Episode #66: Peter Strydom, President, Amway Japan

Peter Strydom who is the President of Amway Japan shares his extensive global experience within the multinational corporation, having worked in South Africa, Spain, Germany, and Japan. Originally growing up in South Africa, Mr. Strydom had worked in leadership roles in Europe and Africa within Amway before coming to Japan. He decided to work in Japan after a mentor advised him to go to Asia to truly understand the business of Amway. He calls Amway Japan one of the crown jewel of the organization, with a nearly billion dollar business and 600, 000 independent distributors built over the last 40 years. As the President of Amway Japan, Mr. Strydom currently leads around 400 employees.

One of the biggest challenges Mr. Strydom first faced when arriving in Japan was needing to implement a change management plan to within a set timeline. In a country like Japan that is resistant to quick change, he recalls this was a huge struggle. After leading in Japan for 6 years, Mr. Strydom has come to realize that profit and creating shareholder value is not necessarily the only primary driver in Japanese business culture. Hence, Mr. Strydom realized that explaining the profit-driven motive behind his change management plan was not going to work in this country. Mr. Strydom explains: “you need to expand the definition and dig a little bit deeper as to why you're doing this, not only for today, but for the impact it's going to have on people and for what it means for the future of the business.” He further explains that as a CEO in a multi-corporation in Japan, it is one’s responsibility to balance profitability required by headquarters while addressing the “more personal and societal concerns that are important within the local context.” For example, as part of their corporate social responsibility initiative, Amway Japan has been devoted to supporting victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Tohoku by building community houses. Mr. Strydom says these initiatives have resonated and built trust with all of Amway Japan’s stakeholders and led to new opportunities.

Another leadership challenge Mr. Strydom points out is the hierarchical organization and siloed structure of Japanese businesses. In order to resolve this problem, Mr. Strydom says he takes a servant leadership approach to listen to his employees at various levels into the organization. Mr. Strydom has been working with HR to have more occasions where people hold small group discussions to encourage free flow of conversations and transparency. Mr. Strydom notes that the pandemic has in fact allowed him to hold these conversations in a more informal way online and has given him further insight into his team. Mr. Strydom adds: “for me, it's always been speaking from the heart speaking from my own personal experience speaking with stories and always elevating other people above oneself.” Furthermore, Mr. Strydom has noticed that in Japan, people tend to want shared accountability instead of full accountability, so he realizes he needs to understand these cultural nuances that are different from the west.

On encouraging innovation, Mr. Strydom says Amway Japan has created principles around having a growth mindset, which is constantly discussed in team meetings and integrated in their training sessions and public seminars. He says in this way he encourages his team to understand that taking risks and failing is okay. By congratulating people who have taken risks, Mr. Strydom hopes that others will be more comfortable doing so as well.

Mr. Strydom advises newcomers leading in Japan to stay patient and communicate that change will not happen immediately to headquarters. He recommends people to not make any assumptions and jump to conclusions. For example, at first Mr. Strydom did not understand the concept of nemawashi, doing groundwork before the actual meeting. However, overtime, he has come to accept that nemawashi works well in the decision-making process in Japan. Lastly, Mr. Strydom recommends learning basic survival Japanese as it will demonstrate respect to Japanese culture and people.