Ron McFarlandのPersonal Journey (30) : 東西文明の十字路トルコへ。

さて、今回はトルコ訪問を掲載します。

私自身はトルコとは縁がありませんでしたが、トルコ料理が大好きで、
新宿三丁目のトルコ料理店「ボスボラス」でセミナーを開催したこともありました。

＜Ron-sanのセミナー＠ボスボラス＞


Ron-sanの豊富なビジネストリップにまつわる旅行談や日本も含めた異文化体験談のセミナーを随時実施しております。

コロナも落ち着いてきましたので、ご興味がありましたらお知らせいただければと思います。

さて、本題に戻ります。

Ronさんはトルコをかなり気に入ったようです。そのあたりの表現も参考になります。

Turkey

Toward the end of 1985, around November, I was asked to go to Turkey. Isuzu set up a new distributor and assembly operation there independent of General Motors and wanted to build its own international operation. My function here again was to develop their very fragmented sales operation. What I mean by fragmented, is that vehicles sales are sold to a sales dealer. Parts (for new vehicles) were sold to parts retail stores, and service was done by outside garages. That was known as the “THREE ‘S’s”. That is Sales, Service and Spare parts in one dealership. On that first trip, I only went around the country and interviewed the current dealers. I was to return to give the seminar on the next trip.

Turkey is a wonderful and historic country. That first trip was a real eye opener for me, and I fell in love with the country. I think they fell in love with me too, as I was asked back many times over my 20-year career in Isuzu Motors. I will talk about Turkey in detail later.



The Bosporus, March, 1986



Mosques of Istanbul, November 1985


Turkey training

Two months after the Middle East trip, in June, 1986 I gave my first seminar in Turkey. I learned they had very old person-to-person sales techniques. There was very little product presentation or feature explanation. With my presentation and contests among the salesmen, I was able to create a complete new selling step for them which greatly made negotiating easier.
It was a booming success, and I received an open door to provide seminars there anytime I had material I thought would be helpful.



Turkey Sales Training, June 1987



Yes, he is trying to kiss me.　なかなか面白いシーンですね。

Ron McFarlandのPersonal Journey (29) : インドへ。そしてTATAとの戦い。

今日のインドは、『Fact Fullness』（Hans Rosling他著、日経BP出版）のデータではレベル２の国です。

アジアのフィリピンやベトナムと同じ所得グループに入っています。

「しかし」と言っては失礼ですが、インドは近年、世界的な経営者を輩出しています。

その代表が、Googleのサンダー・ピチャイ（Sundar Pichai）やMicrosoft CEOのサティア・ナデラ（Satya Nadella）です。

サンダーは1972年、サティアは1967年にインドに生まれています。

Ron-san訪問時（1985年）には、彼らはそれぞれ13歳と18歳。

そんな彼らが、どうやってグローバルの舞台で大活躍できるようになったのでしょうか。

大変、興味深いですね。

さて、1985年当時のインドはどのようなところだったのでしょうか。

インドのトラックプロジェクト。
In late 1985 and 1986, I went twice to India. There was a new and huge heavy-duty truck project with Hindustan Motors, and I was to develop the sales network and train the dealers throughout the country.

My first trip was to visit the dealers, Hindustan Motors had assigned in the south, west and north. Because of all the political problems in the north, I could only visit dealers in the Delhi area. I started my trip in Delhi, where the head office of the commercial vehicle division was.

おなじみTATAとの戦い。どう攻めるか。
Hindustan Motors is mostly a car company and wanted to compete with TATA, the powerhouse in the truck business (as well as many industries) in India. TATA exports trucks throughout the region as well as dominates the Indian domestic market with 80% of the market share. It is based on old Mercedes Benz technology.

The idea was to start selling our truck in the south where TATA was weakest. There was another company in India called Ashok Lealand based on old British Lealand trucks. They were head quartered in Madras (now Chennai), in the south. So, at that time, they had 25% of the market share in that region, and we wanted to take some of their business with a superior truck. Therefore, I started my market study in Madras and Bangalore in the south. The south of India is like the southern States in the United States. Businesses are small. Families are large, or I should say larger than the average large family in India. They are not as industrial as the mighty north or west. In recent years, Bangalore has become the “Silicone Valley” of India. They have an expanding computer and software industry. As a matter of fact, they were vital support for their American counterparts during the “YK2” problem, as they worked when the Americans were sleeping to solve all the computer problems. The people in the south are wonderful, warm and open.

From there I went to Bombay, now called Mumbai. That is the main commercial center of the country. Like many large cities in the developing world, Mumbai is a city that draws people from the countryside.

India is a very complicated and historic country. Most of the Eastern religions came out of India in some form. Hindi is the national language, but there are hundreds of dialects, which prevent people from traveling around the country for work and a better life. The literate population, when I was there, was 24% in any language. In English, possibly 10% of the population speak it fluently. In spite of that small percentage, with a population of over 800 million (at that time), that is a lot of literate people, and the middle class is very large. Unfortunately, the lower classes (in both wealth and status) are even larger.

貧しいが平和な国。
In spite of its poor education and living standards, I found the country very safe and felt the people were very peaceful in their hearts.

In the mid-1980’s, India was a tiring country to travel through though, and one always has to worry about bad food, water and facilities. It’s not all that fun to be stuck in an elevator for a few hours while it is being repaired. With the lack of foreign exchange at that time, India could not buy replacement parts for the imported industrial goods they buy. Therefore, even parts are repaired instead of replaced, but it is very time consuming and usually needs repair again in a very short time. In the more recent times, I think the country has improved greatly with its export drives and the opening of the domestic market in sales and investment.

様々な規制。
As for my seminars, the dealers loved the sales concepts and the new truck they were getting. But, here again, production equipment could not be imported at that time, and the Bank of India would not allow us to get foreign exchange to import production parts and components regularly. Therefore, an average dealer would have to wait years before it would get one truck to sell. That was a real heart breaker for me, as the country really needed better transportation, and people were literally dying on the roads with truck breakdowns.

At the time I did not know it, but I would go to India several times more on personal visits.


　
Bombay, Feb, 1986



Training Group in Delhi, India

Ron McFarlandのPersonal Journey (28) : マレーシアから隣のインドネシアに。

コロナが落ち着いてきたので、1年ぶりでしょうか、久しぶりにRon-sanと飲み会。

場所は「六本木」のパブでなく、昭和臭漂う「蒲田」の居酒屋。

なんたって、「普通のグローバル人材」がテーマの会ですので、

空の玄関口、羽田空港に近い中小企業の町、蒲田が一番相応しいし、Ron-sanも私も好きな町なのです。

来年、蒲田でセミナーを開くことを肴に「カンパイ」。



さて、今回の記事はインドネシア。

インドネシアは私がいたハードディスク業界や半導体業界に関わる企業が極めて少ない国でした。

私が行ったのは、バタム島のみ。シンガポールから船で1時間ほどのところであったと記憶しています。

1994年当時、そこには松下寿㈱（現在はパナソニックに吸収）の工場があり、ハードディスクの部品を製造していました。

入国審査に長蛇の列ができていましたが、我々の一団は別の入り口から入って並ばずに審査。

毎回、袖の下でも渡していたのでしょうか。

松下寿での昼食時に「水は絶対に飲まないように」と何度も注意されたことを覚えています。アメーバ赤痢対策でしょうか。

現在、バタム島はリゾート。水質も良くなっているはずです。

最近読んだ『FACT FULNESS』（ハンス・ロスリング他著、日経BP社）によると、マレーシアは日本と同じレベル４、インドネシアはレベル３の国と位置づけられています。

さて、Ron-sanが訪問した当時（1985年）のIndonesiaはどのような国だったのでしょうか。

Indonesia

After those four seminars in West Malaysia, I was asked to go down to Indonesia to study if we could help them develop their dealership network.
It turned out that the country had very strict local content laws and imported assembled vehicles were very heavily taxed.

Like Malaysia, a manufacturer had to not only have local assembly, but required a great deal of local parts in the vehicle, some parts of which were in low supply and of low quality.
So, the problem was not the dealership network, it was supply.

With little business to do, I decided to do market research while I was there. I studied the bus market on the beautiful island of Bali.



Bali, Indonesia, July 1985

Ron McFarlandのPersonal Journey (27) : Ron-san、マレーの虎に！それはないか。でも、燃えていました。

私がマレーシアに行くようになったのは1997年頃。ペナン島近くの日本企業への半導体製造装置の売り込みでした。仕事の中身は全く覚えていませんが、蝦蛄（シャコ）がたっぷり入った野菜炒めがやたら美味しかったことを記憶しています。

一番の思い出はボルネオ島のクチン。クチンは猫の意味で、町中には猫のモニュメントがありました。1998年、アジア通貨危機の後、日本企業のシャープとマレイシア政府が現地に半導体の工場を建てることになり、シンガポールの代理店の営業と半導体製造装置の売り込みに行きました。準備のための現地事務所にいたのは韓国人のエンジニア達。工場の建設予定地は、まだ、ジャングルでした。

約二年通い受注が決定。最終的な価格調整のためにクチンに行きました。その頃には会社名が1st Siliconと決まり、社員も増えているようで、購買の担当者はシンガポール人でした。この購買の方が用意してくれたホテルはクチンの端を流れる川の前にあり、朝、手漕ぎの小さな船で通勤する人の姿が見えました。川の反対側はジャングル、どこに住んでいるのだろうか。そののんびりした様子に、そのゆったりとした生活ぶりに感動したのを覚えています。

Googleで調べてみると、その会社があった場所には「ATM - Rhb Bank 1st Silicon 閉鎖」とあります。現在、日本企業の太陽誘電の工場が近くにあり、1st Siliconのあった工場（建て替えたかどうかは分からないが、おそらくクリーンルームをそのまま使用）は、HGST Malaysisに代わっていました。これも奇遇です。HGSTは私がいたIBMのハードディスク部門が日立の同部門と合併してできた会社でした。先日亡くなった、経団連会長の中西氏がCEOを務めた会社でもあります。そのHGSTも実際にはWestern Digitalに買収されました。

さて、Ronさんのマレーシア訪問は、以上の話よりも更に10年以上前、つくづく凄いなと思います。

West Malaysia
With the success in Singapore, I was soon commissioned to give four seminars in West Malaysia on pretty much the same subject but for different vehicles. Armed with the experience in Singapore, I improved and streamlined the seminar. That was in mid-June, 1985.

Malaysia is a very complicated country. It is divided into East Malaysia and West Malaysia, West Malaysia or Peninsula Malaysia being about 80% of the economy, but with East Malaysia, on the island of Borneo having a wealth of natural resources.

Around 50% of the population are Malay. The Malay people have their own language and are mostly Muslim. Their population is spread all around the country, particularly in the countryside.

Around 35% of the population are Chinese. They are either Buddhist or Christian and live mostly in the major cities along the west coast of West Malaysia.

The third group of people are Indian, from India. They are about 11% of the population. They are mostly Hindu in religion.

All the groups pretty much keep to their own group, but share one thing. They all feel they are Malaysian. Interestingly the Chinese and Indian population own or operated most of the major companies in the country, but the Malay population controls the government. There has been many government owned companies just for Malay management, and there has been mixed successes with them.

It is amazing how peaceful the country is, in spite of their very different ethnic groups.

I have enjoyed training all of the groups and always felt that they put a high level of importance on manpower development. I always drew large crowds when I gave seminars in Malaysia.



Sales Seminar, June, 1985



Large Training Group