JAPAN TOPICS VIDEO
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Mr. Devadas Parakkal
Mr. Parakkal is Chief Executive Officer of a consulting firm ,DTWO Solutions, which he founded in 2005. He has over 20 years of experience in consulting and IT fields, with association across various geographies, including India, Japan, China, UK and the USA. In the last 17 years he has worked the Japanese market, holding middle-senior management positions at Tata Consultancy Services; iGATE Global Solutions; and BearingPoint. Starting in 1986 as a programmer at Tata Consultancy Services, the largest IT consulting firm in Asia, Mr. Parakkal moved up the ranks to finally become a resident representative for its Japan business. Later he started iGATE Global Solutions' operations, first in Japan and then in China. Before founding DTWO, he was Managing Director responsible for managed services business at Bearing Point Japan.
Q: What’s the main reason you remain here in Japan?
A: I suppose I like this country very much. I came here from India in 1990, and I’ve been here for fifteen, sixteen years. If you look at business conducted between India and Japan there is a problem because it hasn’t really grown, even though India is growing at a tremendous pace. There are a lot of opportunities for Japanese companies in India, and for some Indian companies in Japan, as well. If we can help with that process, that in itself is a huge business and I want to take part in helping Japanese companies with India, and Indian companies with Japan and the rest of the world.
Q: May I ask for some anecdotes from your experiences in Japan regarding the business customs of both countries?
A: We have had lots of interesting experiences that have taught us that showing your guts and sincerity is important in Japan. For example, there have been cases where, when I was working for a software company, we were supposed to deliver some software to the customer, and on a Friday evening we had a discussion where he says, “Your previous software has lots of bugs. What are you going to do about it?” Initially, I asked, “What would you like us to do?” “Make sure all the bugs are fixed, and I want it tomorrow,” he said. I said, “OK,” and he said, “What? You will give it to me tomorrow? So, you are not going to test?”
Q: He means, you should take a few more days…
A: Yes, that’s right. The next time, next weekend, we had a similar problem, in fact the same problem, and he asked, “Are you going to deliver it tomorrow?”, I said, “No, I cannot deliver it tomorrow,” and then he got upset again. “I am asking you to deliver it tomorrow, why aren’t you delivering it tomorrow?” So, I realized that the point is not whether I would deliver it or not. If I just say “Gambarimasu! (I’ll do my best.)”, that is good enough. And he wants to know whether you are going to work hard, and whether you are really sorry for any mistakes.
Q: So, you have learned from experience that apologies are always necessary. And do you always feel like that?
A: One main difference is, in the West and also in India we do the same thing; when there is a problem, you try to explain the problem to the customer. In Japan, they don’t want to hear about it. They only want the apologies. Then, later on, when we are having a drink or something, you then explain the problem. But at the end of the day, whether you look at the company as a good company or a bad company is based on how well you can handle a problem, not just avoid a problem.
Q: You speak very fluent Japanese. How did you master it?
A: The challenge with Japanese is obviously the reading and writing part of it, not so much the speaking part. The speaking part is just like any other language. If you go there, if you spend some time, if you start interacting with people…as long as you’re not embarrassed to sort of say things and make mistakes and learn from it you should be able to pick up the language.
I took some ten classes or fifteen classes in India before I came here, at which point I had close to zero knowledge of Japanese. But I picked it up on the job. And when I had to go out and make presentations in Japanese for my business that’s where I had to learn, I had to make mistakes, I had to learn from it. Making mistakes didn’t stop me from going forward.
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