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.
