Autocruisers: Employees that function without directions

H==-san

You are so good at manipulating me. I can not help writing about my job, since you wrote as follows:

> This is cool, and worthy.
> Without giving any secret, could you tell us a bit more?
> Later, if people like what they see, maybe someone,
> might wish to snap you up, hire you to make it happen for them,
> and not at any reduced rate!

I am a tactical schemer for the Japanese SMEs. I prepare the customized plan for each client. So it’s hard to tell you what I usually do. I know that you know the result of what I do, as you vividly depicted in the recommendation you wrote for me. What I usually do in these cases is to make “Autocruisers.”

Let’s just compare kintaro-ame people with the people I am talking about. The Autocruisers share values, norms, as well as basic knowledge on trades, customers and competitors, with the other company people. So they could easily simulate what is expected and they could fairly easily create appropriate counteractions to be practiced immediately by themselves.

Let me illustrate what I did at an AV making company, which were run by the best executives among all of my clients. The executives weree very thoughtful, hard-working and intelligent. When the three of them became the directors of the 40 year old company, it was losing its competitive edge. They asked me to help them raise their shares on the retailers’ shelves. They had already formed a task force whose members were young, proud and about to run out to the retailers to negotiate over the issue.

I told them to postpone the retailer visits for 4 months. I, instead, gave them seven subjects to master beforehand. The seven subjects include the VMD, the shop attendant HRM, the financial structure of the shops, the inventory control methods for the shops, semiotic advertising planning, the history of the trade, and the players of the trade. I did not teach the subjects. I just prepared four business books on each subject. I assigned each project member one subject to master. I told them, ”Okay. You have two months to master the subject profoundly enough to give me and your executives a lecture on the subject. Have a nice day.”

After having a hard time, the members finished the lectures. Then I pointed and asked one of the members to give me a lecture on a subject that he had not been in charge of. I said, “All of you are present at the lecture of someone else’s. It’s not a party time. You are supposed to learn everything you hear during the project meeting hours. I will never let you go to the retailers until you master all.”

When they completed the task, I told them to form one standard plan to raise their market share at the retailers. With no major advice, they could present a great plan to me and the executives. Then I gave them a final task. That was role playing simulation to talk to shop masters who were not supposed to like big managerial words. I, playing a role of an old senile shop master, kept saying to them, ”I do not understand what you are saying. I do not like you. Tell me something interesting or you get out of my shop!” I did it until the member finally realized the best approach patterns. Some of the member could not finish it before their take #40.

After the four month intellectual preparation, project members went to the retailers to propose new MD plans for each of the shops. The share was raised significantly.

This is a basic feasible flow of the program. Most of the SME employees were not fond of studying in their school days. They often hate to even think something. So the whole program is not a easy process. However, once they become the Autocruisers, they usually remain so for good. Some people say that this is too tough for them. A bankruptcy would be much tougher to them. And people do die by hard works for irrational tasks, but I have never seen people who died by over-studying. LOL.