Japanese MD spends 10 years in India, recalls 3 moments that shaped his career
Noritaka Wakuda, Managing Director at Suzuki Digital Private Limited, took to LinkedIn to share his learnings from working in India for a decade.
Noritaka Wakuda, a top executive at Suzuki Digital Private Limited, spent the last decade working in India and is now returning to Japan. He took to LinkedIn cherishing his experience in India and how it shaped his career.
Wakuda, Managing Director at the company, recalled three pivotal moments that he encountered in India.
"Thank you India! After 10 years, I have returned to Japan. I am grateful for all the opportunities I was given. I have been able to learn and grow. Value creation has become my core," Wakuda wrote in a LinkedIn post that is getting traction among Indian executives.
Noritaka Wakuda spoke about his first day of work in India, when his boss asked assigned him an important task.
"I had no idea how to create it so I honestly told him 'I don't know how.' Next words from him were "read some books and just do it." I learnt the power of an idea," he said.
Next, at Nexa's launch event in July 2015, his boss asked him, "Have you read today's Nikkei (Japan's economic newspaper)?"
To this, Wakunda said he had not read the newspaper and that he would read it the same day.
"Next words he said was 'I've already committed 50% market share it needs to be achieved'. After one year in India, I was smart enough not to reply 'I don't know how' or else I would be told to 'read the newspaper and just do it'."
In 2021, the executive from Japan had an idea.
“The idea was to build a tech company in India for Suzuki. Rather than relying on others, we would design, develop, deploy and continuously improve ourselves. Agility, creativity and ownership will increase,” Wakunda said.
“There is so much of talent and passion in India, it was an easy choice. The company is called Suzuki Digital.”
See Noritaka Wakuda's LinkedIn post here:
Thanking the people he worked with in India, Wakunda said, “It was such a fun time in India. I will miss you. Let's see what the next challenge will be.”
(Also Read: Japanese CEO moves to Bengaluru, says ‘will live life with the help of Indians’)