Episode #116: Ernie Higa, President & CEO, Higa Industries

Ernest (Ernie) Higa shares his extensive leadership and entrepreneurial experience starting from his mid-20s succeeding his family business and leading various industries including lumber, medical device, and food and services. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Mr. Higa graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in International Business. He also holds a Bachelor of Business Administration (MBA) from Columbia Business School. After university, Mr. Higa joined his family business, Higa Industries Inc. (now Domino's Pizza Japan). Shortly after, he became the company's Representative Director. Mr. Higa then began developing the Domino's Pizza chain within Higa Industries, and became the President in the early 1980s. Presently, he is the Chairman and President since 2015. Mr. Higa has led many other corporate and professional organization including the Representative Director of Wendy’s Japan, First Kitchen and Director of Shinsei Bank and Del Sole Corp.

Leading a lumber business company which was part of Higa Industries at just 26 years old was one of the first leadership challenges for Mr. Higa. Mr. Higa was fortunate to be able to hire employees who had retired from major trading firms and other large corporations, but still wanted to work. He says these people had a wealth of experience and contacts that allowed him develop his company. Being Japanese American enabled Mr. Higa to not have to play by the rules when leading staff who were much more experienced and senior then him. Being in the trade industry, working between Japan and the US, his experience and knowledge of working in the states and knowing how to communicate to English speaking businesspeople also helped him earn the respect and trust from his employees. Mr. Higa adds: “there's a certain rule that you can break because you're not Japanese and that becomes an advantage, but you have to know what those rules are. And so it really requires understanding the Japanese culture.” Eventually, Mr. Higa grew the business from 20 people in 1985 to 9000 people including full-time and part-timers, by 1997.

In addition to the lumber business, Mr. Higa had diversified into the medical business with neurosurgical implants and then started developing Domino’s Pizza in Japan. Regarding his success in Japan, Mr. Higa credits his ability to position himself in the niche Japanese marketplace and adapt foreign products to Japanese consumer needs. Moreover, the experience of starting Domino’s Pizza made Mr. Higa take a more bottom-up leadership approach as he realized the head office executives are there to support the store managers to successfully drive their business, which then increases the entire company’s profit. He adds that building and maintaining trust with the customers is essential in the sustainment of the business and if there are any errors made, it is important to take care of it right away.

Having worked in various industries, Mr. Higa claims a strong corporate culture is the key to good employee engagement across all organizations. Mr. Higa says due to his entrepreneurial background, the culture of his organizations reflects this spirit, and emphasizes a positive, “can do” mindset. Due to this approach, Mr. Higa’s organizations have attracted employees who enjoy being in a more flexible environment that encourages innovative thinking and growth. Mr. Higa also developed a training centre to ensure this corporate culture messaging was communicated right from the beginning at the orientation stage to his staff. Additionally, his company holds many internal events to motivate the employees, including full-time and part-timers. By having a unique but consistent approach to building corporate culture across various sectors, Mr. Higa thinks this set them apart from the more established, larger corporations and enabled his business to grow.

On advice to newcomers leading in Japan, Mr. Higa advises to be respectful of the Japanese culture and understand there are differences from the western way of doing business. This mentality is important when launching products and making strategic decisions, as well as managing people. Mr. Higa adds one must “think global and act local, but don't go too native. If you go too native, then you are managing completely like a Japanese corporation, then you'll miss out. I think you'll lose against the Japanese companies who are Japanese. But it's a moving target, what is global, what is local, and what is going to be native? And you always have to adjust.” Mr. Higa thinks learning Japanese does help, but the most important thing is realizing there’s a difference in cultures and respecting that.

Mr. Higa defines leadership as something that changes depending on the leader, as there is no one-size-fits-all format. He adds: “I try to lead by example, I try to get the respect of my people but I also try to enhance my people and work with my people so that they make a lot of decisions themselves.”