Crafting Tomorrow's Toyota Tsusho Corporation Leaders: A Collaborative Path to a Greater Cause

Co-created by HEC Paris and Toyota Tsusho, GALP transforms promising executives into future leaders. A business trip through 3 continents mixing lectures, guest speakers, case studies, workshops, and field excursions, with one final destination: oneself. This is GALP, an annual program co-crafted by the business school HEC Paris (HEC) and the Japanese trading house Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC). Unlike a traditional education program, GALP (Global Advanced Leadership Program) spans three modules across six months in France, Africa, and Japan. It employs various approaches to profoundly enrich participants on both professional and personal levels uniquely, setting them towards "a greater cause" where the least (growing the company) is a step towards the most (making the world a better place). 

GALP is, first and foremost, a journey. It starts a few kilometers away from Versailles, in the stunning environment of Le Chateau.

 

HEC uses this neoclassic 19th-century chateau as a retreat for Executive Education Programs like GALP. Nestled in 110 hectares of forest, Le Chateau is ideal for relaxation, reflection, and team-building. The atmosphere is both joyful and studious, broad-ranging and laser-focused. Participants receive updates on our world's "megatrends" (climate change, rising inflation, geopolitical turmoil…). They study other company's approaches to nurture TTC's. Executives hone the art of leadership and strategy through classes led by professors Matthew Mulford and Laurence Lehmann-Ortega. They learn the inspirational power of narrative. 

 

Knowing the company

Gathered from all over the world during GALP, they get to know each other and get a 360-degree view of TTC. Like in any big company, executives can spend years not understanding the range of TTC's businesses or knowing colleagues.

 

"GALP allowed me to learn and hear from TTC top management about the uniqueness of our culture and how to apply such a unique culture and reinforce it in a company with such a global range,"

 

says Cezar Sena, an executive from Nova Agri, a Brazilian TTC subsidiary. By the end of the first module, participants identified a new strategic pillar for TTC, around which they built a business model during GALP.

On the ground in Africa

The second part of the journey offers the most surprises. It takes place in Kenya, one of Africa's most dynamic countries.

 

"Participants get out of their comfort zone, get inspired, challenged, and see the world through different lenses,"

 

GALP Academic Director Laurence Lehmann-Ortega sums up. This leg of the trip reflects what the Toyota group calls "Genchi-Genbutsu": "Go and see for yourself ."

Through the Kenyan example, participants experience the richness of Africa's business community and TTC's central role. They meet government executives who explain the country's energy policy (over 85% of Kenya's electricity comes from low-carbon sources like geothermal, hydro, wind, and solar power).

They visit local startups (in finance, agriculture, and energy) whose innovations have tremendously and directly improved people's lives at this stage of Africa's development. This human experience exemplifies TTC's global, "grounded" nature, from Kenya's rich valley to its headquarters in Japan. 

Time for reflection

It is precisely in Japan that the program concludes. The third module takes place in Kizuna, the Toyota group's stunning development center on the outskirts of Nagoya. 

At its essence, the Japanese term "Kizuna" embodies the bonds and connections between people, symbolizing tightly woven relationships forged through mutual trust and unwavering support. Now, it's time to reflect on the teaching of the GALP program and start using it. During these last moments, participants present individual and group presentations to a team of top management and HEC representatives. The bonds they forge over these few months around the world will stay forever.

 

"Individuals develop themselves, have a great network to enhance their business, while the company develops a global talent pipeline to find out tomorrow's leaders,"

 

Makiko Hamase, TTC's Chief Human Resources Officer, explains.

The sheer originality of GALP mirrors the singular identity of TTC. A company like no other, TTC is what the Japanese call a "shosha": a 67,000-employee-strong trading house that was born and thrived once as an intermediary between insular Japan and the rest of the world, particularly in the automotive industry.

Today, it's a multi-business, global company active in 130 countries. TTC's singularity shines through in how it handled French trading house CFAO since its acquisition in 2012.

TTC has a strong presence in Eastern Africa, which it completed with CFAO's deep network in Africa's Western part.

But what made the move truly special was TTC's policy after the acquisition: rather than taking over control and imposing its views, TTC let the former executive team in charge, taking, as a sign of humility and respect, the backseat in its own acquisition.

"I have never seen this," says Laurence Lehmann-Ortega. "Can you imagine the challenges on both sides, between a Japanese company like TTC and a French company in Africa like CFAO? For leaders in such a company, part of the success will come from their adaptability. For TTC, that is a challenge", Matthew Mulford says.

Participant-centric and evolutive

This pragmatic attitude, mindful of its employees, permeates GALP's curriculum. What makes the program special is the central role of the participants themselves. Unlike a "one-size-fits-all" method found in a book or a classic training program, GALP gives participants the power to lead their careers.

 

"The main feature is that participants need to develop their own greater cause," stresses Laurence Lehmann-Ortega.

 

"We make them the agents of change," says Matthew Mulford. After 30 years of studying and teaching leadership, this veteran professor insists on the plastic nature of leadership in a company. The image of the omniscient leader is deceiving. Decisions result from a method rather than personality; power is "decentralized" in this approach.

 

"As people become senior, they often believe they should be deciders. We find that successful leaders are successful decision architects. The key question is: How do I create a process that will lead to the best decision?" Matthew Mulford stresses. 

 

Another critical aspect of GALP is how evolutive it has proven to be thanks to the collaboration between HEC & TTC. "For ten years, we have been developing our future leaders with great support from HEC.

 

This program matured by changing the framework and contents in line with our company's growth and purpose.

 

Clarifying the program's purpose, I aimed to have our participants understand why they participated in this program and what to expect through the program. "Experience the world," "Explore our company," and "Encounter yourself" are the three components of the renewed GALP. Whenever we rebuilt it, HEC was our essential partner.

 

I don't call it a training, but an action learning program for the participants to realize who they are and what they do for the future."

 

For them, it has a variety of purposes: discover the world, the company, and yourself. First, we focused on strategy: How do we make business models? But as the company grew, we moved towards the themes of "greater cause" and "global vision," so that participants become true leaders," Makiko Hamase explains.

The program has accompanied the company's stunning growth for the last ten years, bonded under the group's global vision of "Be the right ONE. 

"We need a common language to connect each other in the balance of centripetal force and centrifugal force now, a common language. Be the right one is this force", says Makiko Hamase.

Unity in Diversity

Then, what does it indeed mean to embody "the right one" as a global leader at Toyota Tsusho Corporation? How exactly do TTC executives chart the course of the business toward a future that leaves a positive impact? Each senior leader, bringing a unique voice to the diverse drumbeat of talent, contributes to the dance of unity amid change.

 

According to Ichiro Kashitani, the group's President and CEO, change is perceived not as a risk but as an opportunity for transformation.

 

In the swiftly evolving business landscape, the strategic path forward is the infusion of multicultural innovation into the traditional and unique model of 'Sogo Shosha.' HEC Paris Executive Custom Service orchestrates a dynamic learning expedition across three continents, seamlessly blending global exploration, cultural immersion, and executive collaboration. This journey lays the foundation for one of Japan's iconic trading houses to embrace transformative leadership impact.

HEC Paris Executive Education's pedagogical team has meticulously crafted a triad of personalized modules, recognizing that fresh perspectives, cultural insights, and a mindset open to innovative, unexpected solutions are crucial to business prosperity. TTC's specific challenges are at the very heart of the training experience.

Through its unique value proposition, the Global Advanced Leadership Program (GALP) stays true to the HEC Paris Customized Executive Education's promise: "We work closely with you from start to finish to ensure the achievement of your organization's overall objectives." Learn more.