Episode #95: John Flanagan, General Manager Japan and Regional Head of Programming and Marketing Asia, A&E Networks

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 nuance.