59: Dr. Jochen Legewie, Partner & Chairman Asia, Kekst CNC

Dr. Jochen Legewie takes us through his 30 years of leadership
journey in Japan, starting at Daimler and then as Partner and
Chairman of Kekst CNC, a global public relations firm. Dr.
Legewie only picked up Japanese by chance as a side hobby, but
his unique background in Japanese specialization and language
ability, combined with a PhD in economics gave him a competitive
edge and landed him a research position at Sophia University. Dr.
Legewie then left academia and started at DaimlerChrysler, which
at the time was investing into Mitsubishi Motors. Dr. Legewie
first started off on a contract role, providing expertise on
Japan to the German executive team, but when the German CEO
became the CEO of the entire company, Dr. Legewie became Officer
Head of Communications, overseeing 100 people in customer
relations and PR.


 


Dr. Legewie calls this experience leading a large team so early
on in his leadership career to be “crazy.” He reflects that this
position was mainly building “cultural [bridges] in both
directions” by convincing both the Japanese employees of
Mitsubishi Motors and the German headquarters to work
cooperatively. He recalls some of his early leadership challenge
was being the middle person between the Mitsubishi Motors
employees and German headquarters, as well as communicating and
understanding English speaking employees who on the surface
seemed to have a westernized way of working, but was in fact,
resistant to change. When convincing people of various
backgrounds to buy into the same direction of the company, Dr.
Legewie says: “I found it very important to put on paper to
visualize things that we are attempting, which is not necessarily
a change. It's just the next step. Sometimes it was a big change,
180 degrees, but some were just the next step, but to make sure
that people [understood] it, you had to put it on paper and go
through it and invest time to explain it. [Additionally,] ask why
are we doing this? Japanese people are smart if they understand
the background. But very often, especially if it's implemented
from the outside, the background is not convincing at first
sight…but if you explain [the] reason, then there is a complete
different level of buy in. So two steps first understand and then
buy in. That would be my simple way.”


 


While working at Daimler, Dr. Legewie seized the opportunity to
maximize his leadership and communications experience to start a
Tokyo office for his current company, Kekst CNC. He admits
recruiting his team initially was a challenge, but by staying
patient and investing in training, the organization has
successfully built a team of highly skilled, bilingual
consultants. Dr. Legewie says his employees are drawn to the
company because of the global culture and flat hierarchical
structure, which is appealing to those who have international
experience as well as women who are prominent in the PR and
Communications industry. Dr. Legewie adds that the organization
encourages people to gain experience outside of Kekst CNC in
other companies by working in-house, and then returning as a more
experienced consultant.


 


On working and leading in Japan, Dr. Legewie points out that he
has noticed Japanese workers tend to be fact and figure driven.
He explains: “So you need to have frameworks and rules. And I go
back to [explain] why is this, but then for the engagement this
is only as a starting point. Engagement goes beyond. We want
people to act on their own decisions. They should be proactive.
And for this, you need to encourage and kick it off with some
guidance in the beginning and tell people to take a risk...And
then very visibly and openly reflect on this in group meetings
and praise a person who has taken a risk or who has been
proactive and do this in a way [that is] visible to others. And
then people start to believe in you. And then you give this
ownership and this responsibility.” Dr. Legewie takes the same
structured approach in delegation as well, clearly communicating
to his staff what he expects and providing an explanation of how
this delegation will benefit everyone, making the process more
efficient. Additionally, when encouraging his team to be
innovative, Dr. Legewie finds that some of the best ideas are
born when he is not involved too much. He encourages
brainstorming sessions amongst his staff without being a part of
it, and then asks for a verbal summary.


 


On gaining trust, Dr. Legewie maintains open communication with
his team and tries to be transparent as much as possible, sharing
statistics and information from headquarters to the local office,
including the profit and loss reports. Dr. Legewie explains: “And
we are also very transparent on a global scale about our revenues
to our employees. And here in Japan, I go one step further, even
in, as you said being not only open about what I think we as a
company is going and should go, but also the real facts, the
figures. And this is of course trust-building because I know from
many Japanese companies…people don't have an idea of the big
picture.”


 


On his advice to newcomers leading in Japan, Dr. Legewie
recommends to “try to find out and not based on English language
skills, but on other qualities who are the people in your team,
whether it's 5,000 or five, who are the people in your team who
get your story and have some commitment to the company.” He adds
these are the people who you want to partner with and seek
advice. He advises that even if the other party does not speak
English, by preparing something in advance and clearly
communicating in a concise manner and giving them a chance to
reflect, it is possible to make the connection. Dr. Legewie
additionally recommends seeking advice from foreigners who have
been living in Japan in similar situations, and to learn from
those experiences. Lastly, Dr. Legewie advises to learn a few
basic Japanese phrases. To those moving to Japan or curious about
living in Japan, Dr. Legewie says: “Come here. It's a great
country. I have talked over my study years to many, many expats
who have been here...And the people say it is still a hidden gem.
People don't know how great life here in Japan is…And so my
advice is just do it, whether it's in the late twenties in your
career or at a later point it's definitely rewarding and you
might end up here longer than you thought.”