Managers of the World Losing Face to a Fictional High School Girl: もしドラ

As promised in the last post here's the translation of  Naojirou Masaoka's article about the もしドラ novel by Natsumi Iwasaki. His article is titled 高校野球女子マネジャーにも劣る経営者たち (Managers Losing to a High School Baseball Club Manageress), and in it he talks about his recent perusal of the popular novel about a girl who becomes the manager of her high school baseball team and ends up picking up Drucker's book to educate herself about her new position. Masaoka didn't have a very high opinion of the novel in a literary sense, but he found that the protagonist Minami's approach to Drucker's complicated work, "Management," was worthy of a second-look. This is just a small excerpt from the first page, but he finishes his article with this line: 「世の経営者よ、「もしドラ」を読んでみようではないか。いや、P. F. ドラッカーの『マネジメント』そのものを「みなみ」のごとく熟読し、理解して実行に移してはどうだろう。」 (Managers of the world,  try reading "MoshiDora." Or rather, how about carefully reading, understanding and implementing P.F. Drucker's "Management"  as if you were Minami?)

Even if we discount the too-perfect aspects and the forced logic of the story, there are more than a few things that we can learn from this high school girl. However, in regards to the learning points which I point out here, and the evaluation of this increasingly popular novel, my opinions are completely different.

1. The protagonist Minami Kawashima reads the part in which Drucker explains that "Mangers require only one quality, which is not ability, but earnestness" and ponders the meaning of "earnestness" until she comes to an answer. In this world, how many managers are there who have thought so thoroughly?
2. When Minami is lost, she comes to believe that she must return to "Management." Again, how many managers have been so diligent as to return to their starting point, reflect on themselves, and try to find a solution?
3. And, when give thought to the fact that we must fully interpret the content to put it into practice, the truth is that Drucker's book, "Management" is not necessarily easy to understand.

If we look at Drucker's assertions as a whole, we assume, as per his definition, that "management" is to guide the enterprise and decide its mission; in addition, to establish objectives,organize resources, and take responsibility for its success.

Drucker also raises three points for management duties.The first is to accomplish the objective and mission peculiar to the organization, the second is to work productively to bear results, and the third is to carry out social duties. Further, if a business' objectives are the creation of the client, Drucker offers marketing and innovation as the function by which those objectives can be achieved. We can define marketing as 'starting from the client' and innovation as 'bringing forth a new contentment.'

Incidentally, what is the relationship between function, objectives, goals, missions, and business guidelines? Or the relationship between the definition and function of management? The further we read the more difficult it becomes to understand the context of Drucker's assertion, and we are unable to grasp the technique necessary to put it all into effect. But Minami clearly explains the almost incomprehensible, nearly unimplementable contents of "Management," simplifies them to their barest, and beautifully puts them into effect. 

Let's compare the things which Minami explains and implements with the actual state of the world's managers...

Masamuneさん, like Minami and Masaoka Naojirou, believes Drucker's book is a good resource. Two pieces of advice, specifically, which Masamuneさん mentioned having read in "Management" made a good deal of sense, so I thought I'd share them here. These are paraphrases from my notes and from my conversation with Masamuneさん, not actual quotes from the book.

1. 資源と限界をわからないといかない。

Know your resources and your limits. 

2. 将来の成果のために、今日の計画を立てる。

Make a plan for today for the sake of your future success/results.

The second especially seems like an all-around good piece of advice. Like I said last post, I am a notorious 計画倒れ. Instead of making plans which always are set to start tomorrow, make them for today (to defeat the procrastination monster). If you're interested in more 名言 (wise sayings) from Drucker, try the following video. Japanese practice and more!

もしドラ: P.F. Drucker's "Management"

The other day I was talking to Masamuneさん about management - not necessarily management of a business, but of oneself. How do you manage your time and goals? How productive are you? It was a particularly relevant discussion because I had just erected another plan for my Japanese Study, my Diet, and my Exercise routines. For each of these I had numerous plans-of-action drawn up, all of which were viciously and savagely beat about the face and other sensitive areas by a tag team of Procrastination and Lassitude. I am a 計画倒れ - someone who makes plans but doesn't follow through with them. Half the time I never even start due to 先延ばし (procrastination).

Masamuneさん brought up the topic of management because he's recently been reading a book called 『マネジメント』. "Management" is written by P.F. Drucker - the "creator and inventor of modern management"  - who worked with the likes of both major companies such as Coca-Cola, and (when he got sick of seeing executives rake in the bucks while they laid-off their workers) non-profits such as The American Red Cross. If you'd like to know a bit more about his life and impact on management, check out this article at Bloomberg Businessweek, which was published shortly after his death. For more about his life, try this biography.

Drucker created a presence far outside the United States, of which the Vienna-born management consultant was a naturalized citizen; he became quite popular in Japan, receiving honors from the government, working with Japanese companies, and even co-authoring a book on Japanese art. Many of his books on management, business, 'social ecology', etc were translated into Japanese . 『マネジメント』 was published in Japanese back in 1974, and periodically republished since then, but the big Drucker Boom hit just recently. Why, do you ask?

Why, because it was referenced in a 2009 novel by a former super-popular-girl-group AKB48 assistant producer, Natsumi Iwasaki, which subsequently became a NHK anime series in March, and then a movie in June, of course!

Titled 「もし高校野球の女子マネージャーがドラッカーの『マネジメント』を読んだら」 ("What if a high school baseball club's girl manager read 'Management' by Drucker?") or もしドラ, for short, the anime featured the voice-talent of AKB48 members: Youko Hikasa, who voices protagonist Minami Kawashima and Sayaka Nakaya, voice actress for the character Ayano Houjou (younger friend of protagonist). The movie also has AKB48 members, Atsuko Maeda as Minami, and Minami Minegishi, as Ayano.

Now, maybe it's just me, but when I see a movie with girl/boy band members in it, I with my personal bias automatically think "this movie is fan service for teenage girls (and possibly some older dudes, not judging or anything) so I'm probably not interested." You can't really say that just because popular singers are in it, it won't be something high-quality or enjoyable or well-acted, though, and I don't know much about AKB48 outside of 会いたかった so I'll give it a chance when I get around to watching the movie.

Related to the quality of the story and returning to the management bit: on IT Media I found an interesting article in Japanese about the book by 増岡直二郎 (Masaoka Naojirou), published last year before the anime and movie came out. Here's an excerpt in its natural Japanese:

できすぎで、こじつけ染みたストーリーであることを割り引いても、この女子高校生マネージャーから学ぶことが少なくない。ただ、ここで指摘する学ぶこととは、今盛んになされているこの小説に対する評価とは、視点がまったく違う。

1. 主人公「川島みなみ」が、ドラッカーの説く「マネージャーの資質は一つだけ、才能ではない、真摯さだ」いう部分を読んで、最後の最後まで「真摯さとは何か」を考え続ける。世に、そこまで考え抜くことをする経営者はどれほどいるだろうか
2. みなみは迷うと、『マネジメント』に帰るという信念を持つに到る。そこまで忠実に原点に帰って、己を反省し、解決策を探ろうとする経営者は、これまたどれほどいるか
3. そして、実はドラッカーの著書『マネジメント』は、内容を充分解釈して実行することを念頭に置くと、理解することは必ずしもやさしくはない

ドラッカーの主張を一部挙げてみると、マネジメントの定義について、マネジメントとは企業の方向付けを行い、ミッションを決め、その上で目標を定めて資源を動員し、成果に責任を持つことであるとする。
そして、マネジメントの役割として3点を挙げている。1つは組織に特有の目的とミッションを果たすこと、2つに仕事を生産的にし、成果を挙げさせ ること、3つに社会的責任を全うすることである。さらに企業の目的を顧客の創造だとし、その目的を達成するための機能として、マーケティングとイノベー ションを挙げる。マーケティングとは顧客からスタートすること、イノベーションとは新しい満足を生み出すことである、とする。

みなみが解釈して実行に移したことと、世の経営者の実態とを比較してみよう・・・」

I'll put up a translation and add a bit more about what I learned from Masamuneさん about Drucker tomorrow.

Translating (a bit) on the Fly

Recently I've been looking for a short story to translate. I'm not sure I really have any criteria outside 'interesting', and I'm not that well-versed in Japanese authors outside the famous ones that have already been translated. The other day I went to the library and just picked out a few that seemed promising. The story I've settled on reading so far is called "Not Only Bread", by Meisei Gotou (｢パンのみに非ず」、後藤明生). He's been translated into English ("Shot By Both Sides") before, but this collection isn't.

While his sentences don't seem terribly difficult, and there isn't a ridiculous amount of kanji for me to trip over, he does have some long sentences, kind of as if someone was talking to you or writing in stream of conscious, so I'm a little worried as to whether or not I can get the right tone. It's pretty humorous, as far as I can tell; it's the story of a guard at at a weight-loss center on the top of a mountain. I say weight-loss center, but the Japanese is 断食道場, which I suppose is literally 'fasting place'. Googling a bit it seems more like what we'd call a health and wellness center, or something, so that might be the better term, since I'm not sure if the people there have weight-loss in mind when they come to fast. I've only really translated the first page, and I'm not very happy with it. I'm going to read far ahead with as little dictionary interruption as possible, and then try to go at it again.

If you're looking for something Japanese to read, Shinichi Hoshi's stuff is fun. The sentences are straightforward, so I've been reading him in between other more difficult things; otherwise I run away to English books (or worse, the internet), and get no studying done at all. Here's a bit I did from おかしな青年. I translated it on the fly, so I'm sure there are things that aren't quite right, but I'll only put up enough to make you want to read it yourselves. Shinichi Hoshi does have a collection published in translation, so if you think you're reading skills aren't up to snuff, you may be able to find it in English (with a less clunky opening than my own).

***

"The Strange Young Man", Shinichi Hoshi

There was a large hospital. In this general hospital, with both internal medicine and surgical departments, there was also quite a substantial amount of medical examination equipment. The receptionist, wearing a troubled expression, came to the manager with some news.

“Actually, there's a strange person here, and he won't leave.”

“Is he sick?”


“He doesn't look sick, but he must be.”


“What's strange about him?”

“He's mumbling nonsense.”


“Now I'm interested. Lately all we've had is cut-and-dry cases. The consistency gets tedious. Let's have a look at him then. Bring him in.”


“Yes...”


The woman returned with the young man, and had him sit in a chair. “It's this person here.”


“I see. Well then, please get on your with work...” The manager began to talk to the young man. “Well then, what seems to be the trouble?”