The Soft Pitch

When Avnet first heard about the devastation in Japan, our first thoughts were for our 400 plus colleagues.

 Avnet has an Emergency Response Team consisting of our security, travel, real estate, HR, IT, customer service and our logistics teams that communicate and support all employees and issues facing our company due to nature’s impact like Katrina, volcanic eruption that impacted Europe, China’s earthquake a few years ago and Sept 11^th. Their first efforts are on behalf of employees…then supporting our business partners. We are in contact globally within minutes of problems. In my previous blog I noted a way you could help donate money and Avnet would match it…now

The following article was submitted by Bob Hackett who use to work for me until promoted to Director of Marketing Communications in Japan. He has lived in Toyko approx. 5 years. This is Bob’s firsthand account…”

Aftershock

An 8.9 magnitude earthquake struck Japanat 2:46 pm local time on Friday, March 11, 2011. The epicenter was in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of northern Japan near Miyagi prefecture. The ensuing tsunami killed thousands of people and destroyed many communities after Japan’s most powerful recorded earthquake slammed into the eastern coast.

The day started out as a typical Friday. I was looking forward to a swim after work and then a weekend of relaxation. I was on the 11^thfloor of the Avnet Japan HQ in Sphere Tower on Tennozu Isle. Avnet Japan also occupies half of the 12^th floor. The island is man-made and encroaches into Tokyo bay. As usual, about half of the senior management and sales people were out of the office visiting customers or suppliers or in meeting rooms outside our secured office space.

For anyone who has spent any time in a location where earthquakes occur frequently, you’re probably familiar with that queasy, butterflies-in-your-stomach type of feeling you get just before the conscious part of your brain understands what’s happening. Well, I got that feeling. My first thought was, did I eat some bad sushi today? No, that’s pretty impossible in Japan because of their quality standards. So I asked myself another question – what’s going on? Then the conscious part of my brain noticed that the building started to creak and sway which is when I realized it was an earthquake.

Ok, it’s another earthquake. This was my ninth year in Japan (four years were from my pre-Avnet life). I’ve experienced earthquakes before, so I didn’t think it was a big deal. Most of the earthquakes I’ve experienced are brief and feel like the building had just hit a big pothole. In other words, they usually don’t last that long. Basically, anything over a magnitude of 5 will make the buildings sway and if you get into the 6 territory they start getting dangerous and often last a little bit longer then the pothole variety but rarely last over a minute. See the JMA Seismic Intensity Scale for details. But Japanese building codes are so strict that most structures were able to endure even a quake of this magnitude. Although I thought it lasted five minutes, from other eyewitness accounts, this quake lasted just around two minutes – to see more scientific data, click here.  

During this shaking, I had trouble keeping my butt in my chair and my feet on the ground. I looked across the desk at Ohno-san and he looked like he was in the same dilemma as me – walking would be challenging. By this time the quake was getting stronger and the building’s safety systems started up with flashing red lights, sirens and an announcement from the building disaster prevention center. The buildings’ swaying was making it difficult to stand let along walk. The previously calm voices started to get a hysterical edge to them, cabinet doors were sliding back and forth on their tracks and banging with the rhythm of the buildings’ swaying and things were beginning to fall off desks and walls.

This is when one our executives Kawabata-san came out of his office with such composure and confidence that even before he spoke I felt better. Yukio Kawabata is a bit older then me and has must likely experienced many more earthquakes then I have in my short stint of 9 years. He told us where it was safe and what areas to stay away from. Then he trotted across the room to prevent some large metal shelves loaded with marketing materials from falling and crashing. And I think he stood their throughout it all although honestly I lost track. I would just like to publicly acknowledge him for his leadership by example. It’s a privilege and honor to work with him.

Meanwhile, the building kept shaking and swaying and the siren was still going off and slowly the pace of the swaying lessened. Eventually, the earthquake stopped but the building kept swaying for a while as the momentum of the event extinguished itself. It was probably the longest two minutes of my life. Emergency messaging started almost immediately to inform both Avnet’s Emergency Response team as well as the local employees with as many hard facts as possible. Although we knew that our office and the people in it were all fine, we could not yet verify the safety of our entire staff as many people were out of the office. The effort or accounting fro everyone lasted through the weekend. A few of our staff were on airplanes and were scheduled to land at Narita, but it had already closed so they were landed at the US’s Yokata airbase for a quick refueling and then diverted to Osaka. They took the bullet train home the next day.

People started talking about how this was the scariest and longest earthquake they had ever experienced. Some people near the refresh area ran to the windows and called out. So everyone rushed to the windows to see what was so interesting outside. Black smoke was pouring out of a large building in the Odaiba area, another man-made island built in Tokyo harbor that we can see from our office. Since, the elevators automatically shut down after an sufficiently large earthquake, the only way in and out of the building was the staircase. Other emergency preparations included setting fire extinguishes or heavy boxes against the security doors for easy egress from the building. The aftershocks started and quite honestly, one of them was probably the second biggest earthquake I’ve ever experienced. It’s over a week later now and the aftershocks are still ongoing although the pace is become less frequent.

I walked down the staircase for the first time since an emergency drill we had shortly after moving into the building on a hot summer day last summer. A vestibule of our building is attached to a building across the expressway by a pedestrian walkway that is on the third floor. The ceiling of the vestibule was damaged and water was falling from a broken pipe up near the ceiling. The water was pooling into the vestibule and running out down the stairs to the street. I thought about what it would have been like to be in the pool on the 24^th floor during the quake. Maybe I’ll take up tennis instead. 

The tsunami warnings had already been broadcast and we were all asked to stay put in the building for our own safety. I looked out at the channel gates in the canals that enclose our Isle and noticed the gates in the closed position for the first time ever. A red lighted sign was warning of the earthquake. Of course, by this time a lot of the Tohoku region had already been destroyed by the tsunami. Yasuhara-san kept up a constant supply of messaging to the local staff and the building’s disaster prevention center also continued to occasionally broadcast updates.

Eventually we were given the choice of going home or staying at the office. I’m sure some people had to stay at the office because they didn’t have any other option. This choice was sort of a catch 22 though, because almost no trains were running so it would mean a long walk for most people. The average commute time for most people who take mass transportation in the Tokyo metropolitan area is around 1.5 hours. As I got outside our building, I did see the monorail crawl by at a snails pace. I considered taking it to Haneda airport since it was still moving. That wouldn’t get me home but it would get me half way there and then I could walk or even maybe get lucky and get a cab home from the airport. But I made the fateful decision to try and get to Shinagawa and see if any of the JR trains were running. It was a fool’s errand.

I can assure you that my one hour commute on the mass transportation system is significantly more convenient then walking home. But I have to also say, I’m really glad I did it. Of course, there was no choice, but this experience really showed the best of the Japanese people’s civility and heart. An oft-used expression in Japan is shoganaiしょうがない(it can’t be helped). And almost everyone had probably already muttered it to themselves or their group as they either started the long trek home or bedded down for a chilly evening in the office. After all, everyone had basically already made the choice or either staying at the office or trying to get home. Those who choose to walk home just started doing it in a very orderly fashion. No one complained about it, they just started walking home. Actually, the sidewalks were very crowded, but luckily for the pedestrians, the cars couldn’t move. The freeways were closed and so the surface streets were a massive parking lot. So a lot of pedestrians ended up walking through the cars parked in the road since they weren’t going anywhere. Walking was actually a much better then driving in this situation. I was pretty lucky as I left Shinagawa before 7PM and crossed the bridge that separated Tokyo from Kawasaki about 10PM. I was home within another 30 minutes; unfortunately there was no power in my neighborhood. So I found my backpacking lantern and boiled a little water so I could have a gourmet dinner of hot ginger tea and Nissin Cup of Noodles. I counted my blessings and felt very lucky indeed.  

The most recent news estimates the death toll at little less then 22,000 souls. So of course this event was a terrible tragedy for Japan. Also, it seems with the latest stories that the impact on Japan’s economy and on the electronics supply chain will add more adversary to the current situation. However, I want to end this story by focusing on something positive. So I want to repeat part of Harley Feldberg’s message to the Japan team sent out on March 22 where he stated: “I am inspired by the incredible grace and civility the Japanese people are showing the world under the most unimaginable conditions.” This comment is so eloquent and appropriate that it should be repeated. I witnessed scene after scene throughout my walk home and over the next few days that underscore this statement. I saw people who lived on the most popular routes where thousands of people were walking by offering tea, a chair to sit down on and rest and even use of their land line phones. Mobile networks were overloaded and connectivity was almost non-existent that evening. I am inspired by the Japanese people and their strength in the face of adversity and their determination to overcome all obstacles. I know we have ways to go yet, but as another popular express goes, Gabarimasho! 頑張りましょう(Let’s do our best!).

Bob Hackett

Avnet Japan Director of Marcom

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