CFO Studio Magazine - Curt Allen, CFO, Subaru

34 WWW.CFOSTUDIO.COM 1st QUARTER 2015 A s the famed author, management consultant, and social ecologist Peter Drucker said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.”While the observation reads like a basic management tenet, the concept becomes incredibly complex for multinational companies. Cohesive and productive intra- company culture can be difficult to achieve when greater issues of national cultures clash. Recently, C-level executives gathered for dinner, drinks, and networking at a meeting of the JapanU.S. Executives Networking Group. The event was hosted by CFOStudio and Real Estate Strategies Corporation. Henry Sacco, Esq., vice president and general counsel for Brother International, provider of home, home office, and business products, led a discussion of “The Relationship Between Culture, Leadership, and Nationality inDriving Success.” The conversation addressed culture from two perspectives — internal corporate culture in their organizations and external, national cultural influences at work inU.S. subsidiaries of Japanese companies. Sacco brought insights fromhis recent experience leading his company through an internal study of the corporate culture. “We decided to survey all of our employees in the Americas to see if there were some basic, fundamental similarities in the cultures within the entire Americas,” said Sacco. “It was an eye- opening experience because the employees had thoughts about the culture that the executives wouldn’t have realized.” He said Brother International decided to do the survey as part of a gap analysis. “We determined where we want the organization to go and the kind of culture we need to get there,” he said, and needed to know, “How do we move in that direction?” Communication at U.S.-Japan Companies One of the findings of the cultural survey conducted at Brother was that employees felt that departments were separated into silos of information and that key company communications were delivered inconsistently. Many of the dinner guests said they have similar communications issues at their organizations and went on to speak about the different communication styles in the Japanese business culture andU.S. business culture.The group also discussed how Japanese executives often communicate with aspirational language about new products, while technical and strategic information is held closer to the chest. Barry Lederman, CFOof Eisai, Inc., a fully integrated pharmaceutical company, said, “It’s true that from a technology perspective, they may limit the information that is shared; but they may believe their products are so superior and that the value they bring to the marketplace is so high, everybody will gather around to purchase this new product.” Joseph Serell, vice president at Sun Plastech, a manufacturer of purging compounds for resins and plastics, has had American leadership at his organization for 11 years; but the rotation of executives at the Japanese parent can be a challenge. “People think of Japan as being a very top-down business culture, but it’s not like that at all,” said Serell. “It’s very much run by group decision, and it doesn’t matter howmany people are in that group. If everyone isn’t on board, that boat is not sailing.” Culture of Consumer Loyalty Some of the evening’s participants believed this optimism is— in part—a result of the nature of the Japanese consumer market. In the Japanese culture there is greater brand loyalty than what exists in the United States.There, buyers, whether they are B2B or B2C, will purchase whatever product their brand puts out, but some Japanese executives have yet to learn that this does not extend to the U.S. buyer. “It’s an attitude of, ‘We have the best product,’” said FredGuerra, vice president of finance at Takasago International Corporation, a global producer of flavors and fragrances. “They might actually be right that they have the best product. But, do they spend enough time How Culture, Leadership, and Nationality Drive Success A C-level discussion of culture at today’s Japanese-American organizations CFO STUDIO EXECUTIVE DINNER SERIES Photography: Jibran Aslam Henry Sacco, Esq. BY DARIA MEOLI