What happens when a company has local leaders in place, but key decisions and capabilities still remain centred at headquarters?
That was one of the central questions explored in a recent Business Engineering (B-EN-G) roundtable based on the 2026 Survey on IT Utilization Trends of Japanese Companies Expanding Overseas.
I joined Watanabe Yuichi, Executive Officer and Head of Global Business Promotion at Business Engineering, Takaaki Mizuno, Co-Founder and CTO of Nexus FrontierTech, and Akiko Kobayashi, Senior Research Fellow at Deloitte Tohmatsu Institute for Strategic Studies, for a discussion on the current state of global management and what Japanese companies need to strengthen as their overseas operations mature.
One finding from the survey stood out: localisation is progressing in terms of numbers, but the development of autonomous decision-making and important local functions remains a challenge.
From my perspective, this is closely connected to how headquarters approaches global management. If the overall direction is unclear, it becomes difficult for overseas organisations to develop the capabilities and leadership needed to operate with greater autonomy.
The discussion covered a range of issues around local leadership, talent development, global governance and the foundations needed for Japanese companies to strengthen their overseas operations.
Thank you to Business Engineering and Watanabe-san for bringing us together and creating the opportunity for this discussion.