Many companies believe in growth via the building sales teams, hiring supporting staff, building new facilities and a lot of hard work. One area that many CEOs don’t think about it M&A due to the baggage that can sometimes come along with buying a company.
If you want to get to market sooner, the c-level can speed things up by buying into that area. Although, we see many firms doing this, some are successful and others are failures. In the April CEO we will be talking about Japan and other Asian nation success stories and how to identify key opportunities.

The CEO welcomes Mr. Bruce Power, of Westgate Advisory. He’s been doing M&A work for nearly 25 years. He has covered a broad range of industries such as IT, Internet servicees, logistics, pharma, manufacturing as well as food and beverage firms.

Date – Thursday, 10 July 2014 1230PM-1400PM
Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- Italian Restaurant- La Cucina
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi,
Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

More On Bruce-
Bruce Pomer has spent his career at Merrill Lynch, Bank of America Securities and Shinsei providing M&A advisory services related to Japan for over 25 years before establishing Westgate Advisory 5 years ago. Bruce has significant experience advising foreign companies in Japan for acquisitions, minority investments, joint ventures and fund raising and similarly has advised Japanese companies both in Japan and overseas for similar transactions. He has covered a broad range of industries from IT and Internet services to logistics, pharma, food & beverage and general manufacturing.

The global financial crisis let loose an expanding re-think of corporate governance and compliance issues. Fines, liability and risks of reputational and career loss all continue to climb, even skyrocket. You know the change is major when even Japan has reached a tipping point, with the LDP’s growth strategy committee recently proposing a Corporate Governance Code, independent directors, board training rules, the near-elimination of cross-shareholdings, and a Stewardship Code. This would have been unthinkable even three years ago. Corporate governance is now a topic you need to know about and instill in the bones of your staff.

Nicholas Benes, founder and Representative Director of the government-certified Board Director Training Institute of Japan (BDTI), will tell us about these accelerating trends, and how they will affect you. He’ll share his insights as someone who contributed directly to many of the growth strategy and corporate governance changes that are now underway in Japan, and was sent to sit on boards such as Livedoor’s after the scandal that destroyed it.

Nick is an experienced investment banker, M&A advisor, thought/policy leader, social entrepreneur, government advisor, and editorial writer. He is an inactive member of the bar in NY and CA.

Date – Friday, 11 July 2014 1230PM-1400PM
Venue-
Roppongi Hills Club- Italian Restaurant- La Cucina
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower
6-10-1 Roppongi,
Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

Nick’s CV

The Board Director Training Institute of Japan (nonprofit)

AINEO Networks is pleased to invite you to the semi-annual CEO Insights Forum for Spring 2014.

The CEO Forum is an evening of CEOs meeting only with other C-levels. Two special speakers will share off-the-record insights from their areas of specialty:
– Mr. Phil Rubel, CEO of Saatch & Saatchi Fallon, will share views on Creative Leadership: How company Leaders & Their Brands Can Win in Today’s World.
– Mr. Jan Kaiser, Executive Director with Ernest & Young and their London-based expert on Big Data, will advise us on what every CEO should understand about Big Data and doing big business.

For biographies of our speakers, click here.

Come enjoy a buffet meal, drinks, and mingling with top C-level executives running businesses in various industries across the marketplace.

Space is limited so book your spot early.

Place: Roppongi Hills Club 51F, Roppongi Hills Tower
Date: Thursday, 19 June
Time: 1900PM-2100PM
Cost: 8,000 Yen
RSVP: Sign Up On line here.

Every business needs to continually adapt, reinvent itself, to remain relevant and competitive. This is particularly critical in the dynamic, Consumer Electronics Industry.
In the June CEO Insights meeting, fellow team member, Tim Bailey, President at D+M, will share his insights, lessons learned, in transforming one of the great Consumer Electronic Companies with well known brands like Denon and Marantz. Owned by private equity, the journey is not complete; a work-in-process with great hope.
Tim will wrap-up the session engaging the group in a best practice sharing discussion.

Date – Thursday, 12 June2014 1230PM-1400PM
Venue-
Roppongi Hills Club- Italian Restaurant- La Cucina
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower
6-10-1 Roppongi,
Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

Close the doors, let’s rate Abenomics from the management office. It’s no doubt that the overall business sentiment has been lifted since 2013 but financial analysts are divided on its success.

The next C20 CEO Insights meeting, luncheon will be a round table to share REAL impacts of Abenomics we observe in our various companies, impacts on our top line AND bottom line. Philippe Boue, CEO of Schindler Japan will lead the discussion. When you talk finances Mr. Boue knows his stuff. Prior to accepting the CEO position at Schindler in Japan, he was CFO based in Shanghai. You may want to anticipate Tokyo 2020 impacts as well.

Date – Friday, 13 June 2014 1230PM-1400PM
Venue-
Roppongi Hills Club- Italian Restaurant- La Cucina
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower
6-10-1 Roppongi,
Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

This month the C8 will have our annual Japan Labor update with Baker Mckenzie’s well-known Japan-based foreign lawyer Jean-Denis Marx.  At the CEO, team related discussions seem to be frequent as a good team is essential to any successful business.  The C8 discussion with take us through hiring, firing, managing and motivating with a solid knowledge of legal infrastructure.  This meeting will be a double-header.  In closing the meeting, we will go digital.

Just two years ago people were predicting the end of email as a way of doing business.  However, at 204 million emails per minute, ecommerce, marketing and even taxes are reliant on this technology.  It will not be going anywhere anytime soon.  However, that doesn’t mean something new isn’t on it’s way.  Things continue to evolve through advances in technology development.  Will we even continue to use cash?

Date – Thursday, 8 May 2014 1230PM-1400PM

Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Italian Restaurant- La Cucina
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower
6-10-1 Roppongi,
Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

So many companies come to Japan and fail to bring the Global success of their products to the Japan market.  Does it have to be that way?  Is Japan all that different from other markets in Asia or the world for that matter?

As a first-time CEO in Japan, Leanne Cutts, President of Mondelez Japan (formerly known as Kraft Foods) will discuss the challenges of building a first-class sales organization in Japan. How do multinational businesses build sustainable and profitable brands in Japan such as Clorets gum, Oreo and Ritz? Hear about the successes and failures of the journey along the way to avoid the “mindlessly global, hopelessly local” syndrome.  Join us for the CEO Insights as we discuss

• Marketing global brands in a local market
• What business models work
• How To Integrate The J- Team With the G-Team

Date – Friday, 9 May 2014 1230PM-1400PM
Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- Italian Restaurant- La Cucina
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi,
Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

Many companies believe in growth via the building sales teams, hiring supporting staff, building new facilities and a lot of hard work.  One area that many CEOs don’t think about it M&A due to the baggage that can sometimes come along with buying a company.

If you want to get to market sooner, the c-level can speed things up by buying into that area.  Although, we see many firms doing this, some are successful and others are failures.  In the April CEO we will be talking about Japan and other Asian nation success stories and how to identify key opportunities.

The CEO welcomes Mr. Bruce Power, of Westgate Advisory.  He’s been doing M&A work for nearly 25 years.  He has covered a broad range of industries such as IT, Internet servicees, logistics, pharma, manufacturing as well as food and beverage firms.

Date – Friday, 11 April 2014 1230PM-1400PM
Venue–
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- Italian Restaurant- La Cucina
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi,
Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

More On Bruce-
Bruce Pomer has spent his career at Merrill Lynch, Bank of America Securities and Shinsei providing M&A advisory services related to Japan for over 25 years before establishing Westgate Advisory 5 years ago.  Bruce has significant experience advising foreign companies in Japan for acquisitions, minority investments, joint ventures and fund raising and similarly has advised Japanese companies both in Japan and overseas for similar transactions.  He has covered a broad range of industries from IT and Internet services to logistics, pharma, food & beverage and general manufacturing.

Everyone he talked to in 2009 told him the managers and owners of traditional Japanese SMEs don’t believe in paying for consulting services.

“It’s like trying to sell air,” they said. “Things, machines, products—that’s what they understand. And in any case they’re all terribly conservative! They’ll never trust a foreigner!”

However, all this turned out to be wrong—at least with the clients he found.

In April, CEO Insights will welcome Dr. Steven Bleistein to tell his story and talk about what brought success for Steven and his clients. he’ll also share some of what has not worked out. In addition, he has some nagging questions about his own business and business in Japan, which he would like to pose to the CEO. We suspect the discussion around these will bring out our collective wisdom to everyone’s benefit with great CEO INSIGHTS.

Date – Thursday, 10 April 2014 1230PM-1400PM
Venue-
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- Italian Restaurant- La Cucina
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi,
Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

About Steve- Dr. Steven Bleistein is owner and CEO of Relansa, Inc., based in Tokyo’s Marunouchi Ward. Steve helps companies and people grow capabilities and achieve outstanding performance results. Steve grew up in Denver, Colorado. He holds both U.S. and Australian citizenships. Steve speaks Japanese and French (but not Australian). Steve’s favorite sport of the moment is Nordic roller skiing. You will often find Steve skiing on the 40km Rinrin Road around Mount Tsukuba, close to his home in Japan.

Society has always used information. However, as the amount of digital data skyrockets, we can do new things and unleash new forms of economic value. Data has become an asset, the “oil” of the information society. From business to healthcare and education, the ability to collect more data and learn from it in novel ways allows organizations to optimize their performance or create new forms of revenue.

In the March C20 Meeting we’ll be talking about

• The dark side of big data
• How big data means more jobs
• Why CEOs need to understand big data

See you there!

Date – Friday, 14 March 2014 1230PM-1400PM
Venue-
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- Italian Restaurant- La Cucina
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi,
Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan