What I have learned in the trend of Globalization
“What I have learned in the trend of Globalization” -Essay for The Japan Bearing Industry Association Journal, Bearing (March 2021)- Tetsuya Sogo, CFO of NTN Corporation When I was 29 years old, I participated in the start-up of a new plant to manufacture HUB bearings for automobiles as a chief engineer in the suburbs of Chicago, USA. This was my first overseas assignment for seven and a half years from 1989 to 1996. Although we introduced the most advanced production equipment and technology of the time from Japan, we struggled in a situation where productivity was much lower than that of the mother factory in Japan. In my first overseas assignment, I faced problems such as low employee skills, high absenteeism and turnover rates. I wondered what the essential management problem was and what needed to be changed. I eventually learned how I could maximize the motivation of local human resources, as well as how to evaluate and treat them fairly, in other words, I real...