HIDAJournal 2012 SPRING No.2

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HIDA Journal No. 2 ● SPRING 201312HIDA has a mission of realizing a world of “Co-Existence and Growing Together” through human resource development. To realize this mission, we implement assistance for Asia, as well as Africa, and Central and South America in the area of industrial human resource development. Our specific assistance includes the planning and implementation of management training programs targeting these regions. We will report on the Program on Corporate Management for Africa (AFCM) in this edition of HIDA Journal. AFCM has been designed to enhance the management capability of executives and senior managers working for private companies in Africa. The last AFCM was held at HIDA Tokyo Kenshu Center between November 5 and November 14 in 2012. The applications were accepted through the AOTS alumni societies located in 10 African nations and a total of 18 executives/managers, including 8 Sudanese, 5 Ghanaian, 3 Tanzanian, 1 Ethiopian, and 1 Kenyan, participated.HIDA’s training programs in Japan are divided into two categories. One type of training is designed to invite engineers working for companies in developing countries to Japan and enable them to acquire specific skills in manufacturing and other areas. The other is designed to bring managers to Japan and train them on such areas as Japan’s corporate and factory management, environmental technology, industrial infrastructure, and other topics. The former is the technical training utilized by Japanese corporations expanding their business overseas, who invite engineers working for their investee companies, technical tie-up partners, or distributers to Japan and let them acquire specific skills through the specialized technical training on their premises. Thus, most trainees participating in the technical training are from Asian countries where many Japanese companies have expanded their operations. The latter is the management training, which is composed of lectures offered at a HIDA Training Center and on-site visits. This training does not require specialized technical training at a Japanese company, and participation from all companies is accepted, both Japanese and local overseas entities, as long as they meet the criteria set for each course. Thus, this training accepts participants from Africa and Central and South America, where few Japanese companies have made inroads.Africa is blessed with abundant natural resources, but most countries in Africa are least developed countries, making Africa the poorest region in the world. Besides mining, the continent’s largest industry is agriculture, with other industries not yet fully developed. Most companies are very small businesses except for a few large corporations. They are facing difficulties in expanding their business, with their productivity limited and their competitiveness constrained in the global market. HIDA has developed AFCM as a management training program to enable such African companies to make a breakthrough and take their first steps towards resolving these issues.The first thing African companies need is improved productivity. However, they cannot afford to incur extra costs for that. It is in this situation that “kaizen (improvement)”—the essence of Japanese-style management—comes into play. “Kaizen” enables these companies to improve their operations using wisdom rather than money and eliminate waste in the production site to the maximum extent so that they can enhance their productivity while minimizing costs. Based on this principle, AFCM focuses on enabling participants to understand kaizen activities and their backgrounds as well as to recognize their necessity on their own, which prompts them to start their kaizen activities as they return home. This means that the participants get to understand the significance and validity of the underlying 5S and then learn to implement them in real-world situations. They also study how Japanese corporations have actually realized kaizen through case studies to find what their company lacks or is not good at. Our curriculum has been created to achieve this objective (see the training schedule for AFCM below).As described above, many private African companies do not have sufficient resources to send their employees overseas for training. Thus, AFCM not only gives direct training to executives and senior managers of private companies but also assists government-affiliated companies that lead and guide private companies in consideration of their influence on those private companies. In fact, 8 participants out of the total 18 participating in the last AFCM represented government-affiliated companies.The participants worked very hard on each program. On the final day, they highlighted some issues they faced within their own companies and gave group presentations on action plans resolving Final presentationThe Program on Corporate Management for Africa (AFCM)Human Resource Development Assistance for AfricaDateAMPMNovember 5 (Mon)Orientation and opening ceremonyLecture: Japan’s corporate philosophy and strategyNovember 6 (Tue)Lecture: Financial managementNovember 7 (Wed)Lecture: Production managementNovember 8 (Thu)Lecture: Human resource developmentNovember 9 (Fri)Lecture: Marketing strategyNovember 10 (Sat)Day-offNovember 11 (Sun)Day-offNovember 12 (Mon)MoveOn-site visit: Case study on corporate philosophyNovember 13 (Tue)On-site visit: Case study on workplace improvementOn-site visit: Case study on human resource developmentNovember 14 (Wed)Final presentationClosing ceremonyTraining schedule for “the Program on Corporate Management for Africa”

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