This month we will draw on our own expertise and dive into a topic no CEOs in Japan can ignore: China.

Every CEO has to deal with China in one way or the other; as a growing market, as an emerging competitor, the new focus of headquarters’ attention. Where do we stand in Japan?

Among all major countries, Japanese dislike and distrust China by far the most. On the other hand, Japanese firms are among the strongest investors in China. In 2012, Japanese firms bucked the trend of overall declining foreign investment into China by raising their investments from Japan by a hefty 16 percent.

At the C8, we’ll hear from member CEO businesses about the current state of relations between Japan and China. Things that will likely be covered are-

-Is the Senkaku issue really a threat for our business?
– Is there a downward revision in China’s economy and how does/will it affect us?
-What is the status of our personnel exchange between Japan and China?

Date– Thursday, 11 July 2013
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

The beauty of the our closed CEO meetings is the insights we receive from other bosses in other industries.  Although we talk a bit about hiring and firing, marketing and business expansion seem to be the area that get a lot of discussion time.  As we all know, the challenge of marketing and sales cannot be implemented if we’ve not got a strong from team behind us.

In the June C20, we’ll have Mr. Hiro Ueda sharing some insights on the effective utilization of a freelance team.  Mr. Ueda was raised in Japan, but has lived in the US and worked with Deloitte and Morgan Stanley.  He is currently running RGP Japan and will share insights on

– How freelance teams can affect the bottom line
– Focusing corporate power on your strengths
– How to team up your permanent staff with a freelance team

Date- Friday, 14 June 2013 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

“Women in Japan have one of the lowest representations in executive and leadership positions compared with other OECD countries. While there are many reasons for this situation, women in Japan have similar/better education background and qualifications to men and therefore represent a significant opportunity for companies to improve their talent pool by recruiting, developing and promoting women to management roles. As part of Abenomics, PM Abe has stated the goal to increase women participation in the workforce as part of his “third arrow” of reform.

In the June CEO luncheon, we’ll have our own member Mr. Gerald Lema.  Gerald is running the Baxter organization in the region. He will share Baxter’s “Building Talent Edge” program in Asia Pacific/Japan that targets 50% representation of women in leadership jobs.”

Date- Thursday, 13 June 2013 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

Doers vs Sayers: How Today’s Successful Marketers Are Building Brands

Doers vs Sayers: How today’s successful marketers are building brands through participation. Phillip Rubel, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon, will provide some discussion points and case studies of how brands are successfully blending social media into their marketing communications, creating synergy, efficiency and results.

Date- Friday, 10 May 2013 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

What is the future of power in Japan?  Can we manufacture here with the infrastructure, or is that something we have to relinquish to other countries in Asia Pacific?  What is future of Japanese energy? How will it affect our logistics, warehousing and overall bottom line?

In the May CEO Luncheon we’ll have a special guest who knows the Japanese energy field well.  The CEO Luncheon will host guest CEO Mr. Steffen Studeny from RenEnergy Crossborder K.K..  Mr. Studeny is originally from Germany but has a long seasoned career in Japan. You’ll find his story interesting with applications to your business. He was CEO of Q.Cells Japan for 5 years before founded the new energy firm he runs.

It doesn’t stop there. The discussion will continue from actual energy in the market to energy in the office. Team energy. We will be talking about ways to manage Japanese culture to focus team energy on productively completing the corporate tasks and raising the bar for the team.

Date- Thursday, 9 May 2013 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

Living in one’s home country and doing business is one thing, but doing business in a completely different culture can present some challenges.  The CEO can be presented with challenges not only managing the business but even just managing the team.

In the April CEO meeting, you will get insights from CEO peers with years of experience in Japan and Asia.  Planned topical areas we will explore are

-Effectively understanding how the culture affects your team
-How customers see your products/services and where you can get results
-Successful ways bosses use the culture to enhance the bottom line.

Date- Friday, 12 April 2013 1230PM-1400PM
Venue-
Roppongi Hills Club- Roppongi Hills Club- Chinese Restaurant- Star Anise
51 fl. Roppongi Hills Mori Tower,
6-10-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku,
Tokyo, 106-6151 Japan

Doers vs Sayers: How Today’s Successful Marketers Are Building Brands

Doers vs Sayers: How today’s successful marketers are building brands through participation. Phillip Rubel, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Fallon, will provide some discussion points and case studies of how brands are successfully blending social media into their marketing communications, creating synergy, efficiency and results.

Date- Thursday, 11 April 2013 1230PM-1400PM
Venue-Tokyo American Club
2-1-2 Azabudai
Minato-ku,Tokyo 106-8649 JAPAN
Tel: 03-4588-0381
Fax: 03-4588-0703

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Creating a product that you can market for 100 years with minimal changes is likely a dream business. Coca-Cola is one of a handful of brands that actually still exists.  Unfortunately, not all companies have the luxury of marketing and promoting their products and services the same way for decades with consistent success.  
In the IT industry, where the products and services progress at an astonishing speed, the formula is even more challenging. IBM is such a company which was founded over 100 years ago in 1911, in the United States by a merger of three companies. Since then, the name of the company remained the same but the IBM yesterday and IBM today are considerably different. The company has been continuously transforming its business through a shift toward higher value, making new markets, remixing skills and expertise and reinventing the enterprise itself.  

At this month’s CEO, we welcome the general manager of IBM Japan, Mr. Martin Jetter, who was appointed to this position last May.  Mr. Jetter is an IBM veteran of 26 years who has successfully led the transformation of IBM Germany from 2006 to 2011. He then led the Corporate Strategy and Enterprise Initiatives for the entire IBM Corporation.  Mr. Jetter will share some of his insights on what he and the IBM leadership team are doing to transform IBM Japan’s business and the initiatives they are driving to help clients in Japan to gain competitiveness in the globalizing market.  Also, Mr. Jetter will likely touch on:

– IBM’s transformation as an ongoing journey
– Helping Japanese companies gain competitiveness in the globalizing markets
– Driving global collaboration across the organization

Date- Thursday, 14 March 2013 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

Identifying and Dealing with Outside Influences That Effect Your Business

The management team team of most companies pride themselves on understanding their market and the changing conditions of that market.  The CEO’s job is to be the visionary and keep the ship on an even keel to success financially as well as heading to the future.  Unfortunately, the CEO can’t control everything but must learn to identify the potential business threats.

In the March CEO lunch, the group welcomes a special guest.  We’ll have the Commercial Attache representing an influential country in Japan sharing on the influence of outside forces on business.  Areas such as commercial policies, immigration, reginoal conflict and a variation of other factors can enhance or maybe detract from the business.  He will start the discussion on things that you, the visionary CEO need to be aware of as you navigate your company through the world theater.

Date- Friday, 8 March 2013 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

Kicking off 2013, we start it off right with the always popular legal segment and a guest professional who spoke at last years CEO Forum.

2012 has seen several important legal changes. The first large-scale review of the Corporations Act is still under heavy discussion and should be approved in 2013. Jean-Denis Marx, a partner with Baker & McKenzie (Gaikokuho Joint Enterprise) will share his insights on these discussions. JD will also discuss important changes to the workers dispatch law (haken law) and to the copyright law. These are already in effect. Some new rules affecting specifically foreign companies from 2013 will also be discussed.

Join us at 1230PM-1400PM

Date- Friday, 11 January 2013 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