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Current search: Managing Director Japan
Our client is a family-owned global enterprise with a rich international heritage and an outstanding reputation for precision and quality. The company provides advanced engineered solutions and support services for a diverse range of industrial, research and innovation sectors.
The Japan business operates as a strategic local and regional sales and service subsidiary within a global matrix organization, providing a strong commercial platform for business growth. The company is looking for a senior commercial leader who can guide the next stage of growth in Japan, driving strategic market development while ensuring operational excellence across local offices.
Role Overview
Our client is seeking a visionary Managing Director to provide strategic leadership and overall commercial direction for their operations in Japan. In this pivotal role, the Managing Director will drive organizational excellence by spearheading process and performance improvements, establishing robust budgeting strategies, and maintaining rigorous forecasting and reporting cadences.
A primary mandate will be to champion a customer-centric culture, ensuring unparalleled client satisfaction through a deep commitment to the quality, reliability, and precision that define the brand. This position requires seamless cross-border collaboration to build strong working relationships with regional functions and global headquarters.
Your Responsibilities
- P&L and Financial Governance: Take full ownership of the local P&L, annual budget, and order entries, ensuring the business operations stay highly profitable, compliant, and efficient.
- Strategic Market Growth: Develop, coordinate, and implement country-specific strategic initiatives derived from the overall corporate strategy to engage existing clients as well as to win new international and regional customers from competitors.
- Operational Excellence & Technology: Lead the organization toward operational excellence by utilizing modern global tools—including CRM and business intelligence software—to optimize and streamline sales, marketing, and after-sales service operations.
- Cultural Leadership & Alignment: Foster a collaborative, respectful corporate culture that balances global company goals with Japanese organizational dynamics, maintaining high team engagement through clear, transparent communication.
- Customer Insights & Collaboration: Gather and understand deep insights into customers’ business needs by actively engaging them through regular visits, then interpreting and sharing these findings with internal regional stakeholders and the broader global Group.
Ideal Candidate Profile
- Degree in Business Administration, Economics, Engineering, or a comparable field.
- At least 7 years of experience in a precision industrial equipment company, including a successful track record in people management and organizational leadership.
- An open, passionate, and adaptable leadership style, with the ability to thrive in fast-changing environments and excel at connecting local Japanese operations with international business cultures and global teams.
- Proven experience in business development for high-value technical investment goods and services, ideally with exposure to one or more key markets such as Plastics, Metals, Automotive, or Medical/Pharmaceuticals.
- Business-level fluency in both Japanese and English (written and spoken), allowing for seamless collaboration with local clients and international headquarters alike.
Interested in learning more about this position? Please send your CV to Jonathan Falconer at jf@fespartners.com or Charisma Dacua at charisma@fespartners.com.