...1- Englishnization at Rakuten was a good idea but implemented in wrong way as Mikitani don’t follow the proper change strategy in my opinion. Englishnization for sure will help the company to have more benefits like competitive advantages in the market and can conduct global business easier. On the other hand this policy made more pressure on the employees, miscommunication, less productivity and lead to employee frustration and decrease their morale. 2- Mikatani wants his company to catch up with the global business. He wants Rakuten to become the world number one company in internet services and to acquire many international companies from his experience he knows that English is the global business language, so he wants the company to run completely in English to ensure proper global communication with the whole world. 3- According to the results of the survey in exhibit 3, employees experience the new mandates according to their previous language background. Most of Japanese native speakers saw this new policy as a threat and don’t like it, even they become more afraid of losing their jobs. But for those English speakers and other foreigners they found it a good policy for them. They already know this language and they will become more important in the organization with that policy. 4- The productivity of employees is one of the determinants of acceptance. In the case they show lesser productivity so I think this one indicator of rejecting this policy. Also improvement...
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...1 Was “Englishnization” a good idea for Rakuten? What are the costs/benefits of such a policy? Rakuten’s decision for “englishnization” of the company is 100% in line with the trend that “English is now the global Language of Business” Englishnization of global corporations: Strategy is Needed by Sebastian Reiche blog.iese.edu It still doesn’t mean an easy transition. People naturally oppose any changes and that can lead to higher costs especially in the beginning stages. The way Mikitani announced the “Englishnization” policy, without consulting with his management team did not prepare any employees for this change. The employers were immediately put under a lot of stress and experience a lot of pressure. Also linking the worker’s salaries to their English results and improvements increases the stress and uncertainty among employers. Higher stress levels normally have a negative impact on your efficiency and result in lower productivity. Poor communication (because of the immediate ban on any other language) also leads to lower productivity due to misunderstandings and waste of time. Despite these original costs in the short term, this Englishnization policy will have a lot more benefits for the company in the long way. As mentioned above English is the Global language of Business and this policy will lead to better communication between all international business. Being English efficient, managers will understand their competitors strategies better and will...
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...9 -5 0 7 -0 3 3 REV: AUGUST 16, 2007 JOHN DEIGHTON VINCENT DESSAIN LEYLA N D PI TT D A N I E L A B E Y E R SD O RF E R ANDERS SJÖMAN Marketing Château Margaux Were a wine to be drunk in paradise, it would be Château Margaux. — William Styron, Sophie’s Choice Brad watched as wine poured from a precarious height into his glass, generating turbulence but no splash. “I must try that,” he thought. A young management consultant, Brad was no stranger to expensive meals, but here he felt separated from the proceedings by more than income. He was the junior member of a consulting team invited to join Corinne Mentzelopoulos and Paul Pontallier for lunch at Château Margaux, in the room where such luminaries as the president of China, Hu Jintao, had been hosted when he came to visit the source of one of the world’s great wines. The château’s white wine had accompanied Brad’s first course, next its Pavillon red, and now, with a selection of cheeses, came Château Margaux 1982, a wine that might have cost him $1,200 back in New York if he could have found a bottle. He raised it to his lips with trepidation. He rather hoped that what he was about to encounter would not be so transcendent that he would never again enjoy his neighborhood trattoria’s house red. His concern was unfounded. The sip was pleasant, smooth, and the finish was far longer than anything he had noticed before, but frankly, he thought, there was none of the explosion of flavors that he associated...
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...For exclusive use Macquarie University, 2015 9-412-002 REV: APRIL 3, 2013 TSEDAL NEELEY Language and Globalization: "Englishnization" at Rakuten (A) Our goal is not becoming No. 1 in Japan but becoming the No. 1 Internet services company in the world. By 2050, Japanese GDP as a portion of global GDP will shrink from 12% in 2006 to 3%. As we consider the future potential growth of the Japanese market and our company, global implementation is not a nice-to-have but a must-do. — Hiroshi Mikitani, Chairman and CEO, Rakuten Group With less than a year to go before his self-imposed deadline of migrating to the exclusive use of English at Rakuten, Japan’s largest online retailer, CEO Hiroshi Mikitani (HBS ‘93) found himself seated outside Paris at the May 2011 e-G8 summit1. Seated alongside Internet, political, and business luminaries, Mikitani was among those shaping technology’s future agenda. But his future, his company’s future, was closing in on him. In a matter of days he would announce his acquisition of Ikeda in Brazil, marking another step in his company’s global ascent. And in a matter of months, he would evaluate its most critical stride toward becoming the world’s No. 1 Internet services company: the transition of his 7,100 Tokyo employees from their native Japanese to English, the global language of business. The future of his company lay in the success of his boldest step yet. Mikitani’s vision rested with his Japanese employees, who had fifteen...
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...Good Evening ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us. In March, 2010, I initiated the concept of “Englishnization” in Rakuten which required exclusive use of English as an in-house language in the next two years. I intend to make Rakuten not only the number 1 company in japan but the number 1 Internet service company in the world. Japan’s GDP in 2050 would shrink from 12% in 2006 to 3%, keeping this in mind we needed to expand globally and the only way to sustain that level of growth was through Englishnization. I also feel that fast and direct communication is the only way to integrate across various businesses in different nations and to insert Rakuten into non-Japanese market. Change was necessary for the global growth that we were aiming at. The initial goal to achieve TOEIC score, over 650 by April 2012 was set. Lots of foreign media such as CNN, Financial Times, covered our challenge and Harvard Business School made a case study about Rakuten’s Englishnization. However, this is not a temporary campaign or a astunt for publicity, but a must-do thing in order for Rakuten to become a globally successful company. This is good thing for Rakuten employees because English will open up their vision to what’s happening all over the world. I strongly believe that Rakuten’s success in Englishnization will change the conservative custom and system in Japan. I had instructed three primary phases consisting of assessment and measurement, first where the staff was...
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