74: Paul Kraft, Country Manager, HARIBO Japan

Paul Kraft fell in love with Japan after a school trip in the
early 90s and originally came to Japan to teach English in Osaka.
Afterwards, he became involved in the food business in the US as
a product and brand manager for a large privately held frozen
food company. Mr. Kraft returned to Japan after being head hunted
by Starbucks to open a consumer-packaged goods office in Tokyo.
Mr. Kraft then moved on to become the head of HoneyBaked Ham,
opening and managing the Japan office. In 2016, Mr. Kraft became
the Commercial Director of Nestle Nespresso. Mr. Kraft most
recently is the Japan Country Manager for HARIBO Asia Pacific
since 2018.


 


Upon arriving in Japan to head the market entry of Starbucks into
Japan, Mr. Kraft experienced many culture shocks and made many of
the “classic mistakes.” He was first surprised with the way
meetings were run in Japan in which discussions could take hours
with no agenda. Mr. Kraft also realized his business partners’
priorities were different from his American counterparts. Mr.
Kraft further notes the challenge of implementing new ideas as
Japanese people tend to be risk averse and rely on past case
studies. From these early leadership experiences, Mr. Kraft
learned that allowing people to make mistakes was an integral
part in creating a culture in which people would take more risks
and innovate. He adds active listening is extremely important in
order to understand employees and stakeholder needs and establish
trust.


 


After Starbucks, Mr. Kraft joined Honeybaked Ham, an American
food retailer with over 400 stores in the states. Although a
well-established company in the US, Honeybaked Ham was still
relatively unknown in Japan when he joined. Therefore, when
recruiting new hires, Mr. Kraft put extra effort in persuading
prospective employees on a particular story and even serving ham
to them during interviews. Furthermore, the company was mostly
run by free-lancers and Mr. Kraft enjoyed the entrepreneurial
culture.


 


Mr. Kraft then moved to Nespresso as the Commercial Director,
mainly managing clients in the hotel industry. As the leader of a
large, globally renown company Mr. Kraft focused on having close
communication with his team by holding weekly one-on-one meetings
with his direct reports. Mr. Kraft recalls Nespresso had a very
process-heavy approach to business and thus, he ensured to build
an open communication environment.


 


Seeking a more entrepreneurial opportunity, Mr. Kraft then moved
into his current position as the Country Manager for Haribo, the
number one gummy producer in the world. As a historical and
well-known company, Mr. Kraft explains that recruitment and
persuading people to join the team is much easier than his
previous lesser-known companies. Mr. Kraft is currently the solo
employee of Haribo in Japan and acts as the middle person between
the Japanese market and global organization. Mr. Kraft explains
that when bringing in new ideas, he “divides and conquers” to
persuade his stakeholders – in other words, he uses groundwork
methods to make his implement his plans. Mr. Kraft also notes
that explaining the background and reasoning behind his ideas and
requests is important during such discussions.


 


For newcomers coming into Japan, Mr. Kraft advises to have close
communication with team members through occasions such as weekly
one-on-one meetings and to have a high “EQ radar.” Secondly, he
advises to provide feedback to people which should be 90%
positive. Thirdly, Mr. Kraft recommends people to try to learn
Japanese, although they do not need to become fluent. Mr. Kraft
finally notes that leadership is achieving the organization’s
goal by maximizing the potential of one’s team.