Required Competences for High Performance Salespeopleat at Japanese High-Tech Industrial Firms in Taiwan

Abstract

The business relationship between Taiwan and Japan is quite tight. For Taiwan, Japan is very important business partner today. Therefore, it is highly important to supply excellent human resources for Japanese firms to prove the attractiveness of Taiwan as an inventory country. In addition, as the industrial trend of Taiwan, the high-tech industry become one of the core and life line businesses so that a lot of Japanese high-tech industrial firms also has been started investing to Taiwan from 1990 till now continuously. As a result, it is urgently required to educate and provide Taiwanese who are able to fit working at Japanese high-tech firms in Taiwan. However, there are gaps between ideal employees whom the real business worlds are required and the average Taiwanese employees at the moment, especially in the position of sales. Therefore, this study inquired required competences working at Japanese high-tech industrial firms in Taiwan as salespeople in order to give useful data for Taiwanese higher educations which need to provide high performance human resources for the society and Japanese firms in Taiwan which need excellent Taiwanese salespeople to win their business. Human resource is one of the most important capitals both for the nation and the enterprises. In this study, the interviews with Japanese managers who are engaged in high-tech related business in Taiwan were conducted to analyze required competences based on the famous competence model set by Spencer& Spencer. As the result of the interview survey, it was revealed that highly required competences for salespeople at Japanese high-tech industrial firms in Taiwan were technical/ professional/ managerial experiences, analytical thinking, impact and influence, and flexibility. Main competences what Japanese managers feel the lack for average Taiwanese salespeople were self-control and organization commitment. Furthermore, it was revealed that required competences have been changed by the rapid globalization of Japan and Taiwan. Therefore, higher educations in Taiwan are required to educate students who can catch up with those new business streams to provide much more practical educations. And Japanese firms in Taiwan that depend on OJT would need to expand their training systems to survive in this shifting global economy.