Past Events

The 2nd Round Table on May.16th 2019

Mr. Satoshi Ishizaka, Chief Executive Officer opened the Takeda Roundtable Discussion with the shocking statistic that in order for companies in Japan to sustain their current status, in a few short years, 44% of Japan’s workforce will be non-Japanese. Thus, the Third Way Forum represents a very important, relevant approach that can contribute to continuing Japan’s prosperity.

Mr. Peter Akeroyd of Takeda then took the floor to present Takeda Pharmaceuticals and their initiatives to develop talent and create a strong culture globally. Mr. Akeroyd gave a brief history of Takeda, emphasizing Takeda’s founder’s core values of integrity, quality products and treating the customer as a family member. Key words were, “better health, brighter future, patient focused, values based and R&D driven.”

Mr. Akeroyd also introduced the ideas of “Takeda-ism, P.T.R.B. = Putting the patient at the center, Building trust with society, Reinforcing our reputation, and developing the Business. Takeda “translates science into life changing medicines” with the examples of oncology, gastroenterology, neuroscience, rare diseases, plasma-derived therapies and vaccines.

He then highlighted the diversity of Takeda’s Executive Team (TET), noting the President was from France, and that 11 different nationalities are represented on the TET. These leaders support the development of talent through a Global Induction Forum, a President’s Forum and an Accelerator Program.

The Global Induction Forum aims to introduce leaders to our history, culture, values and philosophy, and thus provide them with a “compass” for behaviors and decisions. The President’s Forum is a high-potential development program for mid to senior level managers. Both the Global Induction Forum and the Preosident’s Forum are facilitated by Takeda’s executives. The Accelerator Program is an accelerated development program for those early in their careers, and involves multiple assignments in different countries over the course of five years.

After the presentation, there was a lively Q&A session covering things such as maintain the quality of mentors and coaches, diversity of leadership styles across countries and local operating companies, the reasons for Takeda’s decision to “go global”, and how this impacted ways of working in Japan. Finally, there was a discussion of what it means to be a company with a very strong Japanese DNA in a global environment, and how this ties in with the mission of the Third Way.