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

25: Stefan Sacre, CEO President of Carl Zeiss Co.,Ltd.

Stefan Sacre, President CEO of Carl ZEISS Japan, originally came to Japan to pursue research in Tokyo University during the 80s. Dr. Sacre was fascinated by Japan, an emerging Asian power at the time, particularly in the semiconductor industry. He even remembers one of his professors in Germany saying “better watch out” as he predicted Japan to become the next superpower.   By the time he was around 30, Dr. Sacre had lost interest in research and became an advisor to the European Commiss...

24: Thierry Cohen, President, Japan Europe Trading

Thierry Cohen, President of Japan Europe Trading and Founder of Solleone Bio, deep dives into Japan’s business culture to explain why it’s imperative to understand Japan before working in the country.   Although Mr. Cohen is Italian, he moved to Japan with his parents when he was three years old, having graduated from the high school St. Mary’s International School. Although Mr. Cohen could not speak Japanese, he did note that growing up in Japan gave him a familiarity advantage that man...

23: Markus Baron, President & Representative Director of SGL Carbon Japan

Markus Baron, member of the Board of Directors of the German Chamber of Commerce, and President and Representative Director of SGL Carbon Japan, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of products from carbon, talks about his journey from the IT world into sales and leadership. In 2003, while still a university student studying Mechanical Engineering in Germany, Mr. Baron founded the start company Eastbeam Co., which expanded to Japan, then founded Wazap AG in 2006. These early experiences ...

22: Andreas Dannenberg, President and CEO of Adcomm Group

Andreas Dannenberg, President and CEO of Adcomm Group, has been running his business marketing agency for over 30 years since arriving in Japan from Germany. As a boy growing up in West Berlin, Mr. Dannenberg dreamed of one day travelling Asia, which he fulfilled as an adult, capturing photographs of places in China that were unfamiliar to the rest of the world. The photographs he captured there were published in globally renowned magazines. This experience led him to land work in a film and...

21: Ross Rowbury, Former President of Edelman Japan

Ross Rowbury, Former President of Edelman Japan, celebrated his 40th anniversary since first arriving in Japan as a Rotary Youth Exchange student. Mr. Rowbury began his career in the finance sector in banking and securities before moving on to PR roles specializing in finances. With several years of leadership experience in foreign financial firms, Mr. Rowbury made a smooth transition into PR where he embraced the creative and engagement aspect of the industry.   When the President of Ed...

20: Kenichi Fujita, Chairman & Representative Director, Siemens K.K.

Mr. Fujita, President & CEO of Seimens K.K., began his career in the Japanese manufacturing industry at Alpine Electronics, then became a business consultant, before joining Siemens.   During his time at Alpine, Mr. Fujita worked in Germany and managed a team of European staff, which he found were strikingly different from his Japanese counterparts. Mr. Fujita explains how he has a “western/Japanese switch” that he can control in order to adjust to the two cultures. With the westerners, ...

19: Dr. Carolina Kawakubo, General Manager of MedSkin Solutions

As a teenager growing up in Germany, Dr. Carolina Kawakubo was fascinated by Japan, which led her to study in Keio University as an exchange student from the University of Dusseldorf. Later, while pursuing her PhD in Business Management and Economics, Dr. Kawakubo began working as Marketing Manager at Henkel Japan. Dr. Kawakubo learned the different thought processes and quality expectations between Europe and Japan. In dealing with such differences, Dr. Kawakubo seeks to understand and talk...

18: Pierre Gaulis, CEO of CREAM

Pierre Gaulis, founder and CEO of CREAM, a digital agency, came to Japan 13 years ago as a new graduate from Switzerland. Taking intensive Japanese language classes and providing free-lance consulting, he eventually started working as a project manager at GPlusMedia, an online media company. He later became their business development manager which allowed him to build the foundation of an entrepreneur to start CREAM. CREAM researches, designs and develops digital products, services and exper...

17: Richard Dyck, President of TGK Japan

Richard Dyck, President of TGK-Japan, a semiconductor testing company as well as many other companies, originally visited Japan as a student in 1965. With a PhD in the field of semiconductor from Harvard University, Dr. Dyck began working at General Electric’s Japanese office. Dr. Dyck worked closely with Jack Welch, Senior VP of GE at the time, and was responsible in building the material business in Asia, with a focus on Japan. Among many things, Dr. Dyck learned from Welch’s hard work eth...

16: Jeremy Sampson, Managing Director of Robert Walters Japan

Jeremy Sampson, Managing Director of Robert Walters Japan, originally started his career at Hilton Hotel in Australia, before moving to Japan to teach English. He joined Robert Walters as an Associate in 2005. In 2008, Mr. Sampson became the team manager specializing in manufacturing and heavy industries, coinciding with the Global Financial Crisis. Looking back, Mr. Sampson thinks of this difficult time as a “year of learning” in which he worked to instil “great habits, great processes, a...

15: Laurent Depus, CEO of Natixis Japan Securities

Laurent Depus, President of Natixis Japan Securities, the Japanese branch of French bank corporation Natixis, has been working in Japan for over 30 years. Originally from Belgium, he aimed to become an English and Spanish interpreter but changed his career course when he joined Chase Manhattan Bank in Luxemburg as a trader. After experiencing various management positions in the financial sector, Mr. Depus joined Natixis in 2014. Mr. Depus observes successful organizations need to establish...

14 Vijay Deol, CEO of enworld

Vijay Deol originally came to Japan to teach English in rural Kyoto before starting at en world, a global recruiting company where he now serves as Regional Director. During his first 8 years, Mr. Deol worked his way up to Sales Director ast enworld before becoming President of a British multinational recruitment firm. As the sole employee in Japan, Mr. Deol grew the firm to about 30 staff by the time he left in 2017, to make return to en world. He currently leads en world Japan, Austral...

13: Robert Heldt Founder & President, Custom Media

Robert Heldt, founder and President of Custom Media, an award-winning bilingual media agency, originally started his career in the Maladives in the hospitality industry. Founded in 2008, Custom Media company had a rough start following the Lehman shock, but picked up soon after launching the bilingual lifestyle travel magazine WITHIM and BCCJ Acumen, the British Chamber of Commerce magazine, which recently celebrated its 10th year anniversary. Additionally, they help create ACC Journal of ...

12: Allan Smith Ex-CEO of RGA Japan

Generally speaking, compared to other nationalities, they are a bit more reluctant to state their opinions so you have to know that, and cater for that by asking for opinions and waiting. They do however speak amongst themselves, so another useful source of information is having fellow Japanese people who are willing to come and tell you the vibe of things going on. I have found in Japan there are two extremes. People who do not speak English well, but want to speak English, and people who...

11: Nikhil Gutpe President of Barilla Japan

The standard dress code is much more formal in Japan than many other countries, even including other Asian countries. Casual Friday, for example, is not a thing here in Japan. I have had to make sure in meetings, as the boss, that I do not state my opinion first, because then there will just be silence and no one will be willing to speak up.  While in other countries, you are free to question the boss, and even say to a certain extent that I do not agree with this, in Japan, it would be a ...

10: Seichiro Asakawa CEO Tokyo Chemical Industries

As a leader, I learned to not compete on things I did not have expertise in. I had a financial background, not a technical background, so there was no use trying to convince technically strong employees on that front – I had to use financial data as facts in order to convince my employees to accept that things needed to change in order to grow on the global scale that I wanted. While I accept there are differences in practices between cultures, I think the basics of people are the same. Pe...

9: Paul Hardisity Ex-CEO, Adidas Japan

Once you walk the talk over a given period of time as a leader, you gain trust, and then people will follow you, instead of just doing what you say. Then you start getting buy-in and ideas and you can work cross-functionally.   On engagement surveys, if you are giving a very low score, then you should not be coming into the office. If you are not going to be part of the solution, then you should reconsider your career and job. Engagement scores however tend to coincide with big decisions...

8: Dominic Carter CEO Carter Group Japan

7: Masa Namiki CEO Interbrand Japan

President and Chief Executive Officer Interbrand Japan   Previously Chief Strategy Officer Interbrand   Serving to a wide range of clients on a broad set of management issue centered around brand while leading a strategy group. Senior Manager at Kurt Salmon   Senior manager at global management consulting firm responsible for sales, project delivery and organization development

6: James Feliciano CEO of AbbVie Japan

5: Kervin Go Country Manager Curvature Japan

  Kervin Go Country Manager Curvature Japan Curvature is the global leader in providing third party maintenance covering Cisco Networking and large enterprise storage systems such as Netapp andEMC to large enterprise customer and telecommunications companies. Senior Account Executive Curvature Japan Markets   Direct selling of products and maintenance service to the Japan market since 2007, successfully developed and acquired new customer who are the INCUMBENT Telco players and I...

4: Aki Kubo Representative Director of Tag Japan

Akihiko Kubo: Japan Representative Director of Williams Lea Tag, leading providers of marketing and communications supply chain services Prior to joining Williams Lea Tag, Aki Kubo held the position of President and then Chairman of Ogilvy & Mather Group Japan. As the first local president, he managed six operating companies across advertising, digital planning, PR, activations, social media and digital media planning and buying. Previously, Aki Kubo spent two and a half years as CEO, Pr...

3. Luke Verwey CEO Nielsen Japan

Luke Verwey   While every country has its nuances, it is about finding the calibration point between the goals of the multinational company you work for and what resonates / can be adapted to the local market and workforce.  Its about leveraging global strengths while respecting the local culture. Language is obviously a big challenge when it comes to communication. So even if I conduct a town hall meeting with representatives from every area of my business, and they appear to be liste...

2: Harry Hill Ex-CEO Of Shop Japan

When you lead people, you have to lead them in a way they are going to follow. In Japan, when you teach a class, you line people up in order of seniority and you stand in front of the class. It seems very regimented but everyone is perfectly comfortable because they know their role and where they are supposed to be so that allows for performance to be maximized. In the USA, that kind of a set up would make everyone very uncomfortable and inclined to rebel. To make people feel comfortable and...

1: Yasuaki Mori Ex-CEO Of Infinion Technologies Japan

Yasuaki Mori Ex-CEO Of Infineon Technologies Japan: EPISODE #1 Japan's Top Business Interviews Yasuaki Mori is a European, Asia and North American technology growth executive in the disruptive mobility, automotive, IIoT and cyber security markets.  He has grown businesses from $200 to $700M and scaled organization from 100 to 200+ people, developed go-to market strategies and rebuilt, converted, strengthened organizations in sales, marketing, channel, system/application engineering, prod...