theceomagazine.com | 111“IN THOSE DAYS,
ALL ROADS
GLOBALLY LED
TO TOKYO, JUST
AS ALL ROADS
LEAD TO
SHANGHAI NOW.”
While admitting his Mandarin is “terrible”,
Jay is fluent in German, learned from his parents;
English, from growing up in the US; and Japanese,
as it was impossible to survive in Tokyo without
learning the language. Jay has remained in Asia since
that first transfer to Japan in 1990 as the vehicle
program manager of Mitsubishi Motors.
“It was never a grand plan to stay for so long,
it just worked out that way,” he reflects. “My
wife’s Japanese and my two children live and work
in Tokyo, so along with the need to conduct
business, I was highly motivated to learn Japanese,
unlike in Shanghai, where the English capabilities
are quite good.
“Having said that, let’s not get crazy with the
notion that everybody has to speak English. Because
then we’d be eliminating a large percentage of the
talent pool, particularly when looking for engineers
with special skill sets.”
With a father working for Ferrari, Jay grew up
around racetracks, cultivating a passion for the sport
at Formula Car Racing school. He still watches
most Grand Prix and attends when possible, and
admits the wide-open roads of America are what
he misses most in Asia.
“Yeah, I’m one of those,” he laughs. “I guess
I have that American love affair with the car. I miss
getting into a good high-performance vehicle,
listening to music and driving.”
Jay says his strengths lie in building teams of
multiple cultures from the bottom up to set the
direction, vision and culture. While conceding he’s
probably not the easiest person to work for, he
has certainly earned the respect from a handful of
employees who have followed him from company
to company over the past two decades.
“Yes, I’ve had people follow me from Continental
to Lear to here,” he says. “One of the key aspects
of leadership isn’t about giving orders, instructions
or direction. That’s the easy bit. I think what often
gets lost is the support. I try to focus on supporting
the team because they’re the people who run the
business every day.
“One thing I’m fond of saying, so I’m told, is
‘don’t confuse activity with results’. Perhaps that’s
the German DNA coming through.”