Jap a n A s s o c i at i o n f o r Fe m a l e E x e c u t i v e s10Vol.

2016.12.01

T h e 7 t h J A F E Sem inar
On October 24, 2016, the 7th JAFE Seminar invited as its
guest speaker, Carlos Ghosn, the Chairman and CEO ofNissan Motor Company Ltd. Mr. Ghosn who had just been
appointed the next Chairman of the Board of Mitsubishi
Motors Corporation, which had become a member of the
Renault-Nissan Alliance, took part in a Q&A session on thetheme of “Partnerships in order the beat the competition”
with Noriko Nakamura, the JAFE representative, and otherparticipantsCarlos Ghosn, President and Chief Executive Officer of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. Q&A (Extract)
I hear that you are revered by womenfrom Nissan.
I do not know about that, but what I cantell you is that my relationship withwomen’s empowerment is not fake. I think
it is authentic. This is not about fashion,
and we need to collectively cultivate in theorganization a potential that is untapped
today. I commend Prime Minister Abe fortaking a very bold initiative by saying, “Iwant 30% of women executives by 2020”,
but at the same time we have to recognize
all the hurdles and obstacles that you haveto overcome. In order to bring about amajor change in society and business,
forcing a change will not last long. This is
not only about will, but we have toconvince people through patience andrelentless effort.

Is it possible for cross functional teams,
one of the methods of Nissan’s revival,
to be utilized by other companies when
they conduct internal reforms?
In many organizations, the problem comesfrom the fact that people do not work
efficiently together. You have the silomentality, you have territoriality wherepeople want to manage their own team but
don’t want to share, and cannot manage
through cooperation. At Nissan, not only at
the top level, but also the younger
employees are gathered from each division,
are organized as cross-functional teams,
and are given a company challenge, which
worked very well in increasing employee
morale. The company’s leader is like thechief of a philharmonic orchestra, and theleader must be a presence that utilizes thetalents and skills of each and everyemployee.

In Japan, working style reform is talked
about, but how would you approach this?
First of all, people tend to confuse efforts
with results. I want people to work theminimum time for the maximum of results
because we are business people. You wantefficiency, you want people to be happy,
you want people to be feeling well, for them
to be balanced, but to deliver. I don’t careabout you working hard if you don’t deliver
results. How long you work is not the issue.
It is more important for companies toincrease the company’s growth rate andcustomer satisfaction than working hard.
At the end of the day, what matters is – isthe job done, is my customer happy, is mycompany growing – than how hard youworked.

What three capabilities are required ofCEOs?
A CEO should be able to deliver – thedelivery of performance, the capacity toconnect with people, and to have a good
intelligence of the industry. A CEO shouldhave a long life of experience delivering on
performance and challenges, and be able toconnect with people in order to raise
people’s motivation. Also, in the carindustry where I am, we are going througha huge transformation and intensifiedcompetition due to technologicalinnovations, so you have to have a good
intelligence of the industry while looking
ahead years and decades in advance. Iwould say a leader who fulfills all thesecharacteristics.

N EWS L e tter

10Vol.

2016.12.01

Report 1

Introducing a JAFE Member

T he 3 rd su m m er cam p i n T ates h i n a
For two days from July 23, 2016 we held our very
popular third summer camp. In 1986, JAFE conducted
its very first female executives’ awareness survey, and 30years later, so as to discuss the challenges that modern
female executives face, we invited Mr. Yukihiro Otsuka,Deputy Director-General for Gender Equality Policy ofthe Cabinet Office to visit Tateshina to talk about “TheCurrent State of the Government’s Promotion of
Women’s Empowerment and Future Policy”.
Afterwards, we talked about the real issues faced byfemale executives which are not being covered bynational policy, and worked on the female executives’ awareness survey for 2016. We will continue toexamine and analyze these results, and plan to compile them as recommendations.

M as a ko B a ndo

President of Showa Womenʼs UniversityMs. Masako Bando joined the Prime Minister’s
Office and served as the Director-General of theGender Equality Bureau while involved inl e g i s l a t i o n r e l a t e d t o p o l i c y o n w o m e n ’sempowerment. Since 2004 she has taught at
Showa Women’s University and was appointed
President of the university in July 2016. She has
said that now, as we enter an era of “women’sempowerment 4.0”, women’s empowerment is
not a social responsibility, but a mainstay ofcorporate strategy.

Report 2

JAF E Sp ecial S e mina r
For JAFE’s Special Seminar on October 21, 2016, we invited Coach Masayo Imura, who led the Japan national teamfor synchronized swimming at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics to win medals for Japan in the team synchro for thefirst time in 12 years. Coach Imura is frequently described as having “the expression of a demon”, but on this day
she delivered a passionate speech about nurturing her swimmers with a smile on her face and clearly full of love.

Summary of the speech of Ms. Masayo Imura (Japan’s National Synchronized Swimming Team Coach)
N ur turing s wimme rs
Through my experience of coaching overseas, I became able to coach even without understanding the language. Young people these days tend to
take the easy route and can be quite lazy. They feel comfortable with the words “teamwork and bonds”. And they dislike standing out. At any rate,they stint on using their strength, or rather they don’t know how to put out their strength. And so I gave them a goal that could be achieved if they
tried that bit more, and drew out their strength little by little every day. Moreover, there is no point just scolding them or saying that you should
learn by watching someone’s back. Since they’ve been raised with rationale, you need to explain everything logically in detail. On the other hand,
they are very accepting so if you push them a little at a time, they will follow you anywhere.

My role as a l e a d e r
Up until now, I thought that the role of a leader was to teach skills to the athletes, build up their physicalfitness, and develop the mental strength of deriving joy from winning competitions. However, teaching theJapanese team for the first time again in 10 years, before I could get around to this, first I was faced with thehuge task of drawing out their strength, and then teaching them how to bring out their strength themselves.
Japanese athletes are not shouldering any burden. And adults around them believe they should not pressurethem. But then, it is impossible for them to put out their strength. So, I gave them pressure the size of amountain. I told them, “There are expectations of you because you are people who have been chosen. Youshould be proud of the fact that you have reached a level where medals are expected of you from all overJapan”. This is what led to the medals. I am pleased that I was able to fulfill my responsibilities as a leader.

Report 3

JAFE Year-End-Party 2016
On December 8, 2016, the Year-End-Party was held at Shinbashi “Kanetanaka”. A complete change from last year’s
theme of holding the party in a Western-style building, the party was based on the theme of “Wa ”, welcoming
participation in Japanese dress (kimono). In the midst of this very busy last month of the year, we spent a delightful
time eating delicious food and watching the graceful dancing, and talked about our resolutions for the following year.

JAFE Administration Office
Inside NPO Poppins 5F, Hiroo Plaza, 5-6-6, Hiroo, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 150-0012

Ph: 03-6450-4880

Email: info@jafe.jp