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

Timothy Connor, Managing Director of Synnovate Advisory has been a veteran of Japanese business, having worked in Japan for over 30 years. He originally came to Japan under the MEF program (currently known as JET, a program that provides opportunities for internationals to teach English in Japan) and lived in Morioka City in the Iwate prefecture where he quickly learned Japanese.

While teaching in the evenings, Mr. Connor studied fashion design at Esmod Japon and eventually began his own apparel brand still in his 20s. He specialized in making clothes for Japanese and international clients who were either very tall or small, so did not fit standard sizes. He calls the experience "great fun" and made various outfits including a wedding dress. After four years, Mr. Connor transitioned into the more promotional aspect of the creative business and began marketing for other artists and designers. As this was the 80s, Mr. Connor recalls enjoying the boom time in Japan like eating gold speckled sushi. Mr. Connor then moved on to importing artists work and promoting them in Japan, acting as the marketing arm for boutique designers.

Mr. Connor then began working in a corporate environment in a senior strategy and marketing role in a firm of 25 staff within a large Japanese conglomerate in the printing industry. Stepping into a corporate leadership position for the first time, Mr. Connor found it challenging to lead a diverse group of Japanese and non-Japanese employees in a company with a traditional age-based culture. Mr. Connor was careful in finding the right balance between being part of a team but also maintaining a certain degree of distance as this is what was expected from leaders in the company. Having led a diverse number of teams in various industries, Mr. Connor also noted the difficulty in setting goals and targets with people from different backgrounds and set of expectations. Mr. Connor claims: "one of the tricky balancing roles and balancing challenges was to paint the right picture of where we're trying to go. But give people enough roadmaps so that they knew where they should go. What are their actual targets and what are my expectations to them?" Having worked with a number of salespeople, Mr. Connor also mentored and trained his staff to be able to close the sales instead of being too relationship focused with the client.

After the firm closed down due to the economic downturn of the 90s, Mr. Connor worked with the parent company's president for a few years. Mr. Connor then took a leave and pursued his MBA at Duke University. Upon his return, Mr. Connor was released from his company and began his own management consulting business. Mr. Connor mainly consulted startup type clients and maximized his general manager skills he had acquired working in a large Japanese company. Mr. Connor eventually joined one of his client's company that sold online coupons to be used in restaurants as their general manager. After realizing the infrastructure for the marketing not being present, Mr. Connor joined the parent company that provided face-to-face marketing and sales and event marketing services to consumer products. There he worked as a managing director looking after three divisions of the company in sales, retail products, and legal, as well as HR when in need.

On team engagement, Mr. Connor tries to maintain a balance between setting expectations as the leader but also ensuring his employees enjoy their work. Mr. Connor states: "What I discovered was we had people doing things and I wouldn't say they were struggling, but it seemed to me that they could shine doing something else. And so I would move people around from time to time doing different things. And when people are doing things that they're good at, they just stayed to automatically grow into it. That was a great discovery just to see that actually people do progress and grow and do things much, much better if they enjoy what they're doing."

On innovation, Mr. Connor encourages people to come up with their own ideas by being patient and having open communication while asking leading questions. He also uses this style of communication to finding commonalities and gain trust, while noting the importance of "reading the air." Mr. Connor also finds that showing and communicating that you trust someone further enhances the relationship.

For newcomers leading Japan, Mr. Connor advises to learn the language and understand work and home life are different for Japanese people although this is changing for the younger generation. "I think there is a lot of change happening…also, there there's a lot more openness now about people having stress-related issues. The ability to actually go to the boss and say, I'm feeling stressed out…It's a different world now [from the showa era]."

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

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

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

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

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

Paul Goldsmith, Country Manager of Aquent Japan, shared his extensive leadership experience in the recruitment, automobile and IT industry across multiple countries including Japan, Australia, Singapore, the US, Kuwait and the UK. He first arrived in Japan in 1985 at 28 years old to help set up the staffing agency Adia, currently Adecco, in Japan. In 1993 he founded Panache, a recruitment agency focused on hiring bilingual IT engineers, which ran for 13 years. He then moved on to the luxury automobile industry by turning his love of cars into business. Mr. Goldsmith was involved in hosting global-scale car shows in Kuwait and the UK and also became involved in the British automobile manufacturing industry. Mr. Goldsmith returned to Japan in 2017 and worked in a software marketing company as well being part of projects working with Maserati Japan, the Italian luxury automobile company. In 2019, Mr. Goldsmith took on his current role after being approached via LinkedIn. Mr. Goldsmith found it challenging and exciting to be able to use his previous leadership skills and experience he had gained from his recruitment background in order to make Aquent Japan grow.

Having worked in leadership roles in multiple countries, Mr. Goldsmith emphasizes the importance of communicating with clarity and consistency and explaining the reasoning behind it. He further explains: "I learned that having a vision is very important and…having a strategy and presenting that strategy to your staff clearly and sticking to it." He also noticed that in meetings, compared to the West, it is vital for foreign managers to be able to draw opinions out of people even if they do not speak up. Mr. Goldsmith also adds that COVID has reinforced the importance of managing through others, and he is very careful to continuously relay messages, ideas, instructions, innovation through his management team. In order to create a culture of open communication and innovation, Mr. Goldsmith is a proponent of giving everybody equal opportunities to succeed in their role. Through monthly company meetings Mr. Goldsmith reinforces the company values to ensure all levels of his employees understand what is expected of them. He has found that such communication and words of encouragement to take risks, has made his employees more flexible and innovative. One innovative aspect of Aquent is their use of technology, which has made the transition from office to remote work quite seamless.

While maximizing the use of technology, Mr. Goldsmith is also mindful of delivering customized service to each job or employee-seeking client. He says this can be done through training and providing incentives. Additionally, Mr. Goldsmith maintains a balanced mindset between being results-oriented organization and making sure his staff genuinely care for the clients. Mr. Goldsmith also explains that he shows a degree of tolerance regarding employee performance instead of purely evaluating them on numbers. He claims: "We have these [all-staff] meetings and each office relays to the rest of the company, their successes during the month, but also failures…And the lessons learned from both. And as we both know, you learn more from failure than you do success."

To newcomers in Japan, Mr. Goldsmith advises to have cultural sensitivity and to take the time to understand Japanese culture, instead of trying to implement drastic changes right away. He explains: "things are not the same in Japan as they might be from your home country, but Japan is open to new ideas and you can apply new ideas, but maybe there's a way of localizing some of those ideas. And maybe in some ways, some of those Japanese ideas are better than they are outside." Secondly, Mr. Goldsmith advises to understand the importance of going the extra mile for clients and paying attention to detail in order to build long-lasting, trusting relationships as he believes that "trust is an accumulation of positive experiences." Thirdly, he advises newcomers to develop strong ties with the foreign community to share ideas and expand one's perspective. He claims: "I think there are often viewpoints and sometimes there are rules that initially as a foreigner that you think are quite illogical, but then when you start to think through it from a different viewpoint you kind of see where it comes from."

Loic Bizel currently leads Wantomo, a premium Japan made recommended dog food company exclusively sold online. Mr. Bizel originally came to Japan from France in his mid-20s as the Export Manager for French shoe brands. As the leader overseeing the Asia branch, Mr. Bizel successfully introduced these shoe brands to Japanese department stores and select shops. Being a young leader, he sought to gain gradual trust from his team and was heavily involved in recruitment. Mr. Bizel specifically looked for people with international backgrounds who were open-minded and flexible about working in a smaller scale foreign company. Mr. Bizel also notes that the people he hired in Japan are very committed to the nature of their work.

In 2001, Mr. Bizel founded his own company, Lebiz Consulting www.lebiz-consulting.com, where he provided fashion consulting using his knowledge and connections from his previous company. Mr. Bizel provided consulting to brands who wanted to launch in Japan or brands who already had but were having issues with distribution, positioning, and strategy, and so on. He launched www.fashioninjapan.com, a street fashion photo collection site. During this time, Mr. Bizel explains that Japanese fashion was becoming globally known, and entrepreneurs from all over the world began to come to Tokyo to understand new fashion trends and concepts. To meet this demand, Mr. Bizel also created www.tokyofashiontour.com and organized customized tours to inform visitors of Tokyo fashion. Capitalizing on the Cool Japan boom in the early 2000s, Mr. Bizel gradually gained more media attention and buzz.

Mr. Bizel then joined Glamour Sales, a start-up company created by two French entrepreneurs. The company operated a membership-based flash sales business that distributed and promoted brands with excess inventory through pop-up stores and e-commerce websites. Mr. Bizel bought another flash sales company, Gilt Japan www.gilt.jp and changed the company names to Gladd www.gladd.jp, growing the business from 14-15 people to over 150 employees in 2016. Currently, the company has grown even further and is at about 250 staff.

While researching on some successful business models in Europe and on Japanese trends, Mr. Bizel decided to target Japanese dog owners, and founded Wantomo, a premium dog food company. Wantomo delivers dog food recommended by a veterinarian to owners based on the dog's online profile through their online store, Leo & Lea www.leoandlea.com. Mr. Bizel hopes to market Wantomo through user generated content by building a rich online community, having customers post their experiences through social media.

Mr. Bizel again mentioned the importance of building trust and being involved in recruitment of all leadership roles including sales, marketing, finance, logistics & operations, HR and web. He says: "I need to build the structure in the, the wall of the house and, and I, so you need to find the right people, the right talent and the right fit with the company." Mr. Bizel also values open communication and transparency to encourage his team to move in an agile manner instead of being too risk-averse and afraid of going in the wrong direction, like many larger corporations. When recruiting new hires to enter the Wantomo Mr. Bizel emphasizes: "the talent has to bring you something, but you have to bring them something also...that the Japanese company [doesn't know how to]."

To newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Bizel advises to "stay yourself" instead of "trying to be Japanese." He adds that understanding the company culture is the key to succeeding and gaining trust. Secondly, Mr. Bizel advises to be curious and to be a good listener even towards opinions that you do not necessarily agree in order to maintain open and transparent communication.

Kei Sakaguchi has a wealth of experience both in global Japanese corporations and small-scale innovative companies. Growing up in a Catholic environment, Mr. Sakaguchi was exposed to foreign culture from an early age and aspired to work in a global organization one day. Mr. Sakaguchi graduated from Keio University with a law degree, and entered Sony Corporation as a new graduate after reading a cover story on Akio Morita, Sony's legendary co-founder and CEO. Mr. Sakaguchi first worked in the legal division of Sony but was selected by Mr. Morita to join his speech writing team. Mr. Sakaguchi had an incredible experience working under Mr. Morita, learning the ins and out of how he led. Mr. Sakaguchi recalls Mr. Morita's speech to newly hired graduates which urged young employees to be self-reliant and be the owner of their own career. In working closely with Mr. Morita, Mr. Sakaguchi describes him as a passionate believer and communicator of the Sony vision. He adds: "[Morita-san] was a very results-oriented person, careless about the method…but he was very demanding as to the quality of the outcome. So for employees, the team members, it was very easy to understand what he is demanding and what we need to deliver. That clarity of leadership made people work with commitment, passion, and motivation." Mr. Morita also encouraged innovation, encouraging employees to think outside of the box and to not be afraid of making mistakes as a result of that. To Mr. Sakaguchi, the lessons he learned at Sony and the "Sony DNA" that he developed is something that he still carries with him when leading and engaging with others.

After 27 years at Sony, Mr. Sakaguchi's next move was to Coca-Cola, where he became the Manager of Global PR, leading a team of 30-40 staff. In leading a diverse team of staff, Mr. Sakaguchi highlights the importance of having a two-way communication, talking about the company vision and business goals. This style of communicating and creating real value for the company has, in Mr. Sakaguchi's experience, led to higher levels of commitment and motivation. Interestingly, Mr. Sakaguchi found certain aspects of the leadership style at Coke to be more manual-based than Sony. Yet Coke also encourage innovation and as proof, 70% of Coca-Cola Japan's revenue came from Japan-originated tea and coffee products. Within his PR team, Mr. Sakaguchi was mindful of encouraging his staff to not only publicize the joy and value of a new product but communicate the innovation behind it to tap into the unique Japanese monozukuri spirit.

Mr. Sakaguchi then joined the senior leadership team of Meltwater, a San Francisco based online and social media intelligence company. There, he led a team of 20 people, who were mainly in their 20s. Mr. Sakaguchi committed himself to "downloading [his] longstanding corporate experiences" and educating his young team on the large Japanese corporation mentality and how the Meltwater employees can better approach them. Since his team was from a diverse international background, Mr. Sakaguchi also advised them on how to follow Japanese company work styles when communicating with potential clients. In order to maintain engagement amongst his team, Mr. Sakaguchi urged them to try new things on their own and be accountable for the results. He also encouraged those who failed in this task by encouraging them to carefully view the process and how it can be improved.

After two years at Meltwater, Mr. Sakaguchi was headhunted by Eurasia Group, a New York-based consulting firm focusing on focusing on advising global companies on the potential risk of geopolitics on their global business. Mr. Sakaguchi initially ran a solo operation as the Japan representative mainly focusing on business development.

To newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Sakaguchi advises them to be avid proactive communicators of the organizations value, mission and goals and engage in one-on-one conversations with employees frequently. He also advises the encouragement of the box thinking and being lenient towards failure as long as it is constructive failure. Moreover, he urges foreign leaders to encourage more individual initiatives from their team and tap into diverse talents, including non-Japanese and female candidates. Mr. Sakaguchi states: "globalization is still a must for many Japanese companies and for real globalization, for real success in the global market, you need to pick up positive and innovative views and suggestions from non-Japanese managers hired outside of Japan with new thinking."

Timothy Langley has been in Japan for over 40 years and has an intriguing career in American and Japanese public affairs. Mr. Langley originally grew up in Okinawa where his father's military post was stationed. After graduating from the University of Georgia, Mr. Langley taught English and played for the Santa Monica Rugby Club. He set his path to become a lawyer through the Monbusho scholarship and attended Tohoku University to study law but was rejected from taking the bar exam as a foreigner since it had "never been done." Unable to sit for the bar, Mr. Langley landed a job at the Japanese National Parliament after writing to a prominent Japanese politician and sending his resumes. Since this was the first time a foreigner was working inside the Japanese government, Mr. Langley was featured in the media within and outside of Japan including the American CBS show, 60 minutes.

Mr. Langley eventually became an official lawyer after completing a law program at Georgetown. After working in Atlanta for a few years at a law firm, Mr. Langley was hired as an attorney for a manufacturing company in Kyoto to deal with a trade issue they were facing with the US government. Mr. Langley calls this experience working for a traditional Japanese company to be "a valuable experience in seeing how the Japanese work…how decisions are being made." He also notes the difference in leadership that he observed: "basically since it's a Japanese company, you're going to be there until you die. So that leadership and that aspiration that you might have to be a leader is applied very differently than it might be in a competitive environment, such as in the United States…and [Japanese] people [are] very risk averse as, as people know. And they're punctual, they get the job done, but they follow the manual.

Mr. Langley then became the representative for the Commonwealth of Kentucky in Japan where he served for two years and gained some early leadership experience managing several staff. He then became General Counsel for Apple for four years where Mr. Langley essentially established the legal division from scratch. Since Apple was a growing company at the time, Mr. Langley recalls many challenges, including hiring the right staff and gaining commitment. Mr. Langley then transitioned into Amway for a brief period, before returning to Denver, Colorado with his family to start a law firm. He was not away from Japan for too long after being approached by General Motors to become their General Counsel and Director of Government Affairs in Asia although his term was cut short due to the 9-11 attacks.

But this time, Mr. Langley was committed to staying in Japan. Realizing his value add as General Counsel, having represented global companies like General Motors and Apple, Mr. Langley started Langley Esquire, a public affairs consultancy where he is the President and Representative Director. He describes his earlier challenges on recruitment, including convincing his sons to join the organization. Mr. Langley also highlights the importance of building trust and avoiding a breach of trust to maintain good relations, which he calls "an asset that can be transitioned from generation to generation."

To new leaders coming to Japan, Mr. Langley advises to have language familiarity, carefully observe others and ask questions to pick up on social cues that will help with decision-making. He adds that holding back and pausing in conversations is also a great way to communicate, claiming that in Japan, the "things that are being left unsaid carry as much weight as what [people] are verbally saying."

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

Andrew Hankinson is the President of Zwilling J.A. Henckels Japan and host of the podcast Now and Zen. Originally from Seattle, Washington, Mr. Hankinson's passion for Japan grew at a young age, having been exposed to Japanese culture by family members living in the country, leading him to learn the language from high school. After briefly teaching English in Osaka, Mr. Hankinson returned to Japan with a degree in international business and Japanese language from the US. He shortly began working at a Japanese department store as a menswear buyer which he describes as an "eye-opening" experience and a "great foundation to be living and working in Japan."

Mr. Hankinson's next move was in the travel industry, where he worked for a travel publishing company as a salesperson. He explains the company to be "very flexible and very open" as they originally hired Mr. Hankinson in hopes of increasing innovation. Mr. Hankinson was quickly able to gain the trust of the organization due to achieving success early on where his suggestions led to better results for the organization. Mr. Hankinson's first official leadership role was working as country manager for a European-based office product company where he managed seven employees. He describes his work there as hands-on, especially with client facing aspects of the organization.

Currently, as head of a much larger organization, Mr. Hankinson leads about 250 employees. Mr. Hankinson says jumping into an organization that he had no previous knowledge of required lots of catching up, and building trust with the people had its challenges. To overcome this, Mr. Hankinson interviewed his staff in the Tokyo office to build rapport and connect with them at a more individual basis. In order to lead a much larger team, Mr. Hankinson is mindful of the Japanese way of thinking through group consensus. He explains: "if we do it all together…[and] if it fails, nobody's responsible." He is also conscious of fostering empowerment amongst his employees to give them a safe space to express their thoughts and encourage innovation. Mr. Hankinson also leads through other managers by delegating to ensure everybody is providing input to determine the direction of the organization. The Japanese office of the global kitchenware manufacturing company have introduced many innovative products such as Japanese kitchen knives and pots that have become popular on a global scale.

Mr. Hankinson sums up his ideals of leadership as being able to "deliver results, have good people skills, being engaged and having market intelligence,"

To newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Hankinson advises to enjoy travelling and exploring the culture and sharing that with one's team, which is a wonderful way to connect with others on a human level. Secondly, Mr. Hankinson advises to earn some "quick wins" as a fast-track way to earn credibility and trust amongst Japanese staff when trying to implement change. Thirdly, he recommends finding the perfect balance between adapting to local culture and retaining your personal management style in order to find the best of both worlds.

Dr. David Sweet initially worked in the US Treasury Department in labor relations and organizational development for 10 years before moving to Japan. He has been working in executive search, having worked in en world Japan and serving as Director of the Tokyo consultancy Wall Street Associates, Dr. Sweet is currently the CEO and founder of FocusCore, a recruitment company focused on mid to executive level search for small to medium sized businesses. He is also the author of Sweet Sales, Sweet Success and host of the podcast series, Barefoot Lunch.

One of the biggest leadership challenges Dr. Sweet faced was encouraging open communication and having his diverse team of people from various backgrounds all work together in the same direction. He found that having open forums enabled people to express ideas without fear as well as having offsite training and team building opportunities. Delegation and trust are also key factors, especially when the team grows to over 30 and it becomes important for mid-level management to take on more leadership. Dr. Sweet adds: "you need to really care about their wellbeing and follow up." By doing so, he notes that the managers overtime learn to manage through outcomes instead of micro-managing, Dr. Sweet mentions the need to adapt to the Japanese style of communication, which is "high context," and the importance of nemawashi before finalizing a decision. He adds, "[decisions are made] a little slower oftentimes, but I think there's a lot more buy-in and less mistakes along the way." Dr. Sweet also notes the long-term trust and relationship building component of Japanese business that drives workers to always maintain a high standard of product and service quality. This strong sense of customer service and emphasis on softer communication skills such as listening to the buyers needs was something Dr. Sweet brought back to the US when he returned to run a sales training company.

Dr. Sweet believes that employee development is crucial in leading and keeping engagement high. For new recruits, FocusCore has a six month training program and for staff, there are weekly training opportunities. Dr. Sweet also encourages people to run projects. He finds that employees who take the training usually increases their performance and improves their time management. On Friday nights his team are free to join a zoom call to hold casual conversations where people exchange ideas in a more relaxed environment. In order to bring those ideas to realization, Dr. Sweet keeps track and follows up with people. He does however recognize that not 100% will be implemented.

On building trust with the team, Dr. Sweet emphasizes the importance of listening. Some tips he uses include, asking a question and counting to 10 to let the other have time to give a thoughtful response. Dr. Sweet also asks the question "what else?"to dig deeper into the answers to get to the heart of what really matters to his team. He also says using different management styles for different people is essential, whether it is micromanagement, coaching, giving public praise, or holding one-on-one meetings depending on what is best suitable for the particular employee.

Dr. Sweet advises newcomers to Japan to recognize 85% of leadership done in Japan is the same elsewhere, but be aware of the 15% that is different, learn it quickly. Dr. Sweet also points out the importance of forming good relations with 1 or 2 key players of a company who are the main drivers of the organization. He recommends going out for drinks and dinner with the team to build further trust, as it is an important part of Japanese culture.

Originally an engineer from Bologna, Italy, Lorenzo Scrimizzi arrived in Japan 26 years ago, and has been working for Carpigiani Japan for the last 19 years. He currently serves as the Representative Director. Previously, Mr. Scrimizzi worked in industries including consumer goods, automotive and trade, which has led him to gain a wealth of experience and knowledge.

According to Mr. Scrimizzi, hiring the right people and retaining them, as well as engaging and gaining trust from staff, customers and headquarter are all challenging aspects of leading in Japan. Mr. Scrimizzi tries to recruit people with a sense of individuality and creativity instead of focusing too much on language capability. In doing so, he has created a team that is capable of adjusting to the Italian work culture which sometimes values individuality and initiative over structure and organization.

Over the years Mr. Scrimizzi has worked to gain trust and encourage innovation from his staff by listening to them through smaller meetings, allowing some margin for mistakes, and being consistent with his words and actions. Moreover, Mr. Scrimizzi has found that having face to face meetings between his Japanese customers and headquarters has also helped increase a "certain level of awareness and sensitivity on both sides." These efforts have benefited his organization as Mr. Scrimizzi claims, "the level of detail, the level of attention, and that level of a need that Japanese customers have, probably has no matches in any other country in the world. So, if you're able to satisfy that, then what you gain is that you already have something which is ready and very reliable and good to be marketed in any other country in the world. "

Mr. Scrimizzi advises to any foreigner looking to lead in Japan to learn the Japanese language and use body language to communicate. Despite living in Japan for 26 years, Mr. Scrimizzi is also open to new experiences. He explains: "I'm always curious to learn…we still have to be prepared to be surprised and to learn that there are other aspects of the Japanese business culture that we have not understood yet."

Once on the Board of Governors for the American Chamber of Commerce Japan, being Vice-President for six years and President for two, Glen Fukushima has an incredible wealth of knowledge in business, government and law. Studying at the prestigious Stanford and Harvard university, Mr. Fukushima worked in government including the Office of the United States Trade Representative where he was heavily involved in US-Japan trade negotiations. He then transitioned into the private sector, becoming Vice-President of AT&T Japan, President and CEO of Arthur D. Little, President and Chairman of Cadence Design Systems Japan, President, CEO, Chairman and Director of Airbus Japan, and now Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress.

Despite his experience in negotiation, Mr. Fukushima explains that leading a Japanese organization with a global headquarter had many challenges, largely due to different expectations and way of operation. For example, Mr. Fukushima recalls his struggle to convince headquarters to adjust the performance evaluation system in Japan and avoid firing people for being bad performers like they did in the US. He also found difficulty navigating between headquarters who expected detailed reports from him on business in Japan, and his direct reports, who only expected him to manage higher-level matters.

To deal with such challenges, Mr. Fukushima notes the importance of understanding Japanese values and respecting long-term relationships, as well as producing results. Mr. Fukushima also drew heavily on his diverse experience working in other American and European companies to persuade headquarters on how things are done differently in Japan. Additionally, Mr. Fukushima encouraged his Japanese team to interact with others outside of Japan on occasions such as regional meetings and visiting headquarters to establish better relations and broaden both cultures' perspectives.

To encourage innovation, Mr. Fukushima worked on changing the Japanese risk-averse mind-set by rewarding those who would try out new ideas. Moreover, in leading multi-national organizations in Japan, Mr. Fukushima explains: "I think one of the selling points is that we're more innovative, we have new ideas, and to succeed in Japan, we can't do what the entrenched Japanese companies are already doing. Because unless we do something different and something better, we're not going to succeed."

Mr. Fukushima gives fantastic advice for any foreigner who is going to Japan for the first time and will be leading a Japanese team. Firstly, he indicated the importance of understanding differences between Japan and the US and adjusting one's actions to respect Japanese culture. Secondly, Mr. Fukushima advises to learn from others and seek those who are experienced in working in Japan such as joining study groups (benkyokai). Thirdly, he emphasizes that respecting continuity, consistency, and precedence are all very important in Japan. Therefore, it is important to understand and respect the history, instead of trying to change everything. Lastly, he notes the increasing diversity of Japan during recent times. Mr. Fukushima states: "On the one hand, you could talk about large traditional Japanese companies from the pre-war period, they've been around for a hundred years…And then on the other hand, you've got these newer companies that are…similar to Silicon Valley companies…So, one caution I would add is that you need to realize that there's tremendous diversity in Japan and know what kind of organization you're dealing with. "