109: Doug Hymas, Country Executive, Bank of New York Mellon

Doug Hymas was the previous Japan Country Executive for the Bank
of New York Mellon Group. Many years ago, during his college
days, Mr. Hymas served in Japan as a Mormon missionary based in
Tokyo. He returned after this stint and finished up college at
the Brigham Young University (BYU) back in the US. He developed
an interest for Japan, while he was at college in the 1980’s and
Japan was at the frontier in business and culture. Mr. Hymas was
glad he was given the chance to develop his Japanese at the
university and through his missionary work in Tokyo. During his
time with the Mormon Church doing missionary work in Japan, he
focused mostly on verbal Japanese and not on the Kanji Japanese
script as most of their work was verbal. After about 6 months in
Japan, he was very confident in his conversational Japanese
abilities. He later did get a chance to develop his written
Japanese through BYU, which had a strong focus on Japanese and
other languages. The retuned missionaries often teach courses to
current students at the university, and this gives students a
fresh perspective of people who have experienced Japan.


 


Mr. Hymas later returned to BYU to do a Law degree and graduated
as a lawyer. He started working with KPMG and was later
transferred to Japan. He then worked by advising Japanese clients
on International Law. Afterwards, Mr. Hymas was headhunted by a
Japanese firm called Minebea Company Limited, where he worked as
an in-house counsel advising on legal matters outside of Japan,
primarily in the US. Mr. Hymas loved this job, but the pay was
very low. At this point one of his friends was building a team of
lawyers within the Lehman Brothers and invited Mr. Hymas to join
his team at Lehman. At this role, his salary tripled but he says
his lifestyle went down. He stayed with Lehman brothers for 3
years, which led him to his role at BGI, who were the world’s
largest indexing investment manager at the time. He liked the
business model at BGI as he felt that the company’s interests
aligned with the clients−if they did well, their fees increased.
If they didn’t do well, they received a reduced fee. This
business model was one of the reasons he stayed within Investment
Management for 10 years thereafter. Afterwards, Mr. Hymas was
headhunted by Citigroup, which allowed him to step away from the
legal world and into business. Soon after, he started leading the
organization.


 


To foster creativity in the workplace, Mr. Hymas reminds his
staff that they are not government workers, and their success is
dependent on working hard with engagement. Mr. Hymas says there
are many ways to be creative in his work. For example, it can be
a creative solution in sales, the actual product design, or
innovative ways to provide customer service by understanding
client needs. Mr. Hymas emphasizes that some people are motivated
by financial incentives, but many are not, and acknowledgment
through public recognition is also important.


 


Mr. Hymas advises those new to leading in Japan to be open to
cultural differences and try and understand the strong team
culture. He observes that Japanese people work well if the team
is working well. Thus, trying to understand what you may see in a
meeting may not be the real picture. For example if the staff are
nodding and agreeing to something in the meeting, that may not
necessarily be the case, and there may be something they are
holding back. Being mindful of this and trying to understand what
is happening in between meetings is important. Mr. Hymas also
recommends the person coming in getting a confidant. By building
a relationship with people you trust on the team who act as your
eyes and ears, Mr. Hymas says you can get a better understanding
of Japanese people and workplaces.