CELM, a Japanese human capital services provider, specializes in providing practical and customized HR solutions for their clients.  Since their establishment 20 years ago, they have been huge believers in the value of long-term relationships, with many of their client relationships stretching beyond 15 years. We speak to CELM about their experiences in journeying with some of the world’s leading companies.

As a company built on a strong corporate philosophy, Daikin – one of the world’s leading air-conditioning companies – has always placed an emphasis on schooling new employees in their values when expanding into new cultures and geographies. Daikin Singapore, then, is one of the company’s success stories. Concerted and consistent effort has been put into ensuring the Daikin corporate philosophy of “people centered management” is communicated to local employees in a personally relatable manner.

Telling Daikin Stories

For example, the Future Leaders’ Programme (FLP) – a one year developmental programme for Daikin Singapore’s high-potentials – places a strong emphasis on bringing deeper understanding to the corporate philosophy through story-telling. Story-telling is an important element of the family and educational culture in many Asian cultures. For example, leading philosophical texts like the Bhagavad Gita and Confucius’ Analects both contain substantive story-telling elements, through which the teachers of philosophy expound on morals and lessons in life.

C-suite leaders of Daikin personally fly in from Japan during this event to share their personal anecdotes and experiences with Daikin Singapore’s leaders, helping them add context to the discussion of Daikin’s values. For example, one leader shared how he lived out the philosophy of being a “flexible and dynamic group” by moving into a new market before conditions were perfect, reflecting that moving fast and adapting based on learning from the ground always beats waiting for perfect conditions.

This story was quoted by Daikin Singapore’s Managing Director Ching Khim Huat, who leverages Singapore’s infrastructure and geographical advantage to assist in Daikin’s expansion into the regions’ developing markets like Cambodia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The learnings from that story have allowed Ching to move quickly in these geographies and put in place systems to encourage feedback and constant learning from the ground.

Another senior leader frequently shares about how one of his product development teams evolved their product planning process. Traditionally, only product designers were involved at an early stage of product development, but this team reached out right at the start, seeking input from other sources within the company. As a result, many employees on the ground offered very valuable feedback, which greatly sped up the rest of the development process. Moreover, the product launched to huge success and even won the Energy Conservation Center of Japan Chairman’s Prize. This story, he believes, embodies the tenets of “leveraging teamwork and diversity”, and “flat and fast” from Daikin’s philosophy.

Growing Together with the Team

CELM was the partner Daikin worked with to develop these story-telling elements of the FLP, and in Daikin Singapore’s case they further served as a bridge between the local and global leadership of the company. Ching shared that CELM often made the difference for the Singapore team in getting buy-in from global headquarters for difficult decisions, simply because they had worked closely with the leaders in global headquarters for over 10 years.

For many of these leaders from HQ, CELM was there when they were attending the equivalent of FLP at the budding stages of their careers, and was also there each step of the way as they moved into country, regional and eventually senior leadership roles. Such presence pay strong dividends – Daikin Singapore has just launched the Group Philosophy Programme, a one-day regional programme focused specifically on corporate philosophy. With CELM as their spokesperson, the Singapore team has secured the full support and commitment from headquarters: Japanese senior leaders are travelling to Singapore specifically to speak at these programmes and, inevitably, to tell their Daikin stories.

With growth in the emerging markets high on Daikin Singapore’s agenda, the road ahead is exciting, but also full of unknown opportunities and challenges. As the trusted travel companion for leading Japanese companies, CELM leverages their long-term relationships to encourage the executives from these companies to explore new possibilities.