115: Dieter Haberl, Ex-President & CEO, Furla Japan

Originally from Austria, Mr. Dieter Haberl has a wide array of
experiences, the most recent being the President and CEO of Furla
Japan. Previously, Mr. Haberl has worked with well known names in
the retail space such as Adidas, Toys R Us, Lacoste, Reebok, and
GAP. Mr. Haberl went to the US after high school. He first went
to Northern Michigan for his undergraduate degree, and then to
Arizona for his master’s degree in management. He developed a
strong interest in Japan very early on, selecting Japan as his
regional specialization in university and later doing an
internship in Japan.


 


In the organizations that Mr. Haberl has worked in, he has tried
to improve team culture by trying to bring people together. He
says that many times, people are divided based on their
departments, i.e., Marketing, Finance etc. He says that creating
culture can be a top-down approach, where senior leadership is
involved. He suggests bringing people together for dinner and
drinks and says that this works well in creating good culture.
However, during the COVID-19 pandemic age, this can be difficult,
and he suggests bringing people together in smaller groups and
having virtual meetups.


 


Mr. Haberl advises trying to engage his team by listening first,
learning from them, and then leading them. He says that teams get
engaged when they realize you are paying attention to them and
that you care. Moreover, driving innovation involves taking
risks. However, Japanese culture and education teaches people to
be risk averse. This can be a problem when trying to innovate or
seek new novel ideas or ways of doing things. He stresses that
this can be overcome by creating an environment where people know
it is okay to make mistakes and then learn from them.


 


Advice that Mr. Haberl would give to someone coming to Japan
would be to find people that you can trust. He suggests trusting
your instincts and asking yourself who you can trust and who you
cannnot. He also suggests being patient, listening and learning
as much as possible. Sometimes offices with overseas headquarters
are unfamiliar with Japanese culture and thus may have
unrealistic expectations. He recommends having honest
conversations and communicating well with headquarters. Mr.
Haberl has noticed that loyalty is a trait unique to Japan. Both
Japanese customers and staff are known to be extremely loyal, and
it can work to the company’s advantage if they can capitalize on
this. Additionally, Mr. Haberl recommends learning Japanese, even
if it just a few phrases to communicate better with the locals.