an insatiable need for data. You simply cannot oversupply data to a Japanese client and they will just keep sucking it up, like a tornado devours everything in its path. So, when we present our highly refined, trimmed down slide deck or submit our carefully manicured written proposal, the Japanese side often feels like they have just missed their lunch and are starving, ravenous for more information. Written materials in particular can be a problem. We are trained in the West to be succinct, to focus on the core information, to get to the point. Japan is just not that way.

The language itself is circuitous, vague and indirect. We are a bilingual operation here in Tokyo, so we are constantly switching between languages. Even after 37 years here, I am still amazed at how many more words are needed to express the same concept in Japanese than in English.

So should we become Japanese when we present? To be successful here we need two presentations. We need the global best practice slide deck, the one which gets to the key points quickly and clearly. The information on screen must be able to be grasped in two seconds. If it takes longer than that, the slide is too complex and needs to be simplified further. When we deliver it, we use our eye contact to engage the audience, our voice modulation to provide variety to keep the audience with us and use our gestures to highlight key concepts, phrases and words.

Bring Supporting Multi Volume Compendiums

We should also bring a massively thick compendium of supporting information, so high you couldn’t jump over it, to go with your presentation which was focused on the highlights. After the meeting or after they have received your written proposal, there will be staff designated to comb through this data to find all the problems associated with working with you and doing business with your company.

Japan has a highly risk averse culture, especially in business. The people you are dealing with are not going to get massive bonuses and rewards for risk taking. In Japan, the ratio of CEO pay, vis-à-vis the median employee’s pay, is 58 times greater, compared to 670 times in the USA. The upside isn’t big for risk taking here, but the downside for making a mistake is massive. The people you are dealing with or the people in the presentation room, will not be making any decisions, until the forensic due diligence has been completed. For that purpose, they have a data devouring demonic need for information. Always be fully professional in your delivery, but carry a very big bag full of information and hand that over. Trust me, no one will complain about the weight.

Once you understand the conversation going on in the mind of your Japanese customer you can meet them there and things will become much easier. Don’t try to be Japanese. Be yourself, but be smart, professional, well organised and come packing heavy with data – lots and lots of data.