Episode #98: Klaus Meder, President, Bosch Japan Corporation

Klaus Meder is the President of Bosch in Japan. Mr. Meder has been in Japan for almost 10 years in total, he worked in Japan from 1996 to 2000 and then shifted base to Japan again in mid 2017. During his initial visit to Japan, Mr. Meder was a part of a joint venture between the German company Bosch and the Japanese company Zaxel. The joint venture had about 100 people including the production team. There were 4 German staff members, and the rest were all Japanese. Mr. Meder said that at the time it was quite challenging as he didn’t speak Japanese and although he had a full-time translator with him, he still found the language barrier to be a problem, he says have expert knowledge of ABAC control systems helped him a lot. Mr. Meder also said that as he was a specialist in the field and knew the current and next generations of modules this helped him a lot in his early days in Japan.

When Mr. Meder returned to Germany after his first stint in Japan, he said he learned to communicate really well with his small team in the countryside in Japan and he tried to emulate that back home in Germany. Another benefit he felt was that in the countryside in Japan, there were very few distractions and people were able to better focus on their work, in Germany he feels there is a lot to do outside of work so it can be a bit distracting. Upon returning to Japan the second time, Mr. Meder felt that a lot of things had changed. When he left the first time Bosch had less than 500 employees and now, they are over 7000 employees. Another interesting distinction Mr. Meder noticed in Japanese employees was the answer to the typical survey question, “Would you recommend Bosch to your family and friends?”. He says that globally, over 90% staff say yes to that question, however, in Japan the number is lower. This could be due to the cultural factor, where Japanese staff feel more of an obligation towards making sure their friend/family member is a good fit for the employer and also, they feel more obligated about giving Bosch a good employee.

Mr. Meder’s advice to someone coming into Japan would be to be respectful and don’t say no right away. He says that being respectful usually doesn’t hurt in Japan and small actions, words can go a long way. In Japan, where customer satisfaction and harmony are of most importance, if something doesn’t seem like a good fit, don’t reject it right away but consider it. Another piece of advice to foreigners would be to try to learn the language in Japan. Though, the language can be complicated to learn, effort is also rewarded, and locals really appreciate it even if you know a few words. Learning gestures and body language in Japan would be beneficial for someone coming to work in Japan, and body language is also very important. A point that Mr. Meder makes that is useful as well is that he thinks that the ideal time for a role in the workplace is 3-5 years as he feels that you can learn and master the role in that time. He has noticed that Japanese associates typically take longer in one role partly because it is discouraged to make too many changes and that employers might retain employees longer than they’d like because it is so difficult to fill vacancies. He feels though to learn and grow and be beneficial to the individual and the team, 3-5 years is an optimal duration in a role.