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PODCAST

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show

For succeeding in business in Japan you need to know how to lead, sell and persuade. This is what we cover in the show. No matter what the issue you will get hints, information, experience and insights into securing the necessary solutions required. Everything in the show is based on real world perspectives, with a strong emphasis on offering practical steps you can take to succeed.

business management

All Episodes

10:39

374 Selling in Japan: Why Two Out of Six Is a Win

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/10/26

Salespeople worldwide use frameworks to measure meeting success, but Japan's unique business culture challenges many Western methods. Let's explore the BANTER model—Budget, Authority, Need, Timing, Engagement, Request—and see how it fits into Japan's sales environment. 1. What is the BANTER model in sales? BANTER is a simple six-point scoring system for sales calls. Each letter stands for a key factor: Budget, Authority, Need, Timing, Engagement, and Request. A salesperson assigns one point for

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10:03

From Scripted to Authentic- How Leaders Win on Stage

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/10/19

In high-stakes business events, especially in Japan, executives are often forced to deliver presentations crafted by others. This creates a dangerous disconnect between speaker and message. Let’s explore how leaders can reclaim authenticity and impact, even when the material is not their own. Why is speaking from a borrowed script so risky? Executives frequently inherit content from PR or marketing teams. These materials may be polished, but they are rarely authentic. Japan’s perfection-driven

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11:17

372 From Ritz-Carlton to Pasona: What Leaders Can...

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/10/12

What does it mean for a leader to be the “mood maker”? A mood maker is someone who sets the emotional tone of the team. When leaders stay isolated in plush executive offices, they risk losing contact with their people. Research and experience show that a leader’s visibility directly affects engagement, loyalty, and performance. Leaders who project energy and conviction, day after day, create the emotional climate that shapes culture. Mini-summary: Leaders set the emotional temperature—visibility and

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11:46

371 Why Clients in Japan Rarely Call Back – And What...

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/10/05

Why don’t clients in Japan return sales calls? Because the gatekeepers are trained to block access. In Japan, the lowest ranked staff often answer the phones, but without proper training. Their mission is to protect managers from outside callers—especially salespeople. Instead of being helpful, they come across as cold, suspicious, even hostile. This is your client’s first impression of your business. If you test it by calling your own company, you’ll likely hear the same problem

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11:11

370 Why New Salespeople Struggle In Japan – And How...

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/09/28

Why New Salespeople Struggle New hires, whether they are brand-new to sales or just new to the company, almost always take time before they start delivering results. Yet leaders in Japan often expect immediate miracles. The reality is that ramp-up takes time, especially in a culture where relationships drive business. Even experienced people entering a new organisation need months to learn internal systems, client expectations, and industry nuances. When unrealistic expectations are placed on them

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12:10

369 Corporate Ninjas of Concealment: How Leaders Lose...

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/09/22

Why Japanese Corporate Scandals Keep Happening — And What Leaders Must Do To Prevent Them Why do corporate scandals keep repeating in Japan? Japan has been hit again and again by revelations of non-compliance — from Nissan’s faulty vehicle inspections in 2017 to Kobe Steel’s falsified data and beyond. In some cases, these practices stretched on for decades before discovery. On the surface, companies chase the mantra: “reduce costs, increase revenue.” The Board applauds, shareholders smile, and

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11:38

368 The Cure for Corporate Cancer: Rethinking Sales...

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/09/14

Let’s talk about sales, and why the new year always feels like a repeat performance. Greek myths rarely have happy endings. They are mostly cautionary tales, reminders of how the Gods treated humans like toys. One myth, in particular, perfectly captures the life of a salesperson: the story of Sisyphus. He was condemned to push a massive rock up a hill, only to watch it roll back down again, forever. That is exactly what we face in sales. We push that giant rock—the annual budget—up the hill every

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09:32

367 How to Give Your First Major Presentation With...

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/09/07

At some stage in every career, the moment arrives: you’re asked to give a presentation. Early on, it may be a straightforward project update delivered to colleagues or a report shared with your manager. But as you advance, the scope expands. Suddenly you’re addressing a whole-company kickoff, an executive offsite, or even speaking on behalf of your firm or industry at a public event. That leap — from small team updates to high-stakes presentations — is steep. And so are the nerves that come with it

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10:44

366 Win the Deal: Negotiating in Japan Without Losing...

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/08/31

Negotiating in Japan is never just about numbers on a contract. It is about trust, credibility, and ensuring that the relationship remains intact long after the ink is dry. Unlike in Western business settings, where aggressive tactics or rapid deals are often admired, in Japan negotiations unfold slowly, with harmony and continuity as the guiding principles. The key is to combine negotiation frameworks such as BATNA (Best Alternative To a Negotiated Agreement) with cultural sensitivity. By doing so,

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11:47

365 Win the Deal In Japan Without Losing the...

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/08/24

Our image of negotiating tends to be highly influenced by the winner takes all model. This is the transactional process where one side outwits the other and receives the majority of the value. Think about your own business? How many business partners do you have where this would apply? For the vast majority of cases we are not after a single sale. We are thinking about LTV – the life time value of the customer. We are focused on the proportion of our time spent hunting for new business as

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11:26

364 You Can’t Win A Knife Fight With A Slide Deck

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/08/17

Presenting isn’t always adoration, adulation, regard and agreement. Sometimes, we have to go into hostile territory with a message that is not welcomed, appreciated or believed. Think meetings with the Board, the unions, shareholders, angry consumers and when you have sharp elbowed rivals in the room. It is rare to be ambushed at a presentation in Japan and suddenly find yourself confronting a hostile version of the Mexican wave, as the assembled unwashed and disgruntled take turns to lay into

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12:17

363 The Truth About Death by Overwork in Japan

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/08/11

So many sad cases of people dying here in Japan from what is called karoshi and the media constantly talks about death through overwork. This is nonsense and the media are doing us all a disservice. This is fake news. The cases of physical work killing you are almost exclusively limited to situations where physical strain has induced a cardiac arrest or a cerebral incident resulting in a stroke. In Japan, that cause of death from overwork rarely happens. The vast majority of cases of karoshi

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13:18

362 One Pitch, No Matter How Genius, Never Works in...

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/08/07

Presenting to buying teams is very tricky in Japan. Because of the convoluted decision making process here, there will be many voices involved in the final decision. What makes it even harder is that some of those key influencers may not ever be present in the meeting. Those proposing the change have to go around to each one of them and get their chop on the piece of paper authorizing the buying decision. In the case of Western companies, the decision tends to be taken in the meeting after

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12:40

361 Your Outfit Speaks First – Make It Say...

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/07/27

How should we dress when presenting and does it actually matter? Yep, it matters - particularly in Japan. Japan is a very formal country, in love with ceremony, pomp and circumstance. Always up your formality level in dress terms in Japan, compared to how formal you think will be enough. This was a big shock for this Aussie boy from Brisbane, who spent a good chunk of his life wearing shorts and T-shirts or blue jeans and T-shirts. Tokyo is not Silicon Valley, where dress down is de rigueur and

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11:54

360 Back Your Team Or You Break Their Trust

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/07/21

We don’t run perfect organisations stocked with perfect people, led by perfect bosses. There are always going to be failings, inadequacies, mistakes, shortcomings and downright stupidity in play. If we manage to keep all of these within the castle walls, then that is one level of complexity. It is when we share these challenges with clients that we raise the temperature quite a few notches. How do you handle cases where your people have really upset a client? The service or product was

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10:51

359 The Sales Trap Crippling Japanese Business

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/07/13

We see Japan as a modern, high tech country very advanced in so many sectors. Sales is not one of them. Consultative selling is very passé in the West, yet it has hardly swum ashore here as yet. There are some cultural traits in Japan that work against sales success, such as not initiating a conversation with strangers. This makes networking a bit tricky to say the least. We train salespeople here in Japan and the following list is made up of the most common complaints companies have about their

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10:27

358 Story Magic

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/07/06

Storytelling is one of those things that we all know about, but where we could do a much better job of utilising this facility in business. It allows us to engage the audience in a way that makes our message more accessible. In any presentation there may be some key information or messages we wish to relay and yet we rarely wrap this information up in a story. As an audience we are more open to stories than bold statements or dry facts. The presenter’s opinion is always going to trigger some

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09:55

357 Sabotaging Your Conversations?

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/06/29

We are often good talkers, but poor listeners. We have many things we want to say, share, expound and elaborate on. For this we need someone to be talking it all in. We like it when people do that for us. It soothes our ego, heightens our sense of self-worth and importance. We are sometimes not so generous ourselves though when listening to others. Here are six nightmare listeners you might run into. By the way, do any of these stereotypes sound a bit too familiar to you? The “preoccupieds” are

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10:57

356 How To Win Business With Japanese Buying Teams

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/06/22

Selling to companies in Japan usually means sitting in a meeting room with a single buyer or perhaps two people. There are occasions though where we may need to present to a larger number of buyers in a more formal setting. It may be a pitch to secure the business, or it may be a means of getting the buying team more easily coordinated on their side. Before we know how to present to a team, we have to analyse the people in the team. That means we need to know ahead of time, who will be in the

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10:14

355 How To Make Your Employees Actually Like You

The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show ·

2025/06/15

We often hear about the need for bosses to do more to engage with their teams. The boss looks at their schedule and then just checks out of that idea right then and there because it seems impossible. The employees for their part, want to get more praise and recognition from the boss, to feel valuable and valued. Bosses are often Driver type personalities who are extremely outcome and task orientated. People are there to produce, to get the numbers, to complete projects and to do it with a minimum of

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425 results

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