119: Bill Hall, President at Ipsos Healthcare Japan Ltd

<div style="font-weight: 400;"> <p><span data-contrast="auto">William “Bill” Hall is</span> <span data-contrast="auto">currently</span> <span data-contrast= "auto">the</span> <span data-contrast="auto">President at Ipsos Healthcare Japan Ltd</span><span data-contrast="auto">.</span> <span data-contrast="auto">Mr. Hall has a long-standing history with Japan. He first visited the country in 1969 on a scholarship for post-graduate research, having majored in Japanese and Economics at Sydney University.</span> <span data-contrast= "auto">After graduation, Mr. Hall worked in the consulting and marketing research field, starting his own market research company, and eventually leading Sterling Winthrop, a pharmaceutical company. Mr. Hall then worked for Kodak which had acquired Sterling Winthrop at the time, before becoming the Japan President of ISIS, a medical market research company. After selling ISIS to Synovate, Mr. Hall then expanded the health care division within the new organization. Finally, after Synovate was acquired by Ipsos, the global marketing research company, Mr. Hall stepped into his current leadership role at Ipsos.</span><span data-ccp-props= "{"201341983":0,"335559739":160,"335559740":240}"> </span></p> </div> <div style="font-weight: 400;"> <p><span data-contrast="auto">Mr. Hall recalls one of the first leadership challenges he encountered was finding the right people and building a team from scratch. He found it especially difficult as a foreign company to convince people on the longevity of the organization. To overcome the issue, Mr. Hall tried to provide opportunities for people who joined the company to be exposed to the discipline of market research, such as conducting interviews, which is still not seen as a profession in which people study for years to be in. Mr. Hall also was fortunate to find foreign workers who spoke Japanese. He says the key is to sometimes take a gamble and try to see the potential of the person, instead of trying to find someone who is already well-developed.</span>