"You can't tell them to stop smoking if you have a cigarette in your mouth."
"I think it's all about communication."
"You need to expose them, but don't throw them into the lion's cage."
"First, learn Japanese."
"Trust and communication. You cannot govern by emails or rules. You need to talk. You need to explain."
Frederic Delsaux is Representative Director of PTS Japan, a project management and consulting company supporting foreign and domestic organisations with construction, audiovisual, infrastructure and IT projects in Japan, as well as managed services after project completion.
His connection with Japan stretches back to his university years in France, where he specialised in the Japanese economy. Attracted by Japan's economic importance and its reputation for automobiles, electronics and manufacturing, he arrived in Japan around the end of 1989 and beginning of the 1990s, just as the bubble economy was beginning to collapse.
His career in Japan began far removed from project management. He initially managed a French restaurant, where the necessity of communicating with Japanese customers and colleagues pushed him to learn Japanese. He later joined an import-export trading company before representing a French telecommunications hardware company in Japan. After the local branch manager suddenly departed, Delsaux was offered responsibility for the operation and effectively moved into leadership almost overnight.
His telecommunications work brought him into contact with PTS during the early stages of its Japan operation. After seven to eight years with the telecommunications company, he joined PTS, initially in technical sales for telephony, before moving through sales and director-level responsibilities. He has now spent more than two decades with PTS.
In April 2020, as COVID-19 was beginning to reshape business globally, the Japanese management team completed a management buyout from the UK parent organisation. PTS Japan became part of a Japanese-owned group while retaining the established PTS brand. Delsaux's career consequently spans technical sales, client management, organisational leadership, business ownership and the challenge of adapting global project-management practices to Japanese business realities.
Frederic Delsaux's leadership career in Japan demonstrates how credibility, communication and cultural adaptability can matter more than hierarchy alone. Having lived and worked in Japan since around the beginning of the 1990s, he has experienced the country through the collapse of the bubble economy, the Lehman shock, COVID-19, labour shortages and major changes in Japanese attitudes towards lifetime employment.
PTS Japan specialises in project management across construction, audiovisual, infrastructure and IT projects. The business also provides managed services after projects are completed. Following a management buyout in April 2020, the Japanese operation became locally owned, while continuing to use the established PTS brand.
Delsaux's route into leadership was unconventional. After studying the Japanese economy in France, he came to Japan and managed a French restaurant. Japanese was essential because the people around him did not speak French or English. He subsequently moved into trading and telecommunications. When a branch manager suddenly departed, he was offered leadership of the Japanese operation almost overnight. Speaking Japanese helped him gain trust among local employees, establishing an early lesson that language proficiency can carry cultural and leadership significance far beyond simple translation.
At PTS, credibility came partly from experience and client relationships. Engineers and consultants knew that Delsaux understood the commercial environment and could communicate with decision-makers. His leadership philosophy nevertheless extends beyond expertise. As technology becomes more complex, leaders cannot be the deepest technical expert in every discipline. Instead, managers add value through communication, problem solving, risk reduction and helping technical specialists successfully navigate client relationships.
That is particularly important because engineers increasingly need to operate directly in front of customers. Delsaux believes technical professionals should be progressively exposed to these situations rather than simply thrown into them. Supported experience builds confidence until the individual can communicate solutions independently.
Trust is equally central. His analogy is memorable: a leader cannot tell employees to stop smoking while holding a cigarette. Leaders need to bring value to conversations with their people. Questions cannot simply be ignored, and employees need access to managers when problems occur.
Externally, Delsaux stresses the importance of presenting a unified team to customers. Internal colleagues should not blame one another in front of clients. Trust can be quickly destroyed if different functions appear divided.
Japan adds another layer. Consensus, communication and careful explanation matter. International methodologies cannot simply be imported without localisation. Leaders need to understand both the project and the people receiving the message.
For executives arriving in Japan, Delsaux's first recommendation is straightforward: learn Japanese. The language also opens a door to understanding the culture. Beyond language, leaders need the right team, careful hiring decisions, regular contact with customers and an appreciation of the institutional knowledge already present inside the organisation.
Ultimately, Delsaux reduces leadership to two closely connected concepts: trust and communication. Rules and emails cannot replace dialogue. Leaders need to talk, explain, listen and understand the challenges facing their people.
Q&A Summary
What makes leadership in Japan unique?
Leadership in Japan requires unusually careful attention to communication, relationships and context. Delsaux's experience suggests that technically correct solutions are not sufficient on their own. International methodologies and global standards still need to be translated into a form that makes sense to Japanese clients and employees.
Consensus is important, but the deeper issue is ensuring people understand what is happening and why. PTS therefore places substantial emphasis on sharing project information not merely with the immediate project team but more broadly across the organisation.
Leadership also requires sensitivity to the customer relationships that Japanese employees may have spent years developing. What initially appears to an incoming foreign executive as unnecessary resistance may actually reflect employees protecting an important client relationship.
Why do global executives struggle?
Executives arriving from overseas can assume that practices which work at headquarters should transfer directly to Japan. The danger is judging local structures before understanding why they exist.
Delsaux emphasises the importance of having the right team, while the broader discussion highlights the need to investigate why local employees work in a particular way before attempting sweeping changes.
Language can compound the problem. An executive who cannot communicate in Japanese may become dependent on whichever employees speak English, regardless of their seniority or depth of business knowledge. Direct contact with a wider range of Japanese employees and customers provides a much richer understanding of the business.
Is Japan truly risk-averse?
The interview presents a more nuanced picture than simply describing Japan as risk-averse. Japanese clients often prefer people they already know because continuity reduces uncertainty. An existing project manager with deep institutional knowledge may therefore be preferred to a technically stronger replacement who does not know the customer.
Delsaux sees this as a balance. Companies need institutional knowledge, technical competence and resource availability simultaneously. Waiting for a familiar individual may be impossible when project schedules are tight.
The leadership task is therefore not simply to overcome uncertainty avoidance. It is to explain why a new approach or resource can still protect delivery quality and client interests.
What leadership style actually works?
Delsaux defines leadership around trust and communication.
Credibility matters. Leaders need to contribute something of value when employees approach them. His smoking analogy captures the principle of role modelling: leaders cannot demand behaviour they are unwilling to demonstrate themselves.
Accessibility also matters. Employees should not feel that questions will be ignored simply because they are inconvenient or unrealistic.
Internally, Delsaux stresses unity. Disagreements can occur, but different teams should not attack or blame one another in front of the customer. Clients who entrust multiple services to one company expect a unified answer.
How can technology help?
Technology serves two leadership purposes at PTS. First, project managers and consultants must remain current because new technologies continually affect project delivery. Global designs also need localisation for Japan because products, standards, availability and infrastructure can differ.
Second, technology creates development opportunities for employees. Repetitive work can become boring, particularly in a tight labour market where skilled people have many alternatives. New technologies give engineers and consultants something new to learn and help keep their work challenging.
Technology therefore has value not only as a project tool but also as an employee-development and retention mechanism.
Does language proficiency matter?
For Delsaux, it matters considerably. His first advice to an incoming foreign leader is simply: "First, learn Japanese."
His own Japanese developed out of necessity while working in restaurants where neither French nor English could be relied upon. He believes making the effort to learn Japanese earns respect from employees and strengthens relationships, even when team members already speak English.
Language learning also provides access to culture. Delsaux particularly values people who are not merely bilingual but bicultural because they can understand how managers in different countries interpret the same situation differently.
Even with strong Japanese ability, he sometimes brings a Japanese colleague to important meetings. This reduces misunderstanding and can also demonstrate respect towards a Japanese-speaking client.
What's the ultimate leadership lesson?
Delsaux's answer is remarkably concise: trust and communication.
Leadership cannot be exercised effectively through rules and email alone. Leaders need to talk to people, explain decisions, respond to questions and understand the challenges their staff are facing.
The labour market makes this increasingly important. Employees who feel overworked, underdeveloped or bored now have alternatives. The old assumption that employees will remain indefinitely has weakened substantially.
Leadership therefore depends on creating an environment in which people can learn, contribute, communicate and trust the people managing them. Technical competence remains important, but communication determines whether that expertise can be successfully translated into employee engagement and client confidence.
Author Credentials
Dr. Greg Story, Ph.D. in Japanese Decision-Making, is President of Dale Carnegie Tokyo Training and Adjunct Professor at Griffith University. He is a two-time winner of the Dale Carnegie "One Carnegie Award" (2018, 2021) and recipient of the Griffith University Business School Outstanding Alumnus Award (2012). As a Dale Carnegie Master Trainer, Greg is certified to deliver globally across all leadership, communication, sales, and presentation programs, including Leadership Training for Results.
He has written several books, including three best-sellers — Japan Business Mastery, Japan Sales Mastery, and Japan Presentations Mastery — along with Japan Leadership Mastery and How to Stop Wasting Money on Training. His works have also been translated into Japanese, including Za Eigyō (ザ営業), Purezen no Tatsujin (プレゼンの達人), Torēningu de Okane o Muda ni Suru no wa Yamemashō (トレーニングでお金を無駄にするのはやめましょう), and Gendaiban "Hito o Ugokasu" Rīdā (現代版「人を動かす」リーダー).
In addition to his books, Greg publishes daily blogs on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, offering practical insights on leadership, communication, and Japanese business culture. He is also the host of six weekly podcasts, including The Leadership Japan Series, The Sales Japan Series, The Presentations Japan Series, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews. On YouTube, he produces three weekly shows — The Cutting Edge Japan Business Show, Japan Business Mastery, and Japan's Top Business Interviews — which have become leading resources for executives seeking strategies for success in Japan.
