Businessinjapan Podcasts

After graduating with a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the University of Tokyo, Yasunori Takeuchi began his career in the financial sector by working for 12 years with the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan. This was followed by positions with Commerzbank, The Royal Bank of Scotland, ABN Amro Bank NV, WestLB Tokyo and Credit Suisse First Boston. Mr. Yas…

Complex subjects are usually presented by technical experts. It is rare to find one done well though. How can this be, these are very smart people? Technical experts love their specialty. Usually, they have studied hard and long to get into their profession and there is also substantial on-going professional development required to stay current. Th…

Tomo Hasegawa is a second-generation Japanese-American with extensive leadership experience in the global medical and pharmaceutical industry. After he graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an Electrical Engineering degree, Mr. Hasegawa joined Hewlett Packard (HP) as a Project Manager and Engineer where he helped design ultr…

No one wants to be sold, but we love to buy. The difference between these two approaches comes down to the mindset of the salesperson and their sales abilities. The hardest sales job in the world is selling something you don’t believe in yourself. The acid test is would you sell this “whatever” to your grandmother? If the answer is no, then get out…

Born in Tokyo while his father was serving as a German diplomat, Georg Loeer spent his first five years in Japan before his family returned to their homeland. However, that was long enough for a keen interest in Japan to be sparked in Mr. Loeer, as he would study Japanese languages, history, and economics at universities in both Japan and Germany, …

Motivation is simple. It comes from within. If you don’t believe me, try yelling to your staff member “be motivated, be motivated, be motivated” over and over and you will soon see how ridiculous the idea is. The boss’s job is to create the environment where the self-motivated can excel. “Motivate me” must be one of the saddest requests a leader ca…

Philippe Auvaro is the former President of OrphanPacific Inc. of CMIC Holdings. Being born in the 60s, Mr. Auvaro grew up in a generation when Japan was experiencing the economic boom. He developed an appreciation of Japanese culture including classic movies, leading him to apply to an internship at a French pharmaceutical company called Roussel. M…

Japan is a male dominated society, especially in business. If you are a female presenter in business, the chances are high there will be a majority of men in the audience. I attend a lot of events in Tokyo and I have noticed a few commonalities amongst the most successful women presenters in this male dominated environment here in Japan. Here is wh…

Born in France, Jerome Chouchan has more than 25 years of experience working in the Japanese and Asian business environment. He began his career in Japan starting the local branches for the French high jewellery brand Mellerio dits Meller and the French Government Mint Monnaie de Paris. Mr. Chouchan then worked for the fashion brand Lacoste as thei…

The facts, data and details of our solution are addictive. So addictive, we want to start telling the prospective client all about how great they are. We are getting ahead of ourselves though, because how do we know they are the right solution for that buyer? This is where we have to change our mindset and think about how we can identify the need b…

Om Prakash is the current CEO of Northrop Grumman Japan, a position he has been in since 2019. Prior to this he was Northrop Grumman’s Director for Corporate Strategy and had also served in the United States Air Force where he performed numerous roles including a test pilot with over 3 000 flying hours in 60 aircraft and as the Deputy Assistant Sec…

To be successful in business today, we need to be able to access the full capability of our team. The boss can’t do it all by themselves and they don’t want to have to be the brains of the outfit, constantly having to tell people what to do and how to do it. We need to tap into the creativity of our people and that makes all the difference. The tri…

Mr. Spitzer has extensive experience living and working in Japan. After a business trip to Japan in the early 1990’s he attended the European Union’s Executive Training Program (ETP) which had a heavy focus on Japanese language and management skills. It was through this course he was headhunted to become the President and CEO of Stoll in Japan. Fou…

Audiences are so impatient today. Worse still, they have a powerful weapon of escape from us in their hand held devices. They observe the first few minutes of our presentation to decide if they will keep paying attention or whether they will escape to the delights of the internet. How long does it take you on average to form a first impression? My …

Michael King shared great insight into how to become a successful business leader in Japan. Mr. King’s arrival in Japan may have been accidental but this did not stop him from having a long and prosperous career within Japan that has lasted 22 years. Despite originally being from Ohio, he began to work in the Asia Pacific 25 years ago within APAC i…

Having a code in sales is critical. How do we keep an even keel in a profession which is continuously buffeting us with ups and downs? We need a set of guidelines to help us become the trusted partner of our clients. Today we are going explore some human relations principles which will help us do that. There are thirty human relations principles fo…

Originally from Austria, Dr. Parissa Haghirian is a renowned expert on international and Japanese management. Her studies include a Masters in Japanese Studies, a Masters in International Management, and a PhD in Business Administration from the Vienna University of Economics and Business. She has been a visiting Professor of International Manageme…

Time is spelt L-I-F-E. We will use time everyday, but how well will we use it. Let’s get some ideas in today’s show on wat we can do with the time we have. Leaders are busy people and it is difficult to find time during the day to be “in the moment”. Phones ring, email floods in without mercy, staff want a piece of you, meetings suck the life force…

Darren McKellin shared great insight into how he became a leader through his journey to mindful leadership. Mr. McKellin’s choice to come to Japan was both one of economic strategy and love for international affairs after studying in both Mexico and Sweden during college. After college, Mr. McKellin joined the Japanese air cargo company Kintestsu l…

What are the key things we should be concentrating on to make sure we are clear to our audience? The most common request, from both Japanese and English speakers in our classes is to “be clear when presenting”. The speakers want their message to get across to the audience, to be easy to follow, to have some impact from their efforts to get up in fr…

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 goin…

Success is replicable but only if we know what has worked well for others. Here are some common characteristics of the most successful negotiators. Being successful, doesn't mean being cunning, tricky, transactional, thinking win/lose. It also doesn’t mean being impervious to the impact the way you conduct a negotiation will have on both your curre…

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 consum…

Everyone is a critic today, holding their firm opinion, swanning around full of biases and prejudices. We better know how to state our conclusion in a way which avoids all of those minefields. Avoid this Business School advice at all costs, “State your conclusion first and then explain the reasoning behind it”. The “conclusion first” advice is a re…

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. …

The competition to grasp and then hold the attention of our audiences is becoming more and more fierce. We have all become fervent multi-taskers, listening to someone speak while surreptitiously scrolling through our email feed, Facebook or LinkedIn or all three! Having our listener follow what we are saying, digest it and agree with it, must be th…

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 …

The client has a problem and we fix it, our goods or services are delivered, outcomes are achieved and everybody wins. Problems and issues are a bit like icebergs though – there is a lot more going on below the surface than can be spotted from the captain’s bridge. The salesperson’s role is to go after the whole iceberg and not just the obvious bit…

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 w…

Doing more, better, faster with less, screams out for innovation. This could be a kaizen approach of continuous improvement or it could be breakthrough leaps. . How much scope can we allow in the creative process? At the practical level, this is really asking how many and how huge are the mistakes you will tolerate to achieve good ideas? Leader hav…

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, M…

We all know a little knowledge is dangerous. I have witnessed this many times when it comes to some advice being pandered by so called experts about public speaking. Let’s dodge the fake news and learn what we should be worrying about in our presentation. Professor Albert Mehrabian’s 1967 study of communication concluded that 55% of the presenter’s…

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 Univ…

How do we think about our customers? How authentic are our communications as a result? Are we telling enough stories about them? In this week’s show, we will see how a master of communication does it. I am sure you have you seen notices explaining that this location is going to close while the building is being reconstructed and that it will reopen…

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 w…

Conflict happens in organisations. We can’t stop that, but we can control how we react to others when disagreements and arguments arise. You know you are not perfect, but some of those around you are a real pain to deal with. Why are they so difficult to get on with? Who knows, but the easiest way forward is to reduce the stress to a minimum by avo…

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 or…

Many people don't start out with a design for their talk. They launch straight into the details, especially working with the slides. The lack of design shows as the structure isn't tight enough, the points are nor clear enough and mostly the talk is totally forgettable. Designing our presentation is a critical stage. We have identified our target a…

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 Jap…

Clever, shallow, smooth as silk, glib, “rat with a gold tooth” salespeople are the scourge of the earth. There are no barriers to entry or qualifications to enter this field of sales work. Riff raff need not apply but quite often they do. Some will tell you anything, they live for today and like a shark, are constantly moving around in order to fee…

Paul Dupuis is the CEO and Chairman of Randstad Japan, a global human resources consulting firm. Originally from Windsor, Ontario in Canada, Mr. Dupuis always had a passion for Asia, starting from his love of martial arts. Mr. Dupuis arrived in Japan in 1990 with just $300 and slept on a bench on his first night. He then began teaching English in O…

The vast majority of us are amateurs, when it comes to negotiating. Even in business, we would only be involved a few times a year perhaps in a major negotiation. Rather than trying to work it out by ourselves let’s take a look at some guidelines to make the whole process easier. Sadly, not everyone is like us – wonderful, charming, amusing, attrac…

Kenji Govaers originally grew up in France but has been going back and forth between France and Japan due to his half French and half Japanese background. Mr. Govaers started his career in the 80s bubble economy in Japan as a sales engineer. Afterwards, he moved back to France and went into consulting working for Mars & Co. Mr. Govaers enjoyed the …

We judge you by how well you can speak. Do you mumble, lurch from on random thought to another, or are you clear, concise and convincing. We not only judge you, we base our impression of your entire organization on you. Given this is important you would think we all would really work on communication skills. We can but we don’t. Find out about alte…

Wolfgang Bierer takes us through his journey of leading various companies in multiple fields including consulting, fashion and retail. Mr. Bierer first came to Japan on a youth exchange program under the German government. He landed an internship with Hitachi at their software development centre on a six-month contract initially, and later joined t…

First impressions are everything. If we get that wrong, then we won’t be selling anything to that buyer. Today we will review some of the things we should be paying careful attention to, in order to help us build the trust with the client. As a buyer of products and services here in Japan, as someone who teaches sales and employs salespeople, it ha…

62: David Daniels, Ex-CEO Asia, Le Creuset David Daniels shares his global experience managing various luxury cosmetics, retail and manufacturing companies in Europe and APAC, successfully rebuilding struggling businesses. Mr. Daniels spent 12 years at Yves Saint Laurent, starting out as an intern in Paris, and experienced several roles in marketin…

Procrastination is the bane of efficiency. Actually we all know well what we should be doing, but we just keep putting it off. Today we will look at some practical steps to get us better organized and become able to move forward and make progress. Paper piled high on all flat surfaces, email in-boxes bursting at the seams, project and completion de…

Phillip Rubel shares his extensive leadership experience in the US, Canada and Japan in various fields including advertising and consulting. Mr. Rubel is originally from Canada and moved to Japan in 1997 on a three-year posting but returned multiple times. In total, his career in Japan ran for over 20 years. Mr. Rubel experienced working in various…

There is almost a checklist for things to pay attention to in getting ready for our talk. Things we should anticipate and plan for. In today’s show we will go through the most important aspects of preparation. Before jumping straight into the slides to build your presentation, identify your likely audience. It might be an internal meeting report to…