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Tokyo, Japan
Ron McFarland has been working in Japan for over 40 years, and he's spent more than 30 of them in international sales, sales management training, and expanding sales worldwide. He's worked in or been to more than 80 countries. Over the most recent 17 years, Ron had established distributors in the United States and throughout Europe for a Tokyo-headquartered, Japanese hardware cutting tool manufacturer. More recently, he's begun giving seminars in English and Japanese to people interested in his overseas travels and expanding business overseas. You can find him on LinkedIn.
Authored Comments
Great article Lauri. I have seen many projects fall apart when the key "glue person" leaves the project and no one really replaces him/her with the same level of attention.
I've used mind-maps and Gantt charts to keep everyone's attention on where we are and where we want to go. Also, using them, I would ask a lot of questions to fill out the "task column" to add things to do. This has kept the project moving forward.
You're sure right. We need more of these project caring "glue people" to get things done.
After writing this article, I think that "Lie #2: the best plan wins" is not true. "The best front-line intelligence wins" is truer than ever before, with our global Covid-19 health crisis. No plan works well in this situation, because the spread of the decease is too fast and at different stages around the world. Getting accurate, real-time information on where and how much medical equipment, supplies and specialized expertise is more important. Where are they needed? How much is needed? Where are they available? How can they be supplied to where they can best be utilized? Knowing that will save lives.