Episode #125: Noboru Nakatani, President & CEO of JASTEC Co., Ltd.

Noboru Nakatani has been leading in a global environment in various industries including manufacturing, IT, finance, and consulting in France, US and Japan. He is currently the President and CEO of JASTEC Co., Ltd., a leading systems integrator in Japan. Mr. Nakatani graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Keio University and holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson School. After graduation, Mr. Nakatani worked first as a Production Engineer at Canon Japan, and then led the Research and Development Department in their France operation. He then moved to New York, working as a Senior Consultant at Deloitte before joining JASTEC. As Chairman and CEO of JASTEC International, Inc Mr. Nakatani acquired a French company called LTU, and expanded JASTEC’s business portfolio. Mr. Nakatani also successfully improved JASTEC’s revenue during the first few years of his leadership after the company had been struggling.

When looking back at his early leadership years at Canon in Japan, Mr. Nakatani describes it as a “free” environment where engineers were allowed to try new things. The hierarchy was not as top-down, and the decision-making was not necessarily logical. When comparing his early leadership experience in Japan to France, Mr. Nakatani observes that both countries take their time in the decision-making process, yet the reasoning is different. In Japan, it is largely due to people being risk-averse and hesitant to make decisions, whereas in France, it is because there are so many different opinions and discussions that need to be held.

In order to maintain trust and engagement during JASTEC’s difficult times as an externally hired leader, Mr. Nakatani listened to his employees and repeatedly communicated his vision and commitment to improve their business. Moreover, he worked to readjust the organization’s client portfolio, and tried to maximize and diversity sales from existing clients. Mr. Nakatani points to internal training and research for his team’s success in upselling, by having a well-trained sales and project management team that carefully analyzed the midterm plans of companies to make attractive proposals. Additionally, when making changes, Mr. Nakatani says it is important to start things from a small scale, where there is more flexibility and room for making mistakes. He also states how essential it is to learn from these mistakes and share the experience within the team.

For foreigners coming to lead in Japan, Mr. Nakatani advises to avoid micromanagement, as this prevents people from thinking independently and creatively. Moreover, Mr. Nakatani emphasizes the importance of listening to the team, and understanding their expectations, likes and dislikes and so on at the beginning of joining the company. From there, Mr. Nakatani recommends creating goals with a clear road map to help the employees succeed in reaching them. Being an externally hired executive, Mr. Nakatani also strongly advises to show commitment to the team and communicate to them that he or she will stay until their goals are reached. Mr. Nakatani also indicates the value of understanding Japanese clients and working on business development to increase sales as the leader. Although Japanese is helpful to know, Mr. Nakatani thinks that as long as the direct reports can communicate in English, it is not essential to be fluent. Lastly, he recommends leaders to learn from other executives from different industries and participate in training to expand their perspective.