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

Phillip Rubel shares his extensive leadership experience in the US, Canada and Japan in various fields including advertising and consulting. Mr. Rubel is originally from Canada and moved to Japan in 1997 on a three-year posting but returned multiple times. In total, his career in Japan ran for over 20 years. Mr. Rubel experienced working in various roles and fields such as marketing, business licensing and acquisition, strategic planning and account management. Mr. Rubel was recruited by McCann Erickson in 1997 as the Senior Vice-President and Manager of one of the company's division. There, Mr. Rubel dealt with global clients and helped form new partnerships. Prior to working at McCann, Mr. Rubel co-founded an agency in Canada. Mr. Rubel then moved onto other prominent leadership roles including becoming CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon, CEO of Beacon Communications, Partner at KPMG and Director Marketing & Communications at Philip Morris Japan. He has currently returned to Canada as the Managing Partner of Song Sparrow Advisory & Executive In Residence at the University of Victoria. On his first leadership role in Japan at McCann, Mr. Rubel recalls how Japan at the time was struggling with the burst of the economic bubble, and was hesitant in engaging with global management and leadership practices. Mr. Rubel says having people look at thing with a "fresh set of eyes" and motivate them to take risks was a new leadership style compared to what he had experienced in Canada and the US. He adds: "I think one of the challenges for any new manager to Japan is to determine how to instigate a change without being revolutionary and more evolutionary." After McCann Erickson, Mr. Rubel became the Japan head of Beacon Communications, an advertising agency formed by merging different companies of Publicis Groupe and Dentsu. Mr. Rubel recalls the merger process as a "life time opportunity." He sought to define the purpose of the new organization and create a common culture for all employees coming from the different agencies. On day 1, Mr. Rubel went into the office in casual attire and asked the team to take off their company lapel and start thinking as one company. Mr. Rubel encouraged those who he felt were the most engaged and motivated from the start to implement their ideas. He also spent time talking to each employee on a one-on-one basis or in small groups so people felt their voices were heard. Mr. Rubel says having a transparent two-way communication process and providing explanation over and over made people more open minded and engaged. On innovation, Mr. Rubel points out that creativity is a commonly misunderstood phrase. He says: "it's not about being artistic or anything like that…it's actually a disciplined approach. And if you look at, for example, all of the work that's been done in design thinking, which is a very big passion of mine is all about experimenting upfront and mitigating risk, but still allowing risk and failure to happen." During his time at Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon, Mr. Rubel says his leadership approach did not change much, although the scale of his team had changed from his time at Beacon Communications. He explains: "Obviously scale has a big impact onto what you can do and how you can do it. But from a leadership perspective I don't think that principles changes all that much. It's about knowing and understanding all the stakeholders. It's about being empathetic and inclusive. Also in Japan [it is particularly important] to show the way, demonstrating, not just talking about it and then also making absolutely sure that any commitments that you make, any promises that you say that you keep and that you follow through." On advice to foreign leaders coming to Japan, Mr. Rubel first recommends to take the time to understand the organization and all the stakeholders before taking action. Secondly, he advises to come to Japan with an open mind instead of thinking one has all the answers, but also not try to act Japanese but to "be yourself." Mr. Rubel explains: "I think if you just stay open-minded and just be yourself I think you can really enjoy yourself in Japan. It's an amazing culture. It's an amazing business society. Now this is my second time leaving Japan…The lessons from Japan still are relevant to daily business here."

Jean-Phillpe Oulevey takes us through his leadership journey in Japan, starting off from dusting shelves in retail stores to climbing Japan's career ladder and becoming the head of a global flower importing and distribution business. Mr. Oulevey originally studied in the United States where he was exposed to Japanese culture. After working in the finance industry for a while in the states, Mr. Oulevey moved to Japan where he first worked for a luxury goods company. He then moved onto a Japanese trading company and climbed the traditional ranks, becoming kacho in charge of purchasing at a fairly young age. After working for four years, Mr. Oulevey moved back to the US for an MBA and was rehired by the same company. Mr. Oulevey worked as an international Sales Manager, working with Sony Ericsson, liaising between their assembly lines in France and offices across Europe. Mr. Oulevey then took the offer to lead his current company, Greenwings, where he manages a growing team of around 30 employees. Regarding his first few years of leadership experience, Mr. Oulevey recalls: "I was very young. So when you're young, everything's exciting, and maybe I didn't realize all the politics that could have gone behind the scene, I was just really focused back then on my job and delivering." Mr. Oulevey does point out that not speaking fluent Japanese at the time was a challenge with communication. However, he brought other strengths such as IT to the company to better the working environment, which helped him build trust with his colleagues. Additionally, Mr. Oulevey explains because he grew through the ranks to become kacho, he had already built the interpersonal relationships with his team and back up from other leaders, making it easier for him to gain credibility. Transitioning into a management role at Greenwings was, according to Mr. Oulevey, a much more challenging task. Although the business of Greenwings had a solid customer database, there was much friction between the headquarters and Japan office when he first entered. Moreover, Mr. Oulevey was made responsible for certain restructuring of the company, making it harder for him to build trust at the initial stage. Mr. Oulevey also lost some key employees at the time. In order to deal with such challenges, Mr. Oulevey built alliances where he could and led "through others". He adds: "I have pushed and asked and did my learning without creating burden on the organization…Also without forcing my own view of things. I've been very patient into planting seeds in a way and I had the time to do so…[in] creating the culture that I wanted for the future." Mr. Oulevey also explains that doing groundwork to get buy-in from others before making a decision in a meeting can be a useful strategy as it could speed up the decision-making and implementation process. On innovation, Mr. Oulevey also thinks it is challenging to try to go beyond the status quo and take risks. He says it is important to have innovative people and create a culture where they can thrive – meaning not punishing people for mistakes and failures. On building trust, Mr. Oulevey emphasizes the importance of "building your brand" and understanding Japan's cultural and business values and following them, including being on time and being reliable. Moreover, Mr. Oulevey thinks staying humble makes one more approachable and people will feel they can confide in their leader. In order to bond with his team, Mr. Oulevey spends time outside of work with them enjoying social activities. Yet he points out that every leader has their own style of building trust, and it is important to find a balance between engaging with the team outside of work and actual work. To new incoming foreign leaders, Mr. Oulevey advises to have good time management abilities in order to be reliable and gain trust. Even if one wants to make changes, Mr. Oulevey emphasizes the need to fit into the Japanese culture first and take steps to make transitions. Mr. Oulevey recommends being polite and showing humility when communicating with Japanese people to be essential as a leader wanting to engage with one's team. He also adds the importance of identifying who one's key advisors will be, although he warns that language ability should not be the only quality to look for.

Dr. Jochen Legewie takes us through his 30 years of leadership journey in Japan, starting at Daimler and then as Partner and Chairman of Kekst CNC, a global public relations firm. Dr. Legewie only picked up Japanese by chance as a side hobby, but his unique background in Japanese specialization and language ability, combined with a PhD in economics gave him a competitive edge and landed him a research position at Sophia University. Dr. Legewie then left academia and started at DaimlerChrysler, which at the time was investing into Mitsubishi Motors. Dr. Legewie first started off on a contract role, providing expertise on Japan to the German executive team, but when the German CEO became the CEO of the entire company, Dr. Legewie became Officer Head of Communications, overseeing 100 people in customer relations and PR. Dr. Legewie calls this experience leading a large team so early on in his leadership career to be "crazy." He reflects that this position was mainly building "cultural [bridges] in both directions" by convincing both the Japanese employees of Mitsubishi Motors and the German headquarters to work cooperatively. He recalls some of his early leadership challenge was being the middle person between the Mitsubishi Motors employees and German headquarters, as well as communicating and understanding English speaking employees who on the surface seemed to have a westernized way of working, but was in fact, resistant to change. When convincing people of various backgrounds to buy into the same direction of the company, Dr. Legewie says: "I found it very important to put on paper to visualize things that we are attempting, which is not necessarily a change. It's just the next step. Sometimes it was a big change, 180 degrees, but some were just the next step, but to make sure that people [understood] it, you had to put it on paper and go through it and invest time to explain it. [Additionally,] ask why are we doing this? Japanese people are smart if they understand the background. But very often, especially if it's implemented from the outside, the background is not convincing at first sight…but if you explain [the] reason, then there is a complete different level of buy in. So two steps first understand and then buy in. That would be my simple way." While working at Daimler, Dr. Legewie seized the opportunity to maximize his leadership and communications experience to start a Tokyo office for his current company, Kekst CNC. He admits recruiting his team initially was a challenge, but by staying patient and investing in training, the organization has successfully built a team of highly skilled, bilingual consultants. Dr. Legewie says his employees are drawn to the company because of the global culture and flat hierarchical structure, which is appealing to those who have international experience as well as women who are prominent in the PR and Communications industry. Dr. Legewie adds that the organization encourages people to gain experience outside of Kekst CNC in other companies by working in-house, and then returning as a more experienced consultant. On working and leading in Japan, Dr. Legewie points out that he has noticed Japanese workers tend to be fact and figure driven. He explains: "So you need to have frameworks and rules. And I go back to [explain] why is this, but then for the engagement this is only as a starting point. Engagement goes beyond. We want people to act on their own decisions. They should be proactive. And for this, you need to encourage and kick it off with some guidance in the beginning and tell people to take a risk...And then very visibly and openly reflect on this in group meetings and praise a person who has taken a risk or who has been proactive and do this in a way [that is] visible to others. And then people start to believe in you. And then you give this ownership and this responsibility." Dr. Legewie takes the same structured approach in delegation as well, clearly communicating to his staff what he expects and providing an explanation of how this delegation will benefit everyone, making the process more efficient. Additionally, when encouraging his team to be innovative, Dr. Legewie finds that some of the best ideas are born when he is not involved too much. He encourages brainstorming sessions amongst his staff without being a part of it, and then asks for a verbal summary. On gaining trust, Dr. Legewie maintains open communication with his team and tries to be transparent as much as possible, sharing statistics and information from headquarters to the local office, including the profit and loss reports. Dr. Legewie explains: "And we are also very transparent on a global scale about our revenues to our employees. And here in Japan, I go one step further, even in, as you said being not only open about what I think we as a company is going and should go, but also the real facts, the figures. And this is of course trust-building because I know from many Japanese compani

Hans Heijligers shares his global leadership insight having led in over a dozen countries before becoming the Head of Japan for IHG Hotels and Resorts, a British multinational hospitality company. Mr. Heijligers first arrived in Japan in 2014 after having worked in Singapore and has been with IHG for seven years. When comparing the different countries he has worked in, Mr. Heijligers says all countries are quite different, yet the cultural adaptation and leadership abilities required are quite similar. Although initially Mr. Heijligers learned that Japan has a very unique business culture, in finding common grounds he has been able to add value. As a foreign expat leader, Mr. Heijligers finds this particularly important when making important decisions. Hence, when developing an agenda and setting a strategy that works for the organization and the Japanese employees, he had done so in a collaborative way. Mr. Heijligers has also learned when to take a step back and stay patient. He adds: "If you allow the Japanese teams to have their own conversations, and if you're comfortable enough, [you can] say I don't need to be part of that…And start slowly, but surely build a culture around that." This kind of patient and collaborative approach has allowed Mr. Heijligers to build trust over time within his team. Mr. Heijligers further notes: "Japan is not so much about what you see…[it] is a lot about what you don't see…So learn to be...uncomfortable sometimes." In order to foster good relations, Mr. Heijligers says it is essential to have continuous conversations with the head office to communicate what will work best in the unique Japanese business culture. On engagement and innovation, Mr. Heijligers explains it is important to understand what each individual "cares" about and base their mission and values on it. He says for IHG, "one of the things that you should care for is that you're here to make lives better for people." These people include the employees themselves as well as the customers, owners and other stakeholders. Mr. Heijligers also emphasizes how rich IHG's people culture is, and the organization provides a wealth of learning and development opportunities. He claims: "we put our arms around our people through coaching sessions mentoring…we help really for diversity equity and inclusion to become [an] integral part of everything that we do." Furthermore, IHG supports those that want to gain a global experience to work in hotels abroad. Since IHG hotels are scattered throughout Japan, Mr. Heijligers ensures the leadership team works with the general managers to come up with innovative ideas on what works best at the local hotel level. He also credits technology to have automated many of the administrative tasks so the staff can focus more on customer relationships. The IHG hotels app has also improved the employee and customer experience. Since the COVID pandemic, Mr. Heijligers aspires to focus ever more on building rich relationships with the IHG stakeholders to enable the organization to grow. On his advice to new foreign leaders working in Japan, Mr. Heijligers advises to read up on the Japanese culture and understand a little about the historical background. Secondly, he urges people to listen, ask questions, and allow people to have their own conversations and show an interest, instead of just telling people what the agenda is and what they need to do. Thirdly, Mr. Heijligers recommends leaders to be open and vulnerable. He says: "Don't be afraid of sharing what you want to achieve. Be vulnerable as a leader…what we all have learned over the years in leadership is that when it goes wrong, it's your fault. When it goes, well, you got nothing to do with it. And just accept that."

Frank Packard takes us through his journey in Japan as well as different cultures and business experience in the financial industry. Mr. Packard was originally born in Japan and grew up in the US hoping to pursue law or journalism at Princeton University. After graduating, he lived in Cairo, Egypt for a while before returning to Wall Street to enter the financial industry, starting as an analyst at Paine Webber in 1984. He rapidly worked his way up and arrived in Tokyo in 1986 as the Vice President of the Tokyo branch. Since then, Mr. Packard has held leadership positions covering not only Japan but Asia Pacific regions at multinational financial corporations including Drexel Burnham, Bankers Trust and Bank of America. He is the Founder and President of Triple A Partners, an independent company focused on third-party fund-raising, equity research and corporate finance. Much of his leadership style is modelled after what he had learned from his early days in finance from his mentors. On his first multinational leadership experience, Mr. Packard recalls trying to break down the hierarchy by making an open office seating arrangement, which was uncommon during the 80s and early 90s. Mr. Packard also recognized the diversity of Japanese people, with different interest, hobbies and background, which he found shocking in the beginning. He also points out that though he found it challenging to hold non work-related conversations initially, he gradually learned to "let people go at their own pace" to learn something outside of work about his staff. On engaging with the younger generation, Mr. Packard admits it is difficult as the youth have many more choices than those in the 1980s. On gaining trust, Mr. Packard claims that listening to people and having patience is key to winning them over in Japan. After gaining further experience leading a team in Hong Kong for Bankers Trust, Mr. Packard began a joint securities company focused on fund placement. He built on this experience as the HSBC head of North Asia of the Alternative Investment Group. On team engagement, Mr. Packard consistently communicates to his staff about the mantra of the company which is broken down to three goal: to do legal business, do rewarding business and add value. He also notes the importance of ensuring the experience is enjoyable. Mr. Packard states that because of his team's bilingual capabilities, they have been successful in dealing with clients who need support in both languages that cannot be delivered by larger Japanese firms. Mr. Packard is also keen to providing people with more opportunities to expand and develop their career. For example, he has had an administrative staff take on more active roles in finance. Additionally, Mr. Packard emphasizes the importance of giving women equal opportunities as men in developing their career paths. Mr. Packard shows he trusts his team by allowing unlimited holidays, which allows people to work in a more flexible manner. To newcoming leaders, Mr. Packard advises to be clear and transparent when communicating with Japanese staff, as they will take everything literally. On a similar note, he does not encourage people to work long hours in the office as executive assistants think they also have to work longer hours. Secondly, Mr. Packard has observed that Japanese are very state conscious and want to have consensus over large decisions. In order to be mindful of this, Mr. Packard advises to learn about the educational background of people to better understand them. Lastly, he advises to not forget to laugh and have moments of joy by being vulnerable and authentic.

Kiyo Weiss shared extensive insight into her path to leadership starting from an OL in a Japanese corporation to becoming the first female Director of Air Canada's Asia Pacific region. Born and raised in Japan, Ms. Weiss entered Mitsui & Company in an administrative role after graduation but became interested in pursuing a more active business career. She recalls: "watching the guys working globally going overseas all the time taking out their clients at the beautiful Japanese restaurants and luxurious places…really made me wonder if there's anything I can do, somebody like me, a women can do." After working for Mitsui for a year, Ms. Weiss brushed up her English skills at Simul Academy and entered Business International, a consulting subsidy of British Economist. After a year, Ms. Weiss found an opportunity to work for United Airlines as an Account Executive. Within 10 years working for United and starting a family, Ms. Weiss moved on to a sales training manager role and then became the first female manager leading a team of 150 people including call centres and ticketing offices. After being promoted to a sales manager role at United Airlines, Ms. Weiss was invited by Air Canada to be their head of Sales and Marketing, before becoming head of the Japan office and now, Asia Pacific. Ms. Weiss's first leadership experience was leading 150 unionized employees working at United Airlines' call centres and ticketing offices. She claims this experience as extremely challenging, as she dealt with daily union issues from overtime work, customer complaints and wage negotiations. On being a young female leader, she recalls: "Being a woman, almost like a girl from their point of view, I think there were strong reservations by some of the people [in the beginning], but since I was young and energetic, I was very committed to be successful because my boss from the US trusted me. I worked really hard. I think I had a lot of sleepless nights dealing with the union members, but I think I had passion." As a sales manager at United Airline, Ms. Weiss introduced certain American sales methodologies but recognized that Japanese clients and colleagues had different communication styles from their western counterparts. Thus, she encouraged her staff to develop their communication skills by learning how to ask better questions to their clients and focus on consultative sales. She also advised her team to take public speaking courses to gain more confidence, step out of their comfort zone and build a stronger presence. As the Director of APAC, Ms. Weiss explains other countries require training in different field. For example, with Australia, rather than communication skills, they would need more training in accountability. On moving from United Airlines to Air Canada, Ms. Weiss says as an active Star Alliance Committee Member, the Air Canada staff knew her from before, which made the transition between the two companies smoother. On engagement, Ms. Weiss raises the importance of having small team activities like holding birthday tea time every month so that her staff gets to know her and each other on a more personal level. Ms. Weiss also encourages her staff to engage with members from other countries in regional meetings. By mixing her Australian, Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese staff during these regional meetings, Ms. Weiss finds they are able to stimulate each other. Ms. Weiss explains: "I like those passionate energy [from other APAC staff] and I want the Japanese to be that way. They have different qualities that we value and they don't need to be the same, but still, if they can acquire that kind of emotional attachment in public, the team will flourish even better." Ms. Weiss also adds that by encouraging her Japanese staff to hold discussions in groups, they are more likely to present innovative ideas as they feel they will not be the sole individual who stands out. After the brainstorming sessions, Ms. Weiss also comes up with an action plan and assigns people to be responsible to leading an agenda with a set time frame, which she feels gives them a sense of responsibility and trust. Ms. Weiss claims: "I like to delegate…because I can show my confidence in that person so that the person will feel trusted and get motivated." In order to gain trust from her employees, Ms. Weiss advises to communicate openly and show her vulnerability as she is not always the one with all the answers. She also adds that having the right balance between being flexible and decisive is key to leadership. She finds this is particularly the case, where Japanese people are used to receiving specific instructions and diligently following them. She maintains close communication with her direct reports by having one to one weekly meetings, and also holds group meetings as well. Ms. Weiss also advises new foreign leaders coming into Japan to not be discouraged by the lack of enthusiasm from the Japanese staff, as they take longer to open up and dev

Reiko Nakamura, Managing Director of SGK Japan, first began her career as a radio DJ in Kobe, where she grew up and graduated from university. She entered the advertising world joining Kobe Shimbun Jigyosha, one of the largest advertising firm in Kobe as a salesperson. During her time there, she became number one in her sales team. Ms. Nakamura's focus on providing solutions to customers rather than purely selling ad space helped her build strong client relationships. Hoping to gain more global experience, Ms. Nakamura began learning English. She then moved to Osaka to enter SGK, working for Proctor & Gamble as a Print Production Manager. After becoming an Account Manager, Ms. Nakamura stepped into her current role as the Managing Director of SGK, moving from Kobe to Tokyo. When comparing leading between Japanese and multinational companies, Ms. Nakamura says she saw differences in decision making processes between the Japanese and Americans. She observes that the Japanese are detail-oriented perfectionists and build long term client relationships through a set process. With the Americans, Ms. Nakamura notes they are very decisive and think in a black and white logical manner. Thus, when leading her Japanese employees, Ms. Nakamura carefully explains processes and the reason behind a certain task. The clients also have different expectations depending on their background, and Ms. Nakamura says her relationship building style is different between local and global contracts. With local clients, they require much more details and processes to follow. On recruitment, Ms. Nakamura appealed to those who liked working for more flexible and less hierarchical environments as well as those that want to work for big brand names like Coca Cola. As a women leader, Ms. Nakamura first struggled to show her leadership as she initially thought she had to adapt a more authoritative style. However, after receiving some training and gaining further experience, Ms. Nakamura realized it is best to be herself and use her strengths in communication. She has weekly Monday morning meetings with her team to ensure they stay engaged despite the pandemic and remote work environment. She values having one on one communication with all her staff as well as having daily conversations with her managers. In order to educate her team members, Ms. Nakamura tries to lead by example but also show her struggles so others can learn from them. On innovation, Ms. Nakamura encourages her staff to think outside of the box. She has encouraged her team members to come up with innovative ideas and present them to each other. Additionally, Ms. Nakamura values the execution of those ideas and encourages people to track what they are doing and follow up. Ms. Nakamura is also part of organizations to support other businesswomen to take on more leadership roles. For newcomers to Japan, Ms. Nakamura advises them to encourage Japanese employees to speak up and provide explanation on certain tasks or projects to build trust. She also encourages learning some Japanese to show interest in Japanese culture. Ms. Nakamura lastly advises to "not be afraid to open every door to see the world."

Ken Shibusawa shares extensive insight in the global financial sector and alternative investment that has been influenced by his great-great-grandfather, Eiichi Shibusawa, the "Father of Japanese Capitalism." Mr. Shibusawa was born in Japan and grew up in the United States from a young age when his family first moved to New York. He graduated from the University of Texas in Chemical Engineering but decided to pursue a different career course. After working for an NGO started by his uncle called the Japan Centre for International Exchange, Mr. Shibusawa obtained an MBA from the University of California, Los Angeles. Mr. Shibusawa then went into finance, working for JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs in Japan. Mr. Shibusawa is currently the CEO of Shibusawa and Company, Inc., a strategic advisory firm. He also founded and leads Commons Asset Management, Inc. Additionally, Mr. Shibusawa is the director of Keizai Doyukai (Japan Association of Corporate Executives) and a steering committee member of UNDP SDG Impact, advisor of University of Tokyo, and visiting professor at Seikei University. Mr. Shibusawa also runs a podcast called "Made in Japan" https://madewithjapan.net/ Mr. Shibusawa recalls that working in investment firms during the Japanese economic bubble in the 80s was a mixture of fun experiences combined with stress and frustration. After turning 40, he made the decision to start his own business and founded Shibusawa & Co. When recruiting staff, Mr. Shibusawa mainly found his team through connections and just when the business was beginning to pick up, the 2008 Financial crisis occurred. Shortly before the crisis, Mr. Shibusawa started another company in 2008, the Commons Asset Management, which was a mutual fund specialized in long term investment opportunities to Japanese households. To overcome the crisis and the challenges of leading a business during uncertain times, Mr. Shibusawa started out modestly asking for small amount investments and used the internet to promote his companies as well as using his network. He also saw a connection between his mission to encourage individuals to invest for long-term accumulation of wealth to secure the future of their families with Eiichi Shibusawa's philosophy on ethical capitalism. Mr. Shibusawa saw the crisis as an opportunity to focus more on alternative investments and focused on growing his asset management business while researching further on Eiichi Shibusawa and his works. On gaining trust, Mr. Shibusawa says it is important to share a common purpose beyond financial rewards. For his asset management company, Mr. Shibusawa's purpose is to have long-term value creation and he expects his team to share his mission. He also adds how a sense of growth keeps the organization together. Additionally, having worked in a global corporate environment, Mr. Shibusawa recognizes the need to be a "translator" between headquarters and local offices, responding to both digital and analogue demands. On his advice to foreign leaders coming into Japan, Mr. Shibusawa advises to be observant and listen to people who are not vocal yet have brilliant ideas. He also recommends learning basic Japanese to win the local team's trust and respect.

David Wouters is the President of InterSearch Japan, an executive search and human resources consultancy company, and the former Corporate Liaison Manager of Coca-Cola Japan. Mr. Wouters first arrived in Japan in 1969 to work for Coca-Cola as the Marketing Manager after working in the US and Southeast Asia for a number of years. Mr. Wouters developed a Coke systemized training program in Japan to train employees on both the American and Japanese side to be able to better sell and market the product in Japan. In comparing Japanese and American way of sales and marketing, Mr. Wouters points out the Japanese are more relationship based whereas the US had a rigourous system and specific set of objectives. In order to join these two different cultures, Mr. Wouters encouraged open communication by having many meetings and looking at case studies. Mr. Wouters explains: "I found the best way to teach a program like that was [to] find out what they wanted and get to their thinking and then utilize their thinking with the other side's thinking through meetings, organizations, sales programs that we developed." He also later brought in the independent bottling companies to the meetings as well to ensure Coca-Cola and the bottlers worked well together. Mr. Wouters adds: "We had to make it a join effort. Wasn't easy at the time [but eventually] I got a lot of cooperation from both sides because they both wanted to be strong." During Mr. Wouter's time, Coca-Cola also began a recruiting program that hired young Japanese graduates who had studied overseas by visiting universities. Out of the pool of these graduates, one eventually became the company president. As part of forming good relations between diverse range of employees, Mr. Wouters also encouraged playing leisure activities together, such as golfing. He claims: "if you make the people that are working with you happy, that's one of the secrets of training. If you strictly authorize or direct, you're going to have a problem. I had to make both sides want to work together and sports to me was one of the activities that work best." After playing golf, Mr. Wouters recalls having a drink and then holding serious meetings on marketing and sales. Mr. Wouters emphasizes the importance of getting cooperation and getting people to understand what results and benefits the project will bring to them. He adds: "you had to do it in a way that was appreciated. It's the same thing in life. You have to gain appreciation by the way you act or react with other peoples and their situations." Since the training programs were successful, the US asked Mr. Wouters to replicate it in Atlanta. Mr. Wouters then went to graduate school at New York University's Stern School of Business and eventually resigned from Coca-cola in 1976. After establishing his own company, InterSearch Japan, Mr. Wouters was asked by Coke to join them again in 2019 . On advice to new foreign leaders in Japan, Mr. Wouters highlights understanding the culture and people to be key. Secondly, he advises leaders to work together with your team in order to lead them, and choose to work with people who work with each other on a "pro-positive" manner. Thirdly, Mr. Wouters emphasizes the value of being receptive which he finds brings people closer. He explains: "get involved with them, not above them…If you are with them, they have more tendency to be with you."

Moeko Suzuki provides valuable insight as a young global-minded entrepreneur having studied in the UK, US and established two organizations in Japan – StartUp Lady and Tailor Innovations. After graduating from an American University, Ms. Suzuki returned to Japan and worked for a company specializing in foreign direct investment as a business developer. After working for two companies, she founded Tailor Innovations, a company that provides a variety of IT and consulting services including manufacturing of IoT products, live streaming support, and helping Japanese business expand abroad. In 2015 she co-founded StartUp Lady, a nonprofit organization that aims to connect and help educate a diverse community of entrepreneurs who are starting up their business. Giving up a stable job, Ms. Suzuki decided to pursue her dream and establish Tailor Innovations. Ms. Suzuki initially faced many challenges such as being unable to communicate with engineers in creating the operating platform. Ms. Suzuki also found it challenging to grow her network as a young entrepreneur without former connection. When recruiting her team, Ms. Suzuki focused on hiring people who did not want to work in the traditional Japanese company culture but be in a more flat, transparent organization. Her company also provides flexible working styles for people who are interested in holding a side job. Ms. Suzuki notes that the change in Japanese government policies around 2017 have made it much easier for foreigners to work in Japan and the recent pandemic has also allowed more companies to permit their employees working more than one job. On motivating people, Ms. Suzuki notes the importance of having close communication with each individual to understand their needs and where they want to direct their energy. In order to establish this trusting relationships, Ms. Suzuki has frequent one-on-one meetings at least 1-2 times a week. Ms. Suzuki also actively participates in social events with her employees to bond with them not just on a professional basis but in a more casual environment. Moreover, Ms. Suzuki carefully coordinates what type of work people are assigned so that her employees can focus on utilizing their skillset. For example, with the CEO of the company, who is also her husband, Ms. Suzuki splits responsibilities based on their expertise and strength, which she finds makes them a good team and well trusted by the employees. Additionally, she seeks to create an open environment where her employees can freely admit their mistakes in order to prevent future mistakes from happening and they are able to find the best solution together. Ms. Suzuki says: "I feel like many people only learn from their mistakes. So what I can suggest is probably show them the [past] cases" of what type of mistakes have happened and how they have been resolved. On StartUp Lady, a female entrepreneur community, Ms. Suzuki explains: "I think showing that there is a community where [many] international females can get together to encourage each other [will] support younger generations. I feel like a lot of young people are very motivated to do something, but there's not much [of a] safe community or the community that's maybe open to younger generations at this moment." StartUp Lady seeks to meet such needs of young entrepreneurs. Another of Ms. Suzuki's dream is to better the education in Japan, which StartUp Lady seeks to do by providing an educational program for female entrepreneurs called 60 days Start Up Program Challenge where they take classes for 60 days and eventually present their business ideas. Currently, the community has grown to around 1500 members, mostly spreading by word of mouth and some media exposure. On leading in Japan, Ms. Suzuki advises to maintain open communication in order to build trust. She also advises new incoming leaders to look for communities to join in order to gain from other people's expertise and experiences. Lastly, Ms. Suzuki explains the importance of not just studying businesses in Japan but foreign businesses who have already started something within the same field to gain insight.

Seth Sulkin takes us through his journey in Japan from working as a journalist to a civil servant to becoming the leader of three organizations - Pacific Air Capital, Pacific Hotels, and most recently, Food-e. Mr. Sulkin first arrived in Japan in 1987 while working for Wall Street Journal and experienced the economic bubble which he recalls as "an incredible time living in Tokyo [and] a rare experience that only happens every 1000 years." Having worked as a journalist in New York, London and Tokyo, Mr. Sulkin decided to change his career path and enrolled in graduate school at Stanford University. There, he studied Japanese political economy, specifically on how Japan uses aid, trade and investment to promote economic development in Southeast Asia. After graduation, he worked for Japan Development Institute to build infrastructures all over the word including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Russia and Poland as a Project Manager. Mr. Sulkin then worked for the Clinton Administration working on defence policy related to Japan. Mr. Sulkin decided that working in business and being his own boss was a better fit and started building his own development company, first based in the US with a focus on opening department stores and shopping centres in Japan. In Japan, Mr. Sulkin started with a team of 10-15 people working with large Japanese partners who wanted to build US style shopping centres. He first developed his network based on the relationships he had established while being in Japan for nearly 10 years. Mr. Sulkin continued to expand his network through introductions, which increased his credibility and ability to build trusting business partnerships. Mr. Sulkin believes that as a small organization, his company was able to bring the overseas real estate expertise the Japanese companies needed at that time, which would have been difficult for larger corporations to provide. He adds: "there aren't that many Japanese who can easily fit into the business world in the US [and] easily send people overseas, figure out [and] learn what they need to and bring that technology back to Japan." On hiring his staff, Mr. Sulkin says he always finds quirky talented people by selling them on the vision of his company as well as providing good work life balance with a competitive salary. He says the advantage of being a foreign company is that he is able to hire people who do not fit the traditional Japanese environment or are not given equal opportunities, such as women. Mr. Sulkin has been successful in hiring good managers and leaves the management of the staff to them, as he does not micromanage and instead focuses on key issues where he can add most value. In order to maintain high accountability and trust, Mr. Sulkin follows a ringi system to a certain extent to enable him to delegate day to day decision making to other. Mr. Sulkin also emphasizes the importance of horenso - report, communication and consulting. He explains to his new staff that maintaining an open communication style is critical and this means admitting mistakes honestly before it gets out of control. To maintain high engagement, Mr. Sulkin is in constant communication with various offices in-person, over the phone and online. He has come to realize during his leadership career that his staff appreciate a good work life balance and freedom at work as well as in their personal lives. Mr. Sulkin encourages people to take time off as well, as he believes this increases work engagement and the well-being of his team. Additionally, during the global financial crises, the 2011 Earthquake and now COVID, Mr. Sulkin has never laid any of his staff off, which is his way of maintaining trust and engagement. When speaking to many hotel and restaurant owners, Mr. Sulkin discovered they were hesitant to join the online delivery service business because they were not satisfied with the cost and quality of the service. In order to meet these demands, Mr. Sulkin has started a new gourmet restaurant delivery app company called Food-e. With many restaurants struggling to keep their business afloat, Mr. Sulkin has had over 90% prospective restaurants join his delivery service which promises professional delivery of gourmet meals through an app. On leading in Japan, Mr. Sulkin thinks it is important for international leaders to speak out and express their opinions with suggestions on improvements. On his advice to newcomers, Mr. Sulkin advises to study about Japanese business as much as possible, and if on a short assignment, to hire a good translator and assistant who understands the Japanese business culture. Moreover, he advises to meet people both during one's personal and professional time. Lastly, he advises to have an open dialogue with one's team and specifically ask for their ideas. Mr. Sulkin says: "[in doing so] I think you'll have a much richer experience and you'll learn a lot more and you'll contribute much more [to Japan]."

Jim Weisser shares his leadership journey in the Japanese IT sector after arriving in Japan to initially teach English to becoming a leader of many internet businesses since the mid-90s. After realizing his IT skills were in high demand in Japan during the mid-90s pre-internet era, he began developing further expertise in the area by working for an internet service provider and then working for Enron to help establish their broadband business. From 2000 to 2006, Mr. Weisser founded three companies. The third company he established, PBXL KK was an SaaS based company focused on cloud calling. The company was acquired by BroadSoft in November 2015, which was later acquired by Cisco. Mr. Weisser is currently the CEO & co-founder of SignTime, an electronic contract service provider. At SignTime Mr. Weisser aims to make the contract process in Japan much more manageable for companies with the use of technology. They have taken on a Silicon Valley style agile work process while implementing Japanese level of quality control insurance. He finds that his team members are surprised by his company's culture where mistakes are taken as a lesson to make future improvements. SignTime has landed successful deals with Japanese multinational corporations by promoting their fast-paced responsiveness in which they provide same day responses to compete against larger companies. As a young leader starting from his early to late 30s, Mr. Weisser recalls the mistakes he had made and the valuable lessons learned from them. He recalls: "I didn't listen very well…and [being educated] in an engineering environment…I have no problems [with] someone saying, Jim, you're an idiot. This is why…And it took me a long time to realize most people were very uncomfortable in that kind of an environment." From past experiences and mistakes, Mr. Weisser has learned to value diverse experiences and opinions. He is mindful of holding conversations with his team, asking questions and laying the groundwork by getting external input instead of running solely with his ideas. Mr. Weisser values establishing interpersonal relationships with his staff and identifying people's passion and interests to motivate them and understand how they want to be treated. In learning more about his team, he says he is able to better understand his customers as well. Mr. Weisser also admits his mistakes publicly which he finds actually builds trust with his Japanese employees. He is also careful on not micromanaging and mainly focuses on communicating the vision of the company and other leadership components such as financial operations, but delegates the rest to his team. To newcomers in Japan, Mr. Weisser advises to be a great listener and constantly share information to the point of overcommunicating. Secondly, he advises to hire people based on what they have achieved rather than putting too much emphasis on their English language skills. Thirdly, he advises to give people a sense of ownership when trying to make a change to make the process more productive and engaging. He notes: "If you can show that you're an effective advocate for the people here to headquarters, then you end up being a hero locally…having other people pushing the rock with you makes it a lot easier."

Frank Foley, founder of the Next Big Thing and former Managing Director of HarperCollins Japan, provides a detailed account of working inside Japan's publishing and media industry through his experience with multinational corporations including HarperCollins and News Corporation. Mr. Foley first got his start as a publishing officer at the Australia Japan Research Centre which led him to land a job at the publishing company HarperCollins Japan. This then led Mr. Foley to work for News Corporation, an American multinational mass media company owned by Rupert Murdoch. At News Corporation, Mr. Foley liaised between the media company and its Japanese partners using his language skills and knowledge of Japanese culture. Mr. Foley was involved in many start-up projects investing in satellite television through News Corporation, sitting in on meetings involving Mr. Murdoch, Soft Bank founder Son Masayoshi and executives of Fuji TV. Working as a country manager for News Broadcasting Japan (later Fox International Channels), Mr. Foley led a team of 40 people after being in charge of massive downsizing. In addition to the task of downsizing which Mr. Foley recalls as a "traumatic experience," he found it challenging to ensure his employees were highly engaged and working strategically towards a common goal. Being a liaison between head office and Japan was another major challenge to bridge the cultural differences between various parties. When leading the downsizing operation, Mr. Foley learned the importance of communicating the "why" behind the restructuring to maintain transparency and trust with his remaining team members, as well as investing in a strong HR department with empathetic, approachable people. After working in News Corporation for close to 20 years, Mr. Foley discovered he was not a "TV person" but inclined more towards business development and brand management. He then moved on to HIT Entertainment to work on brand business development for Thomas the Tank Engine. On his fascination with branding, Mr. Foley explains: "I realized [what] I really liked about those brands was…the brand itself, not TV specifically, but about the brand and how it fitted with the lifestyle of Japanese people, and you can see the possibilities that go way beyond the actual business that you're in. So I…was very interested in moving from a specific operational business [to one], where you're really working with the brand and trying to figure out what the best strategy for the entire brand is…And Thomas the Tank Engine was that….it's like sky is the limit." In addition to Thomas, Mr. Foley also worked for Guinness World Records owned by HIT Entertainment. There, Mr. Foley had the challenge of coming up with a new business model for the product as the brand was just entering the Japanese market. Mr. Foley then became interested in building his own business and began providing brand consulting for various consumer products, which led him to become Executive Managing Director at Universal Music's subsidiary company, Bravado where he helped successfully recruited another executive to turn the business around. Mr. Foley then moved back to HarperCollins as the Managing Director leading the distribution of English language books in Japan, such as Harlequin novels and manga in partnership with Softbank. Under his leadership, Mr. Foley sought to have the business operate on a brand driven strategy that focused on growth and the needs of the market rather than following a set template. For example, Mr. Foley used HarperCollins' and his personal global connections to land a publishing deal with soccer player Maya Yoshida to publish his autobiography in English and Japanese. On landing this book deal with a celebrity soccer player, Mr. Foley explains: "if we just went head to head with Shueisha, Kodansha (Japan's top publishing companies), we're not going to get anywhere. We have to think innovatively. We have to think, okay, what can we borrow from our leverage or head office for more international network to allow us to punch above our weight here in Japan." To create a culture of open communication and high engagement among his employees, Mr. Foley has created opportunities for people to share information and present their ideas. For example, at HarperCollins he has set up a "hall of fame" bulletin board in which different departments would post updated information on what type of projects they are working on. At the end of the month, Mr. Foley would have people from all levels present their projects to the rest of the team to create a sense of ownership and accountability. Mr. Foley also provided equal opportunities for people to work on projects, regardless of their job titles in which an employee in the IT department would be the project lead to publish an Elon Musk book on Tesla. Mr. Foley has also become more mindful of knowing when to step back as he adds: "in more recent years [I've realized it's best to] just get the right peo

Claus Eilersen, Senior Vice President of Novo Nordisk, Japan, provides deep insight in leading in the pharmaceutical industry in various countries including the US, Canada and Japan. Mr. Eilersen first entered Novo Nordisk after graduating from business school as a liaison between the headquarters in Denmark and Japan, as well as the US doing business development. He initially lived in the US but in 1995 moved with his family to Japan to become the CFO and eventually became the President of Operation in Canada. In 2005, Mr. Eilersen returned to Japan to step into his current role as Senior Vice President in the Japan office. Having led in multiple cultures within the same organization, Mr. Eilersen describes doing business deals in Japan as a "complete immersion in a different culture" with a "very steep learning curve." To build trust amongst his team, Mr. Eilersen held one-on-one meetings with his direct reports and set ambitious targets while establishing the company's own distribution system. By having a clear common goal, Mr. Eilersen believes this strengthen the motivation and engagement of his employees. Additionally, in order to establish mutual respect, Mr. Eilersen tried to see things from his employees and customers perspective. For example, by making numerous visits to clients across the country, Mr. Eilersen gained a clearer understanding of what particular question or service is expected from a particular customer and was able to provide a better solution. By talking to customers Mr. Eilersen saw first hand the meticulousness of Japanese consumers, who will only accept the exact number of products or else doubt the brand's quality and lose trust. Having worked in North America where defect products were accepted if for a discount, Mr. Eilersen calls this an important lesson learned. Under Mr. Eilersen's leadership, Novo Nordsik of Japan came up with with innovation by creating a centre of excellence for quality to detect early signs of quality issues, which was implemented globally. Mr. Eilersen believes that these consistent and sincere effort to understand how business is done in Japan is appreciated and over time forms trust. To encourage people to stay accountable with high engagement, Mr. Eilersen delegates responsibility to staff with a clear message telling them this is their responsibility and they need to make their own decisions. Mr. Eilersen takes a bottom-up approach to gain input and feedback from people in many layers of the organization to create a project plan with high team engagement. The company also encourages people to come up with ideas on how to make the business better and gives out rewards for the best ones in order to create a culture for people to think in terms of improvement on a daily basis. To further stimulate innovation, Novo Nordisk forms project teams with a specific focus to solve a particular problem with leadership monitoring the execution. From such projects, Mr. Eilersen noticed people becoming more excited and productive, coming up with proposals that improved work efficiency by 15%. Additionally, Mr. Eilersen emphasizes the importance of having some degree of tolerance for mistakes and use them as a learning opportunity instead of blaming an individual. Mr. Eilersen also realizes that rather than rewarding people individually, team rewards were more effective in boosting morale as Mr. Eilersen believes that for his Japanese employees, the "sense of belonging to a team is very strong and important." Moreover, Mr. Eilersen has come to think the ultimate driver of engagement for his Japanese team comes from the satisfaction of doing a good job for a good cause and having the haraochi, the gut feeling that this is the right thing to do. Mr. Eilersen believes that this haraochi can be achieved through various discussions from several different perspectives of the organization. To newcomers of Japan, Mr. Eilersen advises to dive in and immerse oneself completely in the culture and see things with one's own eyes on how business is done in Japan. He recalls from his first real experience in Japan, he spent much time observing how people interacted to understand the culture and way of communication. Mr. Eilersen also advises to stay approachable and spend time with your employees and customers through nomunication. Lastly, Mr. Eilersen advises leaders coming into Japan to form allies within the company and make improvements by following the Japanese guidelines of how things are done, instead of having a "I can fix this" mentality.

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.

Loic Rethore, North Asia President of Dyson, shares his diverse background working in the consumer, luxury and premium goods industry across multiple countries including Japan, Australia, Korea and Hong Kong. Mr. Rethore originally developed a fascination with Japan after working as an intern in the Japan branch of L'Oreal. In order to stay in Japan, Mr. Rethore started working at LVMH Perfumes & Cosmetics, working for Givenchy as the North Asia Area Manager. He has then worked in Unilever as General Manager of the Asia Pacific region and Nespresso as Head of the Oceania region before coming into his current role at Dyson. During his first few years as a leader, Mr. Rethore's biggest challenge was building credibility and trust amongst stakeholders and his staff. In order to overcome this, Mr. Rethore tried to get to know people beyond just formal business meetings. He actively invited his team on lunches and held one-on-one conversations to establish a trusting relationship. Mr. Rethore also notes the importance of body language and introspection to overcome language and culture barriers. Working with a diverse group, Mr. Rethore provided insight on the different working style and relationship building between Japan, Korea and Hong Kong. For example, he notes that when doing business in Korea for Dyson, they are quick to buy the newest technology. On the other hand, in Japan, people are interested in high-tech brands but are more cautious and want to find out if the product suits their needs. When comparing Japan with other countries he's worked in Mr. Rethore says: "I think the relationship to speed, but also the relationship to technology is [different]." Mr. Rethore's experience in Japan helped him develop skills that benefited him when leading in other countries. The experience gave him ability to be more inquisitive and talk to people in stores to gain a better understanding of consumers and the market. When coming back from Hong Kong to Japan during his time at Unilever, Mr. Rethore also discovered his leadership ability had grown as he had worked with staff and stakeholders from all over the world and was able to relate to a diverse group of people. In addition, he felt recognized as people understood he was adding value by bringing in emerging distributors and exporters in premium brands. Mr. Rethore also encouraged his team to question ideas and think outside of the box to increase the engagement level and overall performance. When becoming the lead of Nespresso Japan, Mr. Rethore worked to bridge the gap between head office and Japanese leadership to find an agreed strategy. In order to gain trust from the Japanese side, he listened carefully to his team including the staff in the retail stores through one-on-one discussions and casual conversations. Furthermore, Mr. Rethore held workshops on organizational issues and in doing so, was able to form strategies in a collaborative way. He was also able to build new connections between his team and external organization as well, which helped expand the company's network. As a result, during his time at Nespresso, Mr. Rethore was able to oversee the opening of the flagship Nespresso store in Omotesando, move Nespresso products to the more visible depachika (underground level of Department stores) and launched popular original products like combining champagne fruits with Nespresso Iced Coffee. Working at Dyson, Mr. Rethore has built trust based on his previous leadership experience of open communication and collaboration as well as being a role model for others. In order for people to stay connected, Dyson has formed several virtual community groups similar to a Facebook group including a reading, cooking, and animal loving group. Dyson also hosts virtual café briefings which were held every week during the height of the COVID-19 crisis, and is still ongoing now. This briefing serves as the hub for information sharing and community building. To newcomers arriving in Japan to lead, Mr. Rethore advises to "find that balance between pushing too much and pushing not enough. Managing change in a country like Japan, that's [going to] move slowly, sometimes requires a lot of persistence and energy." He adds: "really work with [your team] and consider it as a journey."

Timothy Connor, Managing Director of Synnovate Advisory has been a veteran of Japanese business, having worked in Japan for over 30 years. He originally came to Japan under the MEF program (currently known as JET, a program that provides opportunities for internationals to teach English in Japan) and lived in Morioka City in the Iwate prefecture where he quickly learned Japanese. While teaching in the evenings, Mr. Connor studied fashion design at Esmod Japon and eventually began his own apparel brand still in his 20s. He specialized in making clothes for Japanese and international clients who were either very tall or small, so did not fit standard sizes. He calls the experience "great fun" and made various outfits including a wedding dress. After four years, Mr. Connor transitioned into the more promotional aspect of the creative business and began marketing for other artists and designers. As this was the 80s, Mr. Connor recalls enjoying the boom time in Japan like eating gold speckled sushi. Mr. Connor then moved on to importing artists work and promoting them in Japan, acting as the marketing arm for boutique designers. Mr. Connor then began working in a corporate environment in a senior strategy and marketing role in a firm of 25 staff within a large Japanese conglomerate in the printing industry. Stepping into a corporate leadership position for the first time, Mr. Connor found it challenging to lead a diverse group of Japanese and non-Japanese employees in a company with a traditional age-based culture. Mr. Connor was careful in finding the right balance between being part of a team but also maintaining a certain degree of distance as this is what was expected from leaders in the company. Having led a diverse number of teams in various industries, Mr. Connor also noted the difficulty in setting goals and targets with people from different backgrounds and set of expectations. Mr. Connor claims: "one of the tricky balancing roles and balancing challenges was to paint the right picture of where we're trying to go. But give people enough roadmaps so that they knew where they should go. What are their actual targets and what are my expectations to them?" Having worked with a number of salespeople, Mr. Connor also mentored and trained his staff to be able to close the sales instead of being too relationship focused with the client. After the firm closed down due to the economic downturn of the 90s, Mr. Connor worked with the parent company's president for a few years. Mr. Connor then took a leave and pursued his MBA at Duke University. Upon his return, Mr. Connor was released from his company and began his own management consulting business. Mr. Connor mainly consulted startup type clients and maximized his general manager skills he had acquired working in a large Japanese company. Mr. Connor eventually joined one of his client's company that sold online coupons to be used in restaurants as their general manager. After realizing the infrastructure for the marketing not being present, Mr. Connor joined the parent company that provided face-to-face marketing and sales and event marketing services to consumer products. There he worked as a managing director looking after three divisions of the company in sales, retail products, and legal, as well as HR when in need. On team engagement, Mr. Connor tries to maintain a balance between setting expectations as the leader but also ensuring his employees enjoy their work. Mr. Connor states: "What I discovered was we had people doing things and I wouldn't say they were struggling, but it seemed to me that they could shine doing something else. And so I would move people around from time to time doing different things. And when people are doing things that they're good at, they just stayed to automatically grow into it. That was a great discovery just to see that actually people do progress and grow and do things much, much better if they enjoy what they're doing." On innovation, Mr. Connor encourages people to come up with their own ideas by being patient and having open communication while asking leading questions. He also uses this style of communication to finding commonalities and gain trust, while noting the importance of "reading the air." Mr. Connor also finds that showing and communicating that you trust someone further enhances the relationship. For newcomers leading Japan, Mr. Connor advises to learn the language and understand work and home life are different for Japanese people although this is changing for the younger generation. "I think there is a lot of change happening…also, there there's a lot more openness now about people having stress-related issues. The ability to actually go to the boss and say, I'm feeling stressed out…It's a different world now [from the showa era]."

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."

Paul Goldsmith, Country Manager of Aquent Japan, shared his extensive leadership experience in the recruitment, automobile and IT industry across multiple countries including Japan, Australia, Singapore, the US, Kuwait and the UK. He first arrived in Japan in 1985 at 28 years old to help set up the staffing agency Adia, currently Adecco, in Japan. In 1993 he founded Panache, a recruitment agency focused on hiring bilingual IT engineers, which ran for 13 years. He then moved on to the luxury automobile industry by turning his love of cars into business. Mr. Goldsmith was involved in hosting global-scale car shows in Kuwait and the UK and also became involved in the British automobile manufacturing industry. Mr. Goldsmith returned to Japan in 2017 and worked in a software marketing company as well being part of projects working with Maserati Japan, the Italian luxury automobile company. In 2019, Mr. Goldsmith took on his current role after being approached via LinkedIn. Mr. Goldsmith found it challenging and exciting to be able to use his previous leadership skills and experience he had gained from his recruitment background in order to make Aquent Japan grow. Having worked in leadership roles in multiple countries, Mr. Goldsmith emphasizes the importance of communicating with clarity and consistency and explaining the reasoning behind it. He further explains: "I learned that having a vision is very important and…having a strategy and presenting that strategy to your staff clearly and sticking to it." He also noticed that in meetings, compared to the West, it is vital for foreign managers to be able to draw opinions out of people even if they do not speak up. Mr. Goldsmith also adds that COVID has reinforced the importance of managing through others, and he is very careful to continuously relay messages, ideas, instructions, innovation through his management team. In order to create a culture of open communication and innovation, Mr. Goldsmith is a proponent of giving everybody equal opportunities to succeed in their role. Through monthly company meetings Mr. Goldsmith reinforces the company values to ensure all levels of his employees understand what is expected of them. He has found that such communication and words of encouragement to take risks, has made his employees more flexible and innovative. One innovative aspect of Aquent is their use of technology, which has made the transition from office to remote work quite seamless. While maximizing the use of technology, Mr. Goldsmith is also mindful of delivering customized service to each job or employee-seeking client. He says this can be done through training and providing incentives. Additionally, Mr. Goldsmith maintains a balanced mindset between being results-oriented organization and making sure his staff genuinely care for the clients. Mr. Goldsmith also explains that he shows a degree of tolerance regarding employee performance instead of purely evaluating them on numbers. He claims: "We have these [all-staff] meetings and each office relays to the rest of the company, their successes during the month, but also failures…And the lessons learned from both. And as we both know, you learn more from failure than you do success." To newcomers in Japan, Mr. Goldsmith advises to have cultural sensitivity and to take the time to understand Japanese culture, instead of trying to implement drastic changes right away. He explains: "things are not the same in Japan as they might be from your home country, but Japan is open to new ideas and you can apply new ideas, but maybe there's a way of localizing some of those ideas. And maybe in some ways, some of those Japanese ideas are better than they are outside." Secondly, Mr. Goldsmith advises to understand the importance of going the extra mile for clients and paying attention to detail in order to build long-lasting, trusting relationships as he believes that "trust is an accumulation of positive experiences." Thirdly, he advises newcomers to develop strong ties with the foreign community to share ideas and expand one's perspective. He claims: "I think there are often viewpoints and sometimes there are rules that initially as a foreigner that you think are quite illogical, but then when you start to think through it from a different viewpoint you kind of see where it comes from."

Loic Bizel currently leads Wantomo, a premium Japan made recommended dog food company exclusively sold online. Mr. Bizel originally came to Japan from France in his mid-20s as the Export Manager for French shoe brands. As the leader overseeing the Asia branch, Mr. Bizel successfully introduced these shoe brands to Japanese department stores and select shops. Being a young leader, he sought to gain gradual trust from his team and was heavily involved in recruitment. Mr. Bizel specifically looked for people with international backgrounds who were open-minded and flexible about working in a smaller scale foreign company. Mr. Bizel also notes that the people he hired in Japan are very committed to the nature of their work. In 2001, Mr. Bizel founded his own company, Lebiz Consulting www.lebiz-consulting.com, where he provided fashion consulting using his knowledge and connections from his previous company. Mr. Bizel provided consulting to brands who wanted to launch in Japan or brands who already had but were having issues with distribution, positioning, and strategy, and so on. He launched www.fashioninjapan.com, a street fashion photo collection site. During this time, Mr. Bizel explains that Japanese fashion was becoming globally known, and entrepreneurs from all over the world began to come to Tokyo to understand new fashion trends and concepts. To meet this demand, Mr. Bizel also created www.tokyofashiontour.com and organized customized tours to inform visitors of Tokyo fashion. Capitalizing on the Cool Japan boom in the early 2000s, Mr. Bizel gradually gained more media attention and buzz. Mr. Bizel then joined Glamour Sales, a start-up company created by two French entrepreneurs. The company operated a membership-based flash sales business that distributed and promoted brands with excess inventory through pop-up stores and e-commerce websites. Mr. Bizel bought another flash sales company, Gilt Japan www.gilt.jp and changed the company names to Gladd www.gladd.jp, growing the business from 14-15 people to over 150 employees in 2016. Currently, the company has grown even further and is at about 250 staff. While researching on some successful business models in Europe and on Japanese trends, Mr. Bizel decided to target Japanese dog owners, and founded Wantomo, a premium dog food company. Wantomo delivers dog food recommended by a veterinarian to owners based on the dog's online profile through their online store, Leo & Lea www.leoandlea.com. Mr. Bizel hopes to market Wantomo through user generated content by building a rich online community, having customers post their experiences through social media. Mr. Bizel again mentioned the importance of building trust and being involved in recruitment of all leadership roles including sales, marketing, finance, logistics & operations, HR and web. He says: "I need to build the structure in the, the wall of the house and, and I, so you need to find the right people, the right talent and the right fit with the company." Mr. Bizel also values open communication and transparency to encourage his team to move in an agile manner instead of being too risk-averse and afraid of going in the wrong direction, like many larger corporations. When recruiting new hires to enter the Wantomo Mr. Bizel emphasizes: "the talent has to bring you something, but you have to bring them something also...that the Japanese company [doesn't know how to]." To newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Bizel advises to "stay yourself" instead of "trying to be Japanese." He adds that understanding the company culture is the key to succeeding and gaining trust. Secondly, Mr. Bizel advises to be curious and to be a good listener even towards opinions that you do not necessarily agree in order to maintain open and transparent communication.

Kei Sakaguchi has a wealth of experience both in global Japanese corporations and small-scale innovative companies. Growing up in a Catholic environment, Mr. Sakaguchi was exposed to foreign culture from an early age and aspired to work in a global organization one day. Mr. Sakaguchi graduated from Keio University with a law degree, and entered Sony Corporation as a new graduate after reading a cover story on Akio Morita, Sony's legendary co-founder and CEO. Mr. Sakaguchi first worked in the legal division of Sony but was selected by Mr. Morita to join his speech writing team. Mr. Sakaguchi had an incredible experience working under Mr. Morita, learning the ins and out of how he led. Mr. Sakaguchi recalls Mr. Morita's speech to newly hired graduates which urged young employees to be self-reliant and be the owner of their own career. In working closely with Mr. Morita, Mr. Sakaguchi describes him as a passionate believer and communicator of the Sony vision. He adds: "[Morita-san] was a very results-oriented person, careless about the method…but he was very demanding as to the quality of the outcome. So for employees, the team members, it was very easy to understand what he is demanding and what we need to deliver. That clarity of leadership made people work with commitment, passion, and motivation." Mr. Morita also encouraged innovation, encouraging employees to think outside of the box and to not be afraid of making mistakes as a result of that. To Mr. Sakaguchi, the lessons he learned at Sony and the "Sony DNA" that he developed is something that he still carries with him when leading and engaging with others. After 27 years at Sony, Mr. Sakaguchi's next move was to Coca-Cola, where he became the Manager of Global PR, leading a team of 30-40 staff. In leading a diverse team of staff, Mr. Sakaguchi highlights the importance of having a two-way communication, talking about the company vision and business goals. This style of communicating and creating real value for the company has, in Mr. Sakaguchi's experience, led to higher levels of commitment and motivation. Interestingly, Mr. Sakaguchi found certain aspects of the leadership style at Coke to be more manual-based than Sony. Yet Coke also encourage innovation and as proof, 70% of Coca-Cola Japan's revenue came from Japan-originated tea and coffee products. Within his PR team, Mr. Sakaguchi was mindful of encouraging his staff to not only publicize the joy and value of a new product but communicate the innovation behind it to tap into the unique Japanese monozukuri spirit. Mr. Sakaguchi then joined the senior leadership team of Meltwater, a San Francisco based online and social media intelligence company. There, he led a team of 20 people, who were mainly in their 20s. Mr. Sakaguchi committed himself to "downloading [his] longstanding corporate experiences" and educating his young team on the large Japanese corporation mentality and how the Meltwater employees can better approach them. Since his team was from a diverse international background, Mr. Sakaguchi also advised them on how to follow Japanese company work styles when communicating with potential clients. In order to maintain engagement amongst his team, Mr. Sakaguchi urged them to try new things on their own and be accountable for the results. He also encouraged those who failed in this task by encouraging them to carefully view the process and how it can be improved. After two years at Meltwater, Mr. Sakaguchi was headhunted by Eurasia Group, a New York-based consulting firm focusing on focusing on advising global companies on the potential risk of geopolitics on their global business. Mr. Sakaguchi initially ran a solo operation as the Japan representative mainly focusing on business development. To newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Sakaguchi advises them to be avid proactive communicators of the organizations value, mission and goals and engage in one-on-one conversations with employees frequently. He also advises the encouragement of the box thinking and being lenient towards failure as long as it is constructive failure. Moreover, he urges foreign leaders to encourage more individual initiatives from their team and tap into diverse talents, including non-Japanese and female candidates. Mr. Sakaguchi states: "globalization is still a must for many Japanese companies and for real globalization, for real success in the global market, you need to pick up positive and innovative views and suggestions from non-Japanese managers hired outside of Japan with new thinking."

Timothy Langley has been in Japan for over 40 years and has an intriguing career in American and Japanese public affairs. Mr. Langley originally grew up in Okinawa where his father's military post was stationed. After graduating from the University of Georgia, Mr. Langley taught English and played for the Santa Monica Rugby Club. He set his path to become a lawyer through the Monbusho scholarship and attended Tohoku University to study law but was rejected from taking the bar exam as a foreigner since it had "never been done." Unable to sit for the bar, Mr. Langley landed a job at the Japanese National Parliament after writing to a prominent Japanese politician and sending his resumes. Since this was the first time a foreigner was working inside the Japanese government, Mr. Langley was featured in the media within and outside of Japan including the American CBS show, 60 minutes. Mr. Langley eventually became an official lawyer after completing a law program at Georgetown. After working in Atlanta for a few years at a law firm, Mr. Langley was hired as an attorney for a manufacturing company in Kyoto to deal with a trade issue they were facing with the US government. Mr. Langley calls this experience working for a traditional Japanese company to be "a valuable experience in seeing how the Japanese work…how decisions are being made." He also notes the difference in leadership that he observed: "basically since it's a Japanese company, you're going to be there until you die. So that leadership and that aspiration that you might have to be a leader is applied very differently than it might be in a competitive environment, such as in the United States…and [Japanese] people [are] very risk averse as, as people know. And they're punctual, they get the job done, but they follow the manual. Mr. Langley then became the representative for the Commonwealth of Kentucky in Japan where he served for two years and gained some early leadership experience managing several staff. He then became General Counsel for Apple for four years where Mr. Langley essentially established the legal division from scratch. Since Apple was a growing company at the time, Mr. Langley recalls many challenges, including hiring the right staff and gaining commitment. Mr. Langley then transitioned into Amway for a brief period, before returning to Denver, Colorado with his family to start a law firm. He was not away from Japan for too long after being approached by General Motors to become their General Counsel and Director of Government Affairs in Asia although his term was cut short due to the 9-11 attacks. But this time, Mr. Langley was committed to staying in Japan. Realizing his value add as General Counsel, having represented global companies like General Motors and Apple, Mr. Langley started Langley Esquire, a public affairs consultancy where he is the President and Representative Director. He describes his earlier challenges on recruitment, including convincing his sons to join the organization. Mr. Langley also highlights the importance of building trust and avoiding a breach of trust to maintain good relations, which he calls "an asset that can be transitioned from generation to generation." To new leaders coming to Japan, Mr. Langley advises to have language familiarity, carefully observe others and ask questions to pick up on social cues that will help with decision-making. He adds that holding back and pausing in conversations is also a great way to communicate, claiming that in Japan, the "things that are being left unsaid carry as much weight as what [people] are verbally saying."

We have decided to re-publish this excellent interview with Andrew. 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.

Dr. David Sweet initially worked in the US Treasury Department in labor relations and organizational development for 10 years before moving to Japan. He has been working in executive search, having worked in en world Japan and serving as Director of the Tokyo consultancy Wall Street Associates, Dr. Sweet is currently the CEO and founder of FocusCore, a recruitment company focused on mid to executive level search for small to medium sized businesses. He is also the author of Sweet Sales, Sweet Success and host of the podcast series, Barefoot Lunch. One of the biggest leadership challenges Dr. Sweet faced was encouraging open communication and having his diverse team of people from various backgrounds all work together in the same direction. He found that having open forums enabled people to express ideas without fear as well as having offsite training and team building opportunities. Delegation and trust are also key factors, especially when the team grows to over 30 and it becomes important for mid-level management to take on more leadership. Dr. Sweet adds: "you need to really care about their wellbeing and follow up." By doing so, he notes that the managers overtime learn to manage through outcomes instead of micro-managing, Dr. Sweet mentions the need to adapt to the Japanese style of communication, which is "high context," and the importance of nemawashi before finalizing a decision. He adds, "[decisions are made] a little slower oftentimes, but I think there's a lot more buy-in and less mistakes along the way." Dr. Sweet also notes the long-term trust and relationship building component of Japanese business that drives workers to always maintain a high standard of product and service quality. This strong sense of customer service and emphasis on softer communication skills such as listening to the buyers needs was something Dr. Sweet brought back to the US when he returned to run a sales training company. Dr. Sweet believes that employee development is crucial in leading and keeping engagement high. For new recruits, FocusCore has a six month training program and for staff, there are weekly training opportunities. Dr. Sweet also encourages people to run projects. He finds that employees who take the training usually increases their performance and improves their time management. On Friday nights his team are free to join a zoom call to hold casual conversations where people exchange ideas in a more relaxed environment. In order to bring those ideas to realization, Dr. Sweet keeps track and follows up with people. He does however recognize that not 100% will be implemented. On building trust with the team, Dr. Sweet emphasizes the importance of listening. Some tips he uses include, asking a question and counting to 10 to let the other have time to give a thoughtful response. Dr. Sweet also asks the question "what else?"to dig deeper into the answers to get to the heart of what really matters to his team. He also says using different management styles for different people is essential, whether it is micromanagement, coaching, giving public praise, or holding one-on-one meetings depending on what is best suitable for the particular employee. Dr. Sweet advises newcomers to Japan to recognize 85% of leadership done in Japan is the same elsewhere, but be aware of the 15% that is different, learn it quickly. Dr. Sweet also points out the importance of forming good relations with 1 or 2 key players of a company who are the main drivers of the organization. He recommends going out for drinks and dinner with the team to build further trust, as it is an important part of Japanese culture.

Originally an engineer from Bologna, Italy, Lorenzo Scrimizzi arrived in Japan 26 years ago, and has been working for Carpigiani Japan for the last 19 years. He currently serves as the Representative Director. Previously, Mr. Scrimizzi worked in industries including consumer goods, automotive and trade, which has led him to gain a wealth of experience and knowledge. According to Mr. Scrimizzi, hiring the right people and retaining them, as well as engaging and gaining trust from staff, customers and headquarter are all challenging aspects of leading in Japan. Mr. Scrimizzi tries to recruit people with a sense of individuality and creativity instead of focusing too much on language capability. In doing so, he has created a team that is capable of adjusting to the Italian work culture which sometimes values individuality and initiative over structure and organization. Over the years Mr. Scrimizzi has worked to gain trust and encourage innovation from his staff by listening to them through smaller meetings, allowing some margin for mistakes, and being consistent with his words and actions. Moreover, Mr. Scrimizzi has found that having face to face meetings between his Japanese customers and headquarters has also helped increase a "certain level of awareness and sensitivity on both sides." These efforts have benefited his organization as Mr. Scrimizzi claims, "the level of detail, the level of attention, and that level of a need that Japanese customers have, probably has no matches in any other country in the world. So, if you're able to satisfy that, then what you gain is that you already have something which is ready and very reliable and good to be marketed in any other country in the world. " Mr. Scrimizzi advises to any foreigner looking to lead in Japan to learn the Japanese language and use body language to communicate. Despite living in Japan for 26 years, Mr. Scrimizzi is also open to new experiences. He explains: "I'm always curious to learn…we still have to be prepared to be surprised and to learn that there are other aspects of the Japanese business culture that we have not understood yet."

Once on the Board of Governors for the American Chamber of Commerce Japan, being Vice-President for six years and President for two, Glen Fukushima has an incredible wealth of knowledge in business, government and law. Studying at the prestigious Stanford and Harvard university, Mr. Fukushima worked in government including the Office of the United States Trade Representative where he was heavily involved in US-Japan trade negotiations. He then transitioned into the private sector, becoming Vice-President of AT&T Japan, President and CEO of Arthur D. Little, President and Chairman of Cadence Design Systems Japan, President, CEO, Chairman and Director of Airbus Japan, and now Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress. Despite his experience in negotiation, Mr. Fukushima explains that leading a Japanese organization with a global headquarter had many challenges, largely due to different expectations and way of operation. For example, Mr. Fukushima recalls his struggle to convince headquarters to adjust the performance evaluation system in Japan and avoid firing people for being bad performers like they did in the US. He also found difficulty navigating between headquarters who expected detailed reports from him on business in Japan, and his direct reports, who only expected him to manage higher-level matters. To deal with such challenges, Mr. Fukushima notes the importance of understanding Japanese values and respecting long-term relationships, as well as producing results. Mr. Fukushima also drew heavily on his diverse experience working in other American and European companies to persuade headquarters on how things are done differently in Japan. Additionally, Mr. Fukushima encouraged his Japanese team to interact with others outside of Japan on occasions such as regional meetings and visiting headquarters to establish better relations and broaden both cultures' perspectives. To encourage innovation, Mr. Fukushima worked on changing the Japanese risk-averse mind-set by rewarding those who would try out new ideas. Moreover, in leading multi-national organizations in Japan, Mr. Fukushima explains: "I think one of the selling points is that we're more innovative, we have new ideas, and to succeed in Japan, we can't do what the entrenched Japanese companies are already doing. Because unless we do something different and something better, we're not going to succeed." Mr. Fukushima gives fantastic advice for any foreigner who is going to Japan for the first time and will be leading a Japanese team. Firstly, he indicated the importance of understanding differences between Japan and the US and adjusting one's actions to respect Japanese culture. Secondly, Mr. Fukushima advises to learn from others and seek those who are experienced in working in Japan such as joining study groups (benkyokai). Thirdly, he emphasizes that respecting continuity, consistency, and precedence are all very important in Japan. Therefore, it is important to understand and respect the history, instead of trying to change everything. Lastly, he notes the increasing diversity of Japan during recent times. Mr. Fukushima states: "On the one hand, you could talk about large traditional Japanese companies from the pre-war period, they've been around for a hundred years…And then on the other hand, you've got these newer companies that are…similar to Silicon Valley companies…So, one caution I would add is that you need to realize that there's tremendous diversity in Japan and know what kind of organization you're dealing with. "

Born and educated in France, Malik Roumane details his journey to Japan, revisiting his experiences at Saint-Gobain, Cartier, Van Cleef and Arpels, Carrera y Carrera, Classic Fine Foods, and now Edenred, where Mr. Roumane is the company President and CEO. Mr. Roumane shares valuable insight in leading in Japan through patience, persistence and an open attitude. In order to enhance communication with his staff, Mr. Roumane actively participates in social events and has breakfast or online meetings with small groups to share about his life outside of work to create a more personal bond. By doing so, he believes his employees will in turn open up as well and be more trusting. He explains: "[In Japan] it takes more time for people to listen to you and to believe in your ideas…but when they [do believe it], they go for it. And they are extremely precise, they want to do things perfectly." Additionally, to increase employee engagement, Mr. Roumane encourages his team to take online classes, practice speaking English and take full advantage of digital tools. Mr. Roumane claims: "In order for people to develop, they need to be exposed to the outside world. And the outside world is education training seminars, talking to people, getting inspired." Mr. Roumane leads by example and constantly pushes himself to be exposed to new ideas, which he believes has helped him manage business in Japan. Based off his own experiences, Mr. Roumane gives fantastic advice for any foreigner who is looking to successfully lead in Japan. He emphasizes the importance of opening up and sharing one's personal side to establish a more trusting bond, but advises to maintain a good balance and not overpromise in order to run a profitable business. Mr. Roumane adds the value of patience and persistency to win trust. He explains: "if you're persistent, people around you will say, "wow, this is somebody we can trust because this person has a view, has a vision, and he builds on this vision."

Robert Noddin first arrived in Japan as an exchange student when he was at university. He attended Kansai University of Foreign Studies, before eventually going back to the United States where he started his career in the banking industry. Very soon after, Mr. Noddin received a job position with AIG, who he has been with ever since, and formerly served as President & CEO at AIG Japan Holdings. Mr. Noddin gives fantastic insight to his experiences, detailing the importance of communication, trust, and accountability. Mr. Noddin states: "to me, leadership is about inspiring people to go somewhere that they wouldn't necessarily go on their own. Management is about, I got a set of tasks to do today." Mr. Noddin holds open discussions across department on how to achieve clearly set objectives through each stakeholders' point of view. These discussions help create a sense of ownership and accountability amongst his staff in producing quality work. Additionally, attending social events outside of work and showing his "human side" has allowed Mr. Noddin to better engage with his employees. By building trust in this way, Mr. Noddin finds that his employees are more willing to seek advice when they are in conflict. "[Japanese people] have to put this façade on because that's what culture expects…so give them the opportunity to break with that…it makes a big difference." To encourage innovation, Mr. Noddin launched a venture capital-like operation within AIG in which a select number of employees worked on a short-term project to launch a product from scratch. Mr. Noddin explains: "that [project] was probably the single most effective thing we've done here, in my stint, to be able to prove to people it's okay to be creative, it's okay to think differently. We even let them change their work hours." For newcomers to Japan, Mr. Noddin advises to stay resilient, focus on the objectives, and respect Japanese history and culture, commenting that anyone coming to Japan to lead should "try to show how you can use that to become competitive and unique and different in the Japanese market."

Originally from the United Kingdom, Gordon Thom graduated from the University of Aberdeen and started learning Japanese before his career started in Japan. Mr Thom is the current Director of Nobasu Consulting, and shares his fascinating career progression leading Dyson's growth in the Japanese market and turning declining businesses around through patience and persistence. When Mr. Thom initially joined Dyson, he was entering a challenging market that was 99% dominated by Japanese products. He gradually built up his Dyson Japan team starting in 1998 and took a "hands-on" approach in selling and promoting the product by meeting up with potential buyers along with the Japanese Sales Director. Early on, Dyson's product was seen as "too big, too heavy and too noisy," so Mr. Thom became determined to develop the right product for the Japanese consumers. He explains: "I think Japan is a fabulous place to be because the customer is very demanding, in terms of quality, obviously, reliability, appearance." Overtime, Dyson developed a powerful, lightweight vacuum cleaner with a "No Loss of Suction" tagline and had a successful nationwide launch. The company's market share grew from 0.5% in 2004 to 16% in 2005. Mr. Thom moved on to lead the company's US branch. Even when dealing with a much larger scale business with thousands of stores to distribute to and 100+ employees to manage, Mr. Thom held on to his "hands-on" sales approach and sold directly to buyers instead of using distributors. After successfully turning around declining multinational businesses including Electrolux and Bodum in Japan, Mr. Thom led the launch of Shark Ninja, a US-based appliance manufacturer in launching their products in Japan. On leading in Japan, he advises to ensure whatever product or service is "right enough" for the Japanese consumer and to hire good people who can build on it. Mr. Thom further emphasizes that "people are critical" but "be prepared to take risks" and understand that "one can only change oneself. And the way to get people to change is, in a sense, to lead by example and behave the way you want your people to behave."

Michael Magee previously worked as a Product Manager for Johnson & Johnson in Japan before working at EMC Japan, then 3M Asia Pacific, before finally stepping into his current role as the Managing Director of BRITA Japan. Having been born and attending school in Japan, Mr. Magee already has the critical knowledge of Japanese language and culture that he recommends understanding before leading in the country. Through his experiences, Mr. Magee learnt that it is important to build relationships and trust with Japanese people and further comments that "the joy of working in Japan is really the relationships… If you have a friend, you can have friends for life." His wealth of knowledge about Japanese business and people lead him to give fantastic advice about competitive dynamics, the importance of listening, and how to relate to people on a deeper level rather than a professional level.

Spencer Wolfe is the current Director of QuickerWeb Cloud Services, the Managing Director of CIRCLE, the Manager of TRIBE Support, and the CEO of AINEO Networks. Having first worked on a farm in Oregon (U.S), and studied both judo and Japanese in high school, Mr. Wolfe soon moved to Japan to begin his career journey in technology. He explains how he realised that he could deliver tech services better than what other companies were providing, and so his entrepreneurial journey began. Throughout his story, Mr. Wolfe gives insight into how to manage people, including how to effectively communicate with Japanese employees. Additionally, Mr. Wolfe emphasises the importance of 'running with champions,' which he believes will greatly aid anyone who wants to be a champion themselves. His life and career experiences have given him an incredible work ethic and insight for advice to give those who want to lead in Japan.

Thorsten Pohl, Ex-President CEO of Boehringer Ingelheim Japan, talks about his global leadership experience in the pharmaceutical industry, having worked across continents in Brazil, Spain, and Japan. From a young age, Mr. Pohl aspired to work abroad, growing up in Germany in the age of the European Union where he saw opportunities beyond the limits of his home country. Mr. Pohl joined Boehringer Ingelheim shortly after graduating from university with an Economics and Business Administration background, being drawn to the human centric values of the family-owned pharmaceutical company. Mr. Pohl started working in Brazil during the first few years at the company, then became the Head of the Spain branch, before moving to Japan. Working in various cultures around the world, Mr. Pohl shares valuable insight on leading and motivating employees in the unique Japanese business culture. Moreover, Mr. Pohl values consistency, communication, and gaining consensus in order to build trust and effectively manage a team of 1600 people. For newcomers in Japan, Mr. Pohl advises to "listen, watch, try to understand people…build relationships with people and see things through their eyes and be patient. But also say what you want and make people understand how you want to lead."

Mike Alfant, Group Chairman and CEO at Fusion Systems and Chairman and CEO at Binfinity AG delves into his experiences leading in Japan. Mr. Alfant previously held the position of Vice President for The American Chamber of Commerce in Japan and currently is the President of the Tokyo American Club. In addition to this, he is also on the Board of Newport, Pasona Tquila and Healios KK, and has also advised at Stanford University and lectured at Keio Business School, Kyoto University and Temple University. Mr. Alfant's wide range of experiences clearly shows that he is true leader in the fintech industry of Japan. Mr. Alfant originally grew up in Brooklyn, New York and worked on Wall Street for roughly 10 years in the technical side of investment banking with his Computer Science background. Mr. Alfant became fascinated with Japan after a business trip, prompting him to move to Tokyo to start his first company, Fusion Systems. Mr. Alfant explains the difference in work culture and leadership style between the US and Japan, in which he describes the former to be achievement oriented, and the latter to be process oriented. He explains, "what I needed to do [in New York] was clearly articulate a goal and essentially get out of the way. What I found in Japan was that I really needed to flush out the process and the process would then enforce itself based on the characteristics of the employees and the culture here." Mr. Alfant additionally points out that Japan-based leaders need to have a long-term mindset like a marathon-runner to achieve definite results. In order to increase employee engagement and motivation, Mr. Alfant tries to avoid interjecting and let others take initiative. He also makes many of his employees shareholders of the company so that they feel more ownership within the company. In order to build trust with his employees, Mr. Alfant talks about being consistent with his behaviour, and understanding how people pay attention to action rather than just words. He also adds leading a healthy lifestyle with meditation, exercise, and eating well has helped him achieve this. Lastly, Mr. Alfant leaves excellent advice for those who wish to successfully lead in Japan. He advises newcomers to "limit the scope of your vision and goals" and focus on achieving one or two business goals. Secondly, he advises people to have thick skin, and accept that Japan is a unique culture that will not easily change. Thirdly, Mr. Alfant advises people to explore the beautiful places in Japan as "the real Japan is not Tokyo. The real Japan is outside."

Hideki Matsubara Summary Mr. Hideki Matsubara began his career in government banking but switched into cosmetics, working for globally renown brands including L'Oreal, Lancome and Unilever. He then moved on to Miele, a German manufacturer of high-end household appliances where he currently serves as the President and Representative Director. Mr. Matsubara obtained his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania. With a wealth of academic and real-life experience, Mr. Matsubara successfully revised a staggering business at the Swiss cosmetic company, La Prarie, as their first Japanese Managing Director and President. During this time in the early 2000s there was a boom in the high-end luxury brands and cosmetics, which Mr. Matsubara took advantage of, and increased La Prarie's profit by 2.5 times. Mr. Matsubara was also blessed with mentorship from Chris McDonald, the late President of Rolex Japan who introduced him to the Swiss Chamber of Commerce where he has made invaluable connections with other talents. Mr. Matsubara made the switch into Miele, where he leverage his experience with high-end consumers to revive the company's Japanese market. There, Mr. Matsubara gradually turned around the business and gained the trust of his employees, which was challenging at first due to previous drastic changes. Comparing the Japanese, French, American and British way of leadership, Mr. Matsubara talks about the importance of having a framework, a clear structure of reporting lines, in order to gain trust and increase engagement in Japan. Mr. Matsubara is often the mediator between the Japanese staff, clients, business partners, and German headquarters. He encourages his staff to communicate more by holding small group discussions, creating an internal communication committee, holding engagement surveys, and being open to implementing change through a bottom-up approach. To increase employee engagement, Miele holds celebrations, both large and small, including an annual celebration at the Roppongi Hills Club or cooking as a team building activity with Miele's appliances. To maintain creativity, Mr. Matsubara values the company's philosophy, Immer Besser, meaning better and better. To ensure constant growth in an engaging environment, Mr. Matsubara has set clear KPIs for each division so that outputs are quantifiable, while also valuing his employee's voices, in the form of encouraging presentation of new ideas in senior meetings or having voluntary committees. To newcomers in Japan, Mr. Matsubara advises them to learn the language, understand the culture and the way of the Japanese people in order to build trust and teamwork.

Originally from Australia, Martin Spann graduated from Bond University in 1991 with a major in Finance. He first arrived in Japan in 1993 and got his first job in the bank industry as a futures and options broker. Having gone back to Australia but continuing to study the Japanese language, Mr Spann soon found himself back in Japan with a leadership opportunity with the Japanese Government Bond Repo. Mr Spann joined his current company, the Commonwealth Bank, in 2010 where he became Country Head of Japan. In addition to this achievement, Mr Spann is also a member of the Australia and New Zealand Chamber of Commerce in Japan. Through his 20+ years of industry and Japanese experience, Mr Spann delves into the challenges and success he faced leading in a country that can often be difficult to foreigners. Emphasising the importance of good communication and accepting Japanese culture, Mr Spann explains his style of management and why it is imperative to learn the Japanese language. Furthermore, Mr Spann gives fantastic advice for anyone who is thinking of leading and managing in Japan.

Peter Jennings was fresh out of Law school when he joined Dow in 1985 as an attorney. After representing the company in major legal cases, Mr. Jennings moved to Hong Kong in 1998 after accepting the role as legal counsel for Dow Asia-Pacific. He stayed in this region for six years and briefly took on major roles in the United States before stepping into his current position as President of Dow Japan and Korea. Furthermore, Mr. Jennings is the Vice President of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan. Mr. Jennings' experience in the United States, Hong Kong and now in Japan has enabled him to gain a vast amount of knowledge about what it takes to be a good leader. He reflects back on lessons he learnt from his previous bosses and associates, and delves into the key components for being successful in Japan. Mr. Jennings further explores how he has been able to change the sometimes difficult Japanese business culture, which has allowed his Japanese employees and associates to feel more comfortable and trusted. Additionally, he talks about the importance of diversity and encouragement, and explains and exemplifies this by sharing success stories about women from Dow Japan. Finally, Mr. Jennings concludes by giving three key pieces of advice for any person who is hoping to work and lead in Japan.

Stefan Sacre, President CEO of Carl ZEISS Japan, originally came to Japan to pursue research in Tokyo University during the 80s. Dr. Sacre was fascinated by Japan, an emerging Asian power at the time, particularly in the semiconductor industry. He even remembers one of his professors in Germany saying "better watch out" as he predicted Japan to become the next superpower. By the time he was around 30, Dr. Sacre had lost interest in research and became an advisor to the European Commission in metals of industrial corporation towards Japan. His experiencing working in the "bureaucratic" circle gave him key insights into the funding structure of projects, which gave him an edge once he started working at a German optoelectronics company, SICK. There, Dr. Sacre was hired to turn around the loss-making business as someone new to a leadership role. Dr. Sacre implemented new work habits and restructured the business strategy to focus on selling key products. To have these products accepted by Japanese clients through meticulous testing and communicating this back to headquarters was a major challenge he faced. Yet Dr. Sacre fortunately found like-minded colleagues and stayed persistent. After three years, Dr. Sacre moved back to the company headquarters in Germany. By that time Dr. Sacre was married to a Japanese partner and decided to raise their children in Japan, he returned and became CEO of Bosch Rexroth in Japan. There, he managed a company of 1000 employees from originally leading 10-15 in his previous position. Dr. Sacre again had the challenge of communicating between headquarters and Japanese offices, and persuading those who were resistant to change. In addition, the organization was struggling from the impact of the 2008 Financial Crisis. He then moved to Eagleburgman in Germany after 6 years in Bosch, and returned to Japan to resume the role of CEO at ZEISS Japan. At ZEISS, Dr. Sacre manages a team of approximately 350 people and is proud of the company's reputation for integrity, long-term thinking and super advanced technology. Yet he has been confronted with difficulties that come from long-term success where people are reluctant to change from good to great. Dr. Sacre has taken on this challenge through constant communication and building trust, particularly by being transparent and consistent in his thought process and behaviour. To newcomers arriving in Japan, Dr. Sacre advises people to be open to learning without making any quick judgements based on your previous experiences, and accepting Japan as a well-functioning society.

Thierry Cohen, President of Japan Europe Trading and Founder of Solleone Bio, deep dives into Japan's business culture to explain why it's imperative to understand Japan before working in the country. Although Mr. Cohen is Italian, he moved to Japan with his parents when he was three years old, having graduated from the high school St. Mary's International School. Although Mr. Cohen could not speak Japanese, he did note that growing up in Japan gave him a familiarity advantage that many foreigners will not have. Mr. Cohen then travelled to England for University, having graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science, which guided him back to Italy where he worked for a few years. Briefly working in Australia, Mr. Cohen then found himself back in Japan and having gained the experience to work for his father's company, Japan Europe Trading. He comments on the cleverness of his father as he gave Mr. Cohen a mid-level position in the company before he would allow him to become Vice President. In Japan, family businesses are quite common, so the concept of Mr. Cohen taking over his father as President of Japan Europe Trading was well accepted. However, Mr. Cohen delves into the issues that can arise from not understanding Japanese people and even explains some of his own mistakes. Thierry Cohen goes in-depth about the dynamics and processes that he has within his own company and gives fantastic advice for foreigners who are planning to work in Japan. Overall, his experiences and messages emphasise the importance to learn, accept and embrace Japanese culture and people, as well as gaining their trust.

Markus Baron, member of the Board of Directors of the German Chamber of Commerce, and President and Representative Director of SGL Carbon Japan, one of the world's leading manufacturers of products from carbon, talks about his journey from the IT world into sales and leadership. In 2003, while still a university student studying Mechanical Engineering in Germany, Mr. Baron founded the start company Eastbeam Co., which expanded to Japan, then founded Wazap AG in 2006. These early experiences working in both Germany and Japan gave Mr. Baron a strong foundation to be the leader of a multinational enterprise. Mr. Baron is half-German, half-Japanese and speaks both the native languages as well as English. Through his experiences and his heritage, Mr. Baron shares his insights about the cultural and corporate differences between his two mother countries. Mr. Baron explains how in Germany, people have a strong sense of responsibility toward their own work and function according to their job description whereas in Japan, "the general principle is to basically be on one ship and help each other…but not always constructive in terms of how the company achieves it goals." Mr. Baron also talks about overcoming the challenge of being a young leader and building credibility through his IT background and language skills. He additionally seeks advice from senior leaders within and outside of the company, including members of the German Chamber of Commerce. Furthermore, with SGL being a small company of 55 people, Mr. Baron discusses his experiences of gaining trust from his staff through transparency, delegation and supporting employee engagement. He is mindful of giving praise and showing appreciation to create a safe space for innovation. Mr. Baron is also careful to take a step back from leadership when necessary so that his staff can take charge themselves. Mr. Baron advises newcomers in Japan to learn the language and any form of Japanese art such as martial arts or sado to gain a deeper understanding of the culture and Japanese mindset. He also recommends interacting with local Japanese people by going to places like Shimbashi to find out "what the average employee talks about after five."

Andreas Dannenberg, President and CEO of Adcomm Group, has been running his business marketing agency for over 30 years since arriving in Japan from Germany. As a boy growing up in West Berlin, Mr. Dannenberg dreamed of one day travelling Asia, which he fulfilled as an adult, capturing photographs of places in China that were unfamiliar to the rest of the world. The photographs he captured there were published in globally renowned magazines. This experience led him to land work in a film and photography firm in Japan. Soon after, he founded his first company, Ad-Media, a creative and strategic agency. Mr. Dannenberg credits his bold move to start a business in a foreign country to hard work and having a fundamental belief in oneself. His experience sailing across the Pacific and surviving a storm has also made him develop a strong mentality in facing challenges. With a firm belief that his company could provide valuable strategic insight to clients that other agencies could not, Mr. Dannenberg first hired freelancers and then full-time staff to grow his business. As a leader, Mr. Dannenberg wants his staff to show accountability and initiative in analyzing problems and coming up with solutions. As a creative agency, he also points to the importance of thinking creatively but with comprehensive reasoning behind the thought process. To maintain strong engagement with his staff, Mr. Dannenberg tries to communicate a holistic view of the business, by talking transparently in smaller groups or through one-on-one conversations. The company also holds social events where people can communicate in a more relaxed environment outside of work. Mr. Dannenberg is open to feedback, as long as some solutions are suggested. During the start of every project, when his staff are giving out ideas, Mr. Dannenberg is mindful of choosing the best idea, even if they overrule his. Additionally, he has had experience standing up to clients with unreasonable expectations to ensure proper working environment standards for his staff. For newcomers in Japan, Mr. Dannenberg advises people to believe in their common sense, learn the language and culture, and be open to new information by being "an empty cup." He explains: "Don't come here with a cup already full, [thinking] I know how businesses are run. Maybe you know that, but not necessarily how they're run in Japan. So listen, keep it open."

Ross Rowbury, Former President of Edelman Japan, celebrated his 40th anniversary since first arriving in Japan as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. Mr. Rowbury began his career in the finance sector in banking and securities before moving on to PR roles specializing in finances. With several years of leadership experience in foreign financial firms, Mr. Rowbury made a smooth transition into PR where he embraced the creative and engagement aspect of the industry. When the President of Edelman, the largest foreign PR firm in Japan with a rapidly growing team, Mr. Rowbury strived for strong communication and engagement with his staff, but took a conscious step back when necessary. He explains, "I think, the key thing is that the leader needs to be able to identify where those turning points or tipping points [of change] are so that [you] don't become a bottleneck in that process." Delegation also plays a large part in managing such a large team. To better lead his 80 employees, Mr. Rowbury planned on welcoming a new COO to take on much of the operational decisions. On the changing landscape of PR and modern audiences, Mr. Rowbury says "you have to create a very strong narrative or storyline that makes them understand why it's relevant or important to them, or they're not going to stay there with you." To make this possible, Edelman hires a diverse team of specialists who are talented planners and creatives, but do not necessarily "speak the same language" and work at various speeds. Mr. Rowbury tries to find the common ground between such differences through repeated discussions. He explains, "through a process of really intense discussions… over time, you are unable to get to a point where those three different definitions of product manager have actually melded into something that's unique for us. And that's where we want to be." In an ever-evolving world, Mr. Rowbury was aware of the younger employees' need for transparency and involvement in decision-making processes to have more trust in leadership. Through his regular lunch meetings with junior staff, Mr. Rowbury learned of the stress younger generations and implemented a wellness day to promote better mental health. To foster creativity in a mistake-free culture like Japan, Mr. Rowbury explains, "these days a relatively small mistake can actually result in quite a significant impact to the business so I'm not quite sure…[if] it's okay to go out and make mistakes, is exactly the right message. I think it needs to be refined a little bit more, with some parameters around what sort of mistake is okay to make and what is not." Additionally, Mr. Rowbury explained that being able to admit to one's mistake, recognize one's weaknesses and constantly learn, are all essential factors in adapting to such a rapidly changing society. Mr. Rowbury advises newcomers to Japan to remember the three Ps – patience, persistence, and politeness - something he was first told as a new arrival himself. He explains that in Japan, everything takes more time and money, but when done, the end result is better than anywhere else. Mr. Rowbury also encourages newcomers to not be afraid of making the ask, but maintaining politeness by using phrases like onegaishimasu (please) and soudan ga arimasu (I would like to consult you).

Mr. Fujita, President & CEO of Seimens K.K., began his career in the Japanese manufacturing industry at Alpine Electronics, then became a business consultant, before joining Siemens. During his time at Alpine, Mr. Fujita worked in Germany and managed a team of European staff, which he found were strikingly different from his Japanese counterparts. Mr. Fujita explains how he has a "western/Japanese switch" that he can control in order to adjust to the two cultures. With the westerners, Mr. Fujita says he tries to speak in logical, short sentences, and keeps meetings to 30 minutes. However, with his Japanese staff, Mr. Fujita is careful in listening to them, and showing more empathy. Mr. Fujita explains "Japanese [do] want to talk in meetings but they are missing the timing to start talking." According to Mr. Fujita, this is partly due to the Japanese desire for harmonization. As the Japanese head of a global company that requires much coordination with the Germany headquarter, this cross-cultural communication skill is vital for Mr. Fujita. On innovation and leadership, Mr. Fujita explains the benefits of providing support and coaching for the staff to try to make them into "star" players. Mr. Fujita encourages people to learn from mistakes and rewards those that challenge themselves. To be a successful leader, Mr. Fujita states, "in the West, trust means fairness" whereas in Japan, it's more about being a transparent leader who is honest with good intentions. In order to blend into both cultures, Mr. Fujita recommends becoming an "insider" and trying to learn the culture and language to better understand the people and win their trust.

As a teenager growing up in Germany, Dr. Carolina Kawakubo was fascinated by Japan, which led her to study in Keio University as an exchange student from the University of Dusseldorf. Later, while pursuing her PhD in Business Management and Economics, Dr. Kawakubo began working as Marketing Manager at Henkel Japan. Dr. Kawakubo learned the different thought processes and quality expectations between Europe and Japan. In dealing with such differences, Dr. Kawakubo seeks to understand and talk with both the German headquarters and Japanese clients and find a common ground where the customer is satisfied with the product at a feasible price. After earning an MBA from Beijing Normal University and teaching for a few years, starting a family, and freelancing for different companies between Japan, US, and Germany, Dr. Kawakubo started working at MedSkin Solutions. In taking on the role of General Manager of MedSkin as a woman with many older male employees, Dr. Kawakubo explains, "I personally think it's more about bringing in new ideas and actually performing and bringing in business. I'm also lucky that in my industry 99% of the clients tend to be women. It's also easier to present the product convincingly, because you can talk from your own experience." In encouraging innovation, Dr. Kawakubo refers to the saying: "Europeans like old things and new ideas and the Japanese like old ideas and new things." In Japan, many companies push for innovation in products and technical processes but according to Dr. Kawakubo, "the real challenges is in social processes and in social values." She adds "Tokyo looks like an extremely high-tech modern city, but if you live here, you start to see that under that surface society in many ways, [they] still follow [traditional] values." To overcome these restrictions, Dr. Kawakubo relies on her global background to bring in new ideas and perspectives, which she finds many Japanese people are interested in hearing. She also stays takes extra care in staying patient and giving Japanese employees and clients enough time to open up, holding regular face to face meetings. Although as a woman leader, she still faces challenging situations such as dealing with discriminatory comments, Dr. Kawakubo describes it not necessarily as a cultural but human problem that needs to dealt with confidence. Dr. Kawakubo advises new arrivals in Japan to learn the language, take special care in not blaming everything on Japanese culture, and picking one's battles. Dr. Kawakubo refers to the subtle Japanese language nuances that can only be understood by those that speak the language. For example, if a Japanese client says "we will think about it," it will most likely mean they are not interested. If one does not understand these subtleties, communication can be a struggle. Furthermore, Dr. Kawakubo is careful to not fall into the temptation of blaming challenging situations on Japanese culture and generalizing. Lastly, Dr. Kawakubo advises to pick your battles, and understand what can be and what cannot be changed in Japan. She says: "[it's] the art of the possible. You have to make sure if what you want to do is actually feasible. So you should have somebody who's very familiar with the Japanese industry and at the same time, ambitious enough to question that… you have to have somebody who knows both sides and who can be a consultant to you."

Pierre Gaulis, founder and CEO of CREAM, a digital agency, came to Japan 13 years ago as a new graduate from Switzerland. Taking intensive Japanese language classes and providing free-lance consulting, he eventually started working as a project manager at GPlusMedia, an online media company. He later became their business development manager which allowed him to build the foundation of an entrepreneur to start CREAM. CREAM researches, designs and develops digital products, services and experiences to help mid-large multinational companies achieve their digital transformation. As a small, close-knit company, CREAM works with agility, backed by digital native employees, the majority in their late twenties. Shortly after a year of founding the company, the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake hit Japan and business stagnated. Despite many foreigners leaving the country, Mr. Gaulis stayed to strengthen the company structure including building prototypes, improving the website and developing trusting relationships with his employees and clients. CREAM is a multicultural organization with 80% non-Japanese employees or those who have had international experiences. This unique mix of Japanese and foreign culture allows the company to have a deeper understanding of any communication issues between Japanese and foreigners which helps when dealing with multinational corporations. In leading this international team, Mr. Gaulis tries to instil a sense of responsibility and accountability within each individual. He insists that his team stay engaged and genuinely care for the well-being of the organization and "recognize that they are responsible for the relationship first and foremost with the clients and with their teammates." In addition to engagement, Mr. Gaulis explains the vitality of hiring the right candidates to stay creative and keep growing as a company. To assess whether the candidate can work in challenging environments with high creativity, they take a personality test as part of the recruiting process. Mr. Gaulis' leadership style is to be empathetic towards people and understand their needs and aims to build trust. He also encourages his team to provide feedback to each other and take risks as he sees failure and mistakes as an investment for future growth. For newcomers to Japan, Mr. Gaulis advises the importance of staying committed, finding local partners who know the local market and network, and hyper localizing to fit the Japanese market needs.

Richard Dyck, President of TGK-Japan, a semiconductor testing company as well as many other companies, originally visited Japan as a student in 1965. With a PhD in the field of semiconductor from Harvard University, Dr. Dyck began working at General Electric's Japanese office. Dr. Dyck worked closely with Jack Welch, Senior VP of GE at the time, and was responsible in building the material business in Asia, with a focus on Japan. Among many things, Dr. Dyck learned from Welch's hard work ethics and his value-based pricing strategy. Dr. Dyck then moved to Teradyne, a Boston based manufacturer of semiconductor equipment, leading the Asia operations for 20 years. He then went on to establish his independent company after a management buy-out of Teradyne's high speed connection system business, starting at $8 million. Dr. Dyck describes the first 10 years as "more rewarding than anything [he] had done before." After selling his company that grew to $50 million, Dr. Dyck then became involved in Japan Industrial Partners, a private equity specializing in carve-outs of businesses from large Japanese corporations. When the firm bought out a spindle motor business from The Japan Victor Company, Dr. Dyck took on the role of leading the $300 million business with a large factory in Thailand and a labour force of 5000 employees. He was confident in using the Japanese approach of quality control and quality circles. He " became a huge fan and still place a lot of value in the Japanese approach to a manufacturing operation…and it is very effective, not only in Japan but…in Thailand and China." Dr. Dyck also serves on the board of Hitachi Chemicals, which he describes is another "experience at looking at a Japanese company from the inside." On leading in Japan, Dr. Dyck highlights focusing on customer satisfaction and relationship building as the key to gaining credibility among clients and the team. Communication among all operations within and outside of the Japan office is also crucial, ensuring there is constant feedback getting communicated back to headquarters. In Teradyne, Dr. Dyck's employees were on a team commission, in which teams were rewarded instead of individuals for their performance. Dr. Dyck also encourages his team to face their mistakes and learn from defective products calling them "treasures." He holds regularized engineering reviews to ensure quality and performance standards are maintained. Dr. Dyck also participates in social activities such as playing softball and volleyball to build team engagement outside of work. He is always trying to be honest and open to learning from his employees. On Innovation in Japan, he sees more and more Japanese companies fund businesses within their organization, treating it like a start-up company. Dr. Dyck talks about the challenge of collaboration in the academic field, in which departments within the same university do not have a collaborative mindset. Dr. Dyck also thinks letting employees work in one specific position instead of rotating them, would lead to more specialists who are skilled within their area of expertise with a strong network. He advises newcomers to Japan to be ready and willing to learn from Japan and figure out what you can bring to your company that differentiate you from a local Japanese employee. Dr. Dyck also addresses the value of spending time with the customers in Japan to build relationships to be able to provide the best solution for them.

Jeremy Sampson, Managing Director of Robert Walters Japan, originally started his career at Hilton Hotel in Australia, before moving to Japan to teach English. He joined Robert Walters as an Associate in 2005. In 2008, Mr. Sampson became the team manager specializing in manufacturing and heavy industries, coinciding with the Global Financial Crisis. Looking back, Mr. Sampson thinks of this difficult time as a "year of learning" in which he worked to instil "great habits, great processes, and great discipline." This put his team in a strong position when the market rebounded in 2010, making them one of the highest performing teams among all offices in Japan. During this time, Mr. Sampson explains how he learned the importance of being a leader that leads by example, working hard and setting clear expectations to earn the trust of his employees. He says: "if you're doing the same things that you're asking others to do, I think that is quite powerful and impacts people…[to] follow suit." He also explains the power of accountability: "I think when people know that you would be checking in to see how something went, it creates accountability and there's more responsibility to do what's asked." To grow his team and organization, Mr. Sampson worked to further specialize in the manufacturing, chemical and energy industries. The division grew from 20 people to over 50 people by 2018, at which point Mr. Sampson had become Managing Director. In managing a larger team, Mr. Sampson talks about learning to lead through other people, welcoming feedback, and being consistent with his communication to ensure it reaches all levels of the organization. To make this possible, Mr. Sampson takes part in all first day training for new hires and communicates his leadership principles throughout the induction training process. He also has coffee with the new employees in small groups after their first month to check in with them and reinforce the organizational values. The company also has offsite meetings to have brainstorming and feedback sessions, which Mr. Sampson and the other directors review at a later time. In retaining his employees, Mr. Sampson sticks to his simple philosophy of "hiring good people, developing them well and keeping them happy." This not only includes financial rewards and promotions but being a genuine leader that provides a caring work culture. Mr. Sampson constantly communicates to his employees how he is there to help them in their careers and develop their skills, providing necessary training. As a result, Robert Walters has been ranked 16th in the Great Place To Work Institute Japan ranking in 2019, winning the best company award. When explaining how he keeps his employees happy, Mr. Sampson claims, "it's the simple fun things from company parties to drinks on a Friday afternoon, [as well as] actual initiatives." For example, the organization has a voluntary wellness committee that plans activities related to health and wellbeing. For newcomers to Japan, he advises them to learn the Japanese culture and landscape first. Secondly, building trust and engagement among employees especially during a time of labour and talent shortage. Lastly, he highly recommends building a networking in Japan's international business community, which he assures is very welcoming.

Laurent Depus, President of Natixis Japan Securities, the Japanese branch of French bank corporation Natixis, has been working in Japan for over 30 years. Originally from Belgium, he aimed to become an English and Spanish interpreter but changed his career course when he joined Chase Manhattan Bank in Luxemburg as a trader. After experiencing various management positions in the financial sector, Mr. Depus joined Natixis in 2014. Mr. Depus observes successful organizations need to establish three main pillars. First is to have a profitable business model. Second is to have regulated governance. Third is to have a strong company culture. During his time at SMBC Trust Bank, he built these three pillars for the company from the ground up. He especially notes the challenge he had of creating a strong company culture in the complex Japanese workplace. Although very hierarchical, Mr. Depus observes that the Japanese decision-making process is more participatory than the west. He explains how vital it is to establish trust within one's team to ensure everyone is moving towards the same direction. This is a challenge especially in a non-confrontational culture like Japan where people may seemingly agree with the boss but silently resist. Additionally, Japanese staff may be wary of foreign managers as they are seen as short-term workers who will move onto another position in 2-3 years. In navigating such challenges and winning trust, Mr. Depus emphasizes the importance of being genuine, honest and transparent. He says, "I think once people have realized that you are honest and genuine, the ice will crack. Trust will be generated. And once you have trust, mistakes can be made. You can make mistakes and your staff can make mistakes. But there's no hard feelings because there is trust, like in any…family." Mr. Depus adds that when there is trust, more people come forward with new ideas, creating a momentum for creative innovation. Mr. Depus advises newcomers of Japan to be prepared, detail-oriented, and honest in order to gain trust. He explains, "in the Benelux where I'm from, I would only get a transaction when I had the best price. [But in Japan], once the relationship is created, it's usually more than just a simple, pure business, [but a] product-oriented relationship."

Vijay Deol originally came to Japan to teach English in rural Kyoto before starting at en world, a global recruiting company where he now serves as Regional Director. During his first 8 years, Mr. Deol worked his way up to Sales Director ast enworld before becoming President of a British multinational recruitment firm. As the sole employee in Japan, Mr. Deol grew the firm to about 30 staff by the time he left in 2017, to make return to en world. He currently leads en world Japan, Australia and Singapore, managing approximately 350 employees. Mr. Deol constantly puts en world's vision of nyuushago shuukatsu, Enabling Success, to practice in order to effectively lead a large and diverse team. He emphasizes the importance of hiring the right talent, continuous improvement and active listening. For example, Mr. Deol admits his own mistakes in company meetings to encourage his staff to be more creative without fearing failure. To understand and address the different demands and expectations of his staff, Mr. Deol holds one-on-one sessions, live engagement surveys and provides opportunities for career development. They have successfully launched LinkedIn Learning for their staff to take free online course. Mr. Deol stays updated on trends in the industry by looking at investor relations reports from competitors to use as a benchmark for en world. He also points out the importance of understanding the various priorities his staff have in order to offer suitable incentive and maintain engagement. For his younger, millennial and generation Z staff, Mr. Deol explains, "I think, [their] highest priorities are, [the] opportunity to learn, develop, and work in an independent and flexible way." This, in turn, leads to greater motivation, satisfaction and retention for the company.

Robert Heldt, founder and President of Custom Media, an award-winning bilingual media agency, originally started his career in the Maladives in the hospitality industry. Founded in 2008, Custom Media company had a rough start following the Lehman shock, but picked up soon after launching the bilingual lifestyle travel magazine WITHIM and BCCJ Acumen, the British Chamber of Commerce magazine, which recently celebrated its 10th year anniversary. Additionally, they help create ACC Journal of the American Chamber of Commerce, The Canadian of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, INTOUCH of Tokyo American Club and Mansion Global, a luxury real estate magazine. In 2013, the company won the prestigious British Business Award for their success. Starting as a close-knit team of just 3-5 staff, Mr. Heldt talks about the difficulties of recruiting and retaining a multicultural group of people in today's Japanese workforce. Communicating amongst different cultural nuances is another challenge. Yet he also points out that diversity gives them their creative edge. Mr. Heldt strives to lead with flexibility, patience and personal positivism to build better rapport with his staff. He says, "you need to be a good listener…I [try] to nurture that style of work environment where everybody, no matter, [what] age or seniority in the organization can share their opinion, can share their idea...that really helps to get buy-in and engagement from the team." He welcomes mistakes to be openly discussed and rewards hard work through incentives like career development opportunities. In doing so, he believes he is able to create a transparent and engaging team that feels a sense of purpose in working at Custom Media.

Generally speaking, compared to other nationalities, they are a bit more reluctant to state their opinions so you have to know that, and cater for that by asking for opinions and waiting. They do however speak amongst themselves, so another useful source of information is having fellow Japanese people who are willing to come and tell you the vibe of things going on. I have found in Japan there are two extremes. People who do not speak English well, but want to speak English, and people who speak English perfectly well but would rather speak Japanese. Employees always rate the company and their job satisfaction as very low in Japan, but that is a cultural bias, no matter whether you survey Japanese companies or foreign companies in Japan. I tried to go out once a month with my direct reports and I expected my managers to do the same with their direct reports. I always tried to hire people who were smarter than me, and then trusted their judgement. We tried to share best practices, for example, instead of each division writing their own internal guidelines, we would come up with the best template and distribute it. Internally, I found this worked well, but externally with clients, I would sometimes run into the problem of the clients employees not taking it on, because it was not from their own rules. My philosophy is you do not fire someone without a cause. You coach them, you involve HR, you come up with a plan and you give them time to implement it. If nothing changes, then you say maybe this is not the place for you. It is different to if they are not performing or they do something contrary to code of conduct. But in most cases, I found if someone was not fitting in, either because they could not get along with people, or they could not perform to the level required, if they had a sense of pride, then they would look for another position of their own accord. I have generally found that Japanese are good at taking an idea from another country and rejigging it for the Japanese market, so that concept of kaizen. Foreigners have a tendency is fill silence, but in Japan, it is important to not try and fill up and space, but use it as a pause to allow Japanese people to speak up. Another useful tactic is to ensure that someone is asking their opinion before the meeting. It is easier to get opinions outside the meeting. If you have a situation where the company is not doing what you ask them to do, then it is a big problem, because Japanese will turn any organization into the Japanese model of not-for-profit, market share driven organization if they can. Profit is seen as inefficient, because you have to pay tax, and then give what is left to the shareholders, so it is better to expense it in hiring more people and having a larger organization. Foreign companies that are successful in Japan are successful because they are not doing what everyone else is doing. A good mix of Japanese and foreign staff is necessary. You need a good mix of people who have experience in the market and people who come over with new ideas so that they can work with each other. Having a dialogue and coming up with the best approach is ideal. You shouldn't have too much of one or the other. If you have a completely American organization in Japan, it's not going to work. If you have a completely Japanese organization, it's just going to be like every other Japanese company. So, I think the advantage is having that mix.