Episode #128: Christian Wiedmann, President & CEO, BMW Group Japan

Christian Wiedmann, President & CEO of BMW Group Japan had already arrived in Japan on one first stint back in the early 2000s. He was born in Thailand and grew up in the country for all of his youth. Due to this background, he seized the opportunity to run as the Chief Financial Officer in the BMW leasing business in various Asian countries such as Thailand, Korea, Australia and Japan. Mr. Wiedmann worked in many BMW departments around the world, and through his experience and knowledge, he was appointed President & CEO of BMW Japan Group in August 2019.

During his first few years of leadership, Mr. Wiedmann found it challenging to receive input from his team to effectively run the operations. Mr. Wiedmann explains how it is crucial that the team knows their businesses, have an opinion of where they want to go, and understand their strengths and weaknesses. Mr. Wiedmann adds, "I experienced that it is much more difficult to enter the Japanese local business leader community. It is quite open to enter the expat community or the local expat community but getting into the Japanese leader community, that's certainly hard…[although] not impossible.” He realized then and now that the trick to joining the community was to “walk the talk much, much longer than anywhere else.” Mr. Wiedmann also notes there is a formal side to functions in Japan, as well as a human side that is based on relationships. Thus, Mr. Wiedmann thinks it is important to establish trust, and “make the Japanese team certainly feel more and more safe and comfortable to express their opinions”.

As the President & CEO of BMW Group in Japan, Mr. Wiedmann worked by trying to make the team members follow his idea and achieve great results. By doing so, he agreed that engaging people is the key to making sure everyone is working towards a shared goal. Mr. Wiedman describes the “special” way his team holds discussions. He explains: “so we have a discussion…then there's a pause. So someone says something and they think we should do it like this and this." By making decisions in this way through feedback and discussions, there is more engagement.

Furthermore, Mr. Wiedman talks about the challenge of leading in a culture that is risk averse and wants to have every detail mapped out before making the first step. In order to overcome this challenge, Mr. Wiedmann says, Japan's business style needs to be more honest. He particularly highlights that by saying: “the moment somebody gets a complaint from headquarters around having been too vocal in a meeting, that is when they get a big congratulatory message from me,” indicating that Mr. Wiedmann himself would welcome receiving such feedback about Japanese team members.

At last, Mr. Widemann mentions 3 steps of advice that business people who are new to Japan may adopt to succeed in Japan. Firstly, Mr. Wiedmann advises to take the time before coming here to prepare oneself for a smooth transition. Secondly, Mr. Wiedmann recommends practicing active listening, acting in an authentic manner, and reflecting one’s behavior based on what one has learned through listening. Thirdly, Mr. Wiedman advises to be patient, stating: “give it time, give the organization time, and give the meetings time.” Through these steps, Mr. Wiedmann explains newcomers will successfully build respectful relationship with Japanese business people.