Japan's Top Business Interviews Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan

Previously Vincent was Managing Director of Swarovski Japan, Japan Sales Director for Van Cleef &Arpels, Japan Deputy Senior Manager at Cartier, Product Manager at Pernod Ricard Japan. He has an EMBA from the Hult International Business School.

Jose has previously been O&M Senior Sales Manager at Trina Solar, Director of Fotovoltaica de la Mancha, O&M Sales Manager Eco Life Engineering, Country Head Spain and Portugal Scheuten

Multiple award winning filmmaker and CEO of a video production company based in Tokyo, Japan. A former professional wrestler (under the ring name Rionne Fujiwara) and martial artist -Aikido, kickboxing, catch wrestling. Bilingual English and Japanese audio and visual professional from the Gold Coast in Australia, with almost 20 years' experience living and working in Japan. He founded Japan Media Services in 2015.

Saxo Bank is a securities broker started thirty years ago in Denmark and they have been in Japan for 13 years. He started working in banking in Denmark and 14 years ago joined Saxo Bank. He came to Japan two years ago and had lived here before twenty years ago when he wa studying here. At that time he was studying mathematical infomatics at the University of Tokyo for one year and thereafter had visited Japan often over the years.

Matsuba san previously had been General Manager Japan Healthcare IT at GE. Before that she was Director of Business Planning at the Columbia Medical Center. She started her career in the Japanese Post Office bureaucracy. She graduated for Keio University in economics and has an MBA from the Simon Business School at the University of Rochester.

166 Dr. Andrijana Cvetkovikj, CEO & President BrioNexus. Andrijana is also a special Advisor for International Affairs to the Japanese government, and previously was Director, Economist Corporate Network North Asia and Ambassador to Japan for Macedonia. She studied film and received her Ph.D. from Nihon University.

Previously Michael was a co-founder of Neural Squared, CEO of Hypnotize, Technical Solutions Consultant on Android and Partner Technology Manager on YouTube at Google. He has a Master of Engineering Computer Science degree from The University of Electro-Communications

Previously Jonathan was Managing Director Japan for Cornerstone OnDemand, Country Manager Japan for Credorax, Country Manager Japan for Paypal and when Director of Strategy Softbank Group, he worked very closely with legendary Softbank founder Masayoshi Son.

Previously President, Faurecia Howa Interiors Japan. Masters in Management, Entrepreneurship and Global Leadership D.E.A. Engineering, Universidade de Vigo, M.S. Degree Water Engineering, Polytech Montipellier

Alex Zoboli, is the Managing Director of Cornerstone Recruitment, a company he founded with Matt Nicholls four years ago. Previously Alex was a senior leader at RGF in Japan, working together with Matt, part of the Recruit Group. Before that he was working in a recruitment company in the UK.

Matt Nicholls, is the President of Cornerstone Recruitment a company he founded with Alex Zoboli four years ago. Previously Matt was the President of RGF in Japan, part of the Recruit Group. Before that he was running his own small recruitment company in the UK.

Mr. Mizusawa started his career in HR for Sanyo, GE in the USA, GE Healthcare back in Japan and was Director, Compensation & Benefits at Abbott Japan Group. He joined Stryker as the Senior Director of Human Resources, before becoming the Vice-President of the MedSurg Business Unit, then Vice-President & General Manager Japan of Orthopaedics and Medsurg, becoming President and Representative Director of Stryker in 2021.

Previously he was the Director of Operations, Japan and South Korea and General Manager Oakwood Suites, Yokohama. He was area Vice-President for the Rotana Hotel Management Corporation PJSCI Abu Dhabi and General Manager of the Hilton Hotels in Tokyo, Nagoya, Odaiba, Fukuoka, Otaru and Zurich Airport.

Masayo Nagai is the Chairwoman of APCO Worldwide Asia. She started her career working on policy for the government as a legislative aide. After studying at Columbia University she moved across to the PR industry joining Inoue Public Relations. She later became the Senior Director at the Japan Public Relations Institute before becoming President at Propeller Communications.

Naosuke Goto is the fourth generation to run the Goto Florists company in Japan. Like his father, he went to the USA and Europe to study flower design and brought that knowledge back to Japan, making the business highly successful. The main store in Roppongi is a landmark in Tokyo and they have many shops in five star Hotels in Tokyo.

Morgan Laughlin, Managing Director, PGIM Real Estate, Japan. Morgan has had a stellar career as Managing Director Asia Pacific for the Grosvenor Group, Regional Managing Director for the Royal Bank of Scotland, Head of RREEF non-Japan Asia at Deutsche Bank and Managing Director Bankers Trust Company. He is a graduate of Columbia University in Latin American Studies.

Adam Hall, Country Manager, Joseph Joseph Japan Prior to becoming head of Japan for Joseph Joseph, Adam Hall was Japan Country Manager for Weber-Stephen Products. He is a graduate of Auckland University of Technology.

John Kirch, beqom Japan Head Vice President of Sales, Uppsala Security East Asia Regional Director, Darktrace Independent Consultant, Nominum Vice President-International & President Japan, Penta Security Systems Director - Asia Pacific & Japan Director, Aerohive Networks Director-Japan, Ubiquity Software Independent Consultant, CyberGuard Regional Vice President-Asia/Pacific & President-Japan, WatchGuard Technologies Regional Director-Far East & President-Japan Regional Director, Hyperion Solutions Director-Business Development, SoftBank Director-Far East, Comshare International

Kentaro Kiso, President Barclays Securities Japan previously worked in London for JP Morgan for six years followed by joining Barclays UK and working there for over 12 years. He is a graduate of Tokyo University.

Hiroaki Mori, President McCann Erikson Japan Previously, Mr. Mori was COO for TBWA/Hakuhodo China. He is a graduate of Waseda University.

Matthias Sutter is the General Manager Shangri-La Tokyo and Representative Director Shangri-La Hotels Japan. Previously he had been the General Manager for Marriott International Hotels in Seoul, Singapore, Phuket. He has a Master's degree from the GSBA Zurich International Business School

Hiroo Murota is the Vice President, General Manager, Representative Director of Thermo Fisher Scientific Japan. Previously he was Representative Director of Siemens Healthcare Japan. He is a law graduate of Tokyo University and has an MBA from Northwestern University-Kellogg School Of Management

Leo Keeley is the President and CEO of B2B Sales. He has held a number of posts here in Japan, inlcuding Vice-President Asian Pacific and Japan for Ariba, President of Japan InfoTech, President of Platinum Japan and President of Dunn and Bradstreet Software Japan. He has a BA from Bentley University and an MBA from Suffolk University.

Michael Bobrove is a founder and CEO of HealthyTOKYO, which has pioneered the introduction of CBD oil into the Japanese market. He previously was Managing Partner of Bucatani, a medical device marketing and distribution company in Tokyo and a Senior Parrtner in the Mikan Group, which provides advisory services for internationl expansion. He graduated from Antioch College and has an MBA from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Originally from the Bronx, Cairo was a VP and Account Director for Data Solutions in New York. He came to Japan in 2009, becoming the General Manager for RAPP, later becoming the Managing Director for DDB in Japan in 2012. In 2015 he started relativ*

Takeshi Fujiwara Ex-President BBruan Aesculap Japan. He started work as an industrial engineer, later joined a second Japanese company who sent him to Germany, where he worked for nine years. He moved back to Japan working for a Swedish company called Gambro Japan, later becoming President. After over ten years there he briefly became the President of Molnlycke Health Care Japan, before joining BBraun. Today he has his own company TR3.Inc.

Carl Eklund has been in Japan since 1979. He has had many high profile positions in Japan, including President Volvo Japan, President Hagglunds Japan, President Denison Japan, President Lafarge Svenska Hoganas, and has been President of the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Japan. Currently he is President of Hoganas Japan.

David Macdonald was originally a JET in Japan in 1995. He joined NTT Docomo in 1999 and then joined Walt Disney Internet Group Asia Pacific in 2004. He moved to YouTube Japan in 2009 becoming Head of YouTube Spaces Asia Pacific in 2014. He became President of Discovery Japan in 2018 and President and Representative Officer, Discovery Japan GK in 2020. David mentioned the speaker who got him on the "complain, confront or conform" terminology can be found at www.juliensbourrelle.com. The definition of leadership he likes is: "Leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he/she wants to do it".

Established in 1892, Obayashi Corporation a $5 billion listed enterprise, is one of the top 5 construction companies in Japan. Obayashi has 86 subsidiaries and 26 affiliated companies in Japan, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, Australia and North America.

Mr. Hiraga initially worked in banking in Japan for ten years, in what has now become Mizuho, before he went to the US to study for his MBA. He then joined Marsh Broker and from 1991 worked in Germany. From there he covered a large number of European countries targeting Japanese companies active there. Five years later he was sent to the Headquarters in New York to cover Japanese companies active in the US, for another five years, before finally returning to Japan. From 2017, he became the Director and Chairman of Marsh Broker, Japan. He completed his undergraduate degree in Arts, Economics and Finance at Keio University and earned his MBA at the American Graduate School of International Management (Thunderbird).

Tae Ho Kim was previously President of Nihon Inter Electronics Corporation from May 2013 -2017, before becoming President of ARRK Corporation in 2017. He joined en world Japan as President in 2022. He graduated from Pomona College in Economics.

Yuko Furuichi is the President and CEO of Comexposium Japan. In 2007 she was a media personality and talent for BonaPro Agency and in 2009 became the Emcee for Pokemon Programming. She joined CyberAgent in 2011 as an Account Leader. She joined Comexposium as an Event Manager in 2013 working her way up to the Presidency in 2019. She has a BA Law degree from Keio University.

Marco Breitfeld, Representative Director and Head of Shared Services Draeger Japan, started working in Japan in 2007 for NEC/Schott Components Corporation. He moved to Plansee Japan in 2010 as the CFO and in 2016, he joined Storopack Japan as CFO. In 2017 he joined Pitney Bowes as Senior Manager Business Operations before becoming Finance Director and Representative Director for Pieroth Japan. He took over as head of Draeger Japan in 2022. He has a Bachelor Degree in International Management from HSB Hochschule Bremen City University of Applied Sciences

In 1995 Joachim was working as a Manager in Tokyo for BASF, eventually becoming the President and Representative director of BASF Agro Japan KK in 2005. Thereafter he became President and Representative Director for Catalent Japan KK in 2010 and then in April 2015 the Country Director Japan for CPKelco. He has a degree in Chemistry from the University of York.

William Boesen is the President of the East Asiatic Company Japan. Originally from Denmark and like me, martial arts drew him to Japan to further his training and to advance his career. In 2001, with ISS he became General Manager in Japan reorganising the company here with their partner the famous Mitsui Trading company. In 2004 he became the President of Carl Hansen & son In Japan. In 2013 he became the President of the East Asiatic Company Japan. From 2006-2008 he was the Chairman of the Danish Chamber of Commerce in Japan. He has an Executive MBA from the Henley Business School and a BA from De Montfort University

Best of the Best Encore #39: Andrew Hankinson, President, Zwilling J.A. Henckels Japan Originally released Feb 27, 2021 Andrew Hankinson is the President of Zwilling J.A. Henckels Japan and host of the podcast Now and Zen. Originally from Seattle, Washington, Mr. Hankinson's passion for Japan grew at a young age, having been exposed to Japanese culture by family members living in the country, leading him to learn the language from high school. After briefly teaching English in Osaka, Mr. Hankinson returned to Japan with a degree in international business and Japanese language from the US. He shortly began working at a Japanese department store as a menswear buyer which he describes as an "eye-opening" experience and a "great foundation to be living and working in Japan." Mr. Hankinson's next move was in the travel industry, where he worked for a travel publishing company as a salesperson. He explains the company to be "very flexible and very open" as they originally hired Mr. Hankinson in hopes of increasing innovation. Mr. Hankinson was quickly able to gain the trust of the organization due to achieving success early on where his suggestions led to better results for the organization. Mr. Hankinson's first official leadership role was working as country manager for a European-based office product company where he managed seven employees. He describes his work there as hands-on, especially with client facing aspects of the organization. Currently, as head of a much larger organization, Mr. Hankinson leads about 250 employees. Mr. Hankinson says jumping into an organization that he had no previous knowledge of required lots of catching up, and building trust with the people had its challenges. To overcome this, Mr. Hankinson interviewed his staff in the Tokyo office to build rapport and connect with them at a more individual basis. In order to lead a much larger team, Mr. Hankinson is mindful of the Japanese way of thinking through group consensus. He explains: "if we do it all together…[and] if it fails, nobody's responsible." He is also conscious of fostering empowerment amongst his employees to give them a safe space to express their thoughts and encourage innovation. Mr. Hankinson also leads through other managers by delegating to ensure everybody is providing input to determine the direction of the organization. The Japanese office of the global kitchenware manufacturing company have introduced many innovative products such as Japanese kitchen knives and pots that have become popular on a global scale. Mr. Hankinson sums up his ideals of leadership as being able to "deliver results, have good people skills, being engaged and having market intelligence," To newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Hankinson advises to enjoy travelling and exploring the culture and sharing that with one's team, which is a wonderful way to connect with others on a human level. Secondly, Mr. Hankinson advises to earn some "quick wins" as a fast-track way to earn credibility and trust amongst Japanese staff when trying to implement change. Thirdly, he recommends finding the perfect balance between adapting to local culture and retaining your personal management style in order to find the best of both worlds.

Tom Reich has been working in various roles for BAE systems in America and recently in Japan. Originally he worked in the US State Department including a stint as American Consul-General in Okinawa as well as working in the US Department of Trade. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from Georgetown University.

Ryan McGuire established Cutters Studios Tokyo in 2012. He graduated from Sophia University Tokyo in 2002 and set up the Los Angeles branch of his father's Cutters Studios business, before moving to Japan.

Ruth Jarman is the founder of Jarman International. She graduated from Tufts with a BA in International relations, studied Japanese at Nanzan University in Nagoya and joined recruit in 1988. While at Recruit she worked closely with the CEO Hiromasa Ezoe and credits him with teaching her about business. She launched Jarman International in 2012.

Robert Roche, Founder and Executive Chairman of Oak Lawn Marketing and Founder and President of Roche Enterprises originally trained as a lawyer and has become one of the most successful foreign business founders in Japan. His company, Oak Lawn Marketing found a niche opportunity to bring popular North American TV shopping products to Japan. In 1997 he took the same concept to China and established a business there. He and his partners later sold part of the TV Shopping business, rebranded to Shop Japan, to DoCoMo for one of the biggest exits ever achieved by a foreign start-up in Japan.

Mr. Amane Nakashima is the Chairman of Kewpie Corporation, the manufacture of Kewpie mayonnaise, one of the most famous food products in Japan. The firm started in Tokyo in 1919 after the founder Toichiro Nakashima returned from studying in America, where he had encountered mayonnaise for the first time. It has retained the number one spot for mayaonnaise sales in Japan since its launch in 1925, which is an amazing record. Kewpie Corporation had sales of USD$5b in 2020. Mr Nakashima graduated from Waseda University with a BA in Economics and later received an MBA from Cornell. He became Chairman in 2016.

Wolfgang Angyal, President of Riedel Japan, originally grew up in Austria and came to Japan in 1985 as an Austrian representative in restaurant service sector of the 28th WorldSkills Competition and won first place. He credits this win to the trust he had of his supporting team who were all Japanese. Mr. Angyal has also been practicing Judo from a young age where he developed a deep respect and fascination for Japanese culture. After working in the education sector as an instructor in Japan, Mr. Angyal became interested in working for Riedel as he was familiar with the brand due to his experience in the hospitality industry in Austria. Through persistency, Mr. Angyal met with Georg Riedel, the owner of Riedel, and secured a business development role for a subsidiary company. There, he was able to apply the skills he had gained working in hospitality and event management to promote Riedel products to Japanese restaurants and companies. Staying true to the Riedel family motto of "stoke the fire, don't save the ashes," Mr. Angyal persistently approached restaurants to promote Riedel. Fortunately, this was the 80s economic boom time in Japan, and Mr. Angyal used his networks to successfully schedule appointments to meet restaurant owners in person. "I think a lot of them actually bought their first [wine] glasses, more out of pity, [thinking] this guy's sweating with this case, coming to the restaurant and waiting for two hours. Or some of them maybe were admiring the effort." Mr. Angyal worked to establish the brand within companies to build relationships with large scale distributions. Mr. Angyal states the main challenge for him at the time was introducing wine culture to those who were not familiar with drinking wine on a daily basis. Therefore, Mr. Angyal actively promoted the product by holding tasting sessions where people got to experience drinking wine from Riedel glasses. "If you taste the difference, it's experiential. If you taste the difference between [a Riedel glass] and another glass of drinking the same beverage, you will never forget it." Mr. Angyal then moved his base to Australia where he worked from Riedel's Sydney office as the Vice President of Asia Pacific, Latin America and Southern Hemisphere. After a brief consideration of moving to China, Mr. Angyal was persuaded by an old friend to move back to Japan in 2000 where he has been since then, working as the President & CEO of Riedel Japan. By 2000, Riedel Japan had become an independent operation and Mr. Angyal started to build his team through referrals to recruit staff. As a leader, Mr. Angyal found challenges in driving the operation side of the organization and establishing a shared vision while going through an acquisition. In order to maintain employee engagement during the merger, Mr. Angyal organized workshops, off-site meetings and external coaching. Additionally, Mr. Angyal worked to get to know his staff through open communication and personality tests. By better understanding his staff, Mr. Angyal adjusted his communication style and worked to form a more trusting relationship. Mr. Angyal notes that as a foreign leader, he is mindful of being consistent with his decision-making and tries to be predictable with his actions. He claims that constantly asking the questions "How do they see us and what do they expect from us?" is key to leading in Japan as a foreigner. Additionally, Mr. Angyal values open communication and provides equal opportunities for his staff to be heard even if this means rejecting his own ideas in public. Mr. Angyal also seeks to bring different perspectives and ideas from his global networks and to his Japanese team in order to provide the "right fuel for their sparks." He also has his immediate reports give him a 360 degree performance review to continue developing his leadership abilities and maintain transparency. Riedel Japan has come up with innovation such as creating sake glasses, an idea that came out of a tasting workshop from a customer. Currently, the Japan office has independently come up with two different sake glasses - the Daiginjo glasses and Junmai glasses - by working with hundreds of brewers and testing in multiple workshops to come up with the perfect product. For newcomers in Japan, Mr. Angyal advises to be patient and mindful of one's actions as well as words. He recommends having small wins first and then building on that to quickly gain trust and credibility. Lastly, he advises to be authentic and to be yourself to be able to survive leading in Japan in the long term.

Karl Hanhe, originally from Germany, has been in Japan over thirty years. He set up his own company here called ONEWORLD in 1992, before selling it in 2004. After remaining in that business for a couple of years, he became the President and Representative Director of Haefele Japan in 2008.

Brendan Delahunty, who is the President of SPORTS TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY JAPAN (STH JAPAN) , first arrived in Japan for the JET Program in 1993 and has been living in the country since then, for over 30 years. His teaching experience through the JET Program led him into working at Pearson, the world's largest education company. At Pearson, Mr. Delahunty ended up working as the Sales and Marketing Manager for about four years in Tokyo and Osaka. While working at Pearson, Mr. Delahunty moved back to London to work in the global project management office there. In London, he and his team members looked after all the international projects. Based on these experiences, Pearson asked him to come back to Japan in 2007. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Delahunty became the President of Pearson Japan and led the company for seven years until stepping into his current role at STH JAPAN. While working in various countries such as Japan and the United Kingdom, Mr. Delahunty learned about leadership and how it works in different countries. Mr. Delahunty defined that leadership is the person in the team who ultimately takes responsibility and makes decisions but involves the whole team in the decision-making process, trying to make the team feel comfortable with the leader and team. Also, he mentions the key to managing other Japanese salespeople is to be a "longman" – someone who gives advice and leads – especially since salespeople are concerned about the ability of their managers to lead with confidence. The age factor is quite important in Japan and Mr. Delahunty also knew that. Because of this culture, he got into conflict with his team members during his first years of leadership. In order to resolve this issue and build better relationships with his team, Mr. Delahunty looked for people who were not satisfied in their current working environment at Pearson. He then set up a "voluntary redundancy scheme" to better evaluate employee performance and promote those who had the ability and integrity. And what he found was that by giving skilled, younger managers opportunities that they were not expecting to receive for another 10 years, they became increasingly engaged. As a leader, he established a new young and passionate organizational culture by adjusting the old Japanese workplace structure and promoting young talent throughout this process. Mr. Delahunty gave some advice for newcomers to Japan. Mr. Delahunty says, the most important thing for them is "to be open when you come here…[because] the ways of working here, the meetings that you do, and the sorts of things that go on in meetings, the relationships that you have, they're all very different to working in Western cultures." Therefore, sometimes silence is the best way to treat some actions from Japanese coworker when adopting Japanese workplace culture. Mr. Delahunty also says, "after you get used to this culture, start learning Japanese." Because, at least a little bit of Japanese is always useful, enough to be able to go out and have a few beers and have a small conversation. Due to Japan having a drinking culture after work, it can serve as a bonding opportunity for coworkers in Japanese.

Christian Wiedmann, President & CEO of BMW Group Japan had already arrived in Japan on one first stint back in the early 2000s. He was born in Thailand and grew up in the country for all of his youth. Due to this background, he seized the opportunity to run as the Chief Financial Officer in the BMW leasing business in various Asian countries such as Thailand, Korea, Australia and Japan. Mr. Wiedmann worked in many BMW departments around the world, and through his experience and knowledge, he was appointed President & CEO of BMW Japan Group in August 2019. During his first few years of leadership, Mr. Wiedmann found it challenging to receive input from his team to effectively run the operations. Mr. Wiedmann explains how it is crucial that the team knows their businesses, have an opinion of where they want to go, and understand their strengths and weaknesses. Mr. Wiedmann adds, "I experienced that it is much more difficult to enter the Japanese local business leader community. It is quite open to enter the expat community or the local expat community but getting into the Japanese leader community, that's certainly hard…[although] not impossible." He realized then and now that the trick to joining the community was to "walk the talk much, much longer than anywhere else." Mr. Wiedmann also notes there is a formal side to functions in Japan, as well as a human side that is based on relationships. Thus, Mr. Wiedmann thinks it is important to establish trust, and "make the Japanese team certainly feel more and more safe and comfortable to express their opinions". As the President & CEO of BMW Group in Japan, Mr. Wiedmann worked by trying to make the team members follow his idea and achieve great results. By doing so, he agreed that engaging people is the key to making sure everyone is working towards a shared goal. Mr. Wiedman describes the "special" way his team holds discussions. He explains: "so we have a discussion…then there's a pause. So someone says something and they think we should do it like this and this." By making decisions in this way through feedback and discussions, there is more engagement. Furthermore, Mr. Wiedman talks about the challenge of leading in a culture that is risk averse and wants to have every detail mapped out before making the first step. In order to overcome this challenge, Mr. Wiedmann says, Japan's business style needs to be more honest. He particularly highlights that by saying: "the moment somebody gets a complaint from headquarters around having been too vocal in a meeting, that is when they get a big congratulatory message from me," indicating that Mr. Wiedmann himself would welcome receiving such feedback about Japanese team members. At last, Mr. Widemann mentions 3 steps of advice that businesspeople who are new to Japan may adopt to succeed in Japan. Firstly, Mr. Wiedmann advises to take the time before coming here to prepare oneself for a smooth transition. Secondly, Mr. Wiedmann recommends practicing active listening, acting in an authentic manner, and reflecting one's behavior based on what one has learned through listening. Thirdly, Mr. Wiedman advises to be patient, stating: "give it time, give the organization time, and give the meetings time." Through these steps, Mr. Wiedmann explains newcomers will successfully build respectful relationship with Japanese businesspeople.

Dan Kerrigan spent nearly six years with Citibank in Tokyo as Managing Direrctor, Head of Execution Services from 2009 until 2015. For the next seven years he had a number of roles in Hong Kong with Ohara Capital Partners Limited as Principal, then Managing Director, Head of Sales Trading and Execution Asia Paciific for BNP Paribas, later as CEO at SBI Securities, and finally at CEO Woodlands Investment Partners, before returning to Japan in his current role.

Yusuke Asai is presently the CEO at Standard Chartered bank in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Asai has spent over 32 years in the financial services industry. Mr. Asai credits much of his success and leadership qualities to Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends and Influence People" which he has read twice. Mr. Asai spent his first 10 years with a Japanese bank, then received a scholarship to do an MBA at UCLA in the US. He returned to Japan to work with the bank for a few more years. After this, he switched gears to Investment Banking starting with Goldman Sachs, leading him to various other organizations and eventually stepped into his current position. Mr. Asai's first experience in leadership was when he was working for Goldman Sachs. Mr. Asai talks about his responsibilities in the role and why it was important to win mandates to progress in the position. By winning the mandate on his own and proving himself to the leadership team, Mr. Asai was able to justify hiring a better team. Mr. Asai explains that having an understanding of what is required to successfully earn a mandate, and knowing every mechanism and role within one's own team is essential to becoming an effective leader. Mr. Asai talks about this process and why this understanding is crucial regardless of what country you are in. Mr. Asai talks about starting his senior leadership role at Reinsurance Group of America where he was a CEO at 45 years old. He worked hard to gain trust from his staff and listened to their advice on what is good for the company. Mr. Asai emphasized good communication and made it a point to connect with all the business heads and team leads in one-on-one conversations. He also connected with all staff members. He listened to all the voices of every employee, which led to increased trust and engagement. Mr. Asai emphasizes having happy clients as the key to building a strong business. He says that if the deal is successful, the clients are satisfied which in turn ensures stakeholders with increased revenue. Thus, business is a cycle that starts with ensuring clients are happy. Advice given to experts coming into Japan would be to always be mindful that they are being watched by others. He credits good leadership to strong integrity. Mr. Asai thinks that learning Japanese is not necessary to being a good leader in Japan, but he does think it is necessary to provide strong value and be a leader with integrity. Mr. Asai talks about and defines what he believes leadership is with a single phrase - Noblesse oblige or integrity - meaning that a leader that has the privilege to lead, must act with honour and integrity. Mr. Asai believes this is an important core value for all leaders, regardless of country, culture or position.

Noboru Nakatani has been leading in a global environment in various industries including manufacturing, IT, finance, and consulting in France, US and Japan. He is currently the President and CEO of JASTEC Co., Ltd., a leading systems integrator in Japan. Mr. Nakatani graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Keio University and holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson School. After graduation, Mr. Nakatani worked first as a Production Engineer at Canon Japan, and then led the Research and Development Department in their France operation. He then moved to New York, working as a Senior Consultant at Deloitte before joining JASTEC. As Chairman and CEO of JASTEC International, Inc Mr. Nakatani acquired a French company called LTU, and expanded JASTEC's business portfolio. Mr. Nakatani also successfully improved JASTEC's revenue during the first few years of his leadership after the company had been struggling. When looking back at his early leadership years at Canon in Japan, Mr. Nakatani describes it as a "free" environment where engineers were allowed to try new things. The hierarchy was not as top-down, and the decision-making was not necessarily logical. When comparing his early leadership experience in Japan to France, Mr. Nakatani observes that both countries take their time in the decision-making process, yet the reasoning is different. In Japan, it is largely due to people being risk-averse and hesitant to make decisions, whereas in France, it is because there are so many different opinions and discussions that need to be held. In order to maintain trust and engagement during JASTEC's difficult times as an externally hired leader, Mr. Nakatani listened to his employees and repeatedly communicated his vision and commitment to improve their business. Moreover, he worked to readjust the organization's client portfolio, and tried to maximize and diversity sales from existing clients. Mr. Nakatani points to internal training and research for his team's success in upselling, by having a well-trained sales and project management team that carefully analyzed the midterm plans of companies to make attractive proposals. Additionally, when making changes, Mr. Nakatani says it is important to start things from a small scale, where there is more flexibility and room for making mistakes. He also states how essential it is to learn from these mistakes and share the experience within the team. For foreigners coming to lead in Japan, Mr. Nakatani advises to avoid micromanagement, as this prevents people from thinking independently and creatively. Moreover, Mr. Nakatani emphasizes the importance of listening to the team, and understanding their expectations, likes and dislikes and so on at the beginning of joining the company. From there, Mr. Nakatani recommends creating goals with a clear road map to help the employees succeed in reaching them. Being an externally hired executive, Mr. Nakatani also strongly advises to show commitment to the team and communicate to them that he or she will stay until their goals are reached. Mr. Nakatani also indicates the value of understanding Japanese clients and working on business development to increase sales as the leader. Although Japanese is helpful to know, Mr. Nakatani thinks that as long as the direct reports can communicate in English, it is not essential to be fluent. Lastly, he recommends leaders to learn from other executives from different industries and participate in training to expand their perspective.

Ikuo Yasuda is the Chairman, President and CEO of Pinnacle Inc. (IMAP Japan) and is an expert in M&A business in Japan with over 30 years of experience. Mr. Yasuda graduated from Hitotsubashi University in the late 70s and entered the Long-term Credit Bank of Japan (currently Shinsei Bank) where he eventually became a Joint General Manager. After over 20 years at LTCB, Mr. Yasuda was headhunted by General Electric International Japan (GE) where he worked with Jack Welch managing business development and M&A. Mr. Yasuda also served as Country Head of Lehman Brothers Japan and Head of its investment banking department. Mr. Yasuda says compared to a Japanese company, western companies are very much performance driven. Unlike a Japanese company, age is not a determining factor in their status, as Mr. Yasuda's boss at GE was younger than him, and there is no seniority system. He adds that management and executive level workers also do much of the front-line work, talking to clients and making presentations. Due to the nature of such a results-driven working environment, Mr. Yasuda says he had to be very strict with his subordinates, yet at the same time, motivate them and allow freedom in how they reached their goals. He took the Ame to muchi (Whip and candy) approach in leadership, learning from his boss who took a similar style. Moreover, as his bosses were superior to him regardless of their age, and had much more decision-making power than Japanese companies, he felt more pressure to produce results. Mr. Yasuda explains that one of the "GE way" was to stretch one's goals. For example, his team will set a goal of 15% instead of a more realistic 10%, and push themselves to reach over 10% in the end. After GE, Mr. Yasuda worked at Lehman Brothers as the Country Head of Japan. When Mr. Yasuda joined Lehman, he felt a different kind of pressure from working at GE. As GE's head of business development, Mr. Yasuda was required to make a series of acquisitions and develop new businesses. As CEO of Lehman Brothers Japan, Mr. Yasuda was hired to rebuild the Japan branch that had decreased and was responsible for producing profitable ROE. After Lehman, Mr. Yasuda became interested in founding his own business, combining what he had learned from both cultures. As a result, Pinnacle, an M&A advisory firm, was born. When recruiting for people in the firm, Mr. Yasuda was able to receive great PR appearing on the Nikkei newspaper article as well as being a TV commentator on a nationally broadcasted news show on TBS, which prompted many talent people in finance to apply. Moreover, Mr. Yasuda sought to target CEOs of corporations and built up his client base by setting up lunch appointments and golfing. Mr. Yasuda also took full advantage of his business network, being part of many business leader associations, including the Tokyo Rotary Club. He explains, when the M&A research begins from the ground-level and is brought up to the CEO, the executive is more likely to turn it down because of the risk factors written up in the reports provided to him. However, by capturing the CEOs' interests first, Mr. Yasuda thinks the M&A will most likely be implemented. As for the future of M&A, Mr. Yasuda thinks more and more companies will be interested in order to increase their ROE. He mentions there is much more that M&A can do with Private Equity Fund and business successions in which companies do not have a successor. Additionally, Mr. Yasuda points out that the country is going through a post-industrial revolution with the rapid-changes due to technology. This will also impact the growth of M&A. On advice to foreign nationals leading in Japan, Mr. Yasuda says, it is important to understand the Japanese corporate culture, which can be unproductive at times. Secondly, he advises to be patient when doing business in Japan. He further explains, the Japanese market is fiercely competitive, which is something foreigners sent to Japan from headquarters would have to explain continuously. The key to a successful M&A in Japan would also be a gradual process, winning trust from a minority and slowly gaining more ownership. Mr. Yasuda defines leadership as someone who is the most productive person in the organization and can lead by example. In this way, he thinks one can earn the trust and respect of the team. Moreover, Mr. Yasuda values fairness and treating his employees equally, and being transparent with how they are compensated based on their performance.