Thursday, January 16, 2014

De-Macaulayization - 2

This is from Japan, so strictly speaking, this isn't de-Macaulayization.   Masayoshi Son, chairman and CEO of SoftBank (SoftBank recently acquired the telco Sprint) wrote as follows:

For context, this excerpt:
After acquiring Sprint, I delivered a speech urging all employees and managers at the company to join forces with our Japanese unit and work as a single entity.

     I made the speech because I did not want to repeat the mistakes I had made running previously acquired companies in the U.S. When I took over the company that runs Comdex (Computer Dealer's Exhibition) and U.S. publisher Ziff Davis, I allowed American executives to run them at their discretion. This decision was based on my belief that Japanese owners should not interfere too much with the U.S. executives' business management. That belief was wrong.

     By leaving American executives to their own devices, I was acting as an investor and not as a business leader. This hands-off approach would never enable me to reform management of companies I acquire overseas. It doesn't matter how well a company is run, there is always room for improvement. A hands-on approach allows me to make profitable businesses more profitable.
 For the de-Macaulayization, this:
     A Japanese SoftBank executive recently made a presentation in English in Silicon Valley. His spoken English was terrible, but who cares? He was able to make himself understood. In the past, I would probably have told Japanese executives at SoftBank to focus on Japanese operations if their English was not at a high level. Not anymore.

PS: there is an old desi joke (that sounds better in Hindi), Banta Singh from an Indian village visits England and comes back very enthused - England is a really advanced country, even the children speak English!  Crudely speaking, de-Macaulayization is the shedding of that attitude.

Comments (6)

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Almost two hundred years down the pike, and still fighting Macaulay's ghost.

Guys who can plunk down a billion bucks can speak any language they like - but lots of others need
to worry about how, and what, they speak.
1 reply · active 585 weeks ago
1. Yes, decolonization is a hard thing to do.
2. Not just Birla, but his Rajasthani accountant from his home town, can speak any language they like.
...decolonization is a hard thing to do.

I think you had better say impossible. What's done is done, and cannot be undone. The world will change, and might even speak
Chinese of Hindi sometime in the future, but it will bear the indelible stamp of the past in one fashion or another.

I think what you really mean is that Birla can speak what he likes, and his accountant can speak whatever Birla approves of.
1 reply · active 585 weeks ago
I don't think you have a clue as to what I'm talking about. Doesn't matter, it takes a while, even some life experience, in order to grasp it.
The Gardener's avatar

The Gardener · 585 weeks ago

You are correct; decolonization is a hard thing to do. Many people in India mix English words while speaking the local languages. TV anchors try to show that they are smart by speaking local languages interspersed with a large number of English words.

Good joke: even the children in England speak English!
1 reply · active 585 weeks ago
बच्चे-बच्चे अंग्रेजी बोलते हैं!

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