Episode #117: Campbell Hanley, Managing Director, Weber Shandwick, Japan

Originally from Australia, Mr. Campbell Hanley is presently the Managing Director of Weber Shandwick, Japan. After graduating from university, Mr. Hanley was looking to go to a country that was non-English speaking, which led him to Japan. Since then, Mr. Hanley has worked with various organizations, the latest being Weber Shandwick for the last 8 years.

Engaging people in the workplace is important as employees are more likely to be loyal and not quit on a whim. Mr. Hanley tries to ensure consistency and fairness in the workplace. He tries to make sure he is calm and reacts the same way to things, so people can predict his behaviours and reactions. He also emphasizes being authentic in giving honest feedback to people and ensuring his staff knows the things that they are doing well. Mr. Hanley tries to have breakfast or lunch with a different staff member every week. This is usually a short, informal meeting outside the office to try and get to know staff one-on-one. Mr. Hanley says these meetings make him more approachable, and he finds out many things during these sessions and sometimes can catch problems early.

He talks about innovation as well, and says that if people care about the business, they want to build a better, more innovative workplace. Mr. Hanley says that they have a suggestion box set up in the office to gather feedback, highlight problems or suggestions. He ensures anonymity by sharing the website of this anonymous suggestion box. The staff are digitally literate and thus they know that they are truly anonymous and there is no way to track who has made the suggestions. This is to ensure they know that they are anonymous, and the company gets accurate feedback. He also ensures that the staff know that they would not be penalized for anything they say in this suggestion box.

Advice that Mr. Hanley would give would be to be patient. He also emphasizes good communication. He has three points that he suggests to people coming into Japan.

Trust their instincts
Trust their employees
Have a group of advisors or counsel on your side

Mr. Hanley advises people that first come into Japan to trust their instincts. Sometimes he feels foreign leaders shy away from sharing their views or ideas on business plans as they are concerned about offending the locals. He advises them to trust their instincts and their business experiences and knowledge in such cases. He also recommends placing trust in the Japanese employees and understanding that hard work, loyalty, and teamwork is in their culture and many times there isn’t a hidden agenda to their hard work. Lastly, he advises to have a few people that you can trust on your side in case the first two fail.