INSIGHTS / LEADERSHIP & MARKET ENTRY
What building Japan takes.
Company case studies on leadership, hiring and market entry. Public-record analysis sits alongside searches we have run ourselves.
Discuss a search →MURRAY CLARKE / FOUNDING PARTNER
Experience, applied with AI.
I’m Murray Clarke, founding partner of Aspiring Partners. I’ve spent more than 20 years in executive search in Japan, helping build four search firms. That includes years helping VMware hire its leadership team, two years internally during hypergrowth, and the executive-search joint venture I built with ManpowerGroup before selling my interest to the group.
These case studies connect the decisions behind a Japan leadership hire with what happens in the business afterwards. Some cover searches we ran; others analyse public company records.
This time, we’ve built our own platform and use AI extensively in the work. It helps me apply that experience more broadly in support of candidates, clients and the recruiters working with us. The technology supports the research and preparation; I remain accountable for the judgment and relationships.
More about Murray and Aspiring Partners →Which Companies Produce Japan's Country Managers? IBM, Cisco, Oracle, SAP, VMware, AWS and Google Cloud Compared
We traced 1,466 Japan technology leaders back to the company where they learned to sell. IBM, Cisco and Dell/EMC produce the most Country Managers, Oracle and SAP are level, and AWS, Google Cloud and Salesforce are the new feeders.
Snowflake vs Databricks in Japan: two country-manager playbooks
Both entered Japan within eighteen months of each other and both won. What separated them was the order in which they hired, not the product and not the funding.
Anaplan Japan: The Ten-Year Country Manager Bet That Paid Off
Anaplan appointed one Japan leader and kept him in the seat for ten years. This is what that continuity did to the business, and why it is so rare.