Paul Kraft - Previous Country Manager, Haribo Japan

“The amount of time you need to spend listening in Japan is very high.”

“You have to turn up your EQ sensitivity or your EQ radar very, very high.”

“No matter what, love it.”

“Feedback should be ninety percent positive.”

“Leadership is achieving the organisation’s goal by maximising the potential of your team.”

Paul Kraft is the Country Manager for Haribo in Japan and a seasoned food and beverage executive whose career has crossed global brands, entrepreneurial ventures, and distributor-led market development. His relationship with Japan began when he first visited in 1991 on a school trip after studying finance and economics, and he later returned to Osaka to teach English before building his early career in the United States as a product and brand manager in the frozen food sector. Starbucks then recruited him to establish its consumer packaged goods office in Tokyo, where his team expanded the brand beyond coffee shops into convenience store cup coffee, canned coffee, and dry coffee formats. He later launched Honey Baked Ham in Japan through an omnichannel strategy covering food service, retail, and online sales, before joining Nespresso to lead the business-to-business group serving hotels, restaurants, and off-premise clients. At Haribo, Kraft became the company’s first person on the ground in Japan, guiding the distributor, shaping strategy, and acting as the bridge between the Japanese market and the global organisation. His career arc reflects adaptability in Japan: learning when to push, when to listen, when to use nemawashi, how to reduce uncertainty, and how to lead through consensus, precedent, relationship depth, and trust.

Paul Kraft’s leadership journey in Japan is a practical study in how global executives must adapt ambition, speed, and commercial logic to a business culture that places deep value on patience, consensus, trust, and emotional intelligence. His connection with Japan began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when Japanese business influence was highly visible internationally. Toyota, Japanese management methods, and major Japanese investments overseas created a sense that understanding Japan was essential for future business leaders. Kraft studied finance and economics, visited Japan for the first time in 1991, and fell in love with the country. After graduating, he returned to Osaka to teach English before moving back to the United States and entering the food business.

His early food career gave him broad commercial exposure. He worked as a product and brand manager for a privately held frozen food company, handling brands across categories such as ice cream, pizza, and frozen egg rolls. He also gained experience in research, brand management, and mergers and acquisitions. The turning point came when Starbucks recruited him to return to Japan and set up a consumer packaged goods office in Tokyo. Within three months, he sold his cars, sold his house, gave away his tools, and moved to Japan. It was a decisive commitment to the market.

At Starbucks, Kraft’s team was responsible for everything outside the coffee shops, including convenience store cup coffee, canned coffee, different drinks, and packaged coffee products. Japan’s vast convenience store network meant the business could scale dramatically. At one point, he believed Starbucks may have been selling more cups of coffee outside the stores than inside them. Yet the opportunity came with culture shock. Kraft encountered long, meandering meetings with Japanese partners where the purpose was not necessarily to decide, but to discuss. Coming from a Western business environment that valued agendas, pre-reads, data, speed, and explicit outcomes, he found this difficult. Partners might resist data, avoid firm conclusions, or reject new ideas because they had no precedent.

This introduced one of Kraft’s central leadership lessons: frustration management is a business skill in Japan. He admits that in his early years he sometimes relied too much on visible frustration or forceful leadership. He learned that anger in Japan is not usually interpreted as strength. It is often seen as weak self-control, poor maturity, low self-awareness, and a failure to read the group. In a culture shaped by uncertainty avoidance and consensus, the leader who becomes known as a hothead loses influence.

Kraft’s next major chapter, Honey Baked Ham, tested his entrepreneurial instincts. He cold-called the CEO of the American family-owned chain and convinced the company to support a Japan launch. The concept was unfamiliar in a market where honey-baked ham did not have obvious precedent. Kraft built an omnichannel model covering food service, a physical store, and online sales. He worked with local financial backers, freelancers, part-time staff, and a very lean team. The leadership challenge was not just selling a product, but selling belief. To attract employees and customers, he had to tell the story of the brand, offer the product directly, and reduce the perceived risk of joining or buying into something new.

In Japan, he found that new ideas often need a “Japanese stamp of approval”. For Honey Baked Ham, that stamp came from the New Otani Hotel. Once the product was accepted by a respected, traditional, luxury Japanese hotel, the market could interpret it differently. It was no longer merely a foreign idea. It had local legitimacy. This is decision intelligence in a Japanese setting: understanding that data alone is not enough if social proof, trust signals, respected reference points, and emotional confidence are missing.

At Nespresso, Kraft moved from entrepreneurial uncertainty into a highly structured global organisation. Nespresso, as part of Nestlé, had strong processes, operational discipline, monthly reviews, and clear accountability systems. Kraft led the business-to-business group, serving hotels, restaurants, and off-premise clients. There, he focused on weekly one-on-ones, feedback, and structure. He maintained regular conversations with direct reports, taking notes, sharing updates, listening to their updates, and discussing future deliverables. He also saw the value of monthly operational reviews where commitments were visible and specific: who would do what by when. Red, yellow, and green status tracking created accountability, but it also required leaders to prevent people from setting themselves up to fail.

At Haribo, Kraft now leads largely through influence. Haribo had existed in Japan for decades through distributors, but Kraft became the first person representing the company directly on the ground. His role is to guide the distributor, shape strategy, interpret the Japanese market for the global organisation, and influence outcomes without necessarily controlling every lever. This is leadership through relationship rather than hierarchy. For Kraft, the answer lies in patience, small-group influence, and nemawashi. Large meetings with many distributor representatives are rarely where minds are changed. The real work happens in smaller conversations, offline follow-ups, and repeated explanations of why something matters.

Across the interview, Kraft’s leadership philosophy is consistent. He advocates weekly one-on-ones, positive feedback, careful listening, written notes, high EQ, and learning Japanese. He believes leaders should look for people doing things right and tell them specifically. He also believes leaders should encourage initiative, especially in Japan, where proposing an idea can itself be a courageous act. Ultimately, Kraft defines leadership as achieving the organisation’s goal by maximising the potential of the team. In Japan, that means leading with EQ rather than ego, using structure without crushing people, building consensus without losing accountability, and understanding that influence is earned through patience, presence, and trust.

Q&A Summary

What makes leadership in Japan unique?

Leadership in Japan is unique because authority alone is rarely enough to move people, partners, or organisations. Kraft’s experience shows that Japan places heavy emphasis on consensus, precedent, trust, and the emotional readiness of the group. A meeting may not be designed to make a decision in the Western sense. It may be designed to exchange views, test reactions, identify resistance, and prepare the ground for a later decision. This can frustrate executives who arrive expecting agendas, data, pre-reads, and immediate outcomes. However, in Japan, the visible meeting is often only one part of the decision-making process. The real work may occur before and after the formal meeting. This is where nemawashi becomes essential. Rather than forcing a decision in front of a large group, effective leaders work privately with stakeholders, listen to their concerns, explain the reason behind the proposal, and create alignment before asking for visible agreement. In some organisations, this may connect to formal mechanisms such as ringi-sho, where written proposals circulate for approval. Even when ringi-sho is not used formally, the underlying cultural logic remains: people want to avoid surprises, protect relationships, and reduce uncertainty before committing.

Why do global executives struggle?

Global executives struggle in Japan when they assume that leadership methods which worked elsewhere will automatically work here. Kraft describes coming from a Western environment where meetings were purposeful, decisions were expected, and data played a central role. In Japan, he encountered long discussions without agendas, partners who were not prepared to discuss data, and resistance to ideas because they had never been done before. For a Western leader, this can look inefficient or evasive. For Japanese counterparts, it may reflect caution, uncertainty avoidance, and the desire to avoid exposing the group to visible failure. Another reason global executives struggle is emotional pacing. Kraft admits that his own frustration management was a multi-year learning process. Early in his Japan career, he sometimes believed that a leader had to pound the table, push harder, or force things to happen. Over time, he realised that visible anger usually weakens credibility in Japan. It may be interpreted as poor self-control, low maturity, insufficient self-awareness, or an inability to operate inside the group. Leaders who become known as hotheads lose influence.

Is Japan truly risk-averse?

Kraft’s experience suggests that Japan is not simply risk-averse; it is highly sensitive to uncertainty, precedent, and failure visibility. People may resist new ideas not because they dislike innovation, but because they cannot forecast the outcome, cannot point to a precedent, or cannot see how failure will be managed. His Starbucks orange mocha example illustrates this clearly. Even with data and enthusiasm, Japanese counterparts resisted because they could not forecast something that had never been done before. The absence of precedent made the idea difficult to accept. At Honey Baked Ham, Kraft had to reduce uncertainty on multiple fronts. He needed employees to believe in a small start-up-like venture, customers to accept an unfamiliar product, and business partners to see legitimacy in the concept. He did this through storytelling, product sampling, financial backing, and visible local validation. The New Otani Hotel became a crucial Japanese stamp of approval. Once a respected Japanese institution accepted the product, the perceived risk fell. This is a useful lesson for leaders: in Japan, risk is often managed through social proof, credibility markers, and trusted reference points. Decision intelligence in Japan requires more than analysis. It requires understanding how people feel safe enough to act.

What leadership style actually works?

The leadership style that works in Japan is patient, structured, emotionally intelligent, and specific. Kraft repeatedly returns to the importance of weekly one-on-ones. He used them not as casual check-ins, but as disciplined leadership routines. He wrote down the person’s name, the date, his update, their update, the future focus, and the deliverables. Over time, this built trust and created a rhythm of communication. In Japan, where employees may hesitate to speak up in larger forums, one-on-ones provide a safer space for concerns, ideas, and coaching. Kraft also emphasises feedback, especially positive feedback. He argues that feedback should be ninety percent positive. This does not mean avoiding problems. It means noticing specific behaviours that should continue and reinforcing them. At Nespresso, Kraft also saw the value of structured accountability. Monthly operational reviews asked who would do what by when, using red-yellow-green status tracking. This helped cut through ambiguity and group responsibility. The most effective style is not soft consensus or hard command. It is a combination of empathy, structure, clarity, and support.

How can technology help?

Technology can help leadership in Japan when it reduces uncertainty, improves shared understanding, and supports better decision-making. Kraft’s career points repeatedly to the importance of data, forecasting, operational reviews, and structured follow-up. At Starbucks, he wanted data-driven conversations with partners. At Nespresso, process and dashboards made accountability visible. At Haribo, he works in a market where convenience stores are highly sophisticated and retail execution depends on understanding channels, forecasts, and consumer behaviour. Modern tools such as retail analytics, AI-supported forecasting, digital twins, scenario planning dashboards, and decision intelligence platforms can be powerful in Japan because they allow teams to test ideas before committing. In a high-consensus culture, technology can create a shared factual base. It can help people compare options, visualise consequences, and reduce the fear of the unknown. Digital twins, for example, can allow leaders to model supply chain, distribution, retail placement, or product launch scenarios without requiring immediate real-world commitment. This can lower emotional resistance and make decisions feel safer. However, technology cannot replace trust. In Japan, data may be necessary, but it is rarely sufficient. Leaders must still explain the why, conduct nemawashi, listen to objections, and create confidence among stakeholders.

Does language proficiency matter?

Language proficiency matters in Japan because it signals respect, commitment, and seriousness. Kraft says leaders should try to learn Japanese, even if they do not become fluent. Fluency helps a leader catch nuance, understand emotional tone, and communicate directly with employees, partners, and distributors. It also helps reduce the distance that can exist between a foreign executive and a Japanese team. In a market where trust is built slowly, the effort to learn the language can itself become a stamp of approval. That said, Kraft does not suggest that language ability alone makes someone an effective leader. A fluent but impatient leader can still fail. A non-fluent but humble, consistent, and respectful leader can still build trust. The key is effort. Trying to learn Japanese shows that the executive is not merely passing through. It shows they are willing to adapt to the local context, not simply demand that the local context adapt to them.

What’s the ultimate leadership lesson?

The ultimate leadership lesson from Kraft’s experience is that leaders in Japan must maximise people’s potential by building trust, reducing uncertainty, and communicating with discipline. His definition is clear: leadership is achieving the organisation’s goal by maximising the potential of the team. That requires more than setting targets. It requires creating the conditions in which people can contribute, speak up, try ideas, receive feedback, and accept accountability without fear of humiliation. Kraft’s career shows that Japan rewards leaders who can operate as bridges. At Starbucks, he bridged global brand ambition and Japanese retail realities. At Honey Baked Ham, he bridged an unfamiliar American food concept and Japanese legitimacy signals. At Nespresso, he bridged global process discipline and local team development. At Haribo, he bridges headquarters, distributor partners, retailers, and the Japanese market. The best leaders in Japan do not abandon ambition. They adapt how ambition is communicated and implemented. They listen longer, give more positive feedback, use smaller meetings, manage their frustration, explain the why, and build consensus before demanding action.

Author Credentials

Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie “One Carnegie Award” (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.

He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban “Hito o Ugokasu” Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).

In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan’s Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan’s Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.