Takayoshi Watanabe
渡部 孝義
Twenty-five years spent raising what organizations can actually execute.
He ran businesses as a unit head at global companies in healthcare, IT and e-commerce, leading organizations in Japan, Taiwan and China. Twenty-five years on the side that carries the number and the people, not the side that presents a deck and leaves.
- 25+ years
- in management
- Hundreds
- of people led
- 5 countries
- and regions
- 4 companies
- as a business unit head
Why he started RUOK
For more than 25 years he led organizations as a business unit head at Japanese and Western global companies.
Leading teams of several hundred people, turning a loss-making business around, launching new businesses and opening overseas markets, he came to one conclusion.
“What decides the outcome is not the quality of the strategy. It is whether the organization can execute it.”
However good a strategy is, it is a drawing on paper without an organization that can carry it out. What RUOK offers is the work of turning a strategy into an organization that can execute it.
How the company is organized
Six business units, with the Representative Partner involved directly in the design and the execution of each one.
Company profile →Career
2016 – present
RUOK, LLC
Representative Partner
- Executive coaching for leadership teams: 30 companies to date (12 listed, 18 startups; 2016–2026, contract basis)
- Organizational and cultural change, and leadership development
- Writes a serialized management column on note (Japanese)
2021 – 2023
Salesforce Japan
Director
- Led adoption and enablement for enterprise customers
- Worked on the gap between rollout and actual daily use
2019 – 2021
Amazon Japan
Head of Amazon Vendor Services, Life & Leisure
- Led a team of more than 100 people
- Ran a USD 15 million business unit
2016 – 2019
Bayer
Head of Sales
- Grew revenue by 74% through a change to the business model
- Expanded the account base from 150 to 330 companies in one year
2013 – 2016
Takeda Pharmaceutical
General Manager, Head of Consumer Healthcare, Takeda China
- Ran the China consumer healthcare business
- Built the market entry and channel strategy
– 2011
House Foods
COO, Taiwan
- Turned a loss-making business into a 30% operating margin
- Ran the local organization end to end