Foreign CEOs to play a bigger role in Japan Inc.
Foreign CEOs To Play Bigger Role in Japan Inc.
By Jochen LEGEWIE
On 30 November, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company shocked Japan Inc. announcing that it plans to appoint Frenchman Christophe Weber as its next President by June 2014. Until now Japanese companies with foreigners at the top spot fell into two categories: those promoting foreigners who have performed well in-house and those being owned by foreign capital or with a large foreign shareholder.
Headhunting a foreigner from a competitor for the top position at a major Japanese company is an absolute novelty. It is even more surprising as Takeda, founded in 1781, used to be a traditional family business with all company heads coming from the Takeda founder family until as recently as 2003.
So far all foreigners having been promoted to the top post in Japan from in-house have more or less failed. The list is short and includes Howard Stringer (Sony), Michael Woodford (Olympus), Stuart Chambers and Craig Naylor (both NSG). You might add Jesse Bhattal, former head of Nomura’s wholesale banking, who was the most senior non-Japanese executive ever appointed by Nomura in 2010 coming from Lehman Brothers acquired by Nomura in two years earlier.
The track record of foreign CEOs with the tailwind of foreign capital looks a bit better and includes Henry Wallace and Mark Fields (Ford/Mazda), Albert Kirchmann (Mitsubishi Fuso), Brian Prince (Aozara Bank) and Luo Yiven (Laox). But only Carlos Ghosn is so far regarded as a really successful foreign CEO for his impressive turnaround of Nissan Motors. The success of Ford executives at Mazda was not a lasting one and Ford reduced its stake in Mazda drastically in 2010. Mitsubishi Fuso, Aozara Bank and Laox still have to prove sustainable long-term success.
Interestingly, all failed foreign CEOs came from either the U.S. or the U.K, i.e. from an Anglo-Saxon capitalism background while Carlos Ghosn leads a group of non Anglo-saxon trained executives, often from
By Jochen LEGEWIE
On 30 November, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company shocked Japan Inc. announcing that it plans to appoint Frenchman Christophe Weber as its next President by June 2014. Until now Japanese companies with foreigners at the top spot fell into two categories: those promoting foreigners who have performed well in-house and those being owned by foreign capital or with a large foreign shareholder.
Headhunting a foreigner from a competitor for the top position at a major Japanese company is an absolute novelty. It is even more surprising as Takeda, founded in 1781, used to be a traditional family business with all company heads coming from the Takeda founder family until as recently as 2003.
So far all foreigners having been promoted to the top post in Japan from in-house have more or less failed. The list is short and includes Howard Stringer (Sony), Michael Woodford (Olympus), Stuart Chambers and Craig Naylor (both NSG). You might add Jesse Bhattal, former head of Nomura’s wholesale banking, who was the most senior non-Japanese executive ever appointed by Nomura in 2010 coming from Lehman Brothers acquired by Nomura in two years earlier.
The track record of foreign CEOs with the tailwind of foreign capital looks a bit better and includes Henry Wallace and Mark Fields (Ford/Mazda), Albert Kirchmann (Mitsubishi Fuso), Brian Prince (Aozara Bank) and Luo Yiven (Laox). But only Carlos Ghosn is so far regarded as a really successful foreign CEO for his impressive turnaround of Nissan Motors. The success of Ford executives at Mazda was not a lasting one and Ford reduced its stake in Mazda drastically in 2010. Mitsubishi Fuso, Aozara Bank and Laox still have to prove sustainable long-term success.
Interestingly, all failed foreign CEOs came from either the U.S. or the U.K, i.e. from an Anglo-Saxon capitalism background while Carlos Ghosn leads a group of non Anglo-saxon trained executives, often from