Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College

Tohoku Relief: a Business School Perspective

Hiro Takeuchi Professor of Management Practice

Harvard Business School

November 18, 2011 The Fletcher School

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Innovating for Relief: Organizational Strategy Post-Disaster January 3-13, 2012

•  Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital

•  Yamato Transport

•  Lawson

•  Fast Retailing (Uniqlo)

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Japan IXP Case Studies

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Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital

- On March 11th, the great earthquake and Tsunami destroyed the first floor of Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital, where its reception, pharmaceuticals, and over 30 patients were located. All the patients were safely evacuate to higher floors.

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Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital

- The hospital staff and volunteers cleaned up the destroyed offices and patient rooms as soon as possible after the disaster. It was the first hospital to reopen in the region due to their prompt actions.

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Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital

- All the patients were moved to the top floor and taken care of by doctors and nurses who stayed at the hospital 24 hours a day with limited supplies of water, electricity, and medicine. The Tokyo headquarters soon dispatched critical supplies and relief personnel to help.

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Ishinomaki Kouwan Hospital

- Because of the Tsunami, tremendous amount of debris had to be cleaned up. A lot of internal and external staff supported the hospital for the accelerated reopening of its operation.

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Yamato Transport

- Yamato Transport, Japan’s leading express delivery company, first started its delivery service in the devastated area. The picture is the first vehicle of Yamato, and the first commercial delivery vehicle, which entered the devastated region to deliver relief supplies.

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Yamato Transport

- Yamato had specialized vehicles with capacity of accessing the disaster regions, including trucks with caterpillar tracks and specialized motorbikes. The company provided several hundreds of vehicles and personnel for disaster relief and humanitarian assistance efforts.

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Yamato Transport

- Yamato’s capability of logistics and distribution showed a great efficiency in cooperation with governmental bodies. In its operation, Yamato oversaw Self Defense Force and some local governments for conducting delivery services in disaster areas.

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Yamato Transport

- Yamato’s delivery drivers knew the community very well and took mental notes of where evacuees relocated after the earthquake. They knew the specific locations of evacuees and the local situation on the ground which assisted in government relief efforts.

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Yamato Transport

- Yamato’s employees volunteered for distribution of materials to the disaster regions with their expertise of delivery services.

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Lawson

- Lawson is one of the leading convenience store chains in Japan. Several Lawson stores were damaged or totally destroyed due to the earthquake and Tsunami.

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Lawson

- However, due to the request from the local community, Lawson was the first convenience store to reopen in the disaster region.

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Lawson

- Lawson was able to innovate to bypass normal requirements for food packaging to greatly accelerate food production and distribution in the disaster region. For example, it created “Onigiri”s, or rice balls, with no official packaging so that they could be delivered to people who needed food as soon as possible.

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Lawson

- The picture is “Sauce Katsu-Don”, or fried pork rice bowl, originally invented in Aizu, Fukushima, one of the disaster regions. Lawson prepared unique marketing and production to meet consumers’ needs in the region.

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Lawson

- Mr. Niinami, CEO of Lawson, visited the region and understood that Lawson needed to help in whatever way they could. Lawson decided to support the disaster region without concern for profits.

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Uniqlo

- On March 14th, the CSR dept decided to send clothing aid to affected regions and set up in-store boxes. Surveys were made on regional warehouses which revealed that 800,000 articles of clothing could be readied for distribution, which were then boxed and distributed starting on March 18th.

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Uniqlo

- Since transportation was down in the region, CSR members, and employees volunteered to deliver some of the clothing themselves as well as locally pouring logistics.

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Uniqlo

- Employees were surprised by how orderly the people were in receiving their clothing as well as the fact that a lot of the survivors offered to help as well.

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Uniqlo

- Some of the survivors were also apologizing for the fact that they had to come all the way from Tokyo.

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Uniqlo

- They took care to give clothing in the "Uniqlo" shopping bags since they realized that it gave the survivors a sense of comfort and integrity as well as a feeling of joy almost similar to that of "shopping".

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Uniqlo

- In the beginning, focus was placed on heat tech clothing. However, along the way, Uniqlo realized that people were in need of even more basic needs such as underwear and socks, so adjustments were made along the way, making use of local feedback.

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