3 Management lessons from the 2011 Japan Earthquake and Tsunami

MBAs are an ambitious lot. Wannabe MBAs are more ambitious. However the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami earlier this month has taught us a lot which can be applied to life, career, and even management.

1. Preparation:

As the old adage goes “If you fail to plan you plan to fail”. Do you know that despite the magnitude of the earthquake (9.0 on the Richter scale) not a single building fell down? Zilch! Nada! Zero! The Japanese knew that their country was on a seismic hotspot and over the last many years have built the world’s best and most well-thought out building codes. A robust system that understands the importance of smart design and preventative measures. In the end the only reason why millions of lives have been saved. If you compare it with the 2001 earthquake is Gujarat where over 500 buildings in Ahmedabad fell down like dominos.

What is the lesson we learn in management here? Preparation for the future is a pretty thankless job. You never know how important it is until you feel the need. It is like a helmet to a rider on a bike or an ABS to a driver in a car. You want to spend that extra money hoping you NEVER get to use it. So next time on your project when you are building a risk mitigation and someone comes around questioning the importance – you know what to answer!

2. Reporting:

A remarkable feature is that ALL the press coverage you had of the calamity were of the destruction, and how people are coping with it. There was NO, and I repeat NO visual of dead bodies, or interviews with wailing women who had lost their children.  It was almost a playback of a similar tragedy in 2001 during the World Trade Center attack in New York.  A sight that is glaringly uncommon in the Indian media. We are almost surrounded by a Peepli-isque situation where each small incident is heralded as “Breaking News”, and each channel jostles to interview the high school teacher of deceased! In fact none of the Japanese news channels speculated on the death toll, and all along only quoted the official government data.

The lesson on management is very simple.  Focus on what needs to be done, tell what needs to be said, and hear only what is important to be heard. If we practice this in our day to day work life, we would be far better than the corporate urchin – the chest-beating, politicking, rumor mongers who think the best way to the corner office is by speculation.

3. People behaviour:

Despite the explosions at Fukushima nuclear plant, and subsequent threats of a nuclear meltdown the people of Japan have been remarkably calm. There were no reports of looting anywhere. Infact the Japanese are not even overstocking – lest it leads to an artificial inflation/scarcity of supplies.
Television images showed disciplined queues for water and groceries.  A commendable achievement by a nation as a whole.  And this has nothing to do with Japan being a “first world country”. For a change I will not compare it with India but with the United States of America. Despite all the progress, when Katrina stuck New Orleans in 2005, there was widespread looting, violence, and other criminal activities.  The moment the rules don’t matter – people’s true self comes to fore.

The lesson here is about the difference between implementing rules, and adopting a culture. You can keep people on a tight leash, dictate the work clothing, mandate to report at 9am. You can do all this when you have the rules. But what happens when the rules don’t matter?  Do the people still care about their peers, about the rules, about the legalese, and more importantly – what matters to the company? This is the difference between having rules, and having a culture. Try the latter it is easier to implement – especially when there is an emergency.

Hope you enjoyed a non-MBA, non-GMAT blog entry this week! If you feel you agree/disagree feel free to comment on this blog to let me know, and share your views.