With the global market trending towards sharing, it is fascinating to watch that trend and how it effects our businesses. We’ve got ride-sharing (Uber, Lyft), room-sharing (AirBNB), and a lot of resource sharing (freelancer.com) and many other new business models that seem to show the market going from “owning your resources, to sharing your resources”.
Traditionally, we’ve seen consulting firms as the way to get extra resources for your accounting, advertising, and other marketing areas. In the July CI meeting, we’ll be discussing how to more effecctively use outside resources to build your business.

– The increase in business benefits derived from the use of consultants through more effective selection, management and control of them;

– The reduction of consulting fees and expenses from not only being better equipped for negotiations but also through more effective structuring of consultant vs. company resources; and

– The transfer of knowledge and capabilities to company personnel by using them more effectively in projects involving consultants.

Date– Tuesday, 19 July 1230PM-1400PM
Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- La Cucina Restaurant (Italian)
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

The Internet is now the forth social infrastructure and continue to be evolved just from connectivity to digitizing the world. IoT is creating new economy connecting unconnected with people, processes and big data. We live in a generation of great change.

Sharing economy is one of the new business opportunities leveraging the power of the Internet. Under this circumstance how do businesses continue to create innovation ? What is the ideal organization to promote entrepreneurship ? What does globalization really mean for the Japanese enterprises ?

Come join us at the July CEO Insights Luncheon where we will Rakuten executive Yasu Hirai as he shares his thoughts with the our group in this interactive luncheon.

Date– Thursday, 14July 1230PM-1400PM
Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- La Cucina Restaurant (Italian)
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

On May 11th, at their New Product Release event, Docomo introduced several initiatives by its group companies centered on the theme of making life comfortable with a focus on health.

One of the spotlights was Hill’s Epicure, a new low-carb, low-fat pre-cooked frozen gourmet meal presented by Shop Japan, which was received by high praise much to our humble gratitude.

Hill’s Epicure, also introduced by Harry Hill when we hosted the C8 event last year, is a new category of diet that truly brings together health and first-class taste to your dinner table. Another late night at work? Not a problem, because over are the days where time and a healthy, fulfilling meal is a tradeoff. We developed this amazing product as a means to help people achieve the fun, happy and healthy lifestyle they deserve.

We are delighted to inform you that Hill’s Epicure is now available to purchase from our website.
(Website only in Japanese)

Understanding politics even in one’s own language is sometimes a chore, sometimes a bore. For those of us who live in Japan, though, this challenge is exponentially greater and not just because of the language and culture: it truly is a black-box here even for Japanese citizens (who at least can peer into the inner workings and make good guesses).  For an internationally educated CEO, staying abreast is a tall order.  In fact, the day after our lunch (7/22), 18 days of boisterous campaigning begin: what exactly does this mean for the Diet, the Prime Minister and his Cabinet, the loose alliance of opposition parties… and importantly: should we care?

For our June CEO Insights meeting, please welcome Timothy Langley (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Langley). Timothy will share insight on what the coming elections have in store for us and why it might be important to follow these developments.  The postponed consumption tax raise, Abe’s 2nd Three Arrows, the inclusion of 18 year-olds in the ballots, and more all conspire to create an exciting ride for business leaders.

Date– Tuesday, 21 June 1230PM-1400PM
Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- La Cucina Restaurant (Italian)
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

Many companies send middle or blossoming upper management from the head office to take on the Representative director role in the Japan entity. The challenge is that many of those people don’t completely understand the implications of the role much less the person going. In the June CI lunch we will have John Dorff of the TMF Group and a member of the CI group sharing an Overview of the Role Of A Legal Director in a Japanese corporation. He will be engaging us talking about:

Over-guiding Responsibilities
– Employer v. Employee
– Is a local director required? (Changes Given the March 2015 Changes to the Corporate Law Fiduciary Responsibility)
– Directorship with/without a Board
– Personal Implications
– Tax Implications

John has been in Japan for 20 plus years, speaks Japanese fluently and is/has been the Legal Representative or is/has been on the board of over 100 companies in Japan.

We look forward to seeing you Friday.
Date– Thursday, 10 June 1230PM-1400PM
Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- La Cucina Restaurant (Italian)
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

The Tokyo real estate market is ever changing and as one of the highest fixed costs it has a profound effect on every company.

With the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games approaching, landlords are bullish and contractors have limited capacity and are experiencing historic profit levels. This month’s luncheon focuses on getting inside perspectives from key market players on how they view the current market status and their thoughts on future forecasts.

Shinichiro Fujisawa, a Deputy Managing Director at Shimizu Corporation, one of the ‘Top 5’ Japanese General Contractors will join a major landlord representative and our Todd Olson, President of Cushman & Wakefield, in a discussion of the current market and trends focusing on how it may continue to impact your business moving forward.

Please join us for this real estate market update and discussion.

Date– Thursday, 9 June 1230PM-1400PM
Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- La Cucina Restaurant (Italian)
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

Understanding The Global Web Of Customer Data Protection Laws

Both the EU and Japan have significantly amended their data protection laws. The new laws will enter into force in 2017 for Japan, 2018 for the EU. At the same time, the rules governing transfers of personal data between the US and the EU are being renegotiated. Some of these changes are very important and may impact how customer data or employee data is being managed. The presentation will focus on the impact for foreign retailers in Japan, but is something every CEO should understand.

In the May CEO Insights meeting, CI members will get a chance to meet with one of Japan’s foreign lawyers practicing in the country.  CI welcomes Jean-Denis Marx, a partner with Baker & McKenzie (Gaikokuho Joint Enterprise) who will share his insights as a lawyer representing the needs of many famous companies in Japan and helping them understand how events abroad effect their local and global businesses.

Date– Tuesday, 17 May 1230PM-1400PM
Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- La Cucina Restaurant (Italian)
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

Understanding The Global Web Of Customer Data Protect Laws

Both the EU and Japan have significantly amended their data protection laws. The new laws will enter into force in 2017 for Japan, 2018 for the EU. At the same time, the rules governing transfers of personal data between the US and the EU are being renegotiated. Some of these changes are very important and may impact how customer data or employee data is being managed. The presentation will focus on the impact for foreign retailers in Japan, but is something every CEO should understand.

In the May CEO Insights meeting, CI members will get a chance to meet with one of Japan’s foreign lawyers practicing in the country.  CI welcomes Jean-Denis Marx, a partner with Baker & McKenzie (Gaikokuho Joint Enterprise) who will share his insights as a lawyer representing the needs of many famous companies in Japan and helping them understand how events abroad effect their local and global businesses.

Date– Friday, 13 May 1230PM-1400PM
Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- La Cucina Restaurant (Italian)
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

The media is a powerful force in every country. We see the influence in social media and other ways to broadcast your corporate message changing. Media in Japan works very differently from media in other countries. This turns into a special challenge during crisis situations where the company reputation is at stake. Foreign firms in particular struggle as they have to manage both the Japanese media but also headquarters back home. More than once the Japan MD has been replaced by headquarters during or after a crisis happening in Japan.

In the April C20, we welcome Jochen Legewie the MD of CNC Japan to discuss managing the media and show the typical challenges and pitfalls and how to keep your job while also offering hands-on advise how to prevail and overcome crisis situations with the company reputation intact. After this meeting, you will be better prepared for dealing with the Japanese press.

Date– Friday, 15 April 1230PM-1400PM
Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- La Cucina Restaurant (Italian)
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

Biography:
Dr. Jochen Legewie is Managing Director of CNC Japan, the Tokyo office of the strategic communications consultancy CNC headquartered in Munich/London. He has studied at Hitotsubashi University and Cologne University, where he obtained his Ph.D. in Economics in 1996. Spending over 20 years in Japan, he is fluent in Japanese, German and English and has authored numerous books on business and politics. He is a sought after commentator on Japan issues and has appeared on BBC, Bloomberg TV and BS Japan. He is widely published in various journals and newspapers. He is one of the few foreign trustees of business federation Keizai Doyukai and Vice-Chair of its Europe/Russia Committee.
Between 2001 and 2004, he served as Executive Officer in charge of Communications at Mitsubishi Motors Corporation. Prior to this, he was Vice-Director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies. He has also worked at Keidanren and as a freelance journalist.
Over the last 15 years, he has been dealing with a number of high profile company crises, both from inside of affected companies and from outside as a communications consultant.