108: Mitch Kristofferson, Director, Customer Success, UpClear

<p>#107: Mitch Kristofferson, Director, Customer Success at UpClear, Tokyo, Japan.</p> <p>Mitch Kristofferson is currently the Director of Customer Service Japan for UpClear. Mr. Kristofferson was a Pre-Med student during his bachelor’s degree at Stanford University. His first experience of Japan was when he came on exchange, and was place in a teaching hospital at Yamaguchi prefecture. He graduated from his undergraduate degree and worked in the oil exploration space for 5 years before doing his MBA at Stanford. The MBA led to a pivot for Mr. Kristofferson, and he moved into marketing, working in various companies in Japan and the US.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mr. Kristofferson explains how leadership and bringing about change in the workplace can take multiple steps. He admits the challenge of stepping into a new role and making changes. Mr. Kristofferson starts out by explaining the direction he wants to take the company but in many cases, he initially gets resistance from people who want things done the old way. He explains that when something like this comes to light, people are divided into 3 groups - those who are keen to innovate and bring about change, those who are hesitant and in the middle, and the third group who are not willing to listen at all. Mr. Kristofferson says that he must deal with each group differently. Mr. Kristofferson explains that not everybody is ideal for every job in every company, and in some situations, it is a matter of finding the right fit within the firm. For those in the middle group, Mr. Kristofferson has attempted to encourage them to try new innovative ideas. For example, Mr. Kristofferson has brought the middle group of marketing professionals with the sales team. He says that the sales department typically has good innovative ideas as they are on the ground and meeting customers and talking to clients everyday. Hence, trying to engage the middle group with such groups seem to work well. On the contrary, he explains that the early adopters are usually the people that have the best