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

The standard dress code is much more formal in Japan than many other countries, even including other Asian countries. Casual Friday, for example, is not a thing here in Japan. I have had to make sure in meetings, as the boss, that I do not state my opinion first, because then there will just be silence and no one will be willing to speak up. While in other countries, you are free to question the boss, and even say to a certain extent that I do not agree with this, in Japan, it would be a disaster. One thing that is excellent about Japan is the network of expats. You just need to ask the questions. You hear a big noise about how different Japan is, about how tough it is, but once you get here, and you ask questions of expats, and you experience things with an open mind as to why and how they are occurring, you can pick up simple things and start connecting the dots. You have not come here to be comfortable. You have come here for the challenge, so throw yourself into it and learn and have fun. Remember you have come to Japan, Japan is not going to change for you, so you need to work out how to go with the flow of what cannot be changed in Japan but influence what you can influence in the patch of Japan that you are being entrusted with. Nodding and smiling and saying yes does not necessarily mean they agree with you. You need to ask questions in such a way as to the answer might be negative, because if the answer can be given in the affirmative, then they will do so whether or not they actually are saying yes in the way Westerners understand it. Japanese have an extraordinary poker face and body language that is hard to read. So asking questions where the answer might be negative is vital if you are to find out if they are actually in agreeance and things will happen, or they are just saying that they hear what you are saying. I want my employees to make mistakes, because that way you will learn. If you make the same mistake again, you are foolish. If you make the same mistake a third time, then please find a new job. Making mistakes is not frowned upon at all under my leadership, but the same mistake three times is not acceptable because it means you have not learned from it, and I cannot have someone on my team that cannot learn. Silos are also something you need to watch out for in Japan, such as silos of individual work space, silos of job descriptions, because they have a drive for perfection and they are very used to not really knowing what other people are doing. The concept of helping each other with their jobs is not very common in Japan so it has been one of the challenges I have faced in Japan in getting my team to do multiple jobs and help each other with those tasks. To drive improvement, I ask the team to point out what went wrong. They need to develop that awareness of when things are going well or going poorly, as well as if I tell them what went wrong, there is a chance they will not accept it and then our solution implementation is going to negatively impacted. I work hard to build a one on one bond with my employees so trust is shown and more easily reciprocated. We also have no clocking in, clocking out machines, no walls, glass everywhere. It is a very specific and intentional approach towards creating trust. Trust does not come with telling someone that you trust them. Trust comes from actions and behavior and how you create the environment. One thing I tell my team a lot is to keep your ego out of it. It is not about me being right or you being right or anyone being right. It is about the best solution for that problem in alignment with the company strategic priorities. When a solution presented by a staff member shows a lack of alignment with the company strategic priorities, then I know I have a bigger problem, which is that they do not understand the strategic vision and this is a real issue. So I make sure that we constantly reaffirm the company strategic priorities in our meetings, our overarching value is "good for you, good for the company." It is easy to digress and get distracted in life, in business. So you need to keep re-focussing on the priorities and a good way to do that is via constant reaffirmation of the overarching values and mission. Businesses in Japan are always facing the dual issue of delivering 100% at the cost that the consumers want. It's a constant battle for all companies. This is one of the `Japan only` issues. In other countries, 90% delivery is fine. The other part of leadership is the expat`s families. If they are not comfortable, if they are not enjoying the place, then the leader will not last long. It takes effort and the right mindset. It takes learning Japanese, even just a little bit, because extra effort in understanding Japan`s culture is very much respected overall by the Japanese.

As a leader, I learned to not compete on things I did not have expertise in. I had a financial background, not a technical background, so there was no use trying to convince technically strong employees on that front – I had to use financial data as facts in order to convince my employees to accept that things needed to change in order to grow on the global scale that I wanted. While I accept there are differences in practices between cultures, I think the basics of people are the same. People are motivated to learn, to grow, to advance. Young people particularly, regardless of culture, are willing to challenge themselves and are not afraid to try and even fail. We invested heavily in the company computer systems so that all staff can, at the touch of a button, contact any other member of our overseas team. So, apart from being conscious of time differences, there is no excuse for a lack of communication. We communicate, even at the Japanese headquarters, mainly in English and what I encourage the most is everyone just having a go, it can be horrible English with just a bunch of words together but there will always be someone in the meeting who can translate so it is vital that people gets a chance and just tries. Bit by bit, they will realise no one`s English in the company is perfect and that just trying to communicate is the key. We never fire people for making a mistake, even if it is a big one because they tried, so they are not penalized and in fact we set up challenge systems within the company to recognize employees globally who met the challenge, made the contribution and tried. We also bring managers to Japan and take Japanese managers to our other offices in India and China and Europe etc, so as many people as possible, can see first-hand how our business operates in different cultures. It is expensive to do this, but I see it as an investment in my people, in team building and in my company. I think while money is important to people, they have bills to pay after all, but recognition in so far as being trusted to take on certain roles and responsibilities is a bigger motivating factor in my company. When I took over the company, and instigated the global expansion, I had to be very precise and transparent about my messages. I would send the messages in English and Japanese to the employees about where we were and where we wanted to go. I would outline the broad plan and then ask different groups into meetings to plan, plan, plan – down to the detailed plans. This was how I built ownership from the employees into the global plan, and changed the company culture from a One-King culture, top-down strong leadership style that my father used, to a style that was more suited to me and what I had learnt in the US I think a problem in Japan is we ask people to choose a specialization at far too early an age. For example, once you go down a science path, you do not learn management or business skills, so we end up with highly skilled workers but only in their particular field, and that puts us at a competitive disadvantage because in many other Western countries, even if you major in science, you still get a liberal arts education, which basically teaches you the leadership and communication skills you need anyway. In Japan, a well-mannered conversation is based on listening, to fully understand and make an in-depth comment. Feedback is only considered appropriate at work, feedback to people at your own level is considered aggressive. You need to be very careful giving feedback to Japanese people, listen carefully to what they are trying to do and the reasons they are doing that. Personal relationships are key in Japan. Japanese have hospitality in their DNA, so show some interest in the culture and people will be more likely to engage with you. It helps build trust.

Once you walk the talk over a given period of time as a leader, you gain trust, and then people will follow you, instead of just doing what you say. Then you start getting buy-in and ideas and you can work cross-functionally. On engagement surveys, if you are giving a very low score, then you should not be coming into the office. If you are not going to be part of the solution, then you should reconsider your career and job. Engagement scores however tend to coincide with big decisions, e.g. head count freezes has a negative impact on scores, but bonus time has a positive impact. It is also not helpful to compare countries against other countries. It is about trends and patterns and feedback. You are always going to get people who score low, but it is when you see big swings that you know there is an issue. I used to think that my job was to find a local leader to replace me once I moved on, but I have realized we are an international company and rotation is a better solution, so succession plans are not just country-based, they are global. While it may not be a fantastic analogy, chopping the tree down from the top takes a long time. If you wedge things in the tree all the way up, the tree will fall the way you want it to fall. The unwillingness to change in Japan is strong. We have long had an innovations/idea box and you can put your name on it or not, but we would offer prizes and that encouraged people to put their names on it. But then we received feedback that the idea then became the responsibility of the person who suggested it, and yet often it was not even about their own division. So we created a business development department that reported directly to the CEO, and they can then tackle any strategic ideas that need to be implemented cross-functionally. It was a great tool to get ideas out of heads and onto paper and then to receive quick feedback on that idea by a specialist department who was responsible for it. Employee meetings are held quarterly and they are mandatory to the extent I myself would walk the floor to see who was not in attendance. There would be various presentations but it was designed as a forum for communicating what needed to be communicated. I used to have a pizza lunch every 3 weeks with the newcomers where they would have to answer 5 questions and I would have to answer the same 5 questions honestly. It helped build trust and exposure. My door was always open. I would meet with anyone and everyone. Sharing personal stuff really helps brighten engagement. I do it because it is just me and how I am but especially in Japan, I realized it was seen as a really big deal. My view is you do not need to be a rock or some kind of impenetrable individual. You are a human, you have a family, you have a dog, you have issues, so its okay to relate to people and have them relate to you. You should not stop a weekend activity you have been enjoying for decades just because you are the CEO or whatever. I think it is important to be careful what you wish for because changing things that are inherent to a culture, even if they sometimes cause frustration, would fundamentally change the country. Manage the business with the environment you have. Use it to your advantage. Do not be brainwashed by some of the things you have been told about Japan either by foreigners who are new to the country or who have been there a long time. There are as many challenges in Japan as they are in any other countries. Focus on the good and where there are growth opportunities. Yes, it can be a flat market in general but pick your battles and look for areas you can innovate in. You need to think and you need to ask for help. Consultants can often give you insights into the market from a bigger picture and help you develop those plans, as well as point out where you can hit to grow your business, grow your career and grow your family. So be open-minded, draw your own conclusions and enjoy the ride.

President and Chief Executive Officer Interbrand Japan Previously Chief Strategy Officer Interbrand Serving to a wide range of clients on a broad set of management issue centered around brand while leading a strategy group. Senior Manager at Kurt Salmon Senior manager at global management consulting firm responsible for sales, project delivery and organization development

Kervin Go Country Manager Curvature Japan Curvature is the global leader in providing third party maintenance covering Cisco Networking and large enterprise storage systems such as Netapp andEMC to large enterprise customer and telecommunications companies. Senior Account Executive Curvature Japan Markets Direct selling of products and maintenance service to the Japan market since 2007, successfully developed and acquired new customer who are the INCUMBENT Telco players and ISP, Major Financial (Banking) institutional customers, Fortune 500 Japanese Manufacturers in Automotive, Pharmaceutical field as well as Multinationals operating in Japan.

Akihiko Kubo: Japan Representative Director of Williams Lea Tag, leading providers of marketing and communications supply chain services Prior to joining Williams Lea Tag, Aki Kubo held the position of President and then Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Group Japan. As the first local president, he managed six operating companies across advertising, digital planning, PR, activations, social media and digital media planning and buying. Previously, Aki Kubo spent two and a half years as CEO, President of Weber Shandwick, where he helped blue chip global and local clients to retain and enhance their corporate reputations. During more than 27 years at McCann Erickson, Aki Kubo worked his way up from Account Executive to Managing Director of McCann Erickson International, where he handled a wide variety of high profile clients across both the B2B and B2C space. In 2007, he moved with McCann Erickson to London to take on the role of Global Business Director.

Luke Verwey While every country has its nuances, it is about finding the calibration point between the goals of the multinational company you work for and what resonates / can be adapted to the local market and workforce. Its about leveraging global strengths while respecting the local culture. Language is obviously a big challenge when it comes to communication. So even if I conduct a town hall meeting with representatives from every area of my business, and they appear to be listening and nodding does not mean that people are receiving the message in the way I intend it to be delivered. You have to communicate over and over, but also find platforms that allow for conversations with differing levels of the organization. I have to be cognizant that I am not a millennial and I do not think the way the core of my organization thinks so bottom up approaches are vital to engagement and innovation. In Japan, the `why` is extremely important. In some of the other Asian markets, you can get away with just saying that something needs to be done, but in Japan, the `why` in detail, of the matter is very necessary. While in Japan, hierarchy is respected, decision making is very collective, so it is a tricky thing to manage. You have to try and balance the different needs and different objectives of speed vs the in-depth consultation to really drive engagement in your organization. Broad sweeping statements like Japanese don`t like change are not helpful. Most people in most countries don`t like change. Its about how you communicate that change without actually talking about change. Japan loves innovation, so talk less about change and more about the positive impacts of innovation. We talk about what people do and how they do it. We want a high performing culture but not via driving bad behavior and individual agendas. Continuous two-way dialogue is necessary, it allows us to drive impact down the organization but also allows the employees to drive their voices up. Listening is vital. Feedback in Japan is given indirectly and subtly so you have to be very clued-into the high contextual element of what is being said, because you are unlikely to get more than two chances to pick up on it before the person stops saying what needs to be said. And as an international leader, you need to hear what is being said. There is no single Japanese playbook. Take the time to really understand people, that is much more useful than talking about doing things the `Japanese` way. Take every opportunity to learn. Get out on the weekends into the country so you see new things and learn new things. Try to understand what the local topics are and what people think about them. It helps you correlate more data points about the market, the country and where your organization fits.

When you lead people, you have to lead them in a way they are going to follow. In Japan, when you teach a class, you line people up in order of seniority and you stand in front of the class. It seems very regimented but everyone is perfectly comfortable because they know their role and where they are supposed to be so that allows for performance to be maximized. In the USA, that kind of a set up would make everyone very uncomfortable and inclined to rebel. To make people feel comfortable and improve performance in the USA, its better to put everyone in a circle so there is no feeling of unnecessary hierarchy. Now, sometimes its useful to put people in uncomfortable situations as a way to challenge them but you need to do it with a specific purpose in mind and that is a call you need as a leader need to make. A good culture is one where there is a shared sense of purpose and values, and being very upfront about tying that purpose to the actions you/your team are taking. You have to be consistent about that, because especially in Japan, that is the difference between creating a winning culture and a chaotic culture. A shared sense of purpose, professionalism and empowerment create sustainability, where your team can deal with the highs and lows. In the Shop Japan Business, I looked at our call centre staff as extensions of the customer. They understood the customer because they spent so long speaking to them every day so they took on characteristics of the customer．VOC stands for voice of the customer but really it was at least 50% the voice of the communicator (our call centre staff). It helped us turn morale around because we actively listened and heard. Especially in Japan, if you show that the least empowered voice is going to be listened to, you create a tremendous amount of morale. It also creates innovation – if every new idea has to come from the top, then you are in big trouble. I always caution Western leaders unfamiliar with Japan is to not fill up empty space. Ask a question and hold yourself back as the silence drags and wait for an opinion. Also try to never have the first word. Let someone else conduct the meeting and then at the end bring things together. While the easiest way to teach in Japan is to line everyone up, the easiest way to run a meeting is to be overly attentive and give everyone the opportunity to voice their opinion．Getting buy-in from your Japanese team is really hard but when you get that buy-in, you absolutely over-perform. Japanese employees are looking to make a long-term emotional commitment to where they work so they look for the same level of commitment from their leaders. For foreign leaders on 3 – 5 year postings, I recommend not just speaking with your inner circle. Everyone is meaningful, so have different events where you can show that you are caring about the voice of your employees and avoid being too focused on one group over others, gives you a balanced view of what is going on in the organization. My acronym for leadership is VICES, which stands for vision, integrity, competency, efficiency and sustained success. Poor performance and good performance are easy to deal with. It is mediocre performance that is more difficult to deal with. Trust your people, let them know they are trusted but that it is an open process where people are also accountable. New leaders need to be patient. The leader that will make the biggest changes is the one that listens and truly gains insight Identify who are the biggest obstacles in your organization and remove them immediately and publicly. This is the only way that engagement, empathy and trust principles work.

Yasuaki Mori Ex-CEO Of Infineon Technologies Japan: EPISODE #1 Japan's Top Business Interviews Yasuaki Mori is a European, Asia and North American technology growth executive in the disruptive mobility, automotive, IIoT and cyber security markets. He has grown businesses from $200 to $700M and scaled organization from 100 to 200+ people, developed go-to market strategies and rebuilt, converted, strengthened organizations in sales, marketing, channel, system/application engineering, product quality, HR, finance. marcom, logistics and government affairs. He is a multi-lingual & multi-cultural executive (French, Japanese, English) with professional networks in Europe, US and Asia. Summary Points Joint venture sales are tough because both parties are in the same market with a focus on synergies but occasionally you end up in a competitive situation. When the joint venture parties are from different cultures, e.g. Japanese and German, you need trust and understanding, however both are exercised differently in the different countries. For example, in Japan, harmony is exercised through Honne (real truth) and Tatemae (façade), but in Germany it is exercised by people giving their true opinion, so it can be tough for employees and clients to deal with. We used to have meetings where only the leadership spoke. After the earthquake and tsunami in Northern Japan several years ago, we held daily meetings in order to keep operations moving, and as things calmed down, we cut the meetings down to once a week and then once a month. However, when we tried to cut the meetings out altogether, the employees asked for it to be kept on as a standard part of our procedures. It become a town hall meeting where people, not just the leadership contributed. Unofficial communication in Japan is superb and it would be good to be able to tap into that to make it more corporate and help shake off the communication silos. Middle management is what tends to the blockage point, not because they wanted to block things, but because we as senior management were not paying enough attention to what feedback they were giving about our discussions about strategy etc. What a strategy means for senior management has a totally different meaning for the lower ranks and middle management needs to be engaged and coached on how to spread the message. Push out as much information as possible unless it is strictly confidential, since unless you tell people what and why things are happening in understandable terms, it is never effective. Japanese employees traditionally ask their bosses for instructions, but I think its better to know what your value is in the company, and where you are adding value to the whole chain of the company, then you should know what you need to do – then you don`t need to ask your boss about what you should do. And by adding value to yourself, you are making yourself more valuable to the external market. Japan still works from a top-down method whereas foreign companies work in a matrix. Executives are expensive with limited time frames like 3-4 years, and because they have to get used to Japan at the beginning and settle their families, and then towards the end of their term, they need to look for a job back home, they are really only effective for 1-2 years so that is one of the problems you face by sending a novice to Japan. A good element of Japan is limited corporate greed in comparison to other countries. Honesty is a key strength in Japan that is a good foundation to help build a business on. Although I`m not sure how it equates to taking more risk for innovation. Big data and good data analytics can relieve many efficiency and quality problems but there is limited understanding in traditional management style Japanese companies of how to use AI because it is not just about technology, its about organizational change. Japan is very weak in terms of making deliberate organizational change to suit the technology. There is a reluctance to go digital because the Gemba (factory floor) is so strong, but people are getting older and there are fewer and fewer workers so digitization needs to happen. But this needs fast decisions and these are not a strength of traditional corporate Japanese cultures. Engaged employees are self-motivated. The self-motivated are inspired. Inspired staff grow your business but are you inspiring them? We teach leaders and organisations how to inspire their people. Want to know how we do that? Contact me at [email protected] If you enjoy these articles, then head over to www.enjapan.dalecarnegie.com and check out our whitepapers, guidebooks, training videos, podcasts, blogs. Take a look at our Japanese and English seminars, workshops, course information and schedules. About The Author Dr. Greg Story Your Corporate Coaching And Training Guy President, Dale Carnegie Training Japan Author of "Japan Sales Mastery", the Amazon #1 Bestseller on selling in Japan and the first book on the subject in t