"Lot of teamwork and little room for privacy"

Where I was born and what I am today symbolises the change that the world has undergone in the last 63 years of my life. I grew up in Gwalior, studied Sanskrit and finished engineering in 1969. A chance trip to Mumbai opened up a new world. It took me to Crompton Greaves and L&T, then Citibank and finally Shinsei Bank.

I have worked in more than 15 cities in virtually every part of the world over the four decade career span. From a young boy who didn’t know what a computer was, today I am the CIO [chief information officer] of Tokyo-headquartered Shinsei Bank. I helped Shinsei Bank script its comeback using Internet and low-cost technology, including the creation of a new retail bank that offers free 24-hour ATMs and a host of other tech-led benefits, a rarity in Japan then [in 2000].

In a conventional sense, I do not live in Tokyo and I mostly manage things virtually. I have lived in Tokyo with my family at two different points in time — 1990-94 and 2000-05. Now, I spend an average of seven days a month in the city.

Tokyo is perhaps the most advanced place on Earth and I say it after living in and seeing many cities. Everything seems perfect and works like clockwork. Streets and lights are perfectly painted and clean. It is a land-scarce city where every available inch has been developed. You can’t buy a car unless you get a certificate from the police proving you have a parking space. And parking is expensive — $6 an hour.

While Japan is an expensive place, it is also highly efficient and there is a high value placed on quality. There is an emphasis on recycling which I think reflects the severity of the natural environment — it is a country prone to earthquakes, typhoons and tsunami. Organisational efficiency, parsimony and a dedication to quality all contribute to a high standard of living.

When I first moved here from Zurich, Switzerland, in December 1989, Japan was in the middle of a big economic bubble. In Zurich, I lived in a very beautiful apartment in the mountains in a city that had perhaps 350,000 people. Then I moved to Tokyo, a massive, expensive city with over 10 million people. For my two daughters, moving from Europe, the culture shock was dramatic. In Zurich, school was barely 20 minutes away. In Tokyo, the commute was long, 75 minutes by bus, and if you missed the bus, you missed school. In the first week in class they struggled, rather than outdoor or cultural activities, the emphasis was on maths and grammar.

Japan is a society which values discipline and organisation. You have to do everything yourself, even the kids. For example, we weren’t allowed to drop our children to school. Children from the neighbourhood congregated and then went to the train station unescorted. For this to be possible there have to be good traffic and law and order conditions and Japanese pay attention to create that environment. My daughters would often leave their rucksacks on the train. Yet, without fail, the rucksacks would be handed in and make their way to the lost-and-found centre in the station.

Language was a problem but we are used to it, having lived and worked in so many cities speaking different languages. In Europe, I was doing business with countries outside London in so many languages. So, while I can manage a bit of German and Arabic, and speak enough Japanese to get by, when it comes to business, for me it must always be done in English through interpreters.

In terms of work, Japan is a world apart from Europe. In Switzerland, for example, no one worked after 6 p.m. and after 11 p.m. you had to get permission from the police. But in Japan, it’s not uncommon for people to work regularly until 9 p.m. The work culture here is very different. There is a lot of team work and little room for privacy. For example, in the office, team members and supervisors sit opposite each other and there is no partition in between. So, supervisors and team members will always know what the other is doing.

In Japan, a one or two hour commute by train is normal. Late in the evening, the train frequency drops from every two minutes to every 30 minutes. So, the custom is that you work in the office and meet colleagues socially outside the office over a glass of beer; people don’t go to each other’s house. In India, you will find street corners like chai-paan shops where people congregate and chat. In Japan, you will never find that — there is emphasis on meeting people in the right context. I think Japanese typically have a long-term perspective for virtually everything — even in relationships.

Rules to work and survive in Tokyo? The key, wherever you are, is to focus on the people. Switzerland, the US, Japan — all are radically different places. If you focus on people, however, deep inside, they are the same, with similar fears and similar aspirations. Once you understand that, you can learn to live, do business and make personal connections anywhere in the world. That’s something I think my family and I have learnt. At my elder daughter’s wedding, which we held in Albany, New York, a great number of the guests had travelled all the way from Switzerland and Japan to be there.

Over the last four decades, every few years we have packed our bags to move to a new city — from Lebanon to Zurich to Tokyo. How do you make yourself relevant is the first question I ask myself. I am aware that I am always going to be a foreigner, an outsider, and accepting that fact helps me adjust and make myself relevant wherever I am. Also, one ground rule — don’t feel shy about asking questions, especially when you don’t know the language. It’s OK to ask. People understand.

(Dhananjaya Dvivedi is chief information officer, Shinsei Bank)
(As told to Malini Goyal)