Achieving Successful Technology Transfer at Japanese Firms in the United States.

This session will be delivered in the Japanese language, and is aimed at Japanese who have management responsibility for the US operations of their firms. Technology transfer is one of the biggest challenges facing Japanese firms in the auto industry. There is tremendous pressure to scale up operations quickly, achieve target quality, and to reduce the number of Japanese assigned to the U.S. Yes, many Japanese firms do not see enough progress in this area, and experience painful setbacks when carefully-trained American staff leave the company. The challenges related to technology transfer will be analyzed from a cultural perspective, particularly focusing differences in teaching and learning style and management style between Japan and the US, and differences in the labor market. Specific strategies that Japanese firms can use to be more successful in transferring technology to locally-hired employees, and in retaining trained employees, will be presented. There will be ample time for Q&A.

Rochelle Kopp
Managing Principal
Japan Intercultural Consulting

Rochelle Kopp is an authority on Japanese culture and business, and has extensive experience working with Japanese transplants in the U.S. and their suppliers. Rochelle speaks, reads, and writes Japanese fluently, and has lived and worked in Japan. She is the author of The Rice-Paper Ceiling: Breaking Through Japanese Corporate Culture (Stone Bridge Press) and twelve books in Japanese. Rochelle holds a B.A. summa cum laude in History from Yale University and an M.B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business.

Japan Intercultural Consulting is recognized as the premier training and consulting firm focused on Japanese business. With offices in nine U.S. cities and Tokyo, Japan Intercultural Consulting helps clients improve working relationships and optimize performance in multicultural environments.