98: Klaus Meder, President, Bosch Japan Corporation

Klaus Meder is the President of Bosch in Japan. Mr. Meder has
been in Japan for almost 10 years in total, he worked in Japan
from 1996 to 2000 and then shifted base to Japan again in mid
2017. During his initial visit to Japan, Mr. Meder was a part of
a joint venture between the German company Bosch and the Japanese
company Zaxel. The joint venture had about 100 people including
the production team. There were 4 German staff members, and the
rest were all Japanese. Mr. Meder said that at the time it was
quite challenging as he didn’t speak Japanese and although he had
a full-time translator with him, he still found the language
barrier to be a problem, he says have expert knowledge of ABAC
control systems helped him a lot.  Mr. Meder also said that
as he was a specialist in the field and knew the current and next
generations of modules this helped him a lot in his early days in
Japan.


 


When Mr. Meder returned to Germany after his first stint in
Japan, he said he learned to communicate really well with his
small team in the countryside in Japan and he tried to emulate
that back home in Germany. Another benefit he felt was that in
the countryside in Japan, there were very few distractions and
people were able to better focus on their work, in Germany he
feels there is a lot to do outside of work so it can be a bit
distracting. Upon returning to Japan the second time, Mr. Meder
felt that a lot of things had changed. When he left the first
time Bosch had less than 500 employees and now, they are over
7000 employees. Another interesting distinction Mr. Meder noticed
in Japanese employees was the answer to the typical survey
question, “Would you recommend Bosch to your family and
friends?”. He says that globally, over 90% staff say yes to that
question, however, in Japan the number is lower. This could be
due to the cultural factor, where Japanese staff feel more of an
obligation towards making sure their friend/family member is a
good fit for the employer and also, they feel more obligated
about giving Bosch a good employee.


 


Mr. Meder’s advice to someone coming into Japan would be to be
respectful and don’t say no right away. He says that being
respectful usually doesn’t hurt in Japan and small actions, words
can go a long way. In Japan, where customer satisfaction and
harmony are of most importance, if something doesn’t seem like a
good fit, don’t reject it right away but consider it. Another
piece of advice to foreigners would be to try to learn the
language in Japan. Though, the language can be complicated to
learn, effort is also rewarded, and locals really appreciate it
even if you know a few words. Learning gestures and body language
in Japan would be beneficial for someone coming to work in Japan,
and body language is also very important. A point that Mr. Meder
makes that is useful as well is that he thinks that the ideal
time for a role in the workplace is 3-5 years as he feels that
you can learn and master the role in that time. He has noticed
that Japanese associates typically take longer in one role partly
because it is discouraged to make too many changes and that
employers might retain employees longer than they’d like because
it is so difficult to fill vacancies. He feels though to learn
and grow and be beneficial to the individual and the team, 3-5
years is an optimal duration in a role.