December 31, 2018 2019 New Year Greetings from Japan Intercultural Consulting
Dear Clients and Friends,
It’s been another busy year here at Japan Intercultural Consulting and as always we are grateful to our clients for giving us the opportunity to assist them with their cross-cultural training and consulting needs.
We continue to see strong interest in our Working Effectively with Japanese seminars for non-Japanese who are working for Japanese companies or interacting with Japanese customers, partners and investors. This past year we’ve also conducted many team-building sessions aimed at fostering communication and action planning in cross-cultural teams. We are also seeing strong demand for our e-learning sessions from clients wishing to complement their live sessions with additional content.
We’re also excited to begin a new partnership that will expand our global offerings. The founders of Charis Intercultural Training, a well-respected firm providing training globally since the 1980s, have decided to retire. Our firm will inherit their excellent trainer team and seminar designs, which will expand our capabilities to offer training on cultures other than Japan, including China, Mexico, India, France, Germany, Israel, Thailand, and more. Charis has a particular specialty in working with global virtual teams and in delivering seminars in a webinar format, both of which are very relevant to many of our clients today.
I personally have spent a lot of time in Japan again this past year, with a key focus being Change Management, a topic of interest to many Japanese organizations as they evolve how they do business in order to keep up with current trends
This year was unusual for me in that I didn’t publish any books, but I’ve been working on several and am expecting to publish at least five in 2019! Also continuing to enjoy writing columns for the Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun, the Asahi Shimbun, Newsweek Japan’s website, and Teikoku Business Saizensen, and have added a series for the ALC Gotcha! website focusing on human resource issues.
2019 is going to be off to a busy start, as I’m headed back to Tokyo in January to present on Servant Leadership at Regional Scrum Gathering Tokyo and conduct a workshop on the same for a client, as well as speaking at the International House of Japan. Also in January look for information about a new collaboration our firm is starting with an exciting HR tech startup specializing in employee motivation.
We very much appreciate everyone’s support and enthusiasm for our work during this past year, and look forward to serving you in 2019. Best wishes for a very happy New Year.
Rochelle Kopp
Managing Principal
Japan Intercultural Consulting
