73: Danny Risberg, President & General Manager, Baxter Limited Japan

Growing up in California, Mr. Risberg has been an entrepreneur
since high school and by his mid-20s he had already founded and
sold a start-up company. His early success enabled him to move to
Japan, which he had been interested in largely due to his
half-Japanese roots, and invest in a series of companies in the
health care industry. In 1999, Mr. Risberg joined Respironics
(currently Philips Respironics) as the Vice President of Sales
and Marketing and in 2005, became the President and CEO of Fuji
Respironics. He then became the CEO of Philips Japan in 2009.
Since 2018, Mr. Risberg has been the President and General
Manager of Baxter Limited Japan.


 


Mr. Risberg’s earlier experience in his 20s working and learning
from his mentors taught him much about running a business as well
as gaining trust from local Japanese investors and business
owners. During his time at Respironics group, Mr. Risberg
successfully persuaded the CEO of a distributor to agree to an
acquisition. Mr. Risberg was also successful in persuading the
people at Respironics on the arrangement of the acquisition
process. Mr. Risberg notes having empathy, passion, decisive
decision-making abilities and determination helped him with such
challenging stakeholder management. During disagreements he
explained the importance of ensuring the other side understands
the reason behind the conflict to try to find the middle ground.


 


Starting from a founder of a start-up company to heading a
multinational conglomerate, Mr. Risberg has been a constant
learner and active listener. When starting his position at
Philips, Mr. Risberg asked one of the company board members to
become his mentor to support him through the transition period.
Mr. Risberg says at the centre, business is “all about the
people, connections and communication” and forming a strong bond
with more experienced leaders enabled him to access a wealth of
knowledge and network he needed to understand the organization.
He took on a similar approach when becoming the head of Baxter
Japan and focused on bringing the company’s true value to the
marketplace not just through the product but through systems and
services and focusing on how to maximize employee engagement.


 


For new foreign leaders coming to Japan, Mr. Risberg firstly
advises them to understand the company goal including their
expectations, the reason behind them and the time frame.
Secondly, he advises to learn from people and form trusting
relationships. Thirdly, Mr. Risberg explains that Japan is a
unique market and what seems to be a “crazy idea” could in fact
add value – therefore, having a flexible mindset is essential.
Lastly, Mr. Risberg recommends anybody coming to Japan to put in
the effort in learning the language as he believes this will be
appreciated by the local employees, customers and market.