THREE QUESTIONS FOR MAKOTO UCHIDA:

QUESTION 1: Who is your leadership hero?

I don’t really have one but six years ago, I listened to a Japanese lecturer from a different industry on leadership. There is one thing he said which is still with me, and which I try to do everyday. He said: “Leadership means how much you can open your capacity to listen to people”. Every morning, I try to ask myself, am I opening my capacity to listen to people? If we start ignoring listening to our people, that would cause mismanagement. I am not managing to do it perfectly but I think this is important.

QUESTION 2: If you were not a CEO/leader, what would you be?

I would be doing totally different things. I wanted to be a chef. I love eating. I like cooking. I like people saying it’s delicious. If you do the effort, the outcome is there when it comes to food. The result is always promising as long as you do it the right way. It’s more or less the same with business. If you do it the right way, the result always comes.

QUESTION 3: What was the first leadership lesson you learnt?

In Nissan, it was definitely diversity. This is the reason why I have to remind myself that trust, transparency and respect is very important. In the beginning when I joined (the alliance with Renault), it was very challenging because even the English is different.

There is the French way of English. For example, they always say global and global in French English means holistic. In Japanese English, when you say “basically yes”, that means no. We have different cultures in the alliance, which is also very beautiful. Whether it’s working with French, Japanese or Americans, every single kind of lesson gives you the flexibility to work under diverse circumstances.