Wilde Geese: Wayne Leahy, Element Six, the UK

Element Six is one of the world's leading producers of industrial diamonds used in the drilling, mining, optics, electronics and precision machining industries.

The company is part of the De Beers Group, and operates worldwide with manufacturing facilities in China, Germany, Sweden, South Africa, the US, Britain and UK and Ireland, where it has a processing plant at Shannon, Co Clare.

Kilkenny-born Wayne Leahy joined Element Six in 2005 as a young engineer. A graduate of the University of Limerick with a PhD in materials science, over the last eight years, he has worked with the company in Ireland, Japan and Shanghai, and has recently been appointed applications engineering manager at the group's newly opened global innovation centre in Britain.

“As a materials scientist the chance to work with diamond was a no-brainer and I enthusiastically joined Element Six in Shannon,” Leahy says. “As a PhD student I had secondments to universities in France and Austria and really enjoyed the different approaches to work and lifestyle. I was determined to travel after completing my doctorate and I got to travel quite a bit with Element Six but the urge to actually live somewhere different didn’t leave me. When the opportunity presented itself I jumped at it.”

Leahy’s chance came as a result of the company’s decision to take a more market-driven approach to technology and product development. Part of this initiative involved creating new technical manager positions in Frankfurt, New York and Tokyo.

“The choice was difficult as I’d spent a lot of time in Germany and liked the country and the people and had a little of the language. New York was also very appealing but I felt the chance to live and work in Japan was a rare and intriguing opportunity,” Leahy says.

He spent three years in Tokyo before hiring a local replacement and moving to the company’s new Shanghai office where he was responsible for building the technical team.

On the surface, Leahy says, doing business in Japan can be a perplexing and sometimes bewildering experience.

"From the almost ceremonial and certainly ritualistic presentation of mesihi (business cards) to the carefully arranged hierarchical seating plan for every meeting, it is certainly very different to what we're used to. However, beneath that traditional rigid exterior lies a very productive, efficient and fun-loving people.

“Take the example of handing over your business card. For me this encapsulates a very interesting feature about Japanese business – they really take the time to get to know you. One of my first meetings was in Harima in the beautiful Kansai region where I met seven people one at a time. You offer your business card with both hands to each person while introducing yourself and accepting their card with both hands while still holding the rest of your business cards. This can get very tricky when you meet lots of people!

“You then arrange the cards on the table in front of you replicating the seating plan at the meeting. All of this can take 20 minutes and is designed to give you time to absorb information. This seems to be a recurring theme in Japanese business. Take as much time as you need to really get to know people, companies and products.

“Japanese meetings take a long time, not just because of the translation, but because the Japanese take the time to absorb, process and understand the information you share. While sometimes the pace may seem glacial, I have learned as much about my company’s products and processes from continuous questioning in Japanese meetings as I have from any in-house training.

“The Japanese are not afraid to ask when they don’t understand. They are patient, probing and committed. This commitment to understanding is demonstrated in their celebrated approached to quality. They fix problems efficiently because they take the time to understand, before jumping in to take corrective action. It can take significant time and patience to win over a Japanese customer. But once you do they are incredibly loyal and will stick with you through the bad times as well as the good.”

Leahy says finding a job in Japan without the language is difficult and most of the ex-pats working there have been seconded by their companies. With the language, however, it is possible to settle and find employment, and he wholeheartedly recommends the Japanese experience.

“They are some of the most polite and hospitable people on the planet and only too happy to explain their culture and wonderful food to you. The socialising spirit of Irish lends itself very well to Japanese business and life in general there.

“Shanghai is a different matter altogether and a real enigma. But it’s a must-see and there are many more opportunities in Shanghai where the language is less of an issue and there is a real shortage of highly skilled people. Japan is still quite male dominated. China seems to have more gender balance.”