How Global Bridge Helps Clients Think, Act, and Succeed Globally
By Anthony Griffin
Global Bridge is one of the best-kept secrets in Japan’s corporate training industry. Edinburgh native Garry Pearson founded Global Bridge in 2012 to raise the bar for business English, executive coaching, and cross-cultural communication training in Japan. As an industry veteran who has had the pleasure of working with Garry over the years, I can attest to the level of excellence that he and his team have brought to this field.
With the recent launch of the Global Bridge LinkedIn Company Page, I thought this would be the perfect time to sit down with Garry for an interview and introduce Global Bridge to a wider audience. In this debut article, we take a deep dive into the services that Global Bridge provides and what separates the company from the competition.
Global Bridge Explained
Global Bridge provides a variety of services: business English, executive coaching, and cross-cultural communication training. Can you explain Global Bridge more concisely? What’s your elevator pitch?
We teach elevator pitches, but that doesn’t mean I’m great at doing them myself [laughs]. Our goal is to help business professionals succeed in global business. Being based in Japan, I have realized that the country has a lot of incredibly talented business people. But sometimes, in my experience, Japanese business people don’t always get the best results when they do business on the global scene. I believe the reason is communication.
For example, many years ago, I was doing some presentation coaching for an executive at a major Japanese manufacturer. I thought his presentation was exceptional. He was ready. Then he went to the US to deliver his presentation. It was followed by a Q&A session and some negotiation. When he came back to Japan, I asked him how everything went, and he said that it went terribly. I was shocked and asked him more about what had happened. Basically, he couldn’t really understand a lot of what was said, and he wasn’t ready for the more aggressive US business environment, even though his English itself was at a really high level. Ultimately, he was not well prepared for the situation because many unexpected things happened.
This is when I realized that the classroom and the real world are different. So, we try to be a bridge between these two environments, hence the name Global Bridge. We provide our clients with all of the tools that they need to adapt to whatever is happening in the real world. Language is definitely one part of the equation. If a client needs help with language, we will help them with that. But as most people in this industry know, language itself is not the only factor. Some would say it’s not even the most important one. It’s all about how people communicate. So we work on language and we work on communication. We help clients understand the cross-cultural aspects of communication.
So, if I have to give our elevator pitch, it would be something like this. Global Bridge provides customized training solutions to help business people communicate effectively in global business. Our solutions help our clients develop their language ability, enhance their communication skills and thrive in multicultural settings. After our training, our clients can communicate with more confidence and get better results when dealing with partners from around the world.
Bridging the Gap
There’s a lot of competition in this industry. What makes Global Bridge unique?
There are three areas in which I believe we successfully differentiate ourselves from the competition. First is how we structure our programs. A Global Bridge program is the combination of our trainers, original training materials, and platforms to meet the timing and budgetary needs of our clients. I can honestly say that, for our corporate clients, we have never sold the same training program twice. Just because a training program works for Company A doesn’t mean that the same program will work for Company B. Every company is different. We try to design the optimum program for each company.
We do that by going in and interviewing people. We interview the human resources personnel that engage with us, of course, and also they connect us with key frontline personnel to speak with. So we also interview potential students, and we try to grasp the actual situation in the company—what they need to accomplish and what they’re capable of doing at the moment. Using this information, we then do a gap analysis. We take the time to fully understand what a client wants, and then we design a program that will help the client achieve their goals in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible.
The second way that we’re different is our learning materials. We have a very experienced curriculum development team who create high-quality materials to suit the needs of our learners. This also includes customizing courses to suit particular clients. We cover language, communication, business, and cross-cultural communication. We combine these elements to develop effective materials. Currently most of our clients are based in Japan, so we develop content that is ideally suited for Japanese business people in particular.
Our trainers are the third way in which we differ from the competition. We hire the best possible trainers. We hire trainers that are motivated and have a genuine passion for teaching. Many of our teachers have graduate degrees in education. Many of them have years of business experience and MBAs. Others have experience working in a particular country around the world. I honestly feel that our trainers are among the best in the world. We’re picky about who we hire. Many people apply and want to work for Global Bridge, but we accept very few of them.
Who should get in touch or follow Global Bridge on LinkedIn?
We would love to hear from companies that are trying to globalize but are struggling with a communication barrier. Companies that are already global but still struggling to succeed should also get in touch. Communication skills could be the key to their success. Lastly, we also welcome individuals who are facing difficulties when working with international colleagues or in global business situations.
I would also recommend that companies follow our LinkedIn page. We are planning on sharing lots of useful resources that we believe will help any professional communicate with global partners. I’m sure even experienced business people will be able to learn a lot from our page.
If you would like to get in touch with Garry or learn more about Global Bridge, please contact support@globalbridge.co.jp or call 03-3518-2620.