Episode #106: Jan Babatz, President, Guhring Japan

Jan Babatz currently is the President and CEO of Gurhing in Tokyo, Japan. Mr. Babatz was born and brought up in Berlin, Germany, on the East side of the Berlin Wall. In High School, Mr. Babatz learned Japanese which was quite unusual at the time. After graduating from a Business Engineering background, Mr. Babatz started working as a Sales Engineer, before stepping into a leadership role as General Manager at Waldrich Siegen GmbH Japan. In 2017, he took on his current role as CEO of Gurhing Japan.

In terms of getting the team to come up creative ideas and solutions, Mr. Babatz is not a fan of big meetings as they aren’t efficient to get creative ideas, he feels meetings are good for making announcements. Creativity is fueled in smaller working groups of 2-3 people. In the beginning, he tried getting down at the team level and tried to work as a salesperson with the others, but this didn’t go well as people were nervous working closely with the CEO and President and clients weren’t comfortable either. In each department, he figured out which people had which strengths and weaknesses by getting to know people outside of work through lunches and non-work activities such as karaoke. Mr. Babatz says that coming down to their level by talking about his personal life and bonding with them instead of acting like their boss works well in improving efficiency. Mr. Babatz further explains that most of the time when he talks to people one by one, he always asks them what their aim is in the next 5 years. In many cases, after these conversations, Mr. Babatz will try to fulfill his employees’ goals.

By improving work culture, Mr. Babatz claims that it leads to retention of good employees. Thus, he takes culture building seriously. Mr. Babatz admits that creating culture within Japan that is outside the head office can be different, and that he can only talk about his own office of about 30 people, but there, they hold social activities such as barbeques and play softball. Additionally, at his office, employees are free to to take vacations whenever they like and everyone who wants to try something new or different always get that chance. If the staff feel that they can share their opinion freely and are able to take vacation flexibly, their motivation and engagement within the company increases. Mr. Babatz emphasizes open communication, and this also leads to high staff retention. Since hierarchy is more defined in Japan than the west, Mr. Babatz is also mindful of calling each other by name instead of job positions, in order to break down the barrier between himself and the other employees.

Mr. Babatz would advise new foreign leaders working in Japan to learn Japanese. He has seen people who learn Japanese quickly by practicing every day are much better off than those who use a translator or interpreter. He emphasizes that speaking even a little bit of Japanese builds a bond with clients and other locals. Mr. Babatz also says to keep close contact and find support within one’s team by inviting them to events and being open about oneself. For example, Mr. Babatz brought in German beer which he shared with his colleagues. By doing something unique like sharing his own culture, Mr. Babatz says he was able to build a more trusting relationship with his team.