The FocusCore Podcast

We hope everyone had a wonderful Golden Week. We’ve taken a little break from podcasting but host, David Sweet is back with a brand new guest on the show this week. William Nealy Jr. started his career journey in Japan as a teacher on the JET programme and turned his early education teaching experience into a successful career in senior management in Learning and Development where he has worked for some of the world’s most well-known brands including Adidas, Nissan, and Cartier in Japan and America.    

In this episode you will hear:

• How teaching in Japan started William on his career journey
• How playing tennis and sport develops a growth mindset and how that benefits working in a business 
• What are company values and why are they so important - it needs to start from the top
• What pitfalls can companies avoid 
• How companies can do better for their staff when it comes to developing their careers
• How to provide learning and development for staff when you have a limited budget 
• Importing international organizational values to Japan versus creating company values in Japan 

William Nealy Jr. Bio:

I work inside a business to align people development initiatives with the overall business strategy. In this position, it has been my privilege and honor to work with individuals around the globe. I've worked in the USA, Spain, and Japan, the latter for nearly 18 years. During my time in Japan, I fell in love with the people and the culture, and developed a deep understanding and respect for Japanese workplace practices.

My background includes working closely with senior managers to identify opportunities for improvement and managing change at the local and global level. I'm accustomed to creating and managing talent development programs, coaching high-potential talent, and facilitating training programs. I love the rush and satisfaction of helping my co-workers around the world achieve their goals. 

Connect with William Nealy Jr.:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamnealy/?originalSubdomain=jp 

IG: https://www.instagram.com/williamtokyo/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/williamtokyo?lang=en 

Links of things mentioned in this episode:

Harvard Business Review

LinkedIn Learning 

Jim Loehr

Recommended Reading:

The New Toughness Training for Sports by Jim Loehr

The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz

Connect with David Sweet:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdavidsweet/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/focuscorejp 

Facebook: :https://www.facebook.com/focuscoreasia

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/focuscorejp/ 

Website: https://www.japan.focuscoregroup.com/ 

Doin’ the Uptown Lowdown,” used by permission of Christopher Davis-Shannon. To find out more, check out www.thetinman.co. Support independent musicians and artists.

Mentioned in this episode:

Find out more about salaries, the job market, hiring and what's important to both companies and individuals looking for a job specifically in Japan.

2025 Salary Guide

This week on the podcast we are doing something different. I wanted to share with you an interview I did with Andrew Hankinson from the first podcast that I ever recorded. 

Developing operations in Japan to be efficient and profitable can be a challenge when you run six top brands, over 30 retail shops, and a factory of the German company, Zwilling J.A. Henckels. For over 30 years, Andrew has been a true leader in Japan, a sales guru, and a business leader. He is undoubtedly one of the most exceptional business people I've had the honor to know. 

In this episode you will hear:

• How Andrew worked his way back to the Land of the Rising Sun after studying in Japan in high school
• The importance of hiring people who really know how to sell
• Why it’s so important to really study resumes, and interview questions Andrew likes to ask when recruiting
• What quality good recruiters need to have and Andrew’s own recruitment ‘hack’
• Why Andrew would choose lunch with his grandparents over Columbus and Aristotle
• The book Andrew recommends for every business professional

About Andrew: 

Andrew Hankinson is Senior Managing Director at ZWILLING J.A. HENCKELS Japan Ltd. Andrew has 27 years of professional experience in Business Development, Sales Training, and P/L Management. He has 17 years of managerial-level leadership skills as Director of Sales & Marketing, General Manager, and Managing Director. Andrew has a proven track record of surpassing target expectations, motivating both team-based management styles and start-up ventures, and managing budgets / forecasting. He has excellent bilingual (Japanese – English) communication skills honed through 20 plus years of sales / business presentations, negotiations, and public speaking, to Fortune 500 firms, industry conventions, and team building. Andrew has also had managerial experience in business alliance development, service/product rationalization, corporate/event planning, and Japan new market entry.

Connect with Andrew: 

Website: zwilling.jp

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andrew-hankinson-09b89

Podcast: https://www.nowandzen.jp/

Links of things mentioned in this episode:

The First 90 Days book by Michael D Watkins

Connect with David Sweet:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/focuscore/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/focuscorejp

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/focuscoreasia

Doin’ the Uptown Lowdown,” used by permission of Christopher Davis-Shannon. To find out more, check out www.thetinman.co. Support independent musicians and artists.

Mentioned in this episode:

Find out more about salaries, the job market, hiring and what's important to both companies and individuals looking for a job specifically in Japan.

2025 Salary Guide

Do you want a better way to hire employees that will save you time, money and ensure you are hiring the best candidate to join your team? In the latest episode of the FocusCore podcast, host Dr. David Sweet takes you through a proven and tested hiring method and shares a simple five-step strategy to hire the A-player candidate.

Introducing you to Topgrading, a recruitment methodology proven effective by some of the best companies in the world including General Electric and Barclays. 

In this episode you will hear:

• How to engage your HR and executives to hire A-Players

• How to document and create scorecards

• Learn the easy, time-saving technique for screening candidates 

• Why are reference checks so important

• The simple process and the questions to ask  

These five steps are the bare bones of creating a recruitment process for your organization that our clients say attracts and retains the top talent.

Utilizing topgrading as a method to hire talent is the best way to sort through B and C talent and find the A-grade candidate that you want to join your organization and will ultimately save you time, money, energy, and most importantly, save you from making a hiring mistake.  

If you would like samples of a scorecard, please feel free to email me at [email protected].

Connect with David Sweet:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdavidsweet/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/focuscorejp 

Facebook: :https://www.facebook.com/focuscoreasia

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/focuscorejp/ 

Website: https://www.japan.focuscoregroup.com/ 

Doin’ the Uptown Lowdown,” used by permission of Christopher Davis-Shannon. To find out more, check out www.thetinman.co. Support independent musicians and artists.

Mentioned in this episode:

Find out more about salaries, the job market, hiring and what's important to both companies and individuals looking for a job specifically in Japan.

2025 Salary Guide

Today’s podcast guest is a former FocusCore alum and the current North-East Asia Talent Acquisition Manager at Maersk, Wayne Yoshida, or as he is officially known as, Supply Chain Wayne™. Wayne is a Quebecer who has called Japan home for the past 15 years and has built an enviable career and reputation in recruitment for the transport industry. 

This episode looks at two sides of the recruitment coin as Wayne shares with David what it's like going from a boutique recruitment agency to in-house talent acquisition for a global organization. Wayne candidly shares some of the challenges of working in recruitment in Japan and what companies can do to build better recruitment practices with digital technologies and systems that provide a great employee experience from the initial chat to onboarding. 

In this episode you will hear:

• How Wayne transitioned as a recruiter from the agency side to in-house recruitment - what he learned and what he likes about being the in-house talent acquisition manager 
• Recruitment in Japan and the key challenges 
• How and why Wayne built his own personal brand that led him to be known in the industry as Supply Chain Wayne™  
• Why customer relationship systems are critical for a great and smooth recruitment experience 
• How Wayne hunts Unicorns - looking for the best and most unique candidates that will bring value to the company
• The secrets to healthy competition in a competitive industry 

Wayne Bio:

Wayne Yoshida is currently the North East Asia Talent Acquisition Manager at Maersk in Japan. He started his recruitment career journey at FocusCore Japan where he built an impressive personal brand and tribe following leading Wayne to be known as Supply Chain Wayne™. He is also the editor of CargoNOW and a Senior Board Member of the International Propeller Club of Japan. Wayne will soon be able to add a published author to his title with the publication of a children's book about transportation due out soon. 

Connect with Wayne Yoshida:

LinkedIn - Wayne Yoshida

Links of things mentioned in this episode:

Recruitment tools: Engin10  and Hireplanner

Wayne and David’s Mexican restaurant chain recommendation:  Casa Bonita

Wayne’s favorite South Park episode: "It's Christmas in Canada" Season 7 E15

Connect with David Sweet:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdavidsweet/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/focuscorejp 

Facebook: :https://www.facebook.com/focuscoreasia

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/focuscorejp/ 

Website: https://www.japan.focuscoregroup.com/ 

Doin’ the Uptown Lowdown,” used by permission of Christopher Davis-Shannon. To find out more, check out www.thetinman.co. Support independent musicians and artists.

Mentioned in this episode:

Find out more about salaries, the job market, hiring and what's important to both companies and individuals looking for a job specifically in Japan.

2025 Salary Guide

Cory McGowan is an American by birth who has made the mountains of Minakami, Japan his forever home with his family. He is a coach, husband, father, and a bear dancer. In this week’s episode, FocusCore Podcast host, David Sweet chats with Cory about his coaching business, Adventure Partner, which he launched in November 2020, and how Covid and past career trauma has led him to this new career path.

If you have ever wondered about coaching and what it can do for you and for your career, you wouldn’t be alone.  Cory shares his experience of being a coach, what it involves, and the benefits. They also discuss coaching benefits for organizations, why organizations shouldn’t shy away from using coaching as a development opportunity, and how it can elevate not just people but organizations to reach their potential. 

In this episode we discuss:

• The difference between training and coaching 
• How Corey transitioned from working in the corporate world to running his own business, Adventure Partners, and why he doesn’t see himself as an entrepreneur 
• Why a coach also needs their own coach
• Taking the jump with his family from Japanese city life to the Japanese mountains and living in Minakami
• Community development in Minakami, setting up the Relocation Concierge Programme for Minakami and his vision to make a positive impact in his adopted town for his family 
• Japan’s social issue of rural depopulation and how he contributes to addressing this problem
• Cory’s first-hand experience of bear dancing, how it led him to discover bears are an endangered species in Japan, and how he is active in their conservation 
• The routines and rituals that keep him focussed and are non-negotiable for his well-being

About Cory McGowan:

Coach, Husband, Father, Bear Dancer. After decades of searching, Cory found his true home in the mountains of Japan.

Professionally trained transformational coach and experienced adventurer. He uses both to support leaders and other humans around the world to express their fullest potential and co-create the lives they want for themselves. 

He supports his hometown, Minakami, Gunma Prefecture as the first foreign relocation concierge and is actively creating a vision for community development with the hopes of being a leader in solving the problem of rural depopulation in Japan. 

Connect with Cory McGowan:

Website: https://www.adventure-partner.net/ 

IG: https://www.instagram.com/coryadventurepartner/?hl=en 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cory-mcgowan-328b2b5/?originalSubdomain=jp 

Links of things mentioned in this episode:

Kumamori

Minakami Relocation Concierge

Connect with David Sweet:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdavidsweet/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/focuscorejp 

Facebook: :https://www.facebook.com/focuscoreasia

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/focuscorejp/ 

Website: https://www.japan.focuscoregroup.com/ 

Doin' the Uptown Lowdown," used by permission of Christopher Davis-Shannon. To find out more, check out www.thetinman.co. Support independent musicians and artists.

Mentioned in this episode:

Find out more about salaries, the job market, hiring and what's important to both companies and individuals looking for a job specifically in Japan.

2025 Salary Guide

Hello and welcome to the FocusCore Podcast with your host David Sweet. In this episode, David speaks with Hideo Goto, Country General Manager of Henkel Beauty Care Japan and Korea.

Hideo has a long career history in beauty and personal care spanning over 20+ years and has been in senior management roles at Henkel Beauty Care since 2017 where he has accelerated business growth by strengthening brand portfolios through innovation and building high-performing teams. By focusing on a strong organizational culture and innovation, Hideo has led Henkel to be a leader in the consumer and professional haircare industry in Japan. 

In this episode we discuss:

• Hideo’s career journey that has led him to Henkel Beauty Care
• The growth of Henkel, in particular, the haircare business in Japan and their path journey to becoming a powerhouse of hair
• Key challenges for growing Henkel and how to sustain growth over the next 10 years
• Innovation including digital innovation and product innovation
• The company culture of Henkel and how it attracts employees and how Henkel’s strong culture values differentiate them from their competitors
• How leveraging collaboration from within the business to create solutions is key
• Sustainability and how Henkel is adapting to reach the 2030 UN sustainability targets and the importance of sustainability embedded in a company’s values to attract employee candidates
• The impact of Covid-19 on Henkel’s beauty care business and how haircare is thriving due to the pandemic

Hideo Goto Bio:

Hideo Goto is Country General Manager of Henkel Beauty Care Japan and Korea, a position he was promoted to in 2021 having joined Henkel Beauty Care in 2017 as GM of the Professional Division. In 2019, Hideo was promoted as Country GM of Henkel Beauty Care Japan and led both the professional and consumer businesses. In 2020, he successfully turned around consumer business and, in 2021, accelerated the growth and achieved the historically highest market share. 

Hideo has more than 20 years of experience in health and beauty industry, and a strong track record of driving results.  Prior to Henkel, he started his career at Johnson & Johnson in 1996 in sales and marketing.  In 2005, he joined L’Oreal and spent 11 years there, where he turned around several businesses and scaled the growth.  He held various leadership positions throughout his tenure including GM of Active Cosmetics Division in Japan, GM of Consumer Product Division in Taiwan, and GM of Professional Product Division in Japan.  

Hideo earned an MBA from Thunderbird School of Global Management in the U.S. in 2003 and a BBA from Meiji University in 1996.

Links of things mentioned in this episode:

Henkel Japan Career Page

Connect with FocusCore:

Website: https://www.japan.focuscoregroup.com/ 

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/focuscoreasia 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/focuscorejp 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/focuscore/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/focuscorejp/ 

Subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you download podcasts.

Doin' the Uptown Lowdown," used by permission of Christopher Davis-Shannon. To find out more, check out www.thetinman.co. Support independent musicians and artists.

Mentioned in this episode:

Find out more about salaries, the job market, hiring and what's important to both companies and individuals looking for a job specifically in Japan.

2025 Salary Guide

Hello and welcome to The FocusCore Podcast. My name is David Sweet.

On this podcast, we will meet interesting, inspirational and entertaining people who show why Japan is a unique and sometimes frustrating place to do business.

We will discuss

• How to hire, train, and retain talent,
• How to create values that motivate
• Review best practices that have worked and attempts that have not.

I'll be speaking to company presidents, CEOs, CFOs, HR professionals, coaches, consultants, as well as sharing with you some of my own experiences and opinions discovered over the years in this great country. The focus is simple: To explore how to succeed in business in Japan.

So join me, David Sweet, on The FocusCore Podcast.

Subscribe now on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you download podcasts.

Doin' the Uptown Lowdown," used by permission of Christopher Davis-Shannon. To find out more, check out www.thetinman.co. Support independent musicians and artists.

Mentioned in this episode:

Find out more about salaries, the job market, hiring and what's important to both companies and individuals looking for a job specifically in Japan.

2025 Salary Guide