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Up for the ChallengeMay, 2003 by Akiko Jackson, MBA '93 Akiko Jackson has straddled cultures since childhood, but she never expected to reengineer a Japanese bank while raising twins in two hemispheres.After several disappointing experiences, I had no intention of ever working in Japan again. But my parents live there, and I visited in June 2001 to show them my newly born twins. One thing led to another and now I am working for Shinsei Bank in Tokyo, the first bank ever in Japan to have non-Japanese major shareholders. I not only accepted an offer made by David Fite, MBA '90, but moved with my twins and nanny leaving my better half (Tim, MBA '93) alone in Sydney. Our life of two children, two careers and two houses in two countries most likely will be in its 18th month when you read this. Shinsei Bank used to be called the Long Term Credit Bank, a prestigious commercial bank focused on providing financial products to very top-end corporate customers. These customers respected LTCB bankers and, in the world of "arranged marriage," the guys at the bank benefited from the brand name. When the Japanese bubble economy burst, however, this bank, which was lending with very lousy credit standards and taking overpriced land as collateral, saw its financial performance tumble. The Japanese government nationalized the bank in 1998 and sold it two years later to a group of non-Japanese investors, with controlling interest going to the American investment group Ripplewood Holding. Since then, the new management has separated the bank into two business units, one focused on '"normal" credit customers and the other focused on those whose credit rating is "need caution" or below. The latter customers are handled by specialists who try to negotiate repayments on overdue loans and offer financial products such as debt-equity swaps to minimize our bank's financial burden. My responsibility as general manager of the Corporate Banking Group is to develop and quickly implement a new business model for the "good" bank, the one with virtually no bad debts. A few months after my arrival, we agreed to become a niche investment bank. To implement the strategy, however, we had to deal with a huge clash of cultures. Imagine a group of gray-haired Japanese businessmen who do not necessarily speak English and have been used to providing mainly lending facilities to customers who respected them. Put these gentlemen together with a group of young American investment bankers who do not necessarily speak Japanese, never worked in Japan, do not know Japanese customs, and do not have company loyalty. Ask them to work together marketing investment banking products to customers who have suffered financial losses from the earlier bank's collapse. Building trust is the necessary first step. This is not my first exposure to cultural clashes, but I am facing them with a different attitude this time. The reason I was initially adamant about not working in Japan is that I had my own difficulties fitting in here before. I was born in Japan, but my parents moved to New York for a few years when I was in kindergarten. When we returned to Japan, I was ostracized for being different—for speaking up in class, for sitting on the floor cross-legged, for questioning the reasons for rules rather than just following them. During my senior year in college, I was lucky enough to win an essay contest that sent me on a fellowship year in Canada. This was exhilarating. As I stepped off the plane, I felt a sense of freedom, knowing I could behave more like what I thought was natural. Later I was one of the first five women hired by a Japanese bank under the Equal Opportunity Act. It seemed like progress, but I was into my fifth year there when I found myself serving tea while trying to close a derivative deal with a CFO of a medium-sized company. I applied to the GSB, and when I was accepted, I felt my future was opening up to work outside of Japan and not for a Japanese company either. People still ask me, "How are you being treated as a woman?" To be honest, I am loving this job, the change, the creativity, and the people. My earlier experience in strategic management consulting and in corporate strategy for an Australian bank that was managing a turnaround has given me the confidence and skills necessary to do this job. In this world where many still judge a manager's performance by the number of hours spent in the office, my attitude of running out at 6:30 p.m. to be with my 2-year-old twins is certainly received as a surprise. This is a life of balancing. I work on the train to and from work; I read, if necessary, while I am taking a long bath after the twins are in bed. It also is critical to delegate work to team members as much as possible. Therefore, having the right team is the key to success, and I am still working on it. People also are curious about how Tim and I manage our family life from two countries. First, we managed a-year-and-a-half of long-distance relationship between New York and Sydney right after business school. We sent e-mails every day, called each other every weekend, and met somewhere every three months. It is similar this time, but with children, we feel it is critical for them to see their parents often and see them happy together. Tim visits here at least nine days every month. He usually takes the red-eye leaving Sydney on a Friday night and returns two Monday mornings later. It is an 8½ hour flight, and unfortunately the new Tokyo International Airport is three hours outside Tokyo, so he has become an expert on Tokyo land transportation. It is not the easiest life but I have support. My parents live in Tokyo, and a few of the expatriates working at the bank have their family members outside of Japan. If you have someone to talk with who is in the same situation, it is a lot easier. Tim and I are taking this a year at a time, which is how we started out our relationship. We agreed last September to try another year of our life of "twos." I suppose life has taught me that not everything worth doing can be planned. |
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Up
for the Challenge
