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

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.

Yumiko Murakami is the General Partner and Founder of M Power Partners, Japan's first ESG-focused global venture capital fund. The organization was founded by Ms. Murakami, along with Kathy Mastsui and Seki Miwa. Ms. Murakami was born and raised in Japan but studied in the US and spent a significant part of her adult life abroad. Upon returning to Japan, Ms. Murakami was shocked to experience the Japanese consensus-driven leadership style. Ms. Murakami observes this consensus-driven culture and the labor market structure leads Japanese people to become risk averse. In large Japanese companies with lifetime employment, there is little incentive to taking risks and putting one's reputation or chance of a promotion at stake. This notion of low-risk tolerance in Japan applies to start-up companies as well, as there are many legal and structural problems to start businesses in Japan. Ms. Murakami does point out that things are changing. The Japanese government is trying to change the legal framework to push start-up initiatives. Ms. Murakami explains, when it comes to innovation and creating new businesses, the role of start-ups and entrepreneurs is critical. Thus, proactive initiatives are taken by the government and private sector leaders. Ms. Murakami sees tremendous potential in Japan to start creating this healthy ecosystem. She hopes if there is enough sense of crisis among leaders, things will move quickly. Additionally, many talented young people are eager to join start-ups or even starting their own business, which is a relatively new phenomenon in Japan. Things started to change around 2000 in the US where there was a shift in student employment interests. In the past, the labour market discouraged employees from taking risks, but young people today have more bargaining power as they are in high-demand. To keep people motivated, Ms. Murakami thinks employees need to feel they have ownership and have the responsibility to make the organization better. With her organization, M Power Partners, Ms. Murakami feels everybody has a fair chance of voicing their views during the decision-making process. M Power is a small team, and there is not much of a hierarchy, although this becomes tricky when the company grows into over a hundred people. The core culture in their fund is to nurture a sense of inclusiveness, especially since the three founders including Ms. Murakami have always been a minority during the majority of their career. Since they are all different, they know that they can offer interesting perspectives that many do not see. On advice to achieving success in Japan, Ms. Murakami says it is important for international people who come to Japan to understand the Japanese culture and values, and realize what values they can bring to their leadership role. They would have to ask themselves, what is important about them as a person and how do they want to construct their relationships with new colleagues in Japan, setting aside any cultural differences. Ms. Murakami additionally points out that Japanese women have been a secret weapon for international companies for a long time because they are more open-minded to hire female professionals compared to Japanese companies. So when Japanese companies are not looking at this female talent pool, there is an opportunity for international companies to hire talented Japanese women. For Ms. Murakami, leadership is not something that one could claim by having a title but, something that one should demonstrate through action. Ms. Murakami prefers a leadership approach where she grows together with her team and learns from each other.

Mario Munoz is presently the President of Mölnlycke in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Munoz has a long-standing history with Japan, having first come to Japan in 1979, he was studying in middle and high school until 1982. He moved to France for the rest of high school, where he continued studying Japanese. Mr. Munoz was one of the lucky foreigners who was immersed in the Japanese language and culture at such a young age. He went to the US to continue his education and attended Thunderbird School of Global Management in Arizona. He had an affinity for an international career and with the program's heavy emphasis on international business, this was the right choice. Mr. Munoz says that to increase innovation, there are ranges provided in terms of targets provided to an individual. He says the target numbers are set but the way in which the representatives handle the accounts differ. Mr. Munoz speaks about encouraging his staff to speak. He has made Townhall meetings, there is a section called "Ask Mario" where people are encouraged to ask questions, a hot topic on their mind or something that they are curious about. A few things have worked from Mr. Munoz to gain trust. He walks around the office to talk to people and there are two engagement surveys done a year. Mr. Munoz says something that works in Japan is analyzing the surveys and addressing low hanging fruit and pain points. In Japan he has found, flexible time schedule and encouraging people to take their holidays goes a long way. Mr. Munoz encourages people via personal messages to take holidays. Mr. Munoz has a lot of advice for people coming into Japan. Firstly, he advises individuals to be themselves and not try to be Japanese. He also suggests learning a little bit of Japanese would be helpful in communication, as most Japanese people can read and write in English, but they aren't as comfortable speaking English. Mr. Munoz also emphasizes that the Japanese are very patient, especially with foreigners. It helps foreigners to be patient while in Japan as well. Mr. Munoz suggests keeping an open mind, have good open communication and be ready to be flexible in the Japanese work setting. He ends by saying that investing in Japan is likely to be fruitful if you are patient.

Christian Wolf, Managing Director of JAS Forwarding Japan originally moved to Japan straight out of university in Germany where he worked in the freight and logistics industry as a student. He first started out as a roads development manager at DHL, developing new business for air and ocean freight transportation from Germany to Japan. Upon moving to Japan from a small village in Germany, Mr. Wolf experienced culture shock, and quickly realized he needed to be "very persistent" and have high "frustration tolerance" to be successful. Mr. Wolf then moved on to work in the project forwarding business at Panalpina where he dealt with large scale projects with complex challenges such as construction schedules, liabilities involving different transportation modes, and worked alongside engineer specialists. In 2011 Mr. Wolf joined JAS to set up a new project forwarding unit from scratch. He recalls the earlier months as a challenging time since he was pressured to gain profit quite quickly while motivating his team to keep pushing with a positive attitude. On leading in Japan, Mr. Wolf indicates how difficult it was for him to initially gain the trust from his customers and employees and maintain a positive attitude within his team members. He claims: "You need to gain trust from the customer and it is not seldom that you are quoting for over one year without seeing them... It's a very common process. And there, even if you have a lot of setbacks, you need to be calm and need to demonstrate that we are going to get there." When faced with challenges such as consecutive profit-losing months, Mr. Wolf says it is important to cut down on your expectations and generate rewarding situations. He also points to open and honest communication with every member of the team as a vital aspect of building trust. Gradually, the new unit grew by building on client relationships and providing expertise on complex transportation solutions. In 2014 he stepped into his current role as Managing Director, leading the 40+ year old business with around 100 employees. In order to gain trust from an even larger number of employees, Mr. Wolf first tried to understand the history and culture of the company, instead of making drastic changes. Over the years of working in Japan, Mr. Wolf has come to realize that Japanese people value consistency and patience, which he tries to exhibit through his behaviour. During Mr. Wolf's first year as the Managing Director, he kept all the main department managers in place in order to observe how business had been developed from the previous years. During these early leadership years, Mr. Wolf also spent one-on-one time with his managers to better understand the business from their point of view. In doing so, he also encouraged his employees to be more innovative and think outside of the box when coming up with solutions. Yet Mr. Wolf mentions the importance of respecting the hierarchy and to "follow certain rules to approach certain scenes." For example, doing nemawashi (groundwork) before a meeting or communicating with an employee through their manager instead of them directly. To newcomers of Japan, Mr. Wolf advises to not tell one's colleagues how long one's assignment is. This is to avoid people from thinking you will only be there for 2-3 years and therefore, is not worth trusting. Mr. Wolf's second advice is to learn the Japanese language. Lastly, Mr. Wolf advises to "never give up." He adds: "You need to have a lot of frustration tolerance. Sometimes don't ask the why just accept it."

Please listen to our most accessed episode of Japan's Top Business Interviews! Leading A Small Team In Japan - Kervin Go: Episode #5 Japan's Top Business Interviews Kervin Go CEO Of Curvature Japan Because it is easy to let your inner pride at being a leader override the humility that is necessary as a leader, it is important to meet with other people to remind you to be humble. Managing people in Japan is like having an extended family, you have lots of different children and go through their various growing pains. Communication is the most important thing for a leader. I always leave my door open even when I am working on something and do not want to be disturbed, because most Japanese who have never worked for a foreign company think that a closed door means they cannot speak to you. When you are communicating, it is important to remember that you are connecting with a person. Remember we are all the same at the end of the day, we all eat dinner and get on trains, no matter what our titles are. Work-life balance is a better phrase to lead by since work-hard, play-hard is getting old. Personal success is affected by things outside of work and a leader needs to consider how they can make their employee`s welfare better since all employees have friends and family that are important to them. 360-degree performance evaluations are not very popular nor common in Japan. It is often just seen as more work that people have to do. The scores are always low in Japan. Culture cannot be forced on people. I think the company comes first, the employee comes second and the client comes third; and these are basically the decision points we try to use. We have open plan seating, lunch is eaten together, and we try to do sporting events that encourage people to engage without talking about work. New blood is always good because it creates new ideas, different perspectives and more engagement. We do not have walls in our offices. People often just shout out ideas and we have a conservation about that. We try and innovate that way. Some big leaders in Japanese business would make good politicians. They always know the right words to say but it does not always translate into action. I don`t want to be like that. When I say something, I want to execute it. I would rather cut out the middleman and make sure things go ahead. Trust and rapport have to be side-by-side. You have to listen to what people are complaining about, what they are trying to do and why they are trying to do it. That`s how you build trust. That is why sport events are very good, you build relationships through your mutual goals and learn to communicate and trust each other. Two-way traffic for communication is the key to building trust, once you have it, it is rock-solid. When learning English or Japanese, do not worry about learning difficult words, use simple words but how you present them is more important. Written communication is useful when communicating with Japanese people but give them 1 – 2 days for it to sink in. No one person can have all the answers so make sure you pick the brains of many people around you. The best way to grow is to have the good traits of others rub off on you, so don`t just hang out with other executives, it is too limiting.

Mark Militello is the Country Representative of the Bank of New York Mellon. This is his third posting to Japan, though he has had a long history within the Investment banking space. He was most recently with the Bank of New York Mellon in Hong Kong for 10 years before relocating to Tokyo. When leading in Japan, Mr. Militello explains how Japanese employees may not feel comfortable asking specific questions to their clients. This may be due to their lower rank in the company or the Japanese culture. He says that it is important for him to sometimes step in and ask those hard questions to ensure the operation is running smoothly. Although banks as an industry are not known to be creative, Mr. Militello says that creating a safe, relaxed environment for his team, especially the junior employees, can bring out more innovative ideas. Mr. Militello further explains that gaining the trust of Japanese employees can be a challenge for a foreign leader. He adds, letting the Japanese staff know that you have their back, that you are invested in them and will fight for the team with headquarters has helped with establish trust. A way of getting people engaged in the company is to be transparent. Mr. Militello emphasizes that they must try to give everyone a voice and that must go beyond the leadership team. He says that leadership is typically of a certain demographic. Leadership may be men that are of a certain age and background with a traditional way of thinking. This is not representative of the views of the whole company. Mr. Militello emphasizes being mindful of this and trying to hear everyone's views, even people lower down on the hierarchy, is essential. Mr. Militello advises people to come to Japan with an open mind. He also suggests unlearning most of the things that they may have learned, as they may not apply to Japan. Furthermore, Mr. Militello referred to his experience to nearby countries. He says that people in Hong Kong and Korea have more English speakers in the population, whereas in Japan it is a lot less and thus it is important to be mindful of this. He recommends trying to learn Japanese, even if it is a few phrases to show your commitment. Mr. Militello also suggests getting to know Japan outside the office. He says there is a lot to enjoy, especially the green spaces and the fantastic food.

Mr. David Bennett has been in Japan for more than 10 years in total. He has lived in Japan throughout his student years, and came back after graduation on the JET program for two years before joining AMD, an American multinational semiconductor company in Tokyo. His first leadership role would be with Lenovo Japan and NEC. Currently, Mr. Bennett has moved on from Japan and has become the Chief Customer Office at Tenstorrent Inc in the US. As the President of Lenovo Japan, and the CEO of NEC Personal Computers, which is a joint venture between Lenovo and NEC Corporation, Mr. Bennett led both a foreign and domestic company. Since the skillset required to lead a multinational company versus a traditional domestic company is different, he created a hybrid culture, blending the best of both worlds. He took certain parts of Japanese traditions and business approaches and fine-tuned them to make them more suitable for the organization. Additionally, the organization spent much time holding cultural and social events to increase employee engagement and cooperation. To get innovation while managing two companies with different characteristics, the company would implement many initiatives such as holding contests and giving out awards. These activities pushed the team to feel they could be more open and try something new, and others will have their back. As a result, the company kicked off things that had never been done before in the PC industry, like the world's first Gaming PC Leasing Service, Sugu Game. Mr. Bennett accepts mistakes as long as the reasons behind them are rational and the intention was to benefit the business. Moreover, Lenovo has a concept called Fu Pan. This is similar to Kaizen which is a continuous process of reflection. After major sales activity, the team would go back and reflect on what went right, what didn't go well, and what can they learn. Mr. Bennett says through those meetings, people gained innovation and felt empowered to try new ideas and take risks. To get employees further engaged, Mr. Bennett has several mantras he follows since becoming a leader. One of his mantras is "win together, lose together." Although everyone understands the meaning of "win together", he frequently got questioned, "why lose together? " Mr. Bennett explains that it is easy to win together. But if something bad happens, he says it is important for everyone to take responsibility and figure out a solution. He is proud of helping to change the culture at Lenovo and NEC in a way that the team came together and started taking risks. Being explicit with the head office also helped him win the trust of the organization. However, Mr. Bennett notes the difficulty of ensuring his messaging permeates to the bottom of the company, past his direct reports. He insists, when you have a large organization, it is important to be consistent with your messaging. On advice to newcomers wanting to lead in Japan, Mr. Bennet says the most important thing is to listen and understand what is working for the team and what you can learn from them. He says that in Japan, what people tell you about the business may not necessarily reflect the actual state it is in. Mr. Bennett further adds, one cannot completely change how the Japanese ecosystem works, nor how one's partners, customers and the commercial buying behavior works. Hence, it is important to truly listen. Secondly, he advises to become familiar with the Japanese language. For Mr. Bennett, knowing Japanese has helped him gain quicker connection with his team. Therefore, the combination of understanding Japan, the Japanese language, and his management style and supportive approach helped create trust and engagement. Mr. Bennett's goal is to empower his employees and to make his team successful. To him, empowerment means everyone is facing the same direction. Mr. Bennett feels it is essential to inspire and empower people to work towards the same goals and encourage them to take risks. By doing so, he believes people will become further engaged and the organization will continue to grow.

William "Bill" Hall is currently the President at Ipsos Healthcare Japan Ltd. Mr. Hall has a long-standing history with Japan. He first visited the country in 1969 on a scholarship for post-graduate research, having majored in Japanese and Economics at Sydney University. After graduation, Mr. Hall worked in the consulting and marketing research field, starting his own market research company, and eventually leading Sterling Winthrop, a pharmaceutical company. Mr. Hall then worked for Kodak which had acquired Sterling Winthrop at the time, before becoming the Japan President of ISIS, a medical market research company. After selling ISIS to Synovate, Mr. Hall then expanded the health care division within the new organization. Finally, after Synovate was acquired by Ipsos, the global marketing research company, Mr. Hall stepped into his current leadership role at Ipsos. Mr. Hall recalls one of the first leadership challenges he encountered was finding the right people and building a team from scratch. He found it especially difficult as a foreign company to convince people on the longevity of the organization. To overcome the issue, Mr. Hall tried to provide opportunities for people who joined the company to be exposed to the discipline of market research, such as conducting interviews, which is still not seen as a profession in which people study for years to be in. Mr. Hall also was fortunate to find foreign workers who spoke Japanese. He says the key is to sometimes take a gamble and try to see the potential of the person, instead of trying to find someone who is already well-developed. A common problem many leaders of foreign companies in Japan have, is explaining the difference in employee engagement scores across different country branches to the head office. Mr. Hall says, this is a complex matter, as there are many cultural factors that need to be taken into account, and companies are "reading the scales wrong." For more information on engagement scores and cultural bias, please contact Mr. Bill Hall at [email protected] and he will be able to provide a whitepaper regarding this topic. Mr. Hall finds that engagement depends greatly on the history the employees have with the company. For example, he says that people who are initially engaged when a company is in the start-up stage, may not be as engaged 20 years later when the scale of the company has grown. Mr. Hall adds that sometimes handling long-term staff can be complex. It is important to pay close attention to these worker who have helped the company become what is it today, while finding the balance between the long-term staff and younger employees and adjusting the organization structure accordingly. Mr. Hall advises people to learn basic Japanese if they are coming into Japan in leadership positions. He agrees that Japanese can be a difficult language to learn. He understands someone in a senior leadership role will have multiple aspects to juggle in their life such as family commitments, generating revenue for the organization and others. Yet Mr. Hall suggests learning a little bit of the Japanese language will enable foreign leaders to better communicate with the local staff within and outside the office. Basic communication is important, however Mr. Hall also suggests having a bilingual assistant to translate the important business materials, so that the individual is not dependent or pressurized to learn fluent Japanese quickly.

Jennelle "Jennie" Petit is the President of TUV Rheinland in Japan. Over 30 years, Ms. Petit has gone through different positions in a various companies including the service and manufacturing industry. Her first leadership experience was after her first year in Japan when she was training new teachers who had come to Japan to teach English. In the corporate world, Ms. Petit first had an opportunity to lead a team when she was about 35 years old in the hospitality industry. Her main function was training and development of all the staff in the hotel. Ms. Petit feels that trust is an essential factor in motivating team members and encouraging collaboration. According to Ms. Petit, many Japanese employees prefer to take orders and avoid responsibility. Therefore, she tries to have an engaging conversation with them in the beginning. She claims, it is important to take a collaborative, soft, low-key approach and try to understand the culture. Ms. Petit adds, this approach needs patience. She tries to be authentic and consistent, treating people equally. She also points out that trust comes from communication, and if you are not communicating with anybody, you cannot expect to have a high level of trust. To get engagement in Japan, Ms. Petit takes a bottom up style. Although it is difficult to implement change in Japan, trust is what makes it possible. One of the examples is teleworking. Ms. Petit was already looking into teleworking before the pandemic. Work-life balance was the key word. She focuses on having engagement, empathy, and a bottom-up approach to her leadership. By listening to the voice from the field-level, Ms. Petit is constantly rewriting the employee committee and guideline and other implementing changes. In terms of making innovation, Ms. Petit encourages it through regular meetings. TUV Rheinland has different committees and different groups of people that meet regularly. They have discussions about strategy, and how to grow the company. In doing so, they are able to create an open culture and environment. Ms. Petit is the first female to run TUV Rheinland in Japan. She says, even as a woman, you can do a lot if you focus on the right things and find people that are willing to work with you. Trying to be open to those things is also important. Ms. Petit adds that in order to increase female leaders in Japan, we need to provide training on diversity, in order to prevent discrimination among both men and women. As an advice for new leaders, Ms. Petit raises two points. Firstly, to listen before you start to make any changes. Secondly, to make an attempt to learn the culture of the language. Ms. Petit suggess to not try to change people's culture in Japan but to work with it and put your assumption aside. On defining what is leadership, Ms. Petit says, leadership happens first with the leader themselves. It is the ability of a person to reflect and then take the appropriate action based on a particular situation. Leadership is also possessed by people that look at things in general and are willing to say, we can do something better here, and make a split decision. Moreover, Ms. Petit adds, leaders should always ask and answer "why", and provide information on their decisions. On whether one should learn Japanese or not, Ms. Petit says being able to speak Japanese is an advantage, but it is more important to understand the culture.

Originally from Australia, Mr. Campbell Hanley is presently the Managing Director of Weber Shandwick, Japan. After graduating from university, Mr. Hanley was looking to go to a country that was non-English speaking, which led him to Japan. Since then, Mr. Hanley has worked with various organizations, the latest being Weber Shandwick for the last 8 years. Engaging people in the workplace is important as employees are more likely to be loyal and not quit on a whim. Mr. Hanley tries to ensure consistency and fairness in the workplace. He tries to make sure he is calm and reacts the same way to things, so people can predict his behaviours and reactions. He also emphasizes being authentic in giving honest feedback to people and ensuring his staff knows the things that they are doing well. Mr. Hanley tries to have breakfast or lunch with a different staff member every week. This is usually a short, informal meeting outside the office to try and get to know staff one-on-one. Mr. Hanley says these meetings make him more approachable, and he finds out many things during these sessions and sometimes can catch problems early. He talks about innovation as well, and says that if people care about the business, they want to build a better, more innovative workplace. Mr. Hanley says that they have a suggestion box set up in the office to gather feedback, highlight problems or suggestions. He ensures anonymity by sharing the website of this anonymous suggestion box. The staff are digitally literate and thus they know that they are truly anonymous and there is no way to track who has made the suggestions. This is to ensure they know that they are anonymous, and the company gets accurate feedback. He also ensures that the staff know that they would not be penalized for anything they say in this suggestion box. Advice that Mr. Hanley would give would be to be patient. He also emphasizes good communication. He has three points that he suggests to people coming into Japan. Trust their instincts Trust their employees Have a group of advisors or counsel on your side Mr. Hanley advises people that first come into Japan to trust their instincts. Sometimes he feels foreign leaders shy away from sharing their views or ideas on business plans as they are concerned about offending the locals. He advises them to trust their instincts and their business experiences and knowledge in such cases. He also recommends placing trust in the Japanese employees and understanding that hard work, loyalty, and teamwork is in their culture and many times there isn't a hidden agenda to their hard work. Lastly, he advises to have a few people that you can trust on your side in case the first two fail.

Ernest (Ernie) Higa shares his extensive leadership and entrepreneurial experience starting from his mid-20s succeeding his family business and leading various industries including lumber, medical device, and food and services. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mr. Higa graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in International Business. He also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (MBA) from Columbia Business School. After university, Mr. Higa joined his family business, Higa Industries Inc. (now Domino's Pizza Japan). Shortly after, he became the company's Representative Director. Mr. Higa then began developing the Domino's Pizza chain within Higa Industries, and became the President in the early 1980s. Presently, he is the Chairman and President since 2015. Mr. Higa has led many other corporate and professional organization including the Representative Director of Wendy's Japan, First Kitchen and Director of Shinsei Bank and Del Sole Corp. Leading a lumber business company which was part of Higa Industries at just 26 years old was one of the first leadership challenges for Mr. Higa. Mr. Higa was fortunate to be able to hire employees who had retired from major trading firms and other large corporations, but still wanted to work. He says these people had a wealth of experience and contacts that allowed him develop his company. Being Japanese American enabled Mr. Higa to not have to play by the rules when leading staff who were much more experienced and senior then him. Being in the trade industry, working between Japan and the US, his experience and knowledge of working in the states and knowing how to communicate to English speaking businesspeople also helped him earn the respect and trust from his employees. Mr. Higa adds: "there's a certain rule that you can break because you're not Japanese and that becomes an advantage, but you have to know what those rules are. And so it really requires understanding the Japanese culture." Eventually, Mr. Higa grew the business from 20 people in 1985 to 9000 people including full-time and part-timers, by 1997. In addition to the lumber business, Mr. Higa had diversified into the medical business with neurosurgical implants and then started developing Domino's Pizza in Japan. Regarding his success in Japan, Mr. Higa credits his ability to position himself in the niche Japanese marketplace and adapt foreign products to Japanese consumer needs. Moreover, the experience of starting Domino's Pizza made Mr. Higa take a more bottom-up leadership approach as he realized the head office executives are there to support the store managers to successfully drive their business, which then increases the entire company's profit. He adds that building and maintaining trust with the customers is essential in the sustainment of the business and if there are any errors made, it is important to take care of it right away. Having worked in various industries, Mr. Higa claims a strong corporate culture is the key to good employee engagement across all organizations. Mr. Higa says due to his entrepreneurial background, the culture of his organizations reflects this spirit, and emphasizes a positive, "can do" mindset. Due to this approach, Mr. Higa's organizations have attracted employees who enjoy being in a more flexible environment that encourages innovative thinking and growth. Mr. Higa also developed a training centre to ensure this corporate culture messaging was communicated right from the beginning at the orientation stage to his staff. Additionally, his company holds many internal events to motivate the employees, including full-time and part-timers. By having a unique but consistent approach to building corporate culture across various sectors, Mr. Higa thinks this set them apart from the more established, larger corporations and enabled his business to grow. On advice to newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Higa advises to be respectful of the Japanese culture and understand there are differences from the western way of doing business. This mentality is important when launching products and making strategic decisions, as well as managing people. Mr. Higa adds one must "think global and act local, but don't go too native. If you go too native, then you are managing completely like a Japanese corporation, then you'll miss out. I think you'll lose against the Japanese companies who are Japanese. But it's a moving target, what is global, what is local, and what is going to be native? And you always have to adjust." Mr. Higa thinks learning Japanese does help, but the most important thing is realizing there's a difference in cultures and respecting that. Mr. Higa defines leadership as something that changes depending on the leader, as there is no one-size-fits-all format. He adds: "I try to lead by example, I try to get the respect of my people but I also try to enhance my people and work with my people so that they make a lot of decisions themselves

Originally from Austria, Mr. Dieter Haberl has a wide array of experiences, the most recent being the President and CEO of Furla Japan. Previously, Mr. Haberl has worked with well known names in the retail space such as Adidas, Toys R Us, Lacoste, Reebok, and GAP. Mr. Haberl went to the US after high school. He first went to Northern Michigan for his undergraduate degree, and then to Arizona for his master's degree in management. He developed a strong interest in Japan very early on, selecting Japan as his regional specialization in university and later doing an internship in Japan. In the organizations that Mr. Haberl has worked in, he has tried to improve team culture by trying to bring people together. He says that many times, people are divided based on their departments, i.e., Marketing, Finance etc. He says that creating culture can be a top-down approach, where senior leadership is involved. He suggests bringing people together for dinner and drinks and says that this works well in creating good culture. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic age, this can be difficult, and he suggests bringing people together in smaller groups and having virtual meetups. Mr. Haberl advises trying to engage his team by listening first, learning from them, and then leading them. He says that teams get engaged when they realize you are paying attention to them and that you care. Moreover, driving innovation involves taking risks. However, Japanese culture and education teaches people to be risk averse. This can be a problem when trying to innovate or seek new novel ideas or ways of doing things. He stresses that this can be overcome by creating an environment where people know it is okay to make mistakes and then learn from them. Advice that Mr. Haberl would give to someone coming to Japan would be to find people that you can trust. He suggests trusting your instincts and asking yourself who you can trust and who you cannnot. He also suggests being patient, listening and learning as much as possible. Sometimes offices with overseas headquarters are unfamiliar with Japanese culture and thus may have unrealistic expectations. He recommends having honest conversations and communicating well with headquarters. Mr. Haberl has noticed that loyalty is a trait unique to Japan. Both Japanese customers and staff are known to be extremely loyal, and it can work to the company's advantage if they can capitalize on this. Additionally, Mr. Haberl recommends learning Japanese, even if it just a few phrases to communicate better with the locals.

Originally from Austria, Mr. Dieter Haberl has a wide array of experiences, the most recent being the President and CEO of Furla Japan. Previously, Mr. Haberl has worked with well known names in the retail space such as Adidas, Toys R Us, Lacoste, Reebok, and GAP. Mr. Haberl went to the US after high school. He first went to Northern Michigan for his undergraduate degree, and then to Arizona for his master's degree in management. He developed a strong interest in Japan very early on, selecting Japan as his regional specialization in university and later doing an internship in Japan. In the organizations that Mr. Haberl has worked in, he has tried to improve team culture by trying to bring people together. He says that many times, people are divided based on their departments, i.e., Marketing, Finance etc. He says that creating culture can be a top-down approach, where senior leadership is involved. He suggests bringing people together for dinner and drinks and says that this works well in creating good culture. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic age, this can be difficult, and he suggests bringing people together in smaller groups and having virtual meetups. Mr. Haberl advises trying to engage his team by listening first, learning from them, and then leading them. He says that teams get engaged when they realize you are paying attention to them and that you care. Moreover, driving innovation involves taking risks. However, Japanese culture and education teaches people to be risk averse. This can be a problem when trying to innovate or seek new novel ideas or ways of doing things. He stresses that this can be overcome by creating an environment where people know it is okay to make mistakes and then learn from them. Advice that Mr. Haberl would give to someone coming to Japan would be to find people that you can trust. He suggests trusting your instincts and asking yourself who you can trust and who you cannnot. He also suggests being patient, listening and learning as much as possible. Sometimes offices with overseas headquarters are unfamiliar with Japanese culture and thus may have unrealistic expectations. He recommends having honest conversations and communicating well with headquarters. Mr. Haberl has noticed that loyalty is a trait unique to Japan. Both Japanese customers and staff are known to be extremely loyal, and it can work to the company's advantage if they can capitalize on this. Additionally, Mr. Haberl recommends learning Japanese, even if it just a few phrases to communicate better with the locals.

Masatsugu Shimono is the former Senior Vice President at IBM Japan. Mr. Shimono has a longstanding career of 40 years with IBM, primarily in Tokyo but with a short stint in New York. Mr. Shimono majored in Computer Science at his university when computers were new and computer science was quite different to what it is now. Mr. Shimono says that to gain engagement on his teams, he focused on closely managing his 10 direct reports. In addition, he held regular meetings, and communicated well with them. He says that he held round table discussions and regular Monday meetings. Whenever there was a need for innovative ideas, Mr. Shimono says he tries to lead the discussion in an innovative way. He praises IBM for being so diverse in terms of racial background, gender, nationality, and age, so gaining diverse perspectives is easier at IBM than it may be in other companies. Mr. Shimono says that the understanding of the Japanese culture is quite important and the general awareness about Japanese culture is much better than it was 20 years ago. His advice to colleagues and people looking to come to Japan would be to be patient. He believes there is globalization on various levels, 1) Globalization of Japan 2) Globalization of Japanese People 3) Globalization of Japanese companies. For newcomers to Japan, he suggests making changes and innovating Japanese companies, as this will be received well. However, trying to change Japanese people and their culture may be met with resistance. He advises even if someone doesn't agree with the Japanese way of doing things, forcing change can be tricky and advises people to keep an open mind and be patient. Mr. Shimono says learning Japanese is not necessary when coming to Japan. He says learning the Kanji script is integral to the Japanese language and this can be quite difficult and incredibly time consuming for adults. Mr. Shimono says nowadays there are a lot of interpreters available and many software programs that can bypass the need to learn the Japanese language.

Philippe Jardin is the Country Manager for Pierre Fabre in Japan. His interest in the global world was greatly inspired by his parents who had an interest in Asia. Mr. Jardin learned Judo in school and during business school he had an opportunity to learn Japanese. As a part of the curriculum, which included doing internships, Mr. Fabre chose to do all of his internships in Japan. Mr. Jardin chose the marketing route after his undergraduate degree which led him to do an MBA and enroll in the Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires (INSEAD) which was partially in Singapore and France. This led to him furthering his career with various organizations in the corporate world in Japan before coming to Pierre Fabre. One thing that helped Mr. Jardin with his job was his intuition. He explains the importance of reading the room or reading between the lines. Sometimes in Japan, not everything is explicitly said, and being more intuitive has helped him greatly. Understanding without explicitly asking is a soft skill that he says has been essential in his career. Mr. Jardin faced some challenges with his first posting to Japan including how to improve profitability. He said he overcome this by identifying exactly what the issue was and reinforcing to his staff that they need to break even and make a profit. When starting a new leadership role, Mr. Jardin takes a systematic approach to evaluating the company. He sits down and talks with everyone on the staff and asks some questions. The first type of question is their personal evaluation of the power of the company by rating the company out of 5 or 10. The second question would be their opinion on the power of the brand. This provides them with some valuable findings regarding the strengths, weaknesses, and issues that the company is facing. Then they are better able to tackle them as a team. Advice that Mr. Jardin would give to someone who is being sent to Japan for a posting is to be open. By being open he means don't judge too quickly. He also suggests being patient as Japanese work culture can be unexpected and taking things slowly is beneficial. He suggests learning the language to the extent possible, though he knows that someone younger may be able to learn the Japanese language faster than someone older. Regardless, Mr. Jardin would still suggest for people to learn a few phrases in Japanese for a more comfortable daily life.

Hans Werner Burg is currently the Representative Director for Leschaco KK in Tokyo Japan. Originally from Germany, Mr. Werner Burg describes himself as a working-class kid raised in Western Germany close to the French border. He went to university to study Business Administration and that was when he had the opportunity to do an internship at a subsidiary of a car parts manufacturing firm in Hokkaido. Mr. Werner Burg explains his leadership style and the way it evolved over the years. He claims that in the beginning he was trying to get his team to improve by finding faults in everything they did, and this did not work well. He says he did not like that approach himself. So, he slowly changed overtime. He mentions that in Japan, an apology can be seen as a cultural way to admit that you may have caused the client inconvenience and will rectify for the next time. In comparison to Germany, an apology may be seen as an admission of guilt. As apologies are typically made for larger mistakes in Germany, the company may be taken to court for that admission. Mr. Werner Burg says he tries to encourage engagement by keeping an open-door policy and trying to speak with people in smaller groups for around 40 of his staff in Tokyo and Osaka. He understands that people in Japan are less forthcoming with ideas and engagement than in the West, and it takes more for them to open up and share their thoughts and ideas. He says he tries his best to be approachable and is calm by nature and doesn't get upset with anyone who disagrees with him. Once they have good engagement with his team, Mr. Werner Burg encourages innovation and good ideas from his staff. In the past he has tried to have a limited agenda at meetings to keep it open for ideas. Mr. Werner Burg notes, engagement and sharing of ideas have become harder as most people are still working from home due to COVID-19. Mr. Werner Burg explains that Japan is a country where trust is very important. He emphasizes the importance of being authentic and transparent to earn the trust of his staff. Additionally, Mr. Werner Burg says that he shares credit with his team. For example, if Head Office congratulates him on a target that was achieved well, Mr. Werner Burg will make sure his staff members who were involved in the project are acknowledged as well. On the contrary, if there is a problem, he tries to tackle the problem together with his staff, by admitting the mistake to clients as needed and taking responsibility for the company. Mr. Werner Burg says that knowing the Japanese language can be helpful, as it is a useful tool, though he has seen people succeed without it.