Episode #73: Danny Risberg, President & General Manager, Baxter Limited Japan

Growing up in California, Mr. Risberg has been an entrepreneur since high school and by his mid-20s he had already founded and sold a start-up company. His early success enabled him to move to Japan, which he had been interested in largely due to his half-Japanese roots, and invest in a series of companies in the health care industry. In 1999, Mr. Risberg joined Respironics (currently Philips Respironics) as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing and in 2005, became the President and CEO of Fuji Respironics. He then became the CEO of Philips Japan in 2009. Since 2018, Mr. Risberg has been the President and General Manager of Baxter Limited Japan.

Mr. Risberg’s earlier experience in his 20s working and learning from his mentors taught him much about running a business as well as gaining trust from local Japanese investors and business owners. During his time at Respironics group, Mr. Risberg successfully persuaded the CEO of a distributor to agree to an acquisition. Mr. Risberg was also successful in persuading the people at Respironics on the arrangement of the acquisition process. Mr. Risberg notes having empathy, passion, decisive decision-making abilities and determination helped him with such challenging stakeholder management. During disagreements he explained the importance of ensuring the other side understands the reason behind the conflict to try to find the middle ground.

Starting from a founder of a start-up company to heading a multinational conglomerate, Mr. Risberg has been a constant learner and active listener. When starting his position at Philips, Mr. Risberg asked one of the company board members to become his mentor to support him through the transition period. Mr. Risberg says at the centre, business is “all about the people, connections and communication” and forming a strong bond with more experienced leaders enabled him to access a wealth of knowledge and network he needed to understand the organization. He took on a similar approach when becoming the head of Baxter Japan and focused on bringing the company’s true value to the marketplace not just through the product but through systems and services and focusing on how to maximize employee engagement.

For new foreign leaders coming to Japan, Mr. Risberg firstly advises them to understand the company goal including their expectations, the reason behind them and the time frame. Secondly, he advises to learn from people and form trusting relationships. Thirdly, Mr. Risberg explains that Japan is a unique market and what seems to be a “crazy idea” could in fact add value – therefore, having a flexible mindset is essential. Lastly, Mr. Risberg recommends anybody coming to Japan to put in the effort in learning the language as he believes this will be appreciated by the local employees, customers and market.