Ron McFarlandのPersonal Journey (34) : いよいよアフリカに上陸

今年、最後の記事になります。

Ronさん、ついにアフリカのタンザニアへ。1986年10月の出来事です。その頃、何をしてましたか。

私は米国赴任を終え、帰国し、MBA留学の勉強をしているころでした。

この頃の私の頭の中にアフリカはありませんでした。

この時代にビジネストリップでアフリカに行ったRonさんは凄い。

さて、タンザニア。実際にビジネスをしているのはインド人、パキスタン人などだそうです。

インド人、パキスタン人のグローバル化は日本人より進んでいたかもしれません。

In 1986, I was asked to give a sales seminar by the general manager of the dealership in Tanzania. Like most of Eastern Africa, people from the sub-continent, like India, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea or Sri Lanka administer the businesses in the country and many services. The general manager at that time was a Sikh from Bombay. He was on contract to work there and asked me if I could help him develop the sales staff. I traveled around the country visiting their sales and service branches as well as toured one of their game parks.



Training in Tanzania



Most people are on foot in Tanzania

Along with India and Indonesia, Tanzania is one of the poorest countries I have ever been to. It does have a few export products, and there is tourism with their game parks, but Tanzania has nowhere the quality of the game parks as Kenya to their north or South Africa do. They literally cannot buy anything outside of their country without getting financial assistants or AID. The country has no real social infrastructure, and subsistence living is the norm.



Mikumi National Park, Tanzania, October 1986

Throughout the country most of the people live in the cities, but there is a famous nomadic tribe that still is active in the countryside and travels to where there is water and moves with the seasons. They live off the blood of their goats. On a rare occasion, they will kill a goat and have a feast. With their ability to live off their animals without killing them, they have become quite wealthy and in recent times some have moved into cities and become very successful. Other than those few, the Masai are wild and uncivilized. I took a picture of three of them going down the road in the car at high speeds. Who knows, they might have thrown one of their spears at me.



Elephants in the game park



The Masai nomadic people in Tanzania, Kenya & Ethiopia

では、皆さま、よいお年を。

Ron McFarlandのPersonal Journey (33) : アジアのスイス？

いよいよ今年もあとわずか。何故かわかりませんが、コロナの第6波の兆しは見えず、今のところ安全。

ということでRon-sanと飲み会をしました。場所は、

やはり中小企業のメッカ「蒲田」。二人と六本木や渋谷より、ここが好きなんです。

Ron-sanは芋焼酎の水割り、私は黒ホッピーで乾杯。ちなみにホッピーは我が町、調布で製造。



今年はコロナがあり、我々の活動はネット中心でしたが、来年は「集合形式で飲み会付きのセミナー」をやりたいねなどと話すうちに蒲田の夜は更けていきました。



さて、今回はRon-sanのニュージーランド出張です。

Ron-sanは「アジアのスイス」と言っていますが、そもそもニュージーランドは、アジアではなくオセアニア。

まあ、読んでみてください。

New Zealand

GMが統括する国での初トレーニング。
In August and September of 1986, I did training in New Zealand. That was my first General Motors country. GM New Zealand is very organized and has well educated staff. I shared the training presentations with two GM NZ staff, and we traveled around the country together. One person gave training on heavy-duty trucks, one on light-duty trucks and I presented selling techniques.





New Zealand Sales Seminar

アジアのスイス
New Zealand is very rural with a low population and is mostly agricultural. I like to think of it as the Switzerland of Asia. I traveled through both the North Island and the South Island. Three quarters of the population is on the North Island, particularly around Auckland in the north.

Unlike its larger neighbor Australia, New Zealand has a lot of greenery and has very good northern hemisphere off-season snow skiing like Chile. Being in the southern hemisphere, the winters are in July and August. It is one of the most scenic countries I have every traveled to.



Sightseeing between training seminars

Ron McFarlandのPersonal Journey (32) : ドイツ、こういうこともあるから旅は楽しい。

今週はRon-sanがドイツにストップオーバーしたときの話です。

ベストセラーとして今も店頭に並んでいるFactfullness（ハンス・ロスリング、オーラ・ロスリング、アンナ・ロスリング・ロンランド著、上杉周作、関美和訳、日経BP)によると、
ドイツ人の所得は日本人より頭一つ上といったところ。経済的に貧しかった東ドイツを併合してのこの結果はすごい。

また、東ドイツ出身のメルケルさんが首相だったいうのは、彼女の能力が並外れていて、かつ、ドイツが民主的な国家であることの証でははいでしょうか。
最近、メルケル元首相の伝記が出ているので読んでみよう。

下記は、まだ。ベルリンの壁があたっときの話です。本当の話かな？でも、こういうこともなくちゃね。
From Turkey, I was to go to West Malaysia, but they did not want me to come too soon. So, believe it or not, for six days I just goofed around in Germany where I was to transfer planes. I took a boat tour down the Rein River looking at castles and viewing the wine country of Germany. On the boat I met a German man who spent most of his life living in Colorado in the United States and two Japanese girls who could not speak English. So, linguistically we were set for the day. The German man spoke German and English, and I speak English and Japanese, so the four of us could communicate on about anything, as we toured along. Our day started in the morning and went right into the night. As the evening set in the German man decided he wanted to make a pass at one of the Japanese girls, and I was the interpreter. I had a hell of a time explaining that one. All in all it was one of my most memorable trips. On top of that, I was paid full time for staying in a 5-star hotel the whole time. In the evening on one of those six nights, I went to the bar and watch the final of the soccer World Cup. It was between Germany and Argentina. As you can imagine, I could hardly root for Argentina, sitting in the middle of the German Heartland. It was a wonderful experience.



On the German Rein River touring castle and the wine country

Ron McFarlandのPersonal Journey (31) : 中近東のクエートへ。

Ronさんの最初の中近東への旅は、クエート。

FactFullnessのデータでは、現在のクエートは、日本やアメリカと同じレベル４。
所得は日本やアメリカよりも高いとのこと。さて、1986年のクエートは？中近東は？

それにしてもトラックの営業先は幅広い。世界中だ。
私のように半導体の検査装置だと行き先は限られる。
ちょっと羨ましくもある。

From Turkey on my way back to Japan I traveled to Kuwait to give a seminar to the General Motors GMC dealer there. That was my first time to the Middle East, and it was before the ’91 Gulf War. Here again, the General Motors consultant to the Middle East wanted training for his dealers too.

中近東の地域内のコンフリクト。
The Middle East is a region as you know, but each country has its own character. In those days, there are the oil/natural gas rich countries with low populations, the oil/natural gas rich countries with large populations, the countries with a small amount of oil, the countries with little oil but an educated labor force, etc. That is still pretty true today I would guess, but the conflicts in the region make everything very complicated.

クエートは多くの国から労働者やセールスパーソンを受入れ。
Well, Kuwait is in the first group, an oil/natural gas rich, and low population country. They import labor for almost everything. In an automotive dealership, the service technicians were usually from Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and The Philippines. The sales people were usually from Palestine (or Israel/Jordan/Lebanon or whatever you want to call them), Egypt, Sudan, India or Pakistan. I have no idea why, but I am very comfortable training the Palestinian’s or Egyptian’s in that region. They seem to be the most interested in expanding their skills and knowledge.

母国を離れて仕事をするということ。
I have a strong feeling that anyone who leaves his home country to make a better life in a different country is very special and not completely like his average countryman. For some strange reason, the Chinese, Japanese, Jewish, Palestinian, Indian, Korean and Egyptian have been able to be successful anywhere they go. Well, the people I train are those very special people, and I’ve enjoyed training them. I guess it is because I am one of them, being an American living outside of the United States over half my life. I left my country at the age of 28 years old and have not returned to live up to this writing.



Sales Training Group, Kuwait, April 1986 　　　　　



Salesman-customer role playing



A life of leisure on the Persian Gulf
with two General Motors Consultants and the Kuwaiti dealer