Details
Location - Cerise, at the Tokyo Conrad
Price - ¥6,500
Start Time - 12:00
End Time - 14:00
21:00 - Cocktail Party Ends
As you are all aware, recruiting in Japan's constrained labour market has been challenging for many years, and it's not getting any better-just as there are signs that growth is picking up, businesses face the danger of being held back by skills shortages.
For this CEO round-table, which has been requested by Delphi member Markus Winter, co-founder of the expanding brand consulting business Yuzu Kyodai, we will hear both from Markus himself, and from Jeremy Sampson, also a Delphi member and CEO of Robert Walters for NE Asia and Greater China.
The plan is to have two angles to this talk: Markus will talk about the practical difficulties founders and CEOs and country managers are facing, and what he has tried (for example, pitching a softer work culture and flexible working hours to mothers and women), what has worked, and what has failed in terms of finding "talent"; while Jeremy Will give an update on the strategic side of the market, providing an overview of salary trends, specific industries facing the worst skill shortages, while also providing anecdotes from his clients about what is actually going on on the front line of foreign businesses in Japan.
Each speaker will have about 10-15 minutes to make his comments, before we plunge into our traditional vigorous discussion.
I have also asked Jeremy to give advice on how best to use a recruiter, whether on a contingency or retainer basis. It is pointless to pretend that there is not a regrettable amount of bad feeling between CEOs and some recruiters, but it seems to me that companies need to figure out how to work with a vital element in the fight for talent, namely recruiting companies themselves and their consultants.
We will also hear about the evolution of recruiting as an industry, and how traditional recruiting is thriving despite the widespread availability of online matching platforms.
In fact, this is not too surprising, given the supreme importance of hiring the right people in an era of undoubted technological change, and the necessity of working with intelligent recruiting consultants and service providers to provide the right solutions.
As usual, we will have a good lunch in a private room of Cerise restaurant priced at ¥6500. You may pay the restaurant directly or you can pay me and I will pass it on, either in cash or via PayPal. If you do pay cash, kindly ensure it is the right amount.