57: Frank Packard, Founder & President, Triple A Partners Co. Ltd.

Frank Packard takes us through his journey in Japan as well as
different cultures and business experience in the financial
industry. Mr. Packard was originally born in Japan and grew up in
the US hoping to pursue law or journalism at Princeton
University. After graduating, he lived in Cairo, Egypt for a
while before returning to Wall Street to enter the financial
industry, starting as an analyst at Paine Webber in 1984. He
rapidly worked his way up and arrived in Tokyo in 1986 as the
Vice President of the Tokyo branch. Since then, Mr. Packard has
held leadership positions covering not only Japan but Asia
Pacific regions at multinational financial corporations including
Drexel Burnham, Bankers Trust and Bank of America. He is the
Founder and President of Triple A Partners, an independent
company focused on third-party fund-raising, equity research and
corporate finance.


 


Much of his leadership style is modelled after what he had
learned from his early days in finance from his mentors. On his
first multinational leadership experience, Mr. Packard recalls
trying to break down the hierarchy by making an open office
seating arrangement, which was uncommon during the 80s and early
90s. Mr. Packard also recognized the diversity of Japanese
people, with different interest, hobbies and background, which he
found shocking in the beginning. He also points out that though
he found it challenging to hold non work-related conversations
initially, he gradually learned to “let people go at their own
pace” to learn something outside of work about his staff. On
engaging with the younger generation, Mr. Packard admits it is
difficult as the youth have many more choices than those in the
1980s. On gaining trust, Mr. Packard claims that listening to
people and having patience is key to winning them over in Japan.
After gaining further experience leading a team in Hong Kong for
Bankers Trust, Mr. Packard began a joint securities company
focused on fund placement. He built on this experience as the
HSBC head of North Asia of the Alternative Investment Group.


 


On team engagement, Mr. Packard consistently communicates to his
staff about the mantra of the company which is broken down to
three goal: to do legal business, do rewarding business and add
value. He also notes the importance of ensuring the experience is
enjoyable. Mr. Packard states that because of his team’s
bilingual capabilities, they have been successful in dealing with
clients who need support in both languages that cannot be
delivered by larger Japanese firms. Mr. Packard is also keen to
providing people with more opportunities to expand and develop
their career. For example, he has had an administrative staff
take on more active roles in finance. Additionally, Mr. Packard
emphasizes the importance of giving women equal opportunities as
men in developing their career paths. Mr. Packard shows he trusts
his team by allowing unlimited holidays, which allows people to
work in a more flexible manner.


 


To newcoming leaders, Mr. Packard advises to be clear and
transparent when communicating with Japanese staff, as they will
take everything literally. On a similar note, he does not
encourage people to work long hours in the office as executive
assistants think they also have to work longer hours. Secondly,
Mr. Packard has observed that Japanese are very state conscious
and want to have consensus over large decisions. In order to be
mindful of this, Mr. Packard advises to learn about the
educational background of people to better understand them.
Lastly, he advises to not forget to laugh and have moments of joy
by being vulnerable and authentic.