International News

Feb 8 2013

Mid-Career Talent Acquisitions in Japan

An article of Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun (Nikkei Industries Newspaper) about an interview with the President of AIMS International, Rolf Heeb, released on January 29, 2013, conducted by Keiichi Furukawa.

Mid-Career Talent Acquisitions – Actively Utilized in China and Korea
Self-Confined Culture of Japanese Companies Hinders Competitiveness

In conjunction with the growth of the Asian economy, the demand for executive resources is rapidly expanding in each country. AIMS International, a Europe-centered, leading global executive search firm who are developing their business in Asian countries, is focusing on the search for executives in the region. We have asked about the human resource trend in Asia to Rolf Heeb, President of AIMS International.

— How are the demands for headhunting in the world?

“The demands have recovered to over 90 percent of the peak level marked before Lehman Brothers crash. Especially expanding is the demand for management level positions in the growing Asia region. Demand at Western financial institutions is weak supposedly because of the remaining impact of the European sovereign debt crisis. The high expectation we have now is the talent acquisition demands in the countries to which Japanese companies are advancing in relation to their globalization.”
“As the result of the globalization of the economy, cross-border executive searches have become popular. When a company launches a new product or service simultaneously in the global market, they need to fill multiple positions with excellent management talents. The search firms are now demanded for global-scale service delivery capabilities.”

— What kind of talents is demanded in the market?

“People with high expertise are wanted, among others. There are strong demands for managers who have knowledge and experience in intellectual property and legal affairs. People who have been involved in start-up of overseas business locations are especially valued as immediate assets.

—What companies are actively hiring new employees in Asia?

“In addition to global multinationals such as major automobile manufacturers, there are increasing demands for searches by small and medium enterprises who are developing the business globally. Recently, we filled a country manager position with our candidate. In terms of the industries, there are a variety of clients such as manufacturers, house builders, and cosmetic companies.”

“Chinese and Korean companies are actively and effectively using our service. They are presenting strong competitiveness by far more quickly adapting themselves to the local environments of the countries they advance to, in comparison to Japanese companies. Placing local nationals to the top management of the local entities is probably one of the reasons of their success”

—What are the problems of Japanese companies?

“Chinese and Korean companies do not hesitate to place local nationals to the top management. In contrast, Japanese companies use search firms just for hiring middle management positions. The top management positions are mostly filled by Japanese expats sent from the headquarters. Japanese companies tend to be self-confined in the areas of personnel assignment and industrial relations in the local community. The strength of Japanese people is the high level of education and business sense. I consider Japanese companies will be able to expand their businesses more quickly if they can increase talents who are knowledgeable in the local cultures and environment.

—

The interview was done during the AIMS International APAC Meeting in Tokyo, which was facilitated utmost successfully for the participating AIMS International Country Managers by Katsusuke Yokota, COO at AIMS International Japan .

By Christian Schulte • International News •

Jan 29 2013

Why Can’t Japanese Win Indians and Chinese?

An article of TOYO KEIZAI ONLINE about an interview with the President of AIMS International, Rolf Heeb, released on January 29, 2013, conducted by Takahiro Ito.

Can’t Japanese win Indians and Chinese?

The decline in Sony and Sharp… Now that the once-believed everlasting legend of Japanese global companies has collapsed, Japanese people’s way of working has to be reviewed. How can Japanese people survive in the global market? Or more fundamentally, what do the Japanese people lack?

Rolf Heeb, the President of a global search firm AIMS International who scouted several hundred of people for the past 35 years, has responded to our questions.

— “What do you think about the presence of Japanese people in the current global market?”

In the global human resource market, the presence of Japanese is fading. Instead, Chinese and Indians are gaining their presence. I believe the reason for it is the fading presence of both Japanese people and Japanese companies in the global market.

Why Japanese cannot win Chinese and Indians

— “What is missing to Japanese compared with other nations?

English language skills are missing to Japanese. That sums it up. Even if one can speak English very well, it is not enough. Multiple skills are required to survive in the local market in overseas countries.

At least, the local language is required in addition to English. Furthermore, positive attitude and flexibility to adjust to other culture and community are required. My honest view is that Japanese people fall behind the Chinese and Indians in all of those elements.

I am from Dusseldorf where a number of Japanese companies have offices. There, I see Japanese people who just stay within the Japanese community and will not step out to associate with other cultures. I believe such an attitude is an index of the mentality of Japanese.

This matters to those Japanese who currently work in the domestic Japan market, too. The advance of Japanese companies into overseas markets will be further accelerating. A person who has been working only in Japan may be suddenly asked “You’ll be responsible for starting up our India branch next month”. Nowadays, such an assignment is possible and quite natural. It will be too late for the individuals to start a preparation after such assignments are given to them.

Then, what do you have to do? First of all, English. In addition, you have to acquire positive attitude and flexibility as I mentioned earlier. With regard to this, Japanese people fall behind to the extent that they have to learn from businesspersons in the rapidly emerging countries such as China and Korea. There are lots of things to learn for Japanese people.

—“What do you think are the strong points of Japanese?”

I would say the strength of Japanese is strong loyalty to the company and high value for the organization.

—“That may mean that Japanese are strong only in those areas, doesn’t it?”

Maybe yes. Therefore, Japanese companies should make themselves more competitive through development of the people.

War for talent has already begun in the world

—“What preparation should the Japanese companies make now?”

From the viewpoint of talent acquisition and management, there are certain problems in the HR division at Japanese companies.

Traditionally, “personnel division” sounds like a clerical function and does not work closely with the core management of the business units. Therefore, hiring has not been made strategically. But the importance of HR’s role is increasing to the extent that companies should have CHRO in parallel to CEO and COO.

Nevertheless, it is not so easy to make the HR division stronger. The conventional idea of “just hiring” needs to be changed.

HR division needs to have a more strong belief that they have to fill each position with a fully qualified person who can contribute to strengthen the business. In order to do so, you need to know at which place of the world the excellent talents you want are located. There is already a “war for talent” going on in the world.

—“Then, do you think it is not enough for the Japanese companies to rely on the current employment practice inclined to new graduate hires?”

It is a good approach to hire excellent new graduates. However, it is not enough. I do not think companies can hire resources who can contribute immediately just through Japanese new university graduates. It is not probable that the universities are providing enough education. I consider that companies should restrain new graduate hires in Japan and focus more on hiring of local employees at the investing countries.

—“The Japanese companies’ local hiring in the investing countries is slow. Is there any reason for it?”

The management style of Japanese companies is very traditional. The decision making is consensus oriented and too slow in the fast changing business environment. Japanese companies are the opposite from very flexible. Also the organization is very hierarchical. In a local entity, the compensation and working conditions tend to be lower for local employees compared to Japanese employees at the same position.

Japanese companies’ culture blocks participation of foreigners

—“Do you think Japanese executives at Japanese companies will be replaced by foreign executives in the future?”

It is a difficult question to answer. A change to accept other nationalities into the board members is an advantage. In other cultures, it is common that global companies are managed by an international management team at board level. One of the two CEO’s at Deutsch Bank is an Indian. The CEO of 3M is a Swedish.
At the Western counties, the nationalities of the management team members are not a matter for discussion. I would guess that this will take much longer in Japan than in other countries. Therefore, I don’t see a lot of replacements of Japanese managers in Japan. Carlos Ghosn would be an exception.

—“Is the Japanese presence decreasing?”

From our point of view the Japanese presence is still existing but decreasing. Looking at the difficult situations of Japanese companies such as Sony, Sharp and Panasonic, there seem to be three factors which are making them unable to adapt to the global market. The factors are (1) failing to catch up the innovations, (2) lack of flexibilities, and (3) excessively rigid organization development.

On the other hand, Chinese companies are flexible and quick in decision making. They already look at Africa and have started large-scale investments. Especially, they are investing in infrastructure developments such as buildings, roads and ports in Nigeria, Angora, Kenya and Ghana.

Japanese companies are still far behind in advancing into these areas. In addition, the existence of Chinese companies is increasing in Europe. Especially in the automotive industry, they are entering into the parts supply business including tier one and tier two, covering from the upper stream and lower stream.

From now on, Japanese have to have a wider scope of vision to compete with Chinese and Indians. I consider Japanese people are still not competitive enough in this respect.

—

The interview was done during the AIMS International APAC Meeting in Tokyo, which was facilitated utmost successfully for the participating AIMS International Country Managers by Katsusuke Yokota, COO at AIMS International Japan .

By Christian Schulte • International News •

Jan 25 2013

2013 Global Job Fair Korea

January 13th, 2013 – Vienna, Austria – Seoul, Korea
AIMS International sponsored The 2013 Global Job Fair Korea

Hansuk Kim, Managing Partner of AIMS International Korea was present at the 2013 Global Job Fair Korea and represented with 4 consultants of his team AIMS International at this important Korean event, in which a total of 138 firms participated to find the best talent for their open positions.

At the Job Fair AIMS International conducted on-site interviews based on the current local job openings from foreign invested companies and globalized Korean companies.

Further more AIMS International used the opportunity to invite its global clients with operations or intentions to expand their business towards Korea, and to support them to establish contacts with local Korean companies at the fair.

By Christian Schulte • International News •

Dec 12 2012

The 2013 World Executive Search Congress

December 12th, 2012 – Vienna, Austria – AIMS International To Sponsor The 2013 World Executive Search Congress in Las Vegas

The search-consult team is delighted to announce that AIMS International will join the World Executive Search Congress (WESC 2013) as a special sponsor on March 25-27, 2013 at the MGM Grand Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

With over 90 offices and more than 350 consultants, AIMS International has been one of the world’s largest global partnerships of Executive Search firms regarding the coverage of countries. It has been ranked among the Top 10 Executive Search firms worldwide during the last 5 consecutive years in various public rankings and operates in over 50 countries across 5 continents.

John Poracky, Executive VP of AIMS International will be present at the Congress with a view of meeting with independent retained Search firms who may be interested in joining this international Executive Search organization, to discuss a potential partnership.

Other sponsors and exhibitors include Arpeo Solutions, Colvill Banks, Dillistone Systems, Sheila Greco Associates and Wowzer and others.

search-consult is published by Dillistone Systems, suppliers of FileFinder Executive Search software. Dillistone Systems is part of Dillistone Group Plc, as is Voyager Recruitment Software.

By Christian Schulte • International News •