89: Mats Lindstrom, President, Ducati Japan

<p>Originally from Sweden, Mats Lindstrom is the President of Ducati Japan, an Italian automobile company and shares his fascinating experience working in global companies in Japan. Mr. Lindstrom has been living in Japan since the mid-2000s. His love of marital arts made him develop an interest in Japanese culture. From the early 2000s, Mr. Lindstrom started working at Volvo Car Corporation as the Senior Purchaser and Team Leader. When Mr. Lindstrom heard IKEA was setting up business in Japan, he jumped at the opportunity to work in Japan and was selected among the first group of people to start the company from scratch in Japan as a Sales manager. He then moved on to work again in the automobile industry at Scania, a truck manufacturing company, before becoming the current President of Ducati Japan.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mr. Lindstrom recalls as the first 30 people hired to set up IKEA Japan, he was the least fluent in Japanese but his management experience at Volvo helped him join the diverse team. Mr. Lindstrom took care of recruiting the team, and was able to hire people with international experience such as having worked or studied abroad and wanted to work at a company that was different from regular Japanese companies. At IKEA, Mr. Lindstrom recalls the culture was very principled and not everyone was a perfect fit, yet he knows many of his former colleagues have worked in the organization for years. Mr. Lindtrom had five direct reports at this time, and as the team grew from 30 to 70+, he oversaw the entire group.</p> <p> </p> <p>The main difference between leading in Sweden and Japan in Mr. Lindstrom’s opinion is the level of accountability and responsibility people take on within their work. For example, in Swedish culture, people work within frameworks and clearly set responsibilities, and how they find a solution to a problem is up to them. Whereas in Japan, people need detailed instructions to get started on their work. Mr. Lindstrom also points out that one cannot force people to make a change while stayi