TOKYO (Nikkei)--Businesses must change their structures and personnel training methods to keep up with technological advancements and make the most of people's abilities, business leaders and experts agreed Thursday at the Global Information Summit 2006 in Tokyo.
Organized by Nihon Keizai Shimbun Inc., the one-day event was held at the Tokyo International Forum under the theme of "'Digital Work Model' -- Transformation of Business Management and Work Styles with IT."
Teleworkers
The keynote speeches and panel discussions at the summit focused on new work styles and business management methods that utilize network technologies in view of the growing number of teleworkers who work from home in the U.S. and Europe.
"The number of workplaces offering home-working in the U.K. jumped from one in six to more than one in four between 1998 and 2004," BT Group Plc Chairman Christopher Bland said in his keynote speech.
"In BT, we now have more than 9,000 home-workers, nearly 10% of our work force. And many of our employees work flexibly -- partly at home, partly in the office. There is a further dimension to this trend which is of interest to any company that wants to help address the threat of climate change. The use of digital networking avoids the need for travel and reduces emissions of greenhouse gases."
Bland also said that these home-workers were happier and more productive.
Right balance
"The evidence is that they are less stressed, more fulfilled and more likely to collaborate well and more likely to produce high-quality work. Our research suggests that home workers are happier than office workers and take fewer days off sick."
KDDI Corp. President Tadashi Onodera said in his keynote speech that not only the government, but also businesses and individuals, must accelerate efforts to develop systems to allow people to work from home without feeling insecure.
"Since the labor pool is expected to continue shrinking, Japan also needs to develop the good work environment for teleworkers."
In a panel discussion on corporate social responsibility, NTT Data Corp. Senior Executive Vice President Toru Yamashita said that it was important for employers to strike the right balance between managing workers and giving them freedom in bringing changes to the office.
"It is important to respect individuals while maintaining the organizational integrity of the business," Yamashita said in the discussion, which also touched on the so-called free desk system, which leaves desks unassigned to particular workers, allowing anyone in the office to use any desk as required.
In another panel discussion, which was titled "How will business organization change with the digital work model," Masaaki Hirano, a professor of information management at Waseda University's Business School, encouraged business leaders to actively embrace organizational changes.
"Unless the company has a strong organization, it will be difficult for it to benefit from the introduction of information technologies."
(The Nihon Keizai Shimbun Friday, Feb.24, 2006, morning edition)
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