Episode #74: Paul Kraft, Country Manager, HARIBO Japan

Paul Kraft fell in love with Japan after a school trip in the early 90s and originally came to Japan to teach English in Osaka. Afterwards, he became involved in the food business in the US as a product and brand manager for a large privately held frozen food company. Mr. Kraft returned to Japan after being head hunted by Starbucks to open a consumer-packaged goods office in Tokyo. Mr. Kraft then moved on to become the head of HoneyBaked Ham, opening and managing the Japan office. In 2016, Mr. Kraft became the Commercial Director of Nestle Nespresso. Mr. Kraft most recently is the Japan Country Manager for HARIBO Asia Pacific since 2018.

Upon arriving in Japan to head the market entry of Starbucks into Japan, Mr. Kraft experienced many culture shocks and made many of the “classic mistakes.” He was first surprised with the way meetings were run in Japan in which discussions could take hours with no agenda. Mr. Kraft also realized his business partners’ priorities were different from his American counterparts. Mr. Kraft further notes the challenge of implementing new ideas as Japanese people tend to be risk averse and rely on past case studies. From these early leadership experiences, Mr. Kraft learned that allowing people to make mistakes was an integral part in creating a culture in which people would take more risks and innovate. He adds active listening is extremely important in order to understand employees and stakeholder needs and establish trust.

After Starbucks, Mr. Kraft joined Honeybaked Ham, an American food retailer with over 400 stores in the states. Although a well-established company in the US, Honeybaked Ham was still relatively unknown in Japan when he joined. Therefore, when recruiting new hires, Mr. Kraft put extra effort in persuading prospective employees on a particular story and even serving ham to them during interviews. Furthermore, the company was mostly run by free-lancers and Mr. Kraft enjoyed the entrepreneurial culture.

Mr. Kraft then moved to Nespresso as the Commercial Director, mainly managing clients in the hotel industry. As the leader of a large, globally renown company Mr. Kraft focused on having close communication with his team by holding weekly one-on-one meetings with his direct reports. Mr. Kraft recalls Nespresso had a very process-heavy approach to business and thus, he ensured to build an open communication environment.

Seeking a more entrepreneurial opportunity, Mr. Kraft then moved into his current position as the Country Manager for Haribo, the number one gummy producer in the world. As a historical and well-known company, Mr. Kraft explains that recruitment and persuading people to join the team is much easier than his previous lesser-known companies. Mr. Kraft is currently the solo employee of Haribo in Japan and acts as the middle person between the Japanese market and global organization. Mr. Kraft explains that when bringing in new ideas, he “divides and conquers” to persuade his stakeholders – in other words, he uses groundwork methods to make his implement his plans. Mr. Kraft also notes that explaining the background and reasoning behind his ideas and requests is important during such discussions.

For newcomers coming into Japan, Mr. Kraft advises to have close communication with team members through occasions such as weekly one-on-one meetings and to have a high “EQ radar.” Secondly, he advises to provide feedback to people which should be 90% positive. Thirdly, Mr. Kraft recommends people to try to learn Japanese, although they do not need to become fluent. Mr. Kraft finally notes that leadership is achieving the organization’s goal by maximizing the potential of one’s team.