On November 11, 2018, “Future is Here: Global Leaders on the Changing World” lecture series, jointly hosted by the PBC School of Finance of Tsinghua University (PBCSF) and National Institute of Financial Research (NIFR) of Tsinghua University, welcomed Masahiko Uotani, President and CEO of the Shiseido Group, for a lecture entitled “146 Years of Shiseido: Continuous Growth, Change, Globalization and Future Development”. By invitation of Dr. Min Zhu, Chair of National Institute of Financial Research (NIFR) of Tsinghua University and former Deputy Managing Director of IMF, Masahiko Uotani reviewed Shiseido’s resurgence journey and shared his success story of corporate development.
Masahiko Uotani joined Shiseido in April 2014 as the first president hired externally in the company’s 146-year history. Prior to joining Shiseido, he served as President and CEO of Coca-Cola Japan, and worked for Kraft Japan, Citibank and Lion Group successively, holding more than 30 years of experience in marketing and management both in Japan and abroad.
In his lecture, Masahiko Uotani likened Shiseido to a “sleeping beauty” and defined his mission as “to awaken the sleeping beauty”, by which he means to rejuvenate Shiseido so that the company could, based on its 146-year Japanese heritage, become a major global player. In addition, Uotani discussed the process of “waking up the sleeping beauty” in terms of the main problems faced by Shiseido at that time, the development of new strategies, corporate culture reform, leadership principles, and business policies.
The name "Shiseido" was derived from “all things are born out of Kun and Yuan (practice and completion) in “I-Ching: The Book of Changes”. Masahiko Uotani emphasized that Shiseido's entrepreneurial spirit is that "commodities must be universal goods." After conversing with 65,000 front-line staff of the company, Masahiko Uotani had learned that the main problem Shiseido was facing at the time was too much attention being allocated internally, with respect to product, development, culture and organization. In this regard, he put forward the concept of “customer first”, which is embodied in product branding through implementing a “high-end brand priority” strategy, increasing marketing investment to enhance brand influence. Simultaneously, he also took into consideration the company's medium and long-term development. He expanded investment in innovation, raised awareness of cultural diversity, and debuted more personalized services by taking advantage of the rapidly developing information technology. As for organizational reforms, a matrix framework of "local action with international vision” was proposed to make management flat and flexible.
Masahiko Uotani also emphasized that his principle of leadership is people-oriented, and that talent is the source of innovation. Therefore, in addition to weighing the interests of shareholders, the company’s management policy should do more to balance the interests of employees, shareholders and society (including consumers and partners), thus maintaining the innovative ability of the talents.
In the Q&A session, Masahiko Uotani shared and exchanged opinion with the audience on the following topics: Shiseido's upcoming global M&A strategy, ways to ensure the manager's leadership among staff, external conditions of Shiseido's success, stress management as a leader, and the transparency of Shiseido’s management.
At the end, Dr. Min Zhu summarized the core view of this lecture in one phrase - “the principle of leadership is people-oriented”. First, the company's healthy development is based on an appropriate governance structure, and relationships among employees, shareholders, consumers and partners must be coordinated. Second, we must closely follow the needs of our customers and the pace of the times. Lastly, the core focus of leadership is people.
“Future is Here: Global Leaders on the Changing World” lecture series invites world-renowned leaders from economic, financial, social and academic circles to project and contemplate on global development trends, with the aim of building a first-class exchange platform for Tsinghua students, faculty and alumni and helping them grasp the latest trends and develop the habits of lifelong learning.
Past guest speakers include Maurice Obstfeld, Economic Counsellor and Research Department Director of IMF, Peter Maurer, President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Harvey Schwartz, former President and COO of Goldman Sach, Jacob Frenkel, Chairman of JPMorgan Chase International, Douglas Peterson, CEO of S&P Global, and Masahiko Uotani, CEO of Shiseido.
