66: Peter Strydom, President, Amway Japan

Peter Strydom who is the President of Amway Japan shares his
extensive global experience within the multinational corporation,
having worked in South Africa, Spain, Germany, and Japan.
Originally growing up in South Africa, Mr. Strydom had worked in
leadership roles in Europe and Africa within Amway before coming
to Japan. He decided to work in Japan after a mentor advised him
to go to Asia to truly understand the business of Amway. He calls
Amway Japan one of the crown jewel of the organization, with a
nearly billion dollar business and 600, 000 independent
distributors built over the last 40 years. As the President of
Amway Japan, Mr. Strydom currently leads around 400 employees.


 


One of the biggest challenges Mr. Strydom first faced when
arriving in Japan was needing to implement a change management
plan to within a set timeline. In a country like Japan that is
resistant to quick change, he recalls this was a huge struggle.
After leading in Japan for 6 years, Mr. Strydom has come to
realize that profit and creating shareholder value is not
necessarily the only primary driver in Japanese business culture.
Hence, Mr. Strydom realized that explaining the profit-driven
motive behind his change management plan was not going to work in
this country. Mr. Strydom explains: “you need to expand the
definition and dig a little bit deeper as to why you're doing
this, not only for today, but for the impact it's going to have
on people and for what it means for the future of the business.”
He further explains that as a CEO in a multi-corporation in
Japan, it is one’s responsibility to balance profitability
required by headquarters while addressing the “more personal and
societal concerns that are important within the local context.”
For example, as part of their corporate social responsibility
initiative, Amway Japan has been devoted to supporting victims of
the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku by building
community houses. Mr. Strydom says these initiatives have
resonated and built trust with all of Amway Japan’s stakeholders
and led to new opportunities.


 


Another leadership challenge Mr. Strydom points out is the
hierarchical organization and siloed structure of Japanese
businesses. In order to resolve this problem, Mr. Strydom says he
takes a servant leadership approach to listen to his employees at
various levels into the organization. Mr. Strydom has been
working with HR to have more occasions where people hold small
group discussions to encourage free flow of conversations and
transparency. Mr. Strydom notes that the pandemic has in fact
allowed him to hold these conversations in a more informal way
online and has given him further insight into his team. Mr.
Strydom adds: “for me, it's always been speaking from the heart
speaking from my own personal experience speaking with stories
and always elevating other people above oneself.” Furthermore,
Mr. Strydom has noticed that in Japan, people tend to want shared
accountability instead of full accountability, so he realizes he
needs to understand these cultural nuances that are different
from the west.


 


On encouraging innovation, Mr. Strydom says Amway Japan has
created principles around having a growth mindset, which is
constantly discussed in team meetings and integrated in their
training sessions and public seminars. He says in this way he
encourages his team to understand that taking risks and failing
is okay. By congratulating people who have taken risks, Mr.
Strydom hopes that others will be more comfortable doing so as
well.


 


Mr. Strydom advises newcomers leading in Japan to stay patient
and communicate that change will not happen immediately to
headquarters. He recommends people to not make any assumptions
and jump to conclusions. For example, at first Mr. Strydom did
not understand the concept of nemawashi, doing groundwork before
the actual meeting. However, overtime, he has come to accept that
nemawashi works well in the decision-making process in Japan.
Lastly, Mr. Strydom recommends learning basic survival Japanese
as it will demonstrate respect to Japanese culture and people.