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

Christian Wolf, Managing Director of JAS Forwarding Japan originally moved to Japan straight out of university in Germany where he worked in the freight and logistics industry as a student. He first started out as a roads development manager at DHL, developing new business for air and ocean freight transportation from Germany to Japan. Upon moving to Japan from a small village in Germany, Mr. Wolf experienced culture shock, and quickly realized he needed to be "very persistent" and have high "frustration tolerance" to be successful.

Mr. Wolf then moved on to work in the project forwarding business at Panalpina where he dealt with large scale projects with complex challenges such as construction schedules, liabilities involving different transportation modes, and worked alongside engineer specialists. In 2011 Mr. Wolf joined JAS to set up a new project forwarding unit from scratch. He recalls the earlier months as a challenging time since he was pressured to gain profit quite quickly while motivating his team to keep pushing with a positive attitude.

On leading in Japan, Mr. Wolf indicates how difficult it was for him to initially gain the trust from his customers and employees and maintain a positive attitude within his team members. He claims: "You need to gain trust from the customer and it is not seldom that you are quoting for over one year without seeing them... It's a very common process. And there, even if you have a lot of setbacks, you need to be calm and need to demonstrate that we are going to get there." When faced with challenges such as consecutive profit-losing months, Mr. Wolf says it is important to cut down on your expectations and generate rewarding situations. He also points to open and honest communication with every member of the team as a vital aspect of building trust. Gradually, the new unit grew by building on client relationships and providing expertise on complex transportation solutions. In 2014 he stepped into his current role as Managing Director, leading the 40+ year old business with around 100 employees.

In order to gain trust from an even larger number of employees, Mr. Wolf first tried to understand the history and culture of the company, instead of making drastic changes. Over the years of working in Japan, Mr. Wolf has come to realize that Japanese people value consistency and patience, which he tries to exhibit through his behaviour. During Mr. Wolf's first year as the Managing Director, he kept all the main department managers in place in order to observe how business had been developed from the previous years. During these early leadership years, Mr. Wolf also spent one-on-one time with his managers to better understand the business from their point of view. In doing so, he also encouraged his employees to be more innovative and think outside of the box when coming up with solutions. Yet Mr. Wolf mentions the importance of respecting the hierarchy and to "follow certain rules to approach certain scenes." For example, doing nemawashi (groundwork) before a meeting or communicating with an employee through their manager instead of them directly.

To newcomers of Japan, Mr. Wolf advises to not tell one's colleagues how long one's assignment is. This is to avoid people from thinking you will only be there for 2-3 years and therefore, is not worth trusting. Mr. Wolf's second advice is to learn the Japanese language. Lastly, Mr. Wolf advises to "never give up." He adds: "You need to have a lot of frustration tolerance. Sometimes don't ask the why just accept it."

Please listen to our most accessed episode of Japan's Top Business Interviews!

Leading A Small Team In Japan - Kervin Go: Episode #5 Japan's Top Business Interviews

Kervin Go CEO Of Curvature Japan

Because it is easy to let your inner pride at being a leader override the humility that is necessary as a leader, it is important to meet with other people to remind you to be humble.

Managing people in Japan is like having an extended family, you have lots of different children and go through their various growing pains.

Communication is the most important thing for a leader. I always leave my door open even when I am working on something and do not want to be disturbed, because most Japanese who have never worked for a foreign company think that a closed door means they cannot speak to you. When you are communicating, it is important to remember that you are connecting with a person. Remember we are all the same at the end of the day, we all eat dinner and get on trains, no matter what our titles are.

Work-life balance is a better phrase to lead by since work-hard, play-hard is getting old. Personal success is affected by things outside of work and a leader needs to consider how they can make their employee`s welfare better since all employees have friends and family that are important to them.

360-degree performance evaluations are not very popular nor common in Japan. It is often just seen as more work that people have to do. The scores are always low in Japan.

Culture cannot be forced on people. I think the company comes first, the employee comes second and the client comes third; and these are basically the decision points we try to use. We have open plan seating, lunch is eaten together, and we try to do sporting events that encourage people to engage without talking about work.

New blood is always good because it creates new ideas, different perspectives and more engagement.

We do not have walls in our offices. People often just shout out ideas and we have a conservation about that. We try and innovate that way.

Some big leaders in Japanese business would make good politicians. They always know the right words to say but it does not always translate into action. I don`t want to be like that. When I say something, I want to execute it. I would rather cut out the middleman and make sure things go ahead.

Trust and rapport have to be side-by-side. You have to listen to what people are complaining about, what they are trying to do and why they are trying to do it. That`s how you build trust. That is why sport events are very good, you build relationships through your mutual goals and learn to communicate and trust each other. Two-way traffic for communication is the key to building trust, once you have it, it is rock-solid.

When learning English or Japanese, do not worry about learning difficult words, use simple words but how you present them is more important. Written communication is useful when communicating with Japanese people but give them 1 – 2 days for it to sink in.

No one person can have all the answers so make sure you pick the brains of many people around you. The best way to grow is to have the good traits of others rub off on you, so don`t just hang out with other executives, it is too limiting.

Mark Militello is the Country Representative of the Bank of New York Mellon. This is his third posting to Japan, though he has had a long history within the Investment banking space. He was most recently with the Bank of New York Mellon in Hong Kong for 10 years before relocating to Tokyo.

When leading in Japan, Mr. Militello explains how Japanese employees may not feel comfortable asking specific questions to their clients. This may be due to their lower rank in the company or the Japanese culture. He says that it is important for him to sometimes step in and ask those hard questions to ensure the operation is running smoothly. Although banks as an industry are not known to be creative, Mr. Militello says that creating a safe, relaxed environment for his team, especially the junior employees, can bring out more innovative ideas. Mr. Militello further explains that gaining the trust of Japanese employees can be a challenge for a foreign leader. He adds, letting the Japanese staff know that you have their back, that you are invested in them and will fight for the team with headquarters has helped with establish trust.

A way of getting people engaged in the company is to be transparent. Mr. Militello emphasizes that they must try to give everyone a voice and that must go beyond the leadership team. He says that leadership is typically of a certain demographic. Leadership may be men that are of a certain age and background with a traditional way of thinking. This is not representative of the views of the whole company. Mr. Militello emphasizes being mindful of this and trying to hear everyone's views, even people lower down on the hierarchy, is essential.

Mr. Militello advises people to come to Japan with an open mind. He also suggests unlearning most of the things that they may have learned, as they may not apply to Japan. Furthermore, Mr. Militello referred to his experience to nearby countries. He says that people in Hong Kong and Korea have more English speakers in the population, whereas in Japan it is a lot less and thus it is important to be mindful of this. He recommends trying to learn Japanese, even if it is a few phrases to show your commitment. Mr. Militello also suggests getting to know Japan outside the office. He says there is a lot to enjoy, especially the green spaces and the fantastic food.

Mr. David Bennett has been in Japan for more than 10 years in total. He has lived in Japan throughout his student years, and came back after graduation on the JET program for two years before joining AMD, an American multinational semiconductor company in Tokyo. His first leadership role would be with Lenovo Japan and NEC. Currently, Mr. Bennett has moved on from Japan and has become the Chief Customer Office at Tenstorrent Inc in the US.

As the President of Lenovo Japan, and the CEO of NEC Personal Computers, which is a joint venture between Lenovo and NEC Corporation, Mr. Bennett led both a foreign and domestic company. Since the skillset required to lead a multinational company versus a traditional domestic company is different, he created a hybrid culture, blending the best of both worlds. He took certain parts of Japanese traditions and business approaches and fine-tuned them to make them more suitable for the organization. Additionally, the organization spent much time holding cultural and social events to increase employee engagement and cooperation.

To get innovation while managing two companies with different characteristics, the company would implement many initiatives such as holding contests and giving out awards. These activities pushed the team to feel they could be more open and try something new, and others will have their back. As a result, the company kicked off things that had never been done before in the PC industry, like the world's first Gaming PC Leasing Service, Sugu Game. Mr. Bennett accepts mistakes as long as the reasons behind them are rational and the intention was to benefit the business. Moreover, Lenovo has a concept called Fu Pan. This is similar to Kaizen which is a continuous process of reflection. After major sales activity, the team would go back and reflect on what went right, what didn't go well, and what can they learn. Mr. Bennett says through those meetings, people gained innovation and felt empowered to try new ideas and take risks.

To get employees further engaged, Mr. Bennett has several mantras he follows since becoming a leader. One of his mantras is "win together, lose together." Although everyone understands the meaning of "win together", he frequently got questioned, "why lose together? " Mr. Bennett explains that it is easy to win together. But if something bad happens, he says it is important for everyone to take responsibility and figure out a solution. He is proud of helping to change the culture at Lenovo and NEC in a way that the team came together and started taking risks. Being explicit with the head office also helped him win the trust of the organization. However, Mr. Bennett notes the difficulty of ensuring his messaging permeates to the bottom of the company, past his direct reports. He insists, when you have a large organization, it is important to be consistent with your messaging.

On advice to newcomers wanting to lead in Japan, Mr. Bennet says the most important thing is to listen and understand what is working for the team and what you can learn from them. He says that in Japan, what people tell you about the business may not necessarily reflect the actual state it is in. Mr. Bennett further adds, one cannot completely change how the Japanese ecosystem works, nor how one's partners, customers and the commercial buying behavior works. Hence, it is important to truly listen. Secondly, he advises to become familiar with the Japanese language. For Mr. Bennett, knowing Japanese has helped him gain quicker connection with his team. Therefore, the combination of understanding Japan, the Japanese language, and his management style and supportive approach helped create trust and engagement.

Mr. Bennett's goal is to empower his employees and to make his team successful. To him, empowerment means everyone is facing the same direction. Mr. Bennett feels it is essential to inspire and empower people to work towards the same goals and encourage them to take risks. By doing so, he believes people will become further engaged and the organization will continue to grow.

William "Bill" Hall is currently the President at Ipsos Healthcare Japan Ltd. Mr. Hall has a long-standing history with Japan. He first visited the country in 1969 on a scholarship for post-graduate research, having majored in Japanese and Economics at Sydney University. After graduation, Mr. Hall worked in the consulting and marketing research field, starting his own market research company, and eventually leading Sterling Winthrop, a pharmaceutical company. Mr. Hall then worked for Kodak which had acquired Sterling Winthrop at the time, before becoming the Japan President of ISIS, a medical market research company. After selling ISIS to Synovate, Mr. Hall then expanded the health care division within the new organization. Finally, after Synovate was acquired by Ipsos, the global marketing research company, Mr. Hall stepped into his current leadership role at Ipsos.

Mr. Hall recalls one of the first leadership challenges he encountered was finding the right people and building a team from scratch. He found it especially difficult as a foreign company to convince people on the longevity of the organization. To overcome the issue, Mr. Hall tried to provide opportunities for people who joined the company to be exposed to the discipline of market research, such as conducting interviews, which is still not seen as a profession in which people study for years to be in. Mr. Hall also was fortunate to find foreign workers who spoke Japanese. He says the key is to sometimes take a gamble and try to see the potential of the person, instead of trying to find someone who is already well-developed.

A common problem many leaders of foreign companies in Japan have, is explaining the difference in employee engagement scores across different country branches to the head office. Mr. Hall says, this is a complex matter, as there are many cultural factors that need to be taken into account, and companies are "reading the scales wrong." For more information on engagement scores and cultural bias, please contact Mr. Bill Hall at [email protected] and he will be able to provide a whitepaper regarding this topic.

Mr. Hall finds that engagement depends greatly on the history the employees have with the company. For example, he says that people who are initially engaged when a company is in the start-up stage, may not be as engaged 20 years later when the scale of the company has grown. Mr. Hall adds that sometimes handling long-term staff can be complex. It is important to pay close attention to these worker who have helped the company become what is it today, while finding the balance between the long-term staff and younger employees and adjusting the organization structure accordingly.

Mr. Hall advises people to learn basic Japanese if they are coming into Japan in leadership positions. He agrees that Japanese can be a difficult language to learn. He understands someone in a senior leadership role will have multiple aspects to juggle in their life such as family commitments, generating revenue for the organization and others. Yet Mr. Hall suggests learning a little bit of the Japanese language will enable foreign leaders to better communicate with the local staff within and outside the office. Basic communication is important, however Mr. Hall also suggests having a bilingual assistant to translate the important business materials, so that the individual is not dependent or pressurized to learn fluent Japanese quickly.

Jennelle "Jennie" Petit is the President of TUV Rheinland in Japan. Over 30 years, Ms. Petit has gone through different positions in a various companies including the service and manufacturing industry. Her first leadership experience was after her first year in Japan when she was training new teachers who had come to Japan to teach English. In the corporate world, Ms. Petit first had an opportunity to lead a team when she was about 35 years old in the hospitality industry. Her main function was training and development of all the staff in the hotel.

Ms. Petit feels that trust is an essential factor in motivating team members and encouraging collaboration. According to Ms. Petit, many Japanese employees prefer to take orders and avoid responsibility. Therefore, she tries to have an engaging conversation with them in the beginning. She claims, it is important to take a collaborative, soft, low-key approach and try to understand the culture. Ms. Petit adds, this approach needs patience. She tries to be authentic and consistent, treating people equally. She also points out that trust comes from communication, and if you are not communicating with anybody, you cannot expect to have a high level of trust.

To get engagement in Japan, Ms. Petit takes a bottom up style. Although it is difficult to implement change in Japan, trust is what makes it possible. One of the examples is teleworking. Ms. Petit was already looking into teleworking before the pandemic. Work-life balance was the key word. She focuses on having engagement, empathy, and a bottom-up approach to her leadership. By listening to the voice from the field-level, Ms. Petit is constantly rewriting the employee committee and guideline and other implementing changes.

In terms of making innovation, Ms. Petit encourages it through regular meetings. TUV Rheinland has different committees and different groups of people that meet regularly. They have discussions about strategy, and how to grow the company. In doing so, they are able to create an open culture and environment.

Ms. Petit is the first female to run TUV Rheinland in Japan. She says, even as a woman, you can do a lot if you focus on the right things and find people that are willing to work with you. Trying to be open to those things is also important. Ms. Petit adds that in order to increase female leaders in Japan, we need to provide training on diversity, in order to prevent discrimination among both men and women.

As an advice for new leaders, Ms. Petit raises two points. Firstly, to listen before you start to make any changes. Secondly, to make an attempt to learn the culture of the language.

Ms. Petit suggess to not try to change people's culture in Japan but to work with it and put your assumption aside.

On defining what is leadership, Ms. Petit says, leadership happens first with the leader themselves. It is the ability of a person to reflect and then take the appropriate action based on a particular situation. Leadership is also possessed by people that look at things in general and are willing to say, we can do something better here, and make a split decision. Moreover, Ms. Petit adds, leaders should always ask and answer "why", and provide information on their decisions. On whether one should learn Japanese or not, Ms. Petit says being able to speak Japanese is an advantage, but it is more important to understand the culture.

Originally from Australia, Mr. Campbell Hanley is presently the Managing Director of Weber Shandwick, Japan. After graduating from university, Mr. Hanley was looking to go to a country that was non-English speaking, which led him to Japan. Since then, Mr. Hanley has worked with various organizations, the latest being Weber Shandwick for the last 8 years.

Engaging people in the workplace is important as employees are more likely to be loyal and not quit on a whim. Mr. Hanley tries to ensure consistency and fairness in the workplace. He tries to make sure he is calm and reacts the same way to things, so people can predict his behaviours and reactions. He also emphasizes being authentic in giving honest feedback to people and ensuring his staff knows the things that they are doing well. Mr. Hanley tries to have breakfast or lunch with a different staff member every week. This is usually a short, informal meeting outside the office to try and get to know staff one-on-one. Mr. Hanley says these meetings make him more approachable, and he finds out many things during these sessions and sometimes can catch problems early.

He talks about innovation as well, and says that if people care about the business, they want to build a better, more innovative workplace. Mr. Hanley says that they have a suggestion box set up in the office to gather feedback, highlight problems or suggestions. He ensures anonymity by sharing the website of this anonymous suggestion box. The staff are digitally literate and thus they know that they are truly anonymous and there is no way to track who has made the suggestions. This is to ensure they know that they are anonymous, and the company gets accurate feedback. He also ensures that the staff know that they would not be penalized for anything they say in this suggestion box.

Advice that Mr. Hanley would give would be to be patient. He also emphasizes good communication. He has three points that he suggests to people coming into Japan.

• Trust their instincts
• Trust their employees
• Have a group of advisors or counsel on your side

Mr. Hanley advises people that first come into Japan to trust their instincts. Sometimes he feels foreign leaders shy away from sharing their views or ideas on business plans as they are concerned about offending the locals. He advises them to trust their instincts and their business experiences and knowledge in such cases. He also recommends placing trust in the Japanese employees and understanding that hard work, loyalty, and teamwork is in their culture and many times there isn't a hidden agenda to their hard work. Lastly, he advises to have a few people that you can trust on your side in case the first two fail.

Ernest (Ernie) Higa shares his extensive leadership and entrepreneurial experience starting from his mid-20s succeeding his family business and leading various industries including lumber, medical device, and food and services. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mr. Higa graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in International Business. He also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (MBA) from Columbia Business School. After university, Mr. Higa joined his family business, Higa Industries Inc. (now Domino's Pizza Japan). Shortly after, he became the company's Representative Director. Mr. Higa then began developing the Domino's Pizza chain within Higa Industries, and became the President in the early 1980s. Presently, he is the Chairman and President since 2015. Mr. Higa has led many other corporate and professional organization including the Representative Director of Wendy's Japan, First Kitchen and Director of Shinsei Bank and Del Sole Corp.

Leading a lumber business company which was part of Higa Industries at just 26 years old was one of the first leadership challenges for Mr. Higa. Mr. Higa was fortunate to be able to hire employees who had retired from major trading firms and other large corporations, but still wanted to work. He says these people had a wealth of experience and contacts that allowed him develop his company. Being Japanese American enabled Mr. Higa to not have to play by the rules when leading staff who were much more experienced and senior then him. Being in the trade industry, working between Japan and the US, his experience and knowledge of working in the states and knowing how to communicate to English speaking businesspeople also helped him earn the respect and trust from his employees. Mr. Higa adds: "there's a certain rule that you can break because you're not Japanese and that becomes an advantage, but you have to know what those rules are. And so it really requires understanding the Japanese culture." Eventually, Mr. Higa grew the business from 20 people in 1985 to 9000 people including full-time and part-timers, by 1997.

In addition to the lumber business, Mr. Higa had diversified into the medical business with neurosurgical implants and then started developing Domino's Pizza in Japan. Regarding his success in Japan, Mr. Higa credits his ability to position himself in the niche Japanese marketplace and adapt foreign products to Japanese consumer needs. Moreover, the experience of starting Domino's Pizza made Mr. Higa take a more bottom-up leadership approach as he realized the head office executives are there to support the store managers to successfully drive their business, which then increases the entire company's profit. He adds that building and maintaining trust with the customers is essential in the sustainment of the business and if there are any errors made, it is important to take care of it right away.

Having worked in various industries, Mr. Higa claims a strong corporate culture is the key to good employee engagement across all organizations. Mr. Higa says due to his entrepreneurial background, the culture of his organizations reflects this spirit, and emphasizes a positive, "can do" mindset. Due to this approach, Mr. Higa's organizations have attracted employees who enjoy being in a more flexible environment that encourages innovative thinking and growth. Mr. Higa also developed a training centre to ensure this corporate culture messaging was communicated right from the beginning at the orientation stage to his staff. Additionally, his company holds many internal events to motivate the employees, including full-time and part-timers. By having a unique but consistent approach to building corporate culture across various sectors, Mr. Higa thinks this set them apart from the more established, larger corporations and enabled his business to grow.

On advice to newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Higa advises to be respectful of the Japanese culture and understand there are differences from the western way of doing business. This mentality is important when launching products and making strategic decisions, as well as managing people. Mr. Higa adds one must "think global and act local, but don't go too native. If you go too native, then you are managing completely like a Japanese corporation, then you'll miss out. I think you'll lose against the Japanese companies who are Japanese. But it's a moving target, what is global, what is local, and what is going to be native? And you always have to adjust." Mr. Higa thinks learning Japanese does help, but the most important thing is realizing there's a difference in cultures and respecting that.

Mr. Higa defines leadership as something that changes depending on the leader, as there is no one-size-fits-all format. He adds: "I try to lead by example, I try to get the respect of my people but I also try to enhance my people and work with my people so that they make a lot of decisions themselves."

Originally from Austria, Mr. Dieter Haberl has a wide array of experiences, the most recent being the President and CEO of Furla Japan. Previously, Mr. Haberl has worked with well known names in the retail space such as Adidas, Toys R Us, Lacoste, Reebok, and GAP. Mr. Haberl went to the US after high school. He first went to Northern Michigan for his undergraduate degree, and then to Arizona for his master's degree in management. He developed a strong interest in Japan very early on, selecting Japan as his regional specialization in university and later doing an internship in Japan.

In the organizations that Mr. Haberl has worked in, he has tried to improve team culture by trying to bring people together. He says that many times, people are divided based on their departments, i.e., Marketing, Finance etc. He says that creating culture can be a top-down approach, where senior leadership is involved. He suggests bringing people together for dinner and drinks and says that this works well in creating good culture. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic age, this can be difficult, and he suggests bringing people together in smaller groups and having virtual meetups.

Mr. Haberl advises trying to engage his team by listening first, learning from them, and then leading them. He says that teams get engaged when they realize you are paying attention to them and that you care. Moreover, driving innovation involves taking risks. However, Japanese culture and education teaches people to be risk averse. This can be a problem when trying to innovate or seek new novel ideas or ways of doing things. He stresses that this can be overcome by creating an environment where people know it is okay to make mistakes and then learn from them.

Advice that Mr. Haberl would give to someone coming to Japan would be to find people that you can trust. He suggests trusting your instincts and asking yourself who you can trust and who you cannnot. He also suggests being patient, listening and learning as much as possible. Sometimes offices with overseas headquarters are unfamiliar with Japanese culture and thus may have unrealistic expectations. He recommends having honest conversations and communicating well with headquarters. Mr. Haberl has noticed that loyalty is a trait unique to Japan. Both Japanese customers and staff are known to be extremely loyal, and it can work to the company's advantage if they can capitalize on this. Additionally, Mr. Haberl recommends learning Japanese, even if it just a few phrases to communicate better with the locals.

Originally from Austria, Mr. Dieter Haberl has a wide array of experiences, the most recent being the President and CEO of Furla Japan. Previously, Mr. Haberl has worked with well known names in the retail space such as Adidas, Toys R Us, Lacoste, Reebok, and GAP. Mr. Haberl went to the US after high school. He first went to Northern Michigan for his undergraduate degree, and then to Arizona for his master's degree in management. He developed a strong interest in Japan very early on, selecting Japan as his regional specialization in university and later doing an internship in Japan.

In the organizations that Mr. Haberl has worked in, he has tried to improve team culture by trying to bring people together. He says that many times, people are divided based on their departments, i.e., Marketing, Finance etc. He says that creating culture can be a top-down approach, where senior leadership is involved. He suggests bringing people together for dinner and drinks and says that this works well in creating good culture. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic age, this can be difficult, and he suggests bringing people together in smaller groups and having virtual meetups.

Mr. Haberl advises trying to engage his team by listening first, learning from them, and then leading them. He says that teams get engaged when they realize you are paying attention to them and that you care. Moreover, driving innovation involves taking risks. However, Japanese culture and education teaches people to be risk averse. This can be a problem when trying to innovate or seek new novel ideas or ways of doing things. He stresses that this can be overcome by creating an environment where people know it is okay to make mistakes and then learn from them.

Advice that Mr. Haberl would give to someone coming to Japan would be to find people that you can trust. He suggests trusting your instincts and asking yourself who you can trust and who you cannnot. He also suggests being patient, listening and learning as much as possible. Sometimes offices with overseas headquarters are unfamiliar with Japanese culture and thus may have unrealistic expectations. He recommends having honest conversations and communicating well with headquarters. Mr. Haberl has noticed that loyalty is a trait unique to Japan. Both Japanese customers and staff are known to be extremely loyal, and it can work to the company's advantage if they can capitalize on this. Additionally, Mr. Haberl recommends learning Japanese, even if it just a few phrases to communicate better with the locals.