20: Kenichi Fujita, Chairman & Representative Director, Siemens K.K.

Mr. Fujita, President & CEO of Seimens K.K., began his career
in the Japanese manufacturing industry at Alpine Electronics,
then became a business consultant, before joining Siemens.


 


During his time at Alpine, Mr. Fujita worked in Germany and
managed a team of European staff, which he found were strikingly
different from his Japanese counterparts. Mr. Fujita explains how
he has a “western/Japanese switch” that he can control in order
to adjust to the two cultures. With the westerners, Mr. Fujita
says he tries to speak in logical, short sentences, and keeps
meetings to 30 minutes. However, with his Japanese staff, Mr.
Fujita is careful in listening to them, and showing more empathy.
Mr. Fujita explains “Japanese [do] want to talk in meetings but
they are missing the timing to start talking.” According to Mr.
Fujita, this is partly due to the Japanese desire for
harmonization. As the Japanese head of a global company that
requires much coordination with the Germany headquarter, this
cross-cultural communication skill is vital for Mr. Fujita.


 


On innovation and leadership, Mr. Fujita explains the benefits of
providing support and coaching for the staff to try to make them
into “star” players. Mr. Fujita encourages people to learn from
mistakes and rewards those that challenge themselves.


 


To be a successful leader, Mr. Fujita states, “in the West, trust
means fairness” whereas in Japan, it’s more about being a
transparent leader who is honest with good intentions. In order
to blend into both cultures, Mr. Fujita recommends becoming an
“insider” and trying to learn the culture and language to better
understand the people and win their trust.