125: Noboru Nakatani, President & CEO of JASTEC Co., Ltd.

Noboru Nakatani has been leading in a global environment in
various industries including manufacturing, IT, finance, and
consulting in France, US and Japan. He is currently the President
and CEO of JASTEC Co., Ltd., a leading systems integrator in
Japan. Mr. Nakatani graduated with a degree in Mechanical
Engineering from Keio University and holds an MBA from UCLA
Anderson School. After graduation, Mr. Nakatani worked first as a
Production Engineer at Canon Japan, and then led the Research and
Development Department in their France operation. He then moved
to New York, working as a Senior Consultant at Deloitte before
joining JASTEC. As Chairman and CEO of JASTEC International, Inc
Mr. Nakatani acquired a French company called LTU, and expanded
JASTEC’s business portfolio. Mr. Nakatani also successfully
improved JASTEC’s revenue during the first few years of his
leadership after the company had been struggling.


 


When looking back at his early leadership years at Canon in
Japan, Mr. Nakatani describes it as a “free” environment where
engineers were allowed to try new things. The hierarchy was not
as top-down, and the decision-making was not necessarily logical.
When comparing his early leadership experience in Japan to
France, Mr. Nakatani observes that both countries take their time
in the decision-making process, yet the reasoning is different.
In Japan, it is largely due to people being risk-averse and
hesitant to make decisions, whereas in France, it is because
there are so many different opinions and discussions that need to
be held.


 


In order to maintain trust and engagement during JASTEC’s
difficult times as an externally hired leader, Mr. Nakatani
listened to his employees and repeatedly communicated his vision
and commitment to improve their business. Moreover, he worked to
readjust the organization’s client portfolio, and tried to
maximize and diversity sales from existing clients. Mr. Nakatani
points to internal training and research for his team’s success
in upselling, by having a well-trained sales and project
management team that carefully analyzed the midterm plans of
companies to make attractive proposals. Additionally, when making
changes, Mr. Nakatani says it is important to start things from a
small scale, where there is more flexibility and room for making
mistakes. He also states how essential it is to learn from these
mistakes and share the experience within the team.


 


For foreigners coming to lead in Japan, Mr. Nakatani advises to
avoid micromanagement, as this prevents people from thinking
independently and creatively. Moreover, Mr. Nakatani emphasizes
the importance of listening to the team, and understanding their
expectations, likes and dislikes and so on at the beginning of
joining the company. From there, Mr. Nakatani recommends creating
goals with a clear road map to help the employees succeed in
reaching them. Being an externally hired executive, Mr. Nakatani
also strongly advises to show commitment to the team and
communicate to them that he or she will stay until their goals
are reached. Mr. Nakatani also indicates the value of
understanding Japanese clients and working on business
development to increase sales as the leader. Although Japanese is
helpful to know, Mr. Nakatani thinks that as long as the direct
reports can communicate in English, it is not essential to be
fluent. Lastly, he recommends leaders to learn from other
executives from different industries and participate in training
to expand their perspective.