Developing Leadership
for a Global Hitachi

Kawamura Thank you for joining me today, Achim. Just as Hitachi is creating a mid-term management plan for 2027, Hitachi Academy is also thinking about our future as a Center of Excellence for learning and development for Hitachi as a global company. This is a major shift for us because until now, we've been focusing mainly on Japanese talent. In that sense, there's a lot we can discuss and learn from you at Hitachi Energy.

Let's jump right in with my first question: at Hitachi Energy, how are you approaching global talent development?

Achim Our integration with Hitachi has really inspired us to think about how we can build talent for Hitachi as a global company from the ground up. One approach we've taken is starting a trainee pool we call Power Plus. Every year, we hire 60, and in FY2024, 80, STEM* engineering talents and spend a year and a half educating them about the company in all its dimensions. The program has two major benefits: bringing in new graduates we can teach about the company, and eventually supplying us with well-trained engineering talents who are familiar with and committed to the company.

*Talented individuals who have received education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

Kawamura That's only a small portion of your total hiring numbers, right? Isn't that figure in the thousands?

Achim Yes, we usually hire about 8,000 a year in total, but we see these STEM hires as the future of our leadership population. For me, the key in leadership development is not with the talents you have, but with building and filling a pipeline so that the talents are always there. This is something we should do more as Hitachi Global. Because of our size, we might want to consider a regional approach. For example, future regional headquarters could run different training pools, and then the talents nurtured in these pools could be distributed to the different businesses.

Kawamura That's an interesting idea, and it brings me to my next question. As you know, Japanese companies tend to hire primarily new grads, but outside of Japan. the focus is on hiring experienced people. What do you think about this difference?

Achim Well, I think we have always hired fresh graduates in Europe and the US, too. In fact, I started my own career as a trainee in a big German group. And yes, right now, at Hitachi Energy, we're focused on adding experienced people because we're trying to build the company's internal structure to get it up and running, but I would say that the important thing is balance.

A company needs two main streams of talent: one through its own people, people who are ideally hired right after graduation, and another from the outside to bring new energy and catalyze positive change within the organization. This is important for keeping the company moving in the right direction.

We also need to think about how we promote talents within the organization and work more with talent pools to meet the needs of the business. For example, it might be effective to have a general trainee pool to develop people for general management roles, and separate functional trainee pools for roles in finance, HR, and other areas.

Kawamura Indeed. We often talk about developing future management leaders, but given the rapidly changing times, how do you think we should develop technology and innovation leaders?

Achim We can never be fast enough to always have the latest experts in our organization. As a company, we need to prepare our people with interpersonal skills like curiosity and team capabilities so they can work together to tackle the challenges of the future.

Kawamura It sounds like developing management leaders and technology leaders isn't all that different.

Achim That's right. Leadership is the same no matter what field you're in. Whether you're a technology leader or a business leader, you need the same personal qualities. Your job is to make the machine run and to put the right players into the right seats. We must make our leaders understand that no leader knows everything; their role is to manage the network of experts. For example, I myself will never be an AI expert, but as a leader, I will need to put together a team with the skills to handle this challenge so that we as a company can head in the right direction.

Kawamura I agree. That's important. But you know, sometimes, especially in technical fields like R&D, people prefer to focus on their work rather than take a leadership role. Have you seen this at Hitachi Energy?

Achim Absolutely. R&D people tend to be technology-focused, but I do believe we can find great leadership talent among them.

Kawamura Let's move on to our next topic: future collaboration between Hitachi and Hitachi Energy. What do you think is the key to advancing collaboration between the two organizations?

Achim Collaboration is a skill, so we need people who have this skill as well as a bit of time and effort for it to be successful. I'm convinced that we will get there, but we need to get away from hierarchical thinking. Whether we work for Hitachi Energy, Hitachi Limited, Hitachi Rail, or any other business, we are all Hitachi. We must also understand that many people were with ABB for 25+ years, so for them, the shift is not easy. And as another point for leadership development, I would say that face-to-face joint training could also be effective because people will connect to other parts of the group on a personal level. It's like with family or friends. Because you have a personal relationship, you approach things in a different way, which automatically improves collaboration.

Kawamura It sounds like talent exchanges between Hitachi and Hitachi Energy could be a good way to create cross-organizational connections.

Achim Yes. And taking that a step further, for global roles, we could also consider making it mandatory for candidates to have lived and worked in at least two countries, ideally in two continents. This is because intercultural collaboration is hard if you've never experienced it. We are all caught up in our own cultures, so living in a different culture helps you understand how it feels and develops people who can deal with global teams.

Kawamura Let's move on to my next question: what do you think HR can do to help facilitate collaboration?

Achim Honestly, HR alone cannot do anything. We need discussion as a company to create a global company. Global culture is specific to every organization, so we must decide what it means for Hitachi. For example, at Hitachi Energy, we did this by creating Our Leadership Pillars. We conducted workshops in 10 countries where we asked participants about what makes a good leader, then created the pillars based on this input. That's why we call them "our" leadership pillars. Because they come from us. This process has allowed us to design our culture according to what our people think we should be. For me, this is a fundamental question that we need to ask ourselves: who do we want to be?

Kawamura So we need a common understanding of what "global" means to all of us at Hitachi.

Achim Right. We also need to create visibility of different cultures in all our offices so that we can all learn how to work in a global context. Everyone needs to understand that just because something might feel uncomfortable in their cultural context, it doesn't mean it's wrong. People need a toolbox for dealing with intercultural differences in a tolerant way. It's not about being perfect in another culture. We must create the understanding in our people that differences aren't bad.

Kawamura And here is my last question: what do you hope to see from us as a learning and development organization?

Achim I would say listen to the needs of the businesses and prepare us for a joint future. Get a little bit more granular and focus on different layers, not overly large populations in the same pool. Another issue we need to consider is how to implement a level of English into the company so everyone can communicate and participate with ease. We need to start at the top and say that the corporate language at Hitachi is English, or maybe Japanese and English, but if there is even one non-native speaker or non-Japanese speaking person in the room, then everything switches to English, and we do presentations all slides in English. To help make this possible, we should also offer language training.

Kawamura I agree. Collaboration and cultural integration are key, and in order to do that, we first need to build personal relationships and mutual trust. And to do that, a certain level of English skills is a must. Culture influences how we communicate, and even how we start meetings, so mutual respect and trust are an essential foundation to all we do. By nurturing human resources who can respond in an internationally-minded way with related skills including not only languages but also cultural understanding, I believe Hitachi will make even more rapid progress as a global company.