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

After graduating with a Bachelor's Degree in Law from the University of Tokyo, Yasunori Takeuchi began his career in the financial sector by working for 12 years with the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan. This was followed by positions with Commerzbank, The Royal Bank of Scotland, ABN Amro Bank NV, WestLB Tokyo and Credit Suisse First Boston. Mr. Yasunori joined Standard Charted Bank Japan in 2012 as the Managing Director, Head of Corporate & Institutional Clients and Co-Head of Wholesale Banking, before becoming the current advisor/former CEO of Standard Chartered Bank Japan in 2015.

When reflecting on his career Mr. Yasunori describes his role as a team leader in Japan for European banks partly being that of a translator or interpreter. He explains how many European banks, like the country they originate from, have a very direct culture. This does not always align with the Japanese culture of arriving at decisions through consensus building via official and unofficial methods. Mr. Yasunori states one of his leadership roles was to try and act as a cultural translator between these two conflicting styles.

Soon after becoming the CEO of Standard Chartered Japan, Mr. Yasunori led the company to create a country vision document. At first, they tried doing it amongst the leadership but quickly realised that wouldn't work and it needed input from across the organisation. Mr. Yasunori explains how, apart from giving some opening comments and instructions, he deliberately excused himself from the process so that junior staff would feel more comfortable sharing their ideas in an open discussion. The result was a productive and interactive process.

In his career in leadership, Mr. Yasunori has tried to develop positive corporate culture by breaking down the divisions within organisations, or silos, and increase interdepartmental interaction. He believes this can be achieved through unofficial means such as Diversity & Inclusion events. Events like International Women's Day, Mental Health Day, and a charity run that Standard Chartered has been hosting for 10 years that encourage staff participation are all opportunities for staff to engage within various departments.

To foreign executives coming to work in Japan, Mr. Yasunori advises that while their core leadership style does not need to change, they need to understand how Japanese may respond. Are you getting silence in return? What will you do next? He also advises patience and the ability to create an atmosphere where Japanese feel comfortable to talk. On the topic of Japanese language skills, Mr. Yasunori does not believe they are of vital importance for a foreign businessperson - a useful tool but you can certainly get by without it.

Tomo Hasegawa is a second-generation Japanese-American with extensive leadership experience in the global medical and pharmaceutical industry. After he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an Electrical Engineering degree, Mr. Hasegawa joined Hewlett Packard (HP) as a Project Manager and Engineer where he helped design ultrasound devices that HP was creating at the time. When HP was struggling to survive the competitive market in Japan, Mr. Hasegawa was assigned from the US to work for HP Japan Medical (later became Agilent) to help turn around the business. He was originally hired to assist with marketing and sales of roughly 50+ people. Eventually, Agilent was acquired by Phillips and Mr. Hasegawa became the General Manager of the cardiac ultrasound business in Japan. After three years, Mr. Hasegawa was headhunted by Sonosite Japan, a company specializing in portable ultrasound devices. Mr. Hasegawa then began working at Sandoz Japan, a multi-national pharmaceutical company, and most recently, joined Medline Industries Japan office as their president.

Mr. Hasegawa says HP's people-centric approach in business was what made the company so successful, and he has taken on this leadership approach throughout his career. He explains: "[As leaders] we were told to just do two things...first, set the direction and second, get things out of the way for your people." During the early 2000s, a rival company had headhunted many of the leadership staff from HP, which caused many challenges. Mr. Hasegawa initially struggled with the challenge of leading an organization with a strong competitor, on top of the fact that he had no experience in doing business in Japan in Japanese. Yet he eventually came to realize that the customers care much more about the product and wanted to hear about the technical details, which Mr. Hasegawa as an engineer had thorough knowledge of. Within his team, Mr. Hasegawa's knowledge and active listening skills helped him build trust and credibility.

At Sonosite Japan, Mr. Hasegawa joined just as the company had set up a subsidy from Olympus, which grew to 15 people within a year. Mr. Hasegawa helped take the company from a distribution model to a direct sales model and exceeded set targets. After a successful four years at Sonosite, Mr. Hasegawa was offered a position at Toshiba in the US to lead their ultrasound business. There, Mr. Hasegawa was tasked with bringing an ultrasound device to the commercial side. Mr. Hasegawa's felt Toshiba had "made it" in the US when he was approached by salespeople from General Electric (GE) who joined Toshiba, and are still with the company.

Mr. Hasegawa then joined Sandoz Japan after completing an MBA at the University of Washington – Michael G. Foster School Of Business. This was Mr. Hasegawa's first experience in the pharmaceutical industry, leading an organization of approximately 300+ people. Mr. Hasegawa found it challenging to be in a competitive market trying to sell a product that was similar to many other rival companies. He explains that because the company was trying to make a cultural transition yet at the same time not agreeing on how to make the change, maintaining transparent communication was a challenge. Mr. Hasegawa recalls his years at Sandoz as a challenge but also a time of tremendous growth and learning. He explains: "I remember my boss telling me I don't care about your opinion and it's like, okay, great. So, what do you care about? And he explained to me it's facts, insight, and then action. That's what we pay you for…not the, this is what my gut is telling me…Right, the insight is why we are human beings running a business. Otherwise, you can have a computer run the business for you."

Finally, Mr. Hasegawa joined Medline, a medical product manufacturing and distribution company, which he calls the biggest company people have never heard of. The secret of Medline is, according to Mr. Hasegawa, despite its grand scale, it is run like a start-up – the organization is agile, bureaucracy-free, and focused on the genba (field). Mr. Hasegawa led the Japan branch of 400 people. At Medline too, Mr. Hasegawa practiced the leadership approach he developed at HP by setting the direction and leading by example. From customizing products to suit Japanese customers to building a warehouse in Japan, Mr. Hasegawa says such leadership activities allowed him to build trust from his team as well as customers who felt listened to. Mr. Hasegawa has built a yattemiyo (let's just do it) spirit within the company culture, which he believes has given the organization more innovation.

Born in Tokyo while his father was serving as a German diplomat, Georg Loeer spent his first five years in Japan before his family returned to their homeland. However, that was long enough for a keen interest in Japan to be sparked in Mr. Loeer, as he would study Japanese languages, history, and economics at universities in both Japan and Germany, eventually attaining an MA in from Freie Universität Berlin. In a rich career in the financial sector, after his initial training in Frankfurt, Mr. Loeer worked in leadership positions for a number of banks in Japan, Indonesia, and China. He also started his own company, now run by his wife, before accepting his current role as the President of NRW.Global Business' Japanese division.

When discussing his experiences with leadership in Japan, Mr. Loeer explains that there are times when leaders must explain the local situation and cultural nuances to corporate headquarters who don't understand why things are, or aren't, a certain way. This can also include defending excellent performing staff who don't fit headquarters definition of an ideal staff. He also believes in the importance of giving staff challenges and clearly explaining what the opportunities and rewards are for the intended challenge.

In working with Japanese teams Mr. Loeer is full of praise, highlighting that the Japanese he has worked with are well educated, hardworking and honest. He does acknowledge the cultural inclination for Japanese not to speak up and that this can make getting feedback difficult. However, Mr. Loeer believes this can be worked around by developing strategies to get direct feedback rather than relying on open or passive feedback.

On building a culture within an organisation, Mr. Loeer believes communicating openly with teammates and showing empathy are important to developing a positive company culture. He also states that successfully managing the relationship with headquarters is vitally important and if you can do this, you will go a long way to earning the trust of your colleagues and employees. It is this trust which Mr. Loeer believes is a key word for doing business in Japan. It will mean standing behind your employees, supporting them, and sometimes taking the blame for them. However, trust can also be earned by showing that you have good ideas that work.

Finally, Mr. Loeer defines leadership as being able to stand in front of a team and engage them about the path that will be taken together as one (a team). He also believes a leader needs to be mindful of the values they and the organisation embody and have influence on, like climate change and aging demographics.

When discussing his experiences with leadership in Japan, Mr. Loeer explains that there are times when leaders must explain the local situation and cultural nuances to corporate headquarters who don't understand why things are, or aren't, a certain way. This can also include defending excellent performing staff who don't fit headquarters mould of what staff should be like. He also believes in the importance of giving staff challenges and clearly explaining what the opportunities and rewards are for the intended challenge.

In working with Japanese teams Mr. Loeer is full of praise highlighting that the Japanese he has worked with are well educated, hardworking and honest. He does acknowledge the cultural inclination for Japanese not to speak up and that this can make getting feedback difficult. However, Mr. Loeer believes this can be worked around by developing strategies to get direct feedback rather than relying on open or passive feedback.

On building a culture within an organisation, Mr. Loeer believes communicating openly with teammates and showing empathy are important to developing a positive company culture. He also states that successfully managing the relationship with headquarters is vitally important and if you can do this, you will go a long way to earning the trust of your colleagues and employees. It is this trust which Mr. Loeer believes is a key word for doing business in Japan. It will mean standing behind your employees, supporting them, and sometimes taking the blame for them. However, trust can also be earned by showing that you have good ideas that work.

Finally, Mr. Loeer defines leadership as being able to stand in front of a team and engage them about the path that will be taken together as one (a team). He also believes a leader needs to be mindful of the values they and the organisation embody and have influence on, like climate change and aging demographics.

Philippe Auvaro is the former President of OrphanPacific Inc. of CMIC Holdings. Being born in the 60s, Mr. Auvaro grew up in a generation when Japan was experiencing the economic boom. He developed an appreciation of Japanese culture including classic movies, leading him to apply to an internship at a French pharmaceutical company called Roussel. Mr. Auvaro was eventually hired as a full-time staff at Roussel based in France, then worked for Aventis, which had gone through a merger with Sanofi in France. As Mr. Auvaro wanted to return to Japan, he then joined Glaxo SmithKline (GSK) Japan where he eventually became Executive Director. Most recently, Mr. Auvaro was the Managing Director, Senior Executive Officer of CMIC Holdings and President & Representative Director at OrphanPacific, Inc.

At GSK, Mr. Auvaro started as a Deputy Director in the Sales Division. He calls these years the "most amazing 11 years" of his life as he calls the organization "a school of empowerment." Prior to his leadership role at GSK, Mr. Auvaro has experience in moving through the traditional Japanese management style ranks as well as working in a multicultural environment in both Europe and Japan. Mr. Auvaro explains his true "cross-cultural leadership experience" came when he was promoted to lead Roussel (which at that point had merged into Hoechst Marion Roussel) in Taiwan where he created the local office from scratch

Mr. Aurvaro's first major leadership role at GSK was leading a mega product for an antiasthma inhaler. There, Mr. Auvaro says he gained "field leadership" experience by working with people from various cultural background at the ground level, being in contact with every single part of the organization including manufacturing, R&D, and digital technology. Mr. Auvaro helped set up business units and create a shared service structure for the commercial operations such as helping start market research and call centres. Mr. Auvaro then got a secondment from GSK to work for Aspen PharmaCare, headquartered in South Africa, and was asked to help start Aspen in Japan.

After GSK, Mr. Auvaro was offered his most recent position at CMIC Group as OrphanPacitic Company's leader through a personal connection. At CMIC, Mr. Auvaro had been working on providing pharmaceutical solutions for rare disease challenges.

Mr. Auvaro describes his leadership as more "hardware than software" as he leans more towards directive leadership than being the recently popular "servant leader" type. Mr. Auvaro loves to be involved in the technical side of any product or service development and calls himself a fact-driven, field person. Mr. Auvaro defines leadership as a transaction between the leader and the employees. He says: "there is a fair amount of trust and delegation that people put in you. So you need to measure and scope and accept it, or redefine the scope."

Born in France, Jerome Chouchan has more than 25 years of experience working in the Japanese and Asian business environment. He began his career in Japan starting the local branches for the French high jewellery brand Mellerio dits Meller and the French Government Mint Monnaie de Paris. Mr. Chouchan then worked for the fashion brand Lacoste as their North Asia Regional Director, before becoming the Business Development Director for Hennessy, the famous Cognac maker. A move to the famous Spanish porcelain company, Lladro, saw Mr. Chouchan become their Managing Director for Japan and Asia before he finally became the current CEO of Godiva in 2010. Mr. Chouchan is also a long-time participant in the Japanese martial art of kyudo, the way of the bow, and has risen to the rank of 5th Dan, as well as being an accredited instructor. He has written the book, Target, on how the philosophy of Japanese archery can be applied to business.

In his interview, Mr. Chouchan discusses coming to Japan as a young 25-year-old after graduation, in which he had the choice of doing compulsory military service or being part of a government program to help companies increase their exports. This led to him choosing Japan as he was interested in the country, and there he set up the local branch of the French high jewellery brand Mellerio dits Meller. Mr. Chouchan describes this first job as an 'adventure' as he was working by himself and did not speak Japanese upon arrival. Additionally, as a young man in a culture that respects age and experience added to the challenge. However, by the time he moved on Mr Couchan had established relationships with 20 retailers for his French suppliers.

When arriving at the Spanish company Lladro, Mr. Chouchan was engaged in his first significant leadership position, leading a team of approximately 70 people. By going out with the sales teams to meet customers and understand their work, rather than sitting in his office and reading reports, Mr. Chouchan was able to build trust and be accepted by his team members. He even participated in selling product to customers during exhibitions at department stores. It was during his time with Lladro that Mr. Chouchan came up with the innovative idea to make porcelain figurines aimed at the Japanese market for Boys Day (Tango no Sekku) and Girls Day (Hinamatsuri). At the time this was a controversial move, even within his Japanese team, where the feedback was that Japanese people would only want to buy European-style products from a Spanish company. However, the decision to make figurines aimed at the local market was a great success for Lladro.

Mr. Chouchan continued with his innovated business ideas when he moved to Godiva, the luxury chocolate company, which had been experiencing several years of stagnant sales when he arrived. In a shake up of the company's advertising strategy, Mr. Chouchan went all-in on TV advertising, which was highly unusual for a luxury brand at the time. This move proved to be a masterstroke with Mr. Chouchan stating that the company saw immediate growth of 20% as a result.

New product development, or the burden of generating new ideas, is an issue that Mr. Chouchan admits all companies, including his own, must deal with. He explains that if the task of generating new ideas and products is placed on existing staff who already run the company's core processes, then there is very little innovation achieved as they are too busy with the core processes of the company. To overcome this issue at Godiva, Mr. Chouchan has set up an innovation team to create a new product every month in small amounts for testing in the market.

On advice for newcomers to Japan, Mr. Chouchan believes the first few months are critical as that is when you will develop your first impressions and others will develop their impressions of you. He advises leaders to go out of the office and visit customers with their teams so they can learn the business firsthand and ask a lot of questions. Finally, he emphasizes the need for leaders to be capable decision makers and be able to say 'yes' or 'no'.

Om Prakash is the current CEO of Northrop Grumman Japan, a position he has been in since 2019. Prior to this he was Northrop Grumman's Director for Corporate Strategy and had also served in the United States Air Force where he performed numerous roles including a test pilot with over 3 000 flying hours in 60 aircraft and as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy before retiring with the rank of colonel. Mr. Prakash has a bachelor's degree in engineering from the US Air Force Academy as well as master's degrees in aeronautical and astronautical engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), and national security strategy (National War College).

In his interview with Dr. Greg Story, Mr. Prakash describes how his background in the military and involvement in many leadership transitions has helped his civilian career by being able to make decisions based on limited information. When discussing the topic of new leaders introducing change, Mr. Prakash is a supporter of author Simon Sinek's philosophy to "start with the why" and believes that if a leader is clear, open and willing to listen to their team, they are more likely to succeed. When describing his own leadership style, Mr. Prakash says it is important for him to get to know his team as individuals and encourage them to grow to their full potential, even if that means them moving on to something bigger and better. As Mr. Prakash says, a good leader does not keep talented people under them to make their own job easier.

To help foster creativity Mr. Prakash believes incentives are needed not only at a team level but across an organisation. These incentives can take a variety of forms including financial, recognition, or as promotions depending on the recipient, organisation, and context. An incentive that may motivate one person to come forward with a creative idea may not motivate another person. To understand what motivates people, Mr. Prakash points to the need for leaders to know their people and their desires and suggests leaders can simply ask their teams what they want as incentives.

Recounting a story from when he was in Japan in the late 1990's, Mr. Prakash recalls seeing people sending text messages and thinking it was a strange concept that would never catch on in America. He highlights the point that there are different mediums of communication preferred by different people for a variety of reasons, such as age and background, so it is important to experiment with different communications media. Similarly, he believes it is important to have team meetings not always run by himself, but have the meeting led by different members of the team as they will bring other qualities to the meeting.

When discussing the topic of work delegation, Mr. Prakash describes some important factors that good leaders need to consider when delegating work. These factors include the comfort and skill level of the people who are taking on the work, discussing the deadline and time-management including leaders expressing how much time is to be spent on a task, as well as feedback. Mr. Prakash talks about how it is important for leaders who delegate work, not to delegate any criticism that arises from the work or to withhold praise.

In his first piece of advice to newcomers to Japan, Mr. Prakash suggests not assuming that they were understood just because they received a positive response (Hai). People assuming that they were understood when they in fact were not can lead to difficult situations that can be avoided by checking for understanding. He also believes learning Japanese has been very useful to him including making friends that he probably otherwise would not have made. Lastly, Mr. Prakash acknowledges that in a business setting, people may get in to trouble if their Japanese is not proficient enough to pick up all the subtlties and nuances.

Mr. Spitzer has extensive experience living and working in Japan. After a business trip to Japan in the early 1990's he attended the European Union's Executive Training Program (ETP) which had a heavy focus on Japanese language and management skills. It was through this course he was headhunted to become the President and CEO of Stoll in Japan. Fourteen years later, Mr. Spitzer moved in 2008 to become the CEO of the Japanese division for Stihl, a world leader in the manufacturing of chainsaws and outdoor power tools, a position he continues to hold today. Mr. Spitzer was also an Executive Member of the German Chamber of Commerce in Japan from 2012 to 2016.

In looking back over his almost 30 years of experience in Japan, Mr. Spitzer discusses some of the changes he has witnessed in the Japanese business environment including a reduced emphasis on 'wining and dining' customers and the shift to digital technologies in business. He also describes how he motivates his own teams; rather than leading through seniority alone he has tried to develop a respectful space where team members feel safe to develop and discuss ideas and not be afraid of failure. Mr. Spitzer admits this was not an easy process and it took a long time, but it has been worth the effort.

On the topic of challenges when moving from leading a small team to a much larger one, Mr. Spitzer emphasised that once a team gets over approximately 30 people, leaders can't do everything themselves and they need trusted deputies. To build this required level of trust in his own organisation Mr. Spitzer goes to significant lengths to get to know all of his employees including calling them by name, knowing what is happening in their lives, wishing them happy birthday (even if it is on a weekend), and having an open-door policy to his employees in his office. Mr. Spitzer and his wife participate in company activities, and he like to think of the company as the 'Stihl family'.

For foreign companies or professionals currently operating, in Japan, or looking to, Mr. Spitzer advises developing a real understanding of the local context rather than trying to implement a series of short-term projects which never get local support. He believes companies wanting to make change need; a sustainable concept, a clear vision with realistic targets, and to involve everybody in the process. With the right mindset and preparation, Mr. Spitzer believes success can happen in Japan as he views the Japanese market as very open-minded. On the topic of learning to speak Japanese, Mr. Spitzer has found it a very valuable skill in his own experience, but he does warn that there are times when a businessperson should use a translator including when they are not certain their Japanese will be correctly understood.

Michael King shared great insight into how to become a successful business leader in Japan. Mr. King's arrival in Japan may have been accidental but this did not stop him from having a long and prosperous career within Japan that has lasted 22 years. Despite originally being from Ohio, he began to work in the Asia Pacific 25 years ago within APAC in Sydney Australia before eventually moving to Japan as the General Manager for Sterling Commerce as Japan was the hot spot for business action and opportunity.

His time at Sterling was integral as it was his sink or swim moment. With no experience of business in Japan and leadership skills, he quickly adapted to the environment around him and began to grow and develop his skills. Mr. King began to understand the importance of hard work ethic. His work increased ethic allowed him to understand the sales process better and interact with Japanese business.

Despite not knowing the language at first, he did study, but he realised it was not necessarily important to know Japanese when working in Japan. Mr. King learnt that as a leader of a team to succeed, he needed to learn how to listen to his team and read the non-verbal cues his team would send his way and thus, developing trust.

After his time at Sterling and later Borland he became the President of Citrix Systems for 7 years which reinforced the necessity of listening to the team and creating trust. Through his experience as a leader, he came to Citrix knowing how he can grow the company, which he succeeded in doing. After a stagnant 5 years, he formed a vicious and successful sales team which led to the acceleration of revenue growth. Through this team, he learnt to become proactive and lead rather than sit and take orders which allowed the team to create widespread awareness of who Citrix are.

After his time at Citrix, he spent a year at Autodesk using his previous knowledge to help them change their business model to allow them to grow and increase revenue. While at Autodesk he learnt more about managing large groups of people and bridging the gap between the expectation of headquarters and the channels. After his short but fruitful year at Autodesk, he began working at the Japanese company Rakuten.

While at Rakuten Mr. King developed a more intense understanding of working in Japanese business and leading a team of 1200 people as the CIO. Mr. King had become interested in what it would be like as an end-user which drove him to Rakuten in combination with working for one of Japan's best CEO's and businessmen Hiroshi Mikitani. Mr. King learnt a variety of lessons at Rakuten such as using data to optimise customer experience and developing new solutions to problems. His time at Rakuten was the gap to where he is now at SAS as the President. At SAS he strives to drive the engagement of his team and consumers.

Mr. King's 22-year long career in Japan has taught him a range of valuable lessons that have helped him become the successful businessman he is today. He claims that in order to succeed in Japan you need to understand that accountability, listening, and trust are integral.

Originally from Austria, Dr. Parissa Haghirian is a renowned expert on international and Japanese management. Her studies include a Masters in Japanese Studies, a Masters in International Management, and a PhD in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business. She has been a visiting Professor of International Management to numerous universities, Adjunct Professor of Japanese Management at Keio University and WASEDA Business School and since 2015 is the Professor of International Management at Sophia University.

Dr. Haghrian started learning Japanese when she was 19 and still takes lessons 30 years later. She recalls enjoying studying Japanese, but thought she needed to study something a bit more 'practical' and went to business school at the same time. This led to her first job at Kyushu Sangyo University as an Assistant Professor where she was the first foreign woman the university had hired. Dr. Haghirian believes that, even today, not enough foreign business leaders working in Japan speak Japanese and that there is much to be gained from speaking the Japanese language.

According to Dr. Haghirian, communication is a significant point of difference between Japanese and Western cultures and something that foreigners living or working in Japan need to mindful of. In Western cultures Dr. Haghirian argues communication tends to be focused on the speaker trying to get information out with listeners free to do what they please with the information. This contrasts with Japan (and many Asian cultures) where Keigo, or honorific speech, means communication is dictated by the listener and a speaker must first assess who they are talking to and adapt their way of speaking.

When discussing Western and Japanese team dynamics, Dr. Haghirian highlights the differences in responsibility and accountability. Western teams emphasise responsibility for individual tasks or roles, while Japanese teams emphasise the group's responsibility. This can be challenging for cross-cultural team members and leaders, and she emphasises the importance of leaders working in Japan to not only understand their own leadership style but to also understand the 'Japanese way' of leadership which may have less executive power and relies on consensus building but carries enormous emotional weight with junior staff members.

Talking from her extensive experience working in Japan, Dr. Haghirian believes that in Japan teams are most motivated when working together towards a common goal. She explains the goal should be clearly communicated to the team and should be one that allows the team to work collaboratively. Dr. Haghirian points out that the best way for managers to find out what works for their teams is to ask. Even in her work with university students, when asked if they would rather work alone or in groups her experience is that teamwork is the preferred option.

Finally, when asked for final pieces of advice to foreigners coming to Japan to work, Dr. Haghirian offered; preparation by reading, asking as many questions as possible upon arrival, be mindful of the stresses in working overseas, and engage in self-reflection.

Darren McKellin shared great insight into how he became a leader through his journey to mindful leadership. Mr. McKellin's choice to come to Japan was both one of economic strategy and love for international affairs after studying in both Mexico and Sweden during college. After college, Mr. McKellin joined the Japanese air cargo company Kintestsu located in Chicago. Through the directors' brother, he was able to move to Japan as an English teacher in Yamanashi. After a year he moved to Omotesando to work at his old boss's brothers' company in Minami Aoyama where he worked for four years.

This was the beginning of his 30-year long career in Japan. At this company, Mr. McKellin learnt about sales and selling products to a Japanese consumer. When he left this company after four years, he had one failing venture at Chrysler Japan but that did not stop him from persevering through a difficult time with macho management and a harsh environment to thrive him. Afterwards, he moved to sell ads for a computing magazine known as Japan Inc.

Through Japan Inc he was able to gain connections with various tech companies both large companies and small start-up companies. Through this opportunity selling ad space for the Japan Inc magazine, he learnt more about systems interrogation type of work. Through the gaining rise of technology and his gaining interest in the IT market, this would eventually be his last job outside the IT world. After Japan Inc. He would later join the tech company called Techno Box. This company was the first cloud serving within Japan which allowed him to learn more about managing a team of people. After this, he would move to World Com but they went bankrupt two years later.

After this stressful time, he gained a job at Vodafone. He did this through the power of intention which was an important part of his success. Mr. McKellin has gained an appreciation for intention and mindfulness when he read the book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill as a young child at his grandfather's house. The idea of mindfulness had become an integral part of Mr. McKellin's life and the reason for his success.

At and after his time at Vodafone, he began to grow as a leader managing large teams of people at Oracle and later NetSuite. As a leader, he learnt how to use harmony, and patience as a way to motivate and lead his team to great success. Through his use of mindfulness and gaining inspiration from Google's 'search inside yourself' program, he co-founded the Mindfulness Project at Oracle which helped improve the lives and mental health of employees. After his time at these two companies, he became the regional head of Zscaler.

Currently, through his ideals, he has helped the team at Zscaler grow at a tremendous speed. He has helped develop the team from five people to sixty. Which has also helped Zscaler become a top leading IT company which now has a $40 billion market cap. Not only has he helped Zscaler become a leading company he also wrote a book to help others.

His book 'Mind Over Sales' is a revolutionary book that helps readers gain knowledge about how they should use mindfulness to develop a more fulfilling life and successful career. Mr. McKellin strives at helping other gain knowledge about seeking self-awareness, intention, and harmonization to gain effortless success in their life.