128: Christian Wiedmann, President & CEO, BMW Group Japan

Christian Wiedmann, President & CEO of BMW Group Japan had
already arrived in Japan on one first stint back in the early
2000s. He was born in Thailand and grew up in the country for all
of his youth. Due to this background, he seized the opportunity
to run as the Chief Financial Officer in the BMW leasing business
in various Asian countries such as Thailand, Korea, Australia and
Japan. Mr. Wiedmann worked in many BMW departments around the
world, and through his experience and knowledge, he was appointed
President & CEO of BMW Japan Group in August 2019.


 


During his first few years of leadership, Mr. Wiedmann found it
challenging to receive input from his team to effectively run the
operations. Mr. Wiedmann explains how it is crucial that the team
knows their businesses, have an opinion of where they want to go,
and understand their strengths and weaknesses. Mr. Wiedmann adds,
"I experienced that it is much more difficult to enter the
Japanese local business leader community. It is quite open to
enter the expat community or the local expat community but
getting into the Japanese leader community, that's certainly
hard…[although] not impossible.” He realized then and now that
the trick to joining the community was to “walk the talk much,
much longer than anywhere else.” Mr. Wiedmann also notes there is
a formal side to functions in Japan, as well as a human side that
is based on relationships. Thus, Mr. Wiedmann thinks it is
important to establish trust, and “make the Japanese team
certainly feel more and more safe and comfortable to express
their opinions”.


 


As the President & CEO of BMW Group in Japan, Mr. Wiedmann
worked by trying to make the team members follow his idea and
achieve great results. By doing so, he agreed that engaging
people is the key to making sure everyone is working towards a
shared goal. Mr. Wiedman describes the “special” way his team
holds discussions. He explains: “so we have a discussion…then
there's a pause. So someone says something and they think we
should do it like this and this." By making decisions in this way
through feedback and discussions, there is more engagement.


 


Furthermore, Mr. Wiedman talks about the challenge of leading in
a culture that is risk averse and wants to have every detail
mapped out before making the first step. In order to overcome
this challenge, Mr. Wiedmann says, Japan's business style needs
to be more honest. He particularly highlights that by saying:
“the moment somebody gets a complaint from headquarters around
having been too vocal in a meeting, that is when they get a big
congratulatory message from me,” indicating that Mr. Wiedmann
himself would welcome receiving such feedback about Japanese team
members.


 


At last, Mr. Widemann mentions 3 steps of advice that
businesspeople who are new to Japan may adopt to succeed in
Japan. Firstly, Mr. Wiedmann advises to take the time before
coming here to prepare oneself for a smooth transition. Secondly,
Mr. Wiedmann recommends practicing active listening, acting in an
authentic manner, and reflecting one’s behavior based on what one
has learned through listening. Thirdly, Mr. Wiedman advises to be
patient, stating: “give it time, give the organization time, and
give the meetings time.” Through these steps, Mr. Wiedmann
explains newcomers will successfully build respectful
relationship with Japanese businesspeople.