REVIVAL 44: Christian Wolf, Managing Director, JAS Forwarding Japan

Christian Wolf, Managing Director of JAS Forwarding Japan
originally moved to Japan straight out of university in Germany
where he worked in the freight and logistics industry as a
student. He first started out as a roads development manager at
DHL, developing new business for air and ocean freight
transportation from Germany to Japan. Upon moving to Japan from a
small village in Germany, Mr. Wolf experienced culture shock, and
quickly realized he needed to be “very persistent” and have high
“frustration tolerance” to be successful. 


 


 


Mr. Wolf then moved on to work in the project forwarding business
at Panalpina where he dealt with large scale projects with
complex challenges such as construction schedules, liabilities
involving different transportation modes, and worked alongside
engineer specialists. In 2011 Mr. Wolf joined JAS to set up a new
project forwarding unit from scratch. He recalls the earlier
months as a challenging time since he was pressured to gain
profit quite quickly while motivating his team to keep pushing
with a positive attitude. 


 


 


On leading in Japan, Mr. Wolf indicates how difficult it was for
him to initially gain the trust from his customers and employees
and maintain a positive attitude within his team members. He
claims: “You need to gain trust from the customer and it is not
seldom that you are quoting for over one year without seeing
them... It's a very common process. And there, even if you have a
lot of setbacks, you need to be calm and need to demonstrate that
we are going to get there.” When faced with challenges such as
consecutive profit-losing months, Mr. Wolf says it is important
to cut down on your expectations and generate rewarding
situations. He also points to open and honest communication with
every member of the team as a vital aspect of building trust.
Gradually, the new unit grew by building on client relationships
and providing expertise on complex transportation solutions. In
2014 he stepped into his current role as Managing Director,
leading the 40+ year old business with around 100 employees.


 


 


In order to gain trust from an even larger number of employees,
Mr. Wolf first tried to understand the history and culture of the
company, instead of making drastic changes. Over the years of
working in Japan, Mr. Wolf has come to realize that Japanese
people value consistency and patience, which he tries to exhibit
through his behaviour. During Mr. Wolf’s first year as the
Managing Director, he kept all the main department managers in
place in order to observe how business had been developed from
the previous years. During these early leadership years, Mr. Wolf
also spent one-on-one time with his managers to better understand
the business from their point of view. In doing so, he also
encouraged his employees to be more innovative and think outside
of the box when coming up with solutions. Yet Mr. Wolf mentions
the importance of respecting the hierarchy and to “follow certain
rules to approach certain scenes.” For example, doing nemawashi
(groundwork) before a meeting or communicating with an employee
through their manager instead of them directly.


 


 


To newcomers of Japan, Mr. Wolf advises to not tell one’s
colleagues how long one’s assignment is. This is to avoid people
from thinking you will only be there for 2-3 years and therefore,
is not worth trusting. Mr. Wolf’s second advice is to learn the
Japanese language. Lastly, Mr. Wolf advises to “never give up.”
He adds: “You need to have a lot of frustration tolerance.
Sometimes don't ask the why just accept it.”