91: Derek Young, President, Japan Fidelity International

Originally from the United States, Derek Young is the President
of Fidelity Japan for the last 3 years. Fidelity International
provides world class investment solutions and retirement
expertise to institutions, individuals, and their advisors. Prior
to Japan, Mr. Young was working with Fidelity and had been living
in Boston, USA for 22 years. Mr. Young had visited Japan on
business briefly before 5 or 6 times before shifting base to
Japan 3 years ago. 


 


In his initial days in Japan, Mr. Young started by approaching
the Japanese market by examining his own strengths and
weaknesses. His strengths lay within the investment space, having
a deep understanding of Fidelity and having decades of investment
experience. His weaknesses were in not speaking Japanese and not
understanding the Japanese market. Identifying where his
weaknesses were allowed him to collaborate with people that had
those language skills and to take the best possible combination
of strong investment knowledge, strong language skills and the
best understanding of the clients to combine them for the highest
probability of excellence and success for the clients. 


 


Mr. Young emphasizes that modelling what works elsewhere may not
necessarily work in Japan. He believes that Japan has some of the
most demanding clients in the world. Strong attention to detail
is ingrained in Japanese culture and that is the expectation
everywhere in Japan. His team had this understanding on attention
to detail and this pressure to deliver yet he had to learn this.
For example, if he was wanting to increase efficiency but this
increased client errors, he realized that clients could leave for
that error regardless of performance in the portfolio. Thus,
anything that is done to improve efficiency cannot increase the
risk for client errors. The tolerance for error is significantly
less in Japan compared to elsewhere in the world. 


 


One major difference that Mr. Young found about working in Japan
is that there is a general appearance of calmness within the
employees in comparison to the US. For example, in planning for a
large event, employees in the US may be more vocal about the
pressures they are facing. In Japan, culturally there is
hesitation to be vocal about that pressure and even though they
seem calm, they may be facing pressure. These pressures are
underneath the surface, and it is the Japanese way is to make
things seem under control. Mr. Young has found that having
one-on-one conversations to be a good way to truly understand
what employees are thinking and providing them the tools they
need for success and that makes employees feel comfortable in
having these conversations with him. For example, asking for a
translator may help the employee feel more comfortable. Even
though to an outsider they seem like they speak perfect English,
with a translator they may feel they have more time to frame
their thoughts. Mr. Young also emphasizes connecting with
employees on a more personal level has made them feel more
comfortable with him as a person, and not just as the President
of their company. He gives examples of asking for restaurant
recommendations, vacation spots from the local Japanese people to
connect with them on a more personal level. 


 


For foreign leaders coming into Japan, Mr. Young advises
individuals to keep an open mind, to really examine your own
personal strengths and weaknesses and really listen. He
emphasizes that you must listen to what your team says. The team
should feel that they are truly being heard and you are taking
what they say, and you are responding to it in a genuine manner.
He provides an example of keeping an open-minded approach.
Something that may work well back in your home country may not
work well in Japan and the employees should not feel that you are
just forcing what you think is best on them. He also advises that
learning the Japanese language and understanding the culture may
help. If the Japanese language is a barrier that having the right
people with the correct language skills on your team is essential
for business.