68: Jeff Crawford, Managing Director, Zo Digital Japan

Jeff Crawford provided great insight into the tech and digital
marketing industry from his experience as a programmer in Silicon
Valley to becoming the co-founder of Zo Digital Japan.


 


Mr. Crawford originally worked in Silicon Valley for 16 years
working in famous companies including Apple and Microsoft. Living
in San Francisco, he became familiar with Japanese food and
culture, and took frequent vacation trips to Japan. He eventually
began working at Microsoft’s Japan branch for five years as a
Program Manager. Mr. Crawford then stepped into a managerial
position, leading a team of five staff as well as managing
vendors. Next, Mr. Crawford moved into Adobe Systems Japan, also
managing a team of approximately 5 people . Afterwards, he got
the “entrepreneurial bug” and began a digital advertising service
for music and dance schools in the US. After realizing the
business model was not going to work, Mr. Crawford moved on to
started Zo Digital, an SEO and digital marketing agency.


 


Mr. Crawford first began as a consultant before starting Zo
Digital, and eventually started hiring contract staff to run as
an agent. On starting his own business, Mr. Crawford reflects:
“Fortunately for me, I had management experience at places like
Microsoft and Adobe. I think I understood how to manage people,
how to have good processes, that type of stuff. And so for me,
personally, everything came together. I've always had a love of
user experience with computers. I'm very strong and very
interested in things like analytics, looking at data to see what
people are doing.”


 


In 2015, Mr. Crawford began a professional network organization
called Tokyo Digital Marketers. The first event had about 10
people, but the organization has grown to over 2000 people
registered and usually 50-60 people showing up in events. Mr.
Crawford has also been active in other business organizations
such as the American Chamber of Commerce Japan and the Japan
Market Expansion Competition. Through these networking
opportunities, Mr. Crawford has been able to connect and recruit
people. Mr. Crawford also actively hire people online through
discussion boards to find people who want to work in an
international, flexible environment.


 


The challenge Mr. Crawford faced as a leader in Japan was change
management as he faced strong resistance to change in the
culture. For example, there was an occasion where his Japanese
team who was focused on the Japanese market suddenly had to
expand to support China and Korea as well, and had to speak
English. Therefore, Mr. Crawford explains the importance of
explaining to people the need for change and having an open
discussion about people’s concerns and ideas.


 


Mr. Crawford developed his leadership schools through reading
books and using techniques, including Dale Carnegie’s books and
listening to management podcasts. He also highlights the need to
understand how to use the learned principles in Japan. He also
tries to ask his staff on what would work to try to pull out
their thoughts and ideas while sharing case studies from his
experience. Mr. Crawford also notes that if a team member comes
to him with an idea, they have most likely already shared those
thoughts with others and rewards such situations.


 


Learning and Development is something Mr. Crawford also puts
emphasis on and helps his staff grow their career paths. He
believes in investing in his people to grow their career paths
and enable them to add further value to the company. He finds
innovation also happens in this way. Over the recent years, Mr.
Crawford has found people in his company stepping up to more
leadership roles.


 


On advice to newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Crawford recommends
to be careful of who you favour, as ability goes beyond just
being able to speak English. He also advises to maintain a
balance between being humble and assertive, and try to be
observant in order to “read the air.” Mr. Crawford also
emphasizes the importance of understanding Japan’s
relationship-based business culture. He explains: “What often
affects decisions [made in Japan] is that they're taking into
account everybody's relationship. And a lot of times what you may
not realize, especially if you're a new manager, is all these
relationships exist around you, and they’ve been built over
years... compared to other business cultures or other countries,
you may want to take more time to understand the situation before
making those executive decisions.”