325: Leading The Firm From $150 Million To A $BIllion

Today we interview Mt. Yasuaki Mori, previous CEO of Infineon Technologies.  Mori san was President there for 17 years and grew the business from $150 milion to a cat's whisker off the $1 billion mark.  A fascinating account of a long career running a major company in Japan.  Born in Canada to Japanese parents, he grew up and was educated in Switzerland and later did college in the USA.  He spent 20 years working for the legendary AMD, spanning many continents in the process. He talks about being parachuted into the company from outside and dealing with the issues that come with that.  Infineon had a mixture of German Executives and Japanese staff.  Listen to how he walked that tightrope of vastly different expections - it is a fascinating story.  He also talks about the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdown disaster and the impact that had on the people in the business. This is a masterclass on how to be successful in business in Japan from a man who has done the hard yards and as he says, made all the mistakes in the process of learning how to make it all work.