ECCO Sko A/S Japan: New directions and team challenges from joint venture to subsidiary

This book addresses team dynamics and diversity in business management in multinationals in Japan.

Japan provides an important place for studying teams, particularly in light of its contributions to management history. The Japanese are ubiquitously known for their teamwork with attention to detail, efficiency and work philosophy of continuous improvement lean.

Teams in Tokyo based multinationals provide a useful platform for studying the Japanese government's recent initiatives of including international talent and not least the female workforce as assets in the Japanese drive for economic progress.

Penetrating the Japanese market provides substantial challenges for international companies and setting the right teams are of utmost importance towards reaching this goal. The participating corporations are Bang & Olufsen, Ecco, Coloplast, Novo Nordisk, Microsoft, Sony and Huawei. The Danish companies are outstanding in their advanced values of work-life balance, American companies have explicit and elaborate diversity policies, and Chinese corporations inspire with an unforeseen drive for results and straightforward pragmatic business ways.

The book is targeted at bachelor, master and MBA students in management studies with focus on organization, communication and competence. Business professionals will also find inspiration and insights applicable to their own organizations concerning high performing team dynamics and cross cultural management.