Canon boss boosts revenue with passion

People experience the Canon photographic equipment at the 22nd Shanghai International Wedding Photography Equipment Exhibition in the Shanghai Expo Exhibition And Convention Center on July 5, 2012. [Photo/China Daily]

Open-minded and humorous, Ozawa runs China business in his unique style

Shuichi Watanabe never imagined that the farewell gifts from his Tokyo colleagues would be simply a large quantity of red ties. He "blamed" his new boss - Hideki Ozawa, president of Canon (China) Co Ltd.

Q+A: Hideki Ozawa

"Ozawa is very famous in Canon, even among people who have never met him, because of his Passion Monday campaign," said Canon China Senior Vice-President Watanabe, who was sent to China from Tokyo a few months ago to work with Ozawa.

Passion Monday is a company rule requiring Canon's male employees to wear red ties and female employees to wear a red accessory. The rule is unique to Canon offices in Hong Kong and in the Chinese mainland, and is credited with being behind the increase in the company's sales revenue, which skyrocketed in two sectors after Ozawa established it.

"Mondays always make people lazy, but to a sales-driven company, Monday is a very important day," Ozawa told China Daily. "So I came up with the morale-boosting idea 13 years ago when I was in Hong Kong."

In 1999, Ozawa was sent to Hong Kong amid the Asian financial crisis to be the company's regional vice-president. While there, he noticed that Hong Kong politicians often wear red ties on important occasions and came up with the idea of Passion Monday to inspire employees to increase sales and seek business opportunities.

"It worked very well so I brought it to Singapore and to the Chinese mainland later," said Ozawa. "Although we were in poorly performing markets then, the color red not only cheered me up, but also my employees."

When he was first appointed Canon's China president seven years ago, the country's relations with Japan were tense. Ozawa wondered: "How would it be possible to sell our products in a market that dislikes Japan?"

To promote a positive perception of Canon, he implemented a new company policy stating that Canon's sales would help fund social activities to benefit local communities.

"Regardless of whether our customers like Japan or not, my goal is that they love Canon and me," he said.

For an overseas company, understanding the local culture and customers is not easy. Ozawa immediately started learning Chinese once he arrived in the country.

"Ozawa isn't like regular Japanese bosses. He is very Westernized and has a good sense of humor," said Lu Jie, assistant director of the Canon (China) Corporate Communications Division. A veteran employee of Canon in China, Lu said that Ozawa is the only one - among the Japanese senior managers she had worked with - who uses Chinese to tell jokes and greet people.

Lu said Ozawa is always in a good mood and is passionate about his job. Ozawa's office door is always open and any of his employees are welcome any time.

Ozawa also has many toys and drawings in his office, making it seem almost too cozy for a CEO's workspace.

"I love my stuffed tiger toy," he said as he held it in his arms while sitting on a cartoon cushion. "I want to give my employees a relaxing and comfortable environment when they come into my office," he said.

"In Tokyo, Canon bosses are, like most Japanese, more serious, but Canon China's culture is very open," said Watanabe.