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

Originally from the US, Mr. Whitson's background in Accounting, Japanese and Korean language opened him up to many opportunities in international business as a new graduate. After entering KPMG in 1975, Mr. Whitson was first assigned to work in Los Angeles to audit many Japanese companies that were entering the US market and American companies going to Japan. His clients included major companies such as Honda and Mazda Motor. Mr. Whitson then left for Korea and what was originally intended to be a short posting turned into over three years. Afterwards, Mr. Whitson went back to the US for a year in various types of training before becoming partner at KPMG Japan in Tokyo.

Mr. Whitson's first few years as a junior staff in Korea allowed him to gain important accounting and client management experience. He had a supportive boss who enabled him to learn from his mistakes and learn how to handle difficult foreigner clients.

During his first years of leadership in Japan, Mr. Whitson quickly noticed how compared to other parts of the world, Japan values team work as opposed to being independent minded. Mr. Whitson has also noticed that certain Japanese people who have international experience act differently depending on the situation – in a more international environment, they will act outgoing and assertive whereas when surrounded by more Japanese people, they will become more consensus oriented and soft.

Hence, Mr. Whitson is careful to listen to those who are less vocal or are not fluent in English but are adding value to the organization and giving them recognition. He explains that active listening shows respect to the other party, which leads to trust. Not jumping to conclusions about people or things is important in Japan – which is a trap many foreign leaders fall into when first arriving. Moreover, giving challenging assignments with clear expectations and support is another way Mr. Whitson shows trust in his team. By delegating and providing more accountability to his staff, Mr. Whitson believes they will become more engaged in their work and the organization as a whole. When handling mistakes, Mr. Whitson is careful not to blame the person but instead focus on fixing the problem.

On innovation, Mr. Whitson says diversity is a key element in working with creativity. Upon setting up a transaction practice at KPMG, 60% of the hires Mr. Whitson made were women, which was a rare situation at the time when the organization was made up of 90% men. Mr. Whitson noticed that his female employees excelled in intervieweing their clients and understanding their needs and challenges to help them make informed decisions. Mr. Whitson has carried through this lesson in diversity and creativity into his other projects including the Japan Market Entry Committee.

To new foreign leaders coming to Japan, Mr. Whitson advises to have high cultural sensitivity. He adds, leaders should learn how Japanese society functions from various sources. Secondly, Mr. Whiston recommends learning some Japanese as it provides valuable insight into the way Japanese think and present ideas. Thirdly, Mr. Whitson advises to take time to get to know the Japanese team as in many cases, decisions are made through a longer process than compared to the west.

To Mr. Whitson leadership is about setting goals for the organization and communicating with people to help them contribute in the best way possible to achieve those goals.

Paul Kraft fell in love with Japan after a school trip in the early 90s and originally came to Japan to teach English in Osaka. Afterwards, he became involved in the food business in the US as a product and brand manager for a large privately held frozen food company. Mr. Kraft returned to Japan after being head hunted by Starbucks to open a consumer-packaged goods office in Tokyo. Mr. Kraft then moved on to become the head of HoneyBaked Ham, opening and managing the Japan office. In 2016, Mr. Kraft became the Commercial Director of Nestle Nespresso. Mr. Kraft most recently is the Japan Country Manager for HARIBO Asia Pacific since 2018.

Upon arriving in Japan to head the market entry of Starbucks into Japan, Mr. Kraft experienced many culture shocks and made many of the "classic mistakes." He was first surprised with the way meetings were run in Japan in which discussions could take hours with no agenda. Mr. Kraft also realized his business partners' priorities were different from his American counterparts. Mr. Kraft further notes the challenge of implementing new ideas as Japanese people tend to be risk averse and rely on past case studies. From these early leadership experiences, Mr. Kraft learned that allowing people to make mistakes was an integral part in creating a culture in which people would take more risks and innovate. He adds active listening is extremely important in order to understand employees and stakeholder needs and establish trust.

After Starbucks, Mr. Kraft joined Honeybaked Ham, an American food retailer with over 400 stores in the states. Although a well-established company in the US, Honeybaked Ham was still relatively unknown in Japan when he joined. Therefore, when recruiting new hires, Mr. Kraft put extra effort in persuading prospective employees on a particular story and even serving ham to them during interviews. Furthermore, the company was mostly run by free-lancers and Mr. Kraft enjoyed the entrepreneurial culture.

Mr. Kraft then moved to Nespresso as the Commercial Director, mainly managing clients in the hotel industry. As the leader of a large, globally renown company Mr. Kraft focused on having close communication with his team by holding weekly one-on-one meetings with his direct reports. Mr. Kraft recalls Nespresso had a very process-heavy approach to business and thus, he ensured to build an open communication environment.

Seeking a more entrepreneurial opportunity, Mr. Kraft then moved into his current position as the Country Manager for Haribo, the number one gummy producer in the world. As a historical and well-known company, Mr. Kraft explains that recruitment and persuading people to join the team is much easier than his previous lesser-known companies. Mr. Kraft is currently the solo employee of Haribo in Japan and acts as the middle person between the Japanese market and global organization. Mr. Kraft explains that when bringing in new ideas, he "divides and conquers" to persuade his stakeholders – in other words, he uses groundwork methods to make his implement his plans. Mr. Kraft also notes that explaining the background and reasoning behind his ideas and requests is important during such discussions.

For newcomers coming into Japan, Mr. Kraft advises to have close communication with team members through occasions such as weekly one-on-one meetings and to have a high "EQ radar." Secondly, he advises to provide feedback to people which should be 90% positive. Thirdly, Mr. Kraft recommends people to try to learn Japanese, although they do not need to become fluent. Mr. Kraft finally notes that leadership is achieving the organization's goal by maximizing the potential of one's team.

Growing up in California, Mr. Risberg has been an entrepreneur since high school and by his mid-20s he had already founded and sold a start-up company. His early success enabled him to move to Japan, which he had been interested in largely due to his half-Japanese roots, and invest in a series of companies in the health care industry. In 1999, Mr. Risberg joined Respironics (currently Philips Respironics) as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing and in 2005, became the President and CEO of Fuji Respironics. He then became the CEO of Philips Japan in 2009. Since 2018, Mr. Risberg has been the President and General Manager of Baxter Limited Japan.

Mr. Risberg's earlier experience in his 20s working and learning from his mentors taught him much about running a business as well as gaining trust from local Japanese investors and business owners. During his time at Respironics group, Mr. Risberg successfully persuaded the CEO of a distributor to agree to an acquisition. Mr. Risberg was also successful in persuading the people at Respironics on the arrangement of the acquisition process. Mr. Risberg notes having empathy, passion, decisive decision-making abilities and determination helped him with such challenging stakeholder management. During disagreements he explained the importance of ensuring the other side understands the reason behind the conflict to try to find the middle ground.

Starting from a founder of a start-up company to heading a multinational conglomerate, Mr. Risberg has been a constant learner and active listener. When starting his position at Philips, Mr. Risberg asked one of the company board members to become his mentor to support him through the transition period. Mr. Risberg says at the centre, business is "all about the people, connections and communication" and forming a strong bond with more experienced leaders enabled him to access a wealth of knowledge and network he needed to understand the organization. He took on a similar approach when becoming the head of Baxter Japan and focused on bringing the company's true value to the marketplace not just through the product but through systems and services and focusing on how to maximize employee engagement.

For new foreign leaders coming to Japan, Mr. Risberg firstly advises them to understand the company goal including their expectations, the reason behind them and the time frame. Secondly, he advises to learn from people and form trusting relationships. Thirdly, Mr. Risberg explains that Japan is a unique market and what seems to be a "crazy idea" could in fact add value – therefore, having a flexible mindset is essential. Lastly, Mr. Risberg recommends anybody coming to Japan to put in the effort in learning the language as he believes this will be appreciated by the local employees, customers and market.

Shinzo Yotsumoto shared great insight from his extensive leadership career in the manufacturing industry in various multinational companies including Japan, the US, France and Germany. After graduating from Waseda University, Mr. Yotsumoto entered Kobe Steel where his manager inspired him to work overseas. He worked in the German operation of Kobe Steel from 1985 to 1989 which he recalls as a life changing experience and calls Germany his second home. Mr. Yotsumoto was then head hunted to become the Key Account Executive for Michelin Japan working with Toyota for 12 years. Mr. Yotsumoto then moved on to TRW Automotive Japan as a Representative Director, and then to Schaeffler Japan as the Managing Director. After retiring from a full-time permanent position, Mr. Yotsumoto worked as an Advisor to Roland Berger and then most recently as Senior Counselor to Kiduki Architect.

Having managed several multinational companies, Mr. Yotsumoto found that each country and company has a very different culture and working style. Working in Germany where employees were more vocal in their opinions, Mr. Yotsumoto found a need to communicate and understand his counterpart on a deeper level. Mr. Yotsumoto found this a challenge but an eye-opening experience coming from Japan where people mainly followed instructions. Mr. Yostumoto experienced this firsthand when he moved from Kobe Steel to Michelin. He noticed that the leaders were dedicated to the philosophy of the company to develop tires for a wide range of customers and pushed employees to be equally committed to their vision. Leadership at Michelin encouraged open discussions and welcomed differences in ideas. Mr. Yotsumoto himself, who recalls not being too vocal with his opinions in a Japanese company to become more open and speak up in this new engaging environment.

After Michelin, Mr. Yotusmoto joined TRW Automotive's Japan operation as their country manager, leading a team of 250 people. Since the company had just gone through M&A, Mr. Yotsumoto's major task was to bring all the different business units together to create a "one-team atmosphere." He began by interviewing all 250 of his employees to understand their desires and expectations and how to bring them towards a single direction. This enabled the business units to deliver consistent, united messaging to their Japanese manufacturing partners such as Toyota, which helped create more trust and strengthen the reputation of TRW. Mr. Yotsumoto found that listening to his team and taking quick action based on their input helped him gain trust from his team. For example, Mr. Yotsumoto convinced the American headquarter of TRW to create an R&D Centre in Japan. This action showed his Japanese employees that the US headquarter will listen to the needs of the Japanese customers, which boosted team engagement.

Mr. Yotsumoto was then head hunted to Schaeffler in 2012 as their Japan operation's Representative Director, leading a team of 300 people. At Schaeffler, Mr. Yotsumoto also held group meetings to listen to his employees and there, he understood that people were ready to embrace change. He encouraged his team from the bottom-up to speak up more to German headquarters on how to grow the business with Japanese customers and provide technical solutions and invest in the local engineering capability.

Working in a multinational corporation, Mr. Yotsumoto says the key to success is to have a sense of curiosity and a desire to further understand stakeholder needs. When faced with a conflict in opinion, Mr. Yotsumoto asks further questions to try to understand why the difference exists. In monthly meetings, Mr. Yotsumoto would pose as a role model by asking simple questions or admitting his mistakes. In doing so, he hopes to create a psychologically safe atmosphere for others to voice their opinions. Mr. Yotsumoto believes that leadership is a "positive influencer" of an organization that creates an atmosphere that encourages people to take on challenges and continue to grow.

To newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Yostumoto recommends understanding the needs of the Japanese customers to gain trust. In order to build trust, Mr. Yostumoto emphasizes honesty, consistency and accountability. He notes: "we need to sometimes say no to Japanese customers. That's good, but we need to explain why. So that kind of [honest] conversation and explanation can create trust with the customers." Lastly, Mr. Yotsumoto advises newcomers to "enjoy" Japan including the uncomfortable situations and take it as a learning opportunity.

Paul Atkinson shares his journey as a leader of a multinational global insurance company and his insight in working in diverse cultural environments. Originally growing up in the UK, Mr. Atkinson joined RSA Insurance after graduating from university. Mr. Atkinson was attracted to the people aspect of insurance built on trust and integrity. Having worked in London for five years, Mr. Atkinson was posted in the Bahamas for two years before moving to Japan. After five years in Japan working for Royal Insurance, Mr. Atkinson move to Hong Kong and then to Taiwan where he continued to build his career within the insurance industry. In 2003 Mr. Atkinson returned to Japan and has been living in the country since then. After working as an executive search consultant, Mr. Atkinson went back to insurance and ran a direct marketing consultancy. Mr. Atkinson has been Head of Corporate Sales at AIG and is currently the Representative Director, Country Manager of Swiss Re Corporate Solutions.

Through his experience of working in multiple countries, Mr. Atkinson has learned the power of diversity and inclusion in management. Having managed both male and female dominated teams and faced its challenges, Mr. Atkinson has worked to bring more balance to his organizations by forming diversity and inclusion employee resource groups. Mr. Atkinson explains this has been a wonderful way for him to connect with people outside of his immediate leadership. Although Mr. Atkinson points out the prevailing gender gap in management positions in Japan, he sees a potential of talented people with diverse backgrounds and different ways of thinking to bring change.

In order to increase team engagement, Mr. Atkinson treats people with respect without being judgmental. Mr. Atkinson spends a third of his time speaking to people including those outside of his direct report. As his leadership style is delegation based, Mr. Atkinson understands the need to develop a culture of trust that enables people to step up and make key decisions. To encourage this, Mr. Atkinson sets up a clear vision and goal, and consistently communicates his expectations to his team. He also holds multiple discussions at various levels of the organization. Although Mr. Atkinson realizes this process is much more time-consuming than just giving out directions, he believes the final product is of much higher quality. He additionally encourages multiple departments to work together cross-functionally to create a culture of open communication and innovation. Mr. Atkinson also points out that following up and having regular check-ins with people is essential for ensuring that the delegation is happening.

To newcomers coming to lead in Japan, Mr. Atkinson recommends talking to all team members in order get a sense of where to focus on in terms of improvement, be it in staffing, communication or strategy. He also advises to buy some time from head office – at least three months – before doing a 90-100 day report as this initial communication aspect is essential. Mr. Atkinson recommends people to learn some Japanese to understand the culture and show genuine interest. Lastly, Mr. Atkinson encourages newcomers to find a hobby and enjoy the beautiful culture and sites in Japan.

70: Antony Cundy, former President, McCann Worldgroup Japan

Antony Cundy, former CEO & President of McCann Worldgroup Japan first arrived in Japan in the mid-90s to teach English and completed his Post-Graduate Studies at Tokyo University. Through connections, he landed a role in a Toyota subsidiary working on marketing Lexus. Shortly afterwards, Mr. Cundy started working at Hakuhodo Lintas working with large global consumer brands. Mr. Cundy then became general manager at DDB's Japan office and then moved to London to lead the strategy and account services. Mr. Cundy then became head of planning and account services for Beacon Communications. In 2016, Mr. Cundy joined McCann Worldgroup.

During his first few years of leadership, Mr. Cundy admits he "did not do a good job" as he found it challenging to engage and motivate his team to work towards a set vision and goal. Through experience, he realized being clear and consistent with his messaging and communication was crucial to lead the team. "You have to tell people as realistically and in as much detail as you can, this is what we're going to do. This is what I expect, everyone. This is your job. Make sure that people understand that at their level they're expected to do this." Moreover, he highlights the need to communicate not just to one's direct report but to people at all sections of the organization.

As the strategic and account lead for DDB in London, Mr. Cundy worked to build client relationships across vast markets in Europe. There, he found that people worked like a "steam train" in which people kept running ahead but did not look back to evaluate their work. As a martial arts enthusiast, Mr. Cundy values Zanshin 残心 meaning remaining mind, or having a state of awareness once something has occurred. Therefore, Mr. Cundy put a stronger system in place to be able to evaluate the team's work and create templates to improve future performance. As Mr. Cundy matured into his leadership role, he explains delegating became much smoother for him. When he trusts his team to deliver on their own instead of relying on him to provide all the answers, Mr. Cundy found that the team started to trust him back and became more accountable to their work.

On his advice to foreign leaders coming to Japan, Mr. Cundy recommends talking to all levels of people in the organization to get a wholesome picture of the company. Secondly, he emphasizes the diversity of the Japanese market, as the North and South of Japan have very different needs. As the leader, Mr. Cundy says one should be making sure every level and every part of the business understands these differences. Thirdly, Mr. Cundy notes clarity and consistency in communication, and being oneself is important. Lastly, he explains: "you have to believe in the fundamentals of your business plan. You have to have some flexibility. You're not going to achieve it through a straight line, but you should never take yourself away from it because the Japanese are saying, that's going to be tough. If you're there for the mission you need to deliver on the mission, you just got to realize that it's not going to be as straight as you think."

Breaking News: Tony has just been announced as the new Vice President Marketing and Communications at Cartier.

Since her childhood, Fara Taraie has been exposed to global cultures, being born in the middle east, spending middle to high school in Europe and South Korea, studying in Iran, and finally arriving in Japan. In total, Ms. Taraie has lived in six different countries. After graduating with a master's degree in Architecture Engineering from Tokyo University, Ms. Faraie began working as an architect for a large Japanese corporation as she wanted to learn the ecosystem of big companies involved in large scale building projects. She soon became more interested in sustainable design and contributing to society, leading her to work with more startup companies. Ms. Taraie is currently the country manager for ImpacTech, an organization that supports startups to enter the Japanese market and create social, environmental, and economical impact. Ms. Taraie is also the founder of New Norm Design, architecture firm specializing in sustainable design.

Ms. Taraie believes in educating and developing her people to gain mutual trust and engagement. As ImpacTech is an NPO, she understands there is more than money the organization can offer, including the opportunity to create social impact and connect with other start-ups. In this way, she has found that her staff are able to form valuable connections which help further develop their careers or even start their own businesses. She also encourages them to learn new skills and grow in their field. Ms. Taraie believes her team will become more comfortable being held accountable and come up with innovative ideas. Additionally, she has observed: "If you educate someone to work with you, you will see the chances of them leaving is much lower."

Ms. Taraie advises newcomers in Japan to learn Japanese and have a good understanding of the culture in order to work here. She also explains that sometimes, instead of changing a system, it is better to come up with a new system that works better.

Jeff Crawford provided great insight into the tech and digital marketing industry from his experience as a programmer in Silicon Valley to becoming the co-founder of Zo Digital Japan.

Mr. Crawford originally worked in Silicon Valley for 16 years working in famous companies including Apple and Microsoft. Living in San Francisco, he became familiar with Japanese food and culture, and took frequent vacation trips to Japan. He eventually began working at Microsoft's Japan branch for five years as a Program Manager. Mr. Crawford then stepped into a managerial position, leading a team of five staff as well as managing vendors. Next, Mr. Crawford moved into Adobe Systems Japan, also managing a team of approximately 5 people . Afterwards, he got the "entrepreneurial bug" and began a digital advertising service for music and dance schools in the US. After realizing the business model was not going to work, Mr. Crawford moved on to started Zo Digital, an SEO and digital marketing agency.

Mr. Crawford first began as a consultant before starting Zo Digital, and eventually started hiring contract staff to run as an agent. On starting his own business, Mr. Crawford reflects: "Fortunately for me, I had management experience at places like Microsoft and Adobe. I think I understood how to manage people, how to have good processes, that type of stuff. And so for me, personally, everything came together. I've always had a love of user experience with computers. I'm very strong and very interested in things like analytics, looking at data to see what people are doing."

In 2015, Mr. Crawford began a professional network organization called Tokyo Digital Marketers. The first event had about 10 people, but the organization has grown to over 2000 people registered and usually 50-60 people showing up in events. Mr. Crawford has also been active in other business organizations such as the American Chamber of Commerce Japan and the Japan Market Expansion Competition. Through these networking opportunities, Mr. Crawford has been able to connect and recruit people. Mr. Crawford also actively hire people online through discussion boards to find people who want to work in an international, flexible environment.

The challenge Mr. Crawford faced as a leader in Japan was change management as he faced strong resistance to change in the culture. For example, there was an occasion where his Japanese team who was focused on the Japanese market suddenly had to expand to support China and Korea as well, and had to speak English. Therefore, Mr. Crawford explains the importance of explaining to people the need for change and having an open discussion about people's concerns and ideas.

Mr. Crawford developed his leadership schools through reading books and using techniques, including Dale Carnegie's books and listening to management podcasts. He also highlights the need to understand how to use the learned principles in Japan. He also tries to ask his staff on what would work to try to pull out their thoughts and ideas while sharing case studies from his experience. Mr. Crawford also notes that if a team member comes to him with an idea, they have most likely already shared those thoughts with others and rewards such situations.

Learning and Development is something Mr. Crawford also puts emphasis on and helps his staff grow their career paths. He believes in investing in his people to grow their career paths and enable them to add further value to the company. He finds innovation also happens in this way. Over the recent years, Mr. Crawford has found people in his company stepping up to more leadership roles.

On advice to newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Crawford recommends to be careful of who you favour, as ability goes beyond just being able to speak English. He also advises to maintain a balance between being humble and assertive, and try to be observant in order to "read the air." Mr. Crawford also emphasizes the importance of understanding Japan's relationship-based business culture. He explains: "What often affects decisions [made in Japan] is that they're taking into account everybody's relationship. And a lot of times what you may not realize, especially if you're a new manager, is all these relationships exist around you, and they've been built over years... compared to other business cultures or other countries, you may want to take more time to understand the situation before making those executive decisions."

Gregory Lyon is the President and founder of Gregory Lyon Inc., company specialized in providing furniture, workplace solutions and project management. Mr. Lyon originally moved to Japan in the late 90s to teach English which then led him to move to Tokyo to work in a freight forwarding company. There, Mr. Lyon became interested in working in an organization where he could be responsible for projects from beginning to end. Mr. Lyon eventually landed a position at Herman Miller as a sales representative going back and forth between Korea and Japan. Seeing more opportunities in the furniture business in Korea, Mr. Lyon persuaded his boss and moved to Korea to focus on managing the distributors there. He eventually returned to Japan and worked at Herman Miller for nine years and had finished an MBA program. Mr. Lyon then decided to start Gregory Lyon Inc.

On leading in a multinational environment as a western brand marketing to Korea and Japan, Mr. Lyon notes: "You're going by the Western brands rules in terms of marketing and how you manage your business, how you engage with clients, and then you have the Japanese side of things, which is very different. So bridging that gap can be a challenge…and finding a way to engage with clients based on what the company's line is and getting that to translate in the Japanese way." Mr. Lyon had also received a 360-degree survey from his staff and realized he needed to be more patient and explain the background behind his opinion. Mr. Lyon also decided to focus entirely on project management and client relations which allowed him to gain trust and respect from his colleagues as he was brining in business. When dealing with global accounts, Mr. Lyon spent much of his time and effort speaking to his international clients and overseas decision-makers to ensure smooth communication and project management.

On engagement, Mr. Lyon found that by focusing on trying to solve issues locally, the Japanses staff began to trust him instead of seeing him as an outsider who only wanted to talk to the overseas decision-makers. Mr. Lyon recalls he had been able to do so effectively by discussing with the international and Japanese staff together on conference calls, ensuring people were on the same page. Mr. Lyon notes: "There's two sides [to] our clients. You have the non-Japanese side who rightly or wrongly typically will sign the checks for things and then make the decisions. That's usually the side that I've dealt with. The other side, which is equally important is the Japanese side who has to implement all of these projects and get everything done. So both sides have to feel comfortable. Both sides have to be attended to. And so, if I can help the decision-making side, it clears the path for the rest of the folks." Moreover, Mr. Lyon holds kick-off meetings in July to review the annual company performance based on revenue and profit, as well as making plans for next year. Overtime, Mr. Lyon has learned that it is also important to be able to rely on his staff as he does not know everything, and this humble attitude has made him more trusted. He has also shown flexibility in adjusting his team's work hours.

On advice to newcomers, Mr. Lyon recommends gaining a basic understanding of Japanese history to be able to better understand the culture. Secondly, he advises to learn enough Japanese to be able to "understand the sentiment around what is being said in Japanese." He adds: "I think in my experience [with] Japanese clients, Japanese partners, [and] Japanese venders, if you speak [English] in a way that they understand, if you speak clearly enough and you speak slowly enough…especially for people who don't speak English very well, If you do that over time, the more comfortable they are listening to you, the better your relationship is going to be. And if they understand what you're saying whether you throw some Japanese words in or not, if it's all in English…they're going to be thrilled to talk to you." Thirdly, Mr. Lyon advises to be honest, direct and keep things in moderation. He adds: "be genuine and be approachable and let staff know that you're on their side and you're trying to help them."

Peter Strydom who is the President of Amway Japan shares his extensive global experience within the multinational corporation, having worked in South Africa, Spain, Germany, and Japan. Originally growing up in South Africa, Mr. Strydom had worked in leadership roles in Europe and Africa within Amway before coming to Japan. He decided to work in Japan after a mentor advised him to go to Asia to truly understand the business of Amway. He calls Amway Japan one of the crown jewel of the organization, with a nearly billion dollar business and 600, 000 independent distributors built over the last 40 years. As the President of Amway Japan, Mr. Strydom currently leads around 400 employees.

One of the biggest challenges Mr. Strydom first faced when arriving in Japan was needing to implement a change management plan to within a set timeline. In a country like Japan that is resistant to quick change, he recalls this was a huge struggle. After leading in Japan for 6 years, Mr. Strydom has come to realize that profit and creating shareholder value is not necessarily the only primary driver in Japanese business culture. Hence, Mr. Strydom realized that explaining the profit-driven motive behind his change management plan was not going to work in this country. Mr. Strydom explains: "you need to expand the definition and dig a little bit deeper as to why you're doing this, not only for today, but for the impact it's going to have on people and for what it means for the future of the business." He further explains that as a CEO in a multi-corporation in Japan, it is one's responsibility to balance profitability required by headquarters while addressing the "more personal and societal concerns that are important within the local context." For example, as part of their corporate social responsibility initiative, Amway Japan has been devoted to supporting victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku by building community houses. Mr. Strydom says these initiatives have resonated and built trust with all of Amway Japan's stakeholders and led to new opportunities.

Another leadership challenge Mr. Strydom points out is the hierarchical organization and siloed structure of Japanese businesses. In order to resolve this problem, Mr. Strydom says he takes a servant leadership approach to listen to his employees at various levels into the organization. Mr. Strydom has been working with HR to have more occasions where people hold small group discussions to encourage free flow of conversations and transparency. Mr. Strydom notes that the pandemic has in fact allowed him to hold these conversations in a more informal way online and has given him further insight into his team. Mr. Strydom adds: "for me, it's always been speaking from the heart speaking from my own personal experience speaking with stories and always elevating other people above oneself." Furthermore, Mr. Strydom has noticed that in Japan, people tend to want shared accountability instead of full accountability, so he realizes he needs to understand these cultural nuances that are different from the west.

On encouraging innovation, Mr. Strydom says Amway Japan has created principles around having a growth mindset, which is constantly discussed in team meetings and integrated in their training sessions and public seminars. He says in this way he encourages his team to understand that taking risks and failing is okay. By congratulating people who have taken risks, Mr. Strydom hopes that others will be more comfortable doing so as well.

Mr. Strydom advises newcomers leading in Japan to stay patient and communicate that change will not happen immediately to headquarters. He recommends people to not make any assumptions and jump to conclusions. For example, at first Mr. Strydom did not understand the concept of nemawashi, doing groundwork before the actual meeting. However, overtime, he has come to accept that nemawashi works well in the decision-making process in Japan. Lastly, Mr. Strydom recommends learning basic survival Japanese as it will demonstrate respect to Japanese culture and people.