Question 1

Why should I work with ASH Consulting?

Accepted Answer

If you partner with us you get a team of dedicated consultants that will act as an extension of your strategic planning, talent management, talent development, diversity & inclusion and learning & development team. The ability to work with various companies at different phases of their cultural journey is what gives us the edge to understanding what companies leading the way in culture are doing right, and bringing that wealth of knowledge and expertise to your company.

Question 2

What do you actually even do?

Accepted Answer

We are in the business of waking organizations and people up to the realisation that they are only as good as their culture. If their culture is one of awareness that fosters equal and respectful collaboration between cultures, then the business thrives as a result of this. Using our extensive experience in the field of cross cultural communications, we assess organizations where they are on the spectrum of cultural awareness, and help them build programs tailored off our extensive methodology devised from the top professional and academic minds on the subject of cross cultural management.
Simply put; we help clients solve critical talent and culture related issues and help them build globally minded employees to further the success of their organizations in Japan and beyond. We do this by offering an array of products and services that can be found on the services page of this website.

Question 3

Can’t I just look all this up on the internet?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Of course you can! The internet and other resources will allow you to collect a vast majority of information, free of charge. What you will need to sacrifice however for a DIY approach is valuable time in countless hours researching, culminating and distributing information to the relevant parties, and hoping they will be engaged enough to care and absorb it. What we offer is not only saving you literally hundreds of hours of thorough research and execution work, but also our deep experience in the field of cross cultural management, and a dedicated methodology based on the countless hours of research we have done to compile our programs tailored to your specific needs, based on years of experience seeing firsthand what has worked and what hasn’t.

Question 4

Why culture? Why not focus on something more popular like leadership?

Accepted Answer

Leadership training is certainly an important topic and a lot of companies have work to do.  A lot of it is however based on American or Western culture. A “good” leader looks very different in Japan than they look in the US or Europe. Cross-cultural training is still severely underrated. It also does not exist in a cultural vaccum. The concept of training only those who are “elite” and have earned the right to develop further as leaders is frankly an outdated one, as we approach an era of collaboration, diversity, and the ability to manage through influence is more important than ever. Besides, being a great leader in one cultural context does not mean one is necessarily a great leader in another cultural context.

Question 5

We will just figure this out as we go. We don’t need to hire external consultants, do we?"

Accepted Answer

It is hard to know what you don’t know. The subtlety and nuance of culture is something that is subjective and takes training and awareness to spot. If you take a trial and error approach to culture, it could end up costing you even more in failed partnerships, broken trust, and disengaged employees. What we can do initially is an assessment and even offer a trial package. That way you can make an informed decision about whether or not you see any value in partnering with us or going it alone.

Question 6

What experience does ASH have in organizations regarding cross-cultural management, talent management, or organizational development?"

Accepted Answer

We have experienced working with hundreds of companies in Japan focused on solving their critical talent and cultural related issues. We each have a decade of experience in understanding what companies want in Japan, how they make hiring decisions, and what has worked well and what hasn’t when it comes to building diverse, multi-faceted teams. The biggest reason we have never joined any one company specifically to work on their talent agenda is because we feel the issue is systemic and we would not be able to solve it working for one specific company alone. The ability to work with various companies at different phases of their cultural journey is what makes us feel we are working towards our greater vision of a global Japan.
 
In addition, we also have management experience leading diverse teams ourselves. We have dealt with these issues personally and we have real life experience dealing with these issues as opposed to just text book experience.

Question 7

We already have an in house training/L&D team. Why should we hire you?

Accepted Answer

Internal training and L&D teams can be great at helping employees understand the way your company works but may not be aware of the cultural reasons behind such ways of working and what to do with employees that come from clearly different cultural backgrounds. We are able to bridge these gaps by understanding the subtle cultural differences that lead people to buy in to or opt out of your company’s culture. 
 
We are not here to replace your existing L&D team but to partner with them or critical L&D topics.

Question 8

How can you solve our issues of hiring diverse talent if you can’t recruit for us?

Accepted Answer

Focusing on talent acquisition as your sole strategy for getting capable, global talents in Japan is a losing proposition. Here is why:
 
The Japan market is not growing in global talent. It is shrinking. Japanese talent is not getting any better at English. In fact, they are getting worse. The recruitment industry locally is hyper-competitive and has just become a game of musical chairs for English speaking talent (of which the talent pool is less than 1% of the overall population and shrinking). You can't invest tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in Japan to attract the best talent in the market, just to have them leave in a year or two to go somewhere else for more money. You need to educate your leaders to create a culture that attracts and develops global talent, rather than rely solely on bringing in external talent. The time and attention you invest in your current employees will pay off two-fold in showing you are willing to invest in them, and in turn helping them step up to become truly global leaders in your organization. That’s what will lead to better employee engagement, better retention and ultimately better business results.
 
Global talent must be fostered by your culture, and not impeded. Otherwise, there are a plethora of other companies that will willingly snatch up these rare talents.

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