116: Ernie Higa, President & CEO, Higa Industries

Ernest (Ernie) Higa shares his extensive leadership and
entrepreneurial experience starting from his mid-20s succeeding
his family business and leading various industries including
lumber, medical device, and food and services. Born in Honolulu,
Hawaii, Mr. Higa graduated from the Wharton School of the
University of Pennsylvania with a degree in International
Business. He also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration
(MBA) from Columbia Business School. After university, Mr. Higa
joined his family business, Higa Industries Inc. (now Domino's
Pizza Japan). Shortly after, he became the company's
Representative Director. Mr. Higa then began developing the
Domino's Pizza chain within Higa Industries, and became the
President in the early 1980s. Presently, he is the Chairman and
President since 2015. Mr. Higa has led many other corporate and
professional organization including the Representative Director
of Wendy’s Japan, First Kitchen and Director of Shinsei Bank and
Del Sole Corp.


 


Leading a lumber business company which was part of Higa
Industries at just 26 years old was one of the first leadership
challenges for Mr. Higa. Mr. Higa was fortunate to be able to
hire employees who had retired from major trading firms and other
large corporations, but still wanted to work. He says these
people had a wealth of experience and contacts that allowed him
develop his company. Being Japanese American enabled Mr. Higa to
not have to play by the rules when leading staff who were much
more experienced and senior then him. Being in the trade
industry, working between Japan and the US, his experience and
knowledge of working in the states and knowing how to communicate
to English speaking businesspeople also helped him earn the
respect and trust from his employees. Mr. Higa adds: “there's a
certain rule that you can break because you're not Japanese and
that becomes an advantage, but you have to know what those rules
are. And so it really requires understanding the Japanese
culture.” Eventually, Mr. Higa grew the business from 20 people
in 1985 to 9000 people including full-time and part-timers, by
1997.


 


In addition to the lumber business, Mr. Higa had diversified into
the medical business with neurosurgical implants and then started
developing Domino’s Pizza in Japan. Regarding his success in
Japan, Mr. Higa credits his ability to position himself in the
niche Japanese marketplace and adapt foreign products to Japanese
consumer needs. Moreover, the experience of starting Domino’s
Pizza made Mr. Higa take a more bottom-up leadership approach as
he realized the head office executives are there to support the
store managers to successfully drive their business, which then
increases the entire company’s profit. He adds that building and
maintaining trust with the customers is essential in the
sustainment of the business and if there are any errors made, it
is important to take care of it right away.


 


Having worked in various industries, Mr. Higa claims a strong
corporate culture is the key to good employee engagement across
all organizations. Mr. Higa says due to his entrepreneurial
background, the culture of his organizations reflects this
spirit, and emphasizes a positive, “can do” mindset. Due to this
approach, Mr. Higa’s organizations have attracted employees who
enjoy being in a more flexible environment that encourages
innovative thinking and growth. Mr. Higa also developed a
training centre to ensure this corporate culture messaging was
communicated right from the beginning at the orientation stage to
his staff. Additionally, his company holds many internal events
to motivate the employees, including full-time and part-timers.
By having a unique but consistent approach to building corporate
culture across various sectors, Mr. Higa thinks this set them
apart from the more established, larger corporations and enabled
his business to grow.


 


On advice to newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Higa advises to be
respectful of the Japanese culture and understand there are
differences from the western way of doing business. This
mentality is important when launching products and making
strategic decisions, as well as managing people. Mr. Higa adds
one must “think global and act local, but don't go too native. If
you go too native, then you are managing completely like a
Japanese corporation, then you'll miss out. I think you'll lose
against the Japanese companies who are Japanese. But it's a
moving target, what is global, what is local, and what is going
to be native? And you always have to adjust.” Mr. Higa thinks
learning Japanese does help, but the most important thing is
realizing there’s a difference in cultures and respecting that.


 


Mr. Higa defines leadership as something that changes depending
on the leader, as there is no one-size-fits-all format. He adds:
“I try to lead by example, I try to get the respect of my people
but I also try to enhance my people and work with my people so
that they make a lot of decisions themselves.”