Wait, are we really going to run a system in Japan that was developed by a team that isn’t even in Japan?

At the time, I was involved in a project to introduce a financial system.

The main development center for that system was, surprisingly, London.

“We’re going to bring a system developed in London to Japan and use it here.”

Today, we can easily connect with members around the world through online meetings and chat. But back then, online meetings were not nearly as commonplace as they are today.

So how did we actually move the project forward?

There Were Only Two Points of Contact in Japan

When someone in Japan had a question about the system, they did not contact the developers in London directly.

First, they contacted the two people responsible for the system in Japan.

“What are the specifications for this function?”

“Under what conditions is this data processed?”

“What is causing this error?”

The questions were entered into a list.

The Japanese representatives reviewed the questions and answered anything they could handle themselves.

Of course, they did not know everything.

That was when London came into the picture.

If We Didn’t Know, We Asked London

If even the Japanese representatives did not know the answer, the question was sent to the London team.

“Please confirm this specification.”

“Is this behavior expected?”

After some time, an answer would come back from London.

The Japanese representatives would organize the response and send it back to the person who had originally asked the question.

Looking back, it was a very simple mechanism.

Person asking the question → Japanese representative → London → Japanese representative → Person asking the question

It was truly global development conducted through people.

And Sometimes, People Came All the Way From London

Of course, not everything could be resolved through email and phone calls.

At important stages of the project, several people would travel from London to Japan.

They would meet face-to-face to confirm specifications.

They would discuss issues while looking at the screens together.

They would learn about the business operations in Japan.

Basically, the Japanese side handled what was needed for Japan, while relying on the London team only where necessary.

It is also possible that the London system was further outsourced to development teams in places such as India or Poland. I do not know whether that was actually the case at the time.

But what mattered was not simply “where” or “who” was developing the system.

The real question was how to connect knowledge from around the world and turn it into something that could work in Japan.

That was the key.

Global Development Is About “How You Connect,” Not Where You Are

This experience taught me one important lesson.

Just because a system is from overseas does not mean it cannot be used in Japan.

Even if it was developed in London, we could establish a system for handling inquiries on the Japanese side, collect the necessary information, ask the headquarters or development center about anything we did not understand, and then adapt the system to Japanese business operations.

That alone was enough to keep the project moving.

And that was not the end of the story.

Rather than simply introducing an existing system, we could think about what kind of new business we could create in Japan using that system.

System implementation is not simply about “transplanting an overseas product.”

It is about connecting global knowledge to Japan and creating new value from the Japanese business front line.

Today, we have online meetings, chat, cloud platforms, and AI.

The world is much closer than it was back then.

That means we should be able to do even more interesting things today.

“It’s from London, so it’s impossible.”

“No, it’s difficult because it’s overseas.”

Neither is necessarily true.

What matters is how we connect people, systems, and knowledge.

That is where new business begins.

I can do it! I’ll take the first step tomorrow.