"Why not Japan?"
Nissan chips away at Japan's concrete ceiling:
"In 2003, [Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn] set up a special team to review
Nissan's diversity, or lack of it. That led to the creation of a
Diversity Development Office to help promote women and a Diversity
Steering Committee to make sure top company leaders bought in. Mr.
Ghosn himself was the committee's first chair. If Nissan-Renault values
diversity, "Why not in Japan," he says. He insists that diversity is
essential to the kind of "cross-functional teamwork" that breeds
innovation at the auto maker. "When men and women of different
mindsets, different backgrounds, different cultures meet to work on
particular problems they usually find better solutions," he said last
month in New York, where Nissan collected the annual Catalyst Award for
helping women advance. -- Toronto Globe and Mail
Totally agree. And there's no acceptable answer to the "why not Japan?" question, either. This is 2008, after all, my goodness. The obvious lack of diversity in traditional Japanese companies will only doom them to the wrecking ball in a rapidly globalizing world. Oh, and this Ghosn guy? He speaks six languages. Six. That's diversity.
Totally agree. And there's no acceptable answer to the "why not Japan?" question, either. This is 2008, after all, my goodness. The obvious lack of diversity in traditional Japanese companies will only doom them to the wrecking ball in a rapidly globalizing world. Oh, and this Ghosn guy? He speaks six languages. Six. That's diversity.
