34: Robert Noddin, former President, CEO, AIG Japan Holdings KK

Robert Noddin first arrived in Japan as an exchange student when
he was at university. He attended Kansai University of Foreign
Studies, before eventually going back to the United States where
he started his career in the banking industry. Very soon after,
Mr. Noddin received a job position with AIG, who he has been with
ever since, and formerly served as President & CEO at AIG
Japan Holdings. 


 


Mr. Noddin gives fantastic insight to his experiences, detailing
the importance of communication, trust, and accountability. Mr.
Noddin states: “to me, leadership is about inspiring people to go
somewhere that they wouldn't necessarily go on their own.
Management is about, I got a set of tasks to do today.” Mr.
Noddin holds open discussions across department on how to achieve
clearly set objectives through each stakeholders’ point of view.
These discussions help create a sense of ownership and
accountability amongst his staff in producing quality work.


 


Additionally, attending social events outside of work and showing
his “human side” has allowed Mr. Noddin to better engage with his
employees. By building trust in this way, Mr. Noddin finds that
his employees are more willing to seek advice when they are in
conflict. “[Japanese people] have to put this façade on because
that’s what culture expects…so give them the opportunity to break
with that…it makes a big difference.”


 


To encourage innovation, Mr. Noddin launched a venture
capital-like operation within AIG in which a select number of
employees worked on a short-term project to launch a product from
scratch. Mr. Noddin explains: “that [project] was probably the
single most effective thing we've done here, in my stint, to be
able to prove to people it's okay to be creative, it's okay to
think differently. We even let them change their work hours.”


 


For newcomers to Japan, Mr. Noddin advises to stay resilient,
focus on the objectives, and respect Japanese history and
culture, commenting that anyone coming to Japan to lead should
“try to show how you can use that to become competitive and
unique and different in the Japanese market.”