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Case Study: Japanese Multinational – Managing Director

Japanese Multinational – Managing Director

The client:

A Japanese Multinational Food services business listed in the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange with $1.5B in revenues with close to 3000 outlets around Japan and South East Asia.

The brief:

The client was looking to establish an Australian subsidiary to build inroads to establish their first non-Asian restaurant outlet.  We were retained to identify and motivate Managing Directors from the Australian domestic food services and QSR industry to consider a start-up opportunity.   The candidates would provide insights and knowledge into the local hospitality market and help overcome possible hurdles a new entrant into the market would face.  The candidates needed to be entrepreneurial and open to a ‘start-up’ opportunity, hands-on and happy to roll their sleeves up. It was also essential that they be culturally sensitive in order to work for a foreign multinational with a distinct business culture.

Watermark’s solution:

Through the use of our Japanese Corporate practice manager, we were able to create a shortlist that was made up of a number of C-level executives from within the Australian and global QSR industry.  Although it was not part of our brief we were also able to identify a handful of executives with Japanese corporate experience and high-level Japanese language abilities, one who had recently and successfully supported other Japanese corporates set up a similar business in Australia. The successful executive was able to create a road map, which predicted and circumvented difficulties or road blocks they had encountered in their previous role. The candidate could communicate their business plans all within the client’s native language, giving them tremendous trust and credibility both locally and at the Japanese corporate headquarters.

The outcome:

The client appointed an executive who had the credibility of having recently set up a similar successful business.  Furthermore the candidate’s Japanese language skills and corporate experience, mitigated risks with regard to assimilating into a business with a different and distinct business culture.

For more information, contact Daniel Nicholls on +61 2 9233 1200.