{"podcast":{"title":"Japan's Top Business Interviews Podcast By Dale Carnegie Training Tokyo Japan","slug":"japan-s-top-business-interviews-podcast-by-dale-carnegie-training-tokyo-japan-294627","podcast_index_feed_id":294627,"rss_url":"https://japanstopbusinessinterviews.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"http://japanstopbusinessinterviews.libsyn.com/website","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/b/d/5/9/bd59418f8b4808aa/JapansTopBusinessInterviews.jpg","author":"Dr. Greg Story","episode_count":316,"summary":"Japan's Top Business Interviews is the premier business interview podcast for people who want to know more about business in japan. The guests cover a range of industries and organisation sizes, to present a thorough overview of issues with leading in Japan. If you are a leader, especialy someone leading in Japan, then this is the podcast for you.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-27T22:17:14.502274+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/japan-s-top-business-interviews-podcast-by-dale-carnegie-training-tokyo-japan-294627"},"episode":{"title":"284 Grant Torrens — Managing Director, Hays Japan","slug":"284-grant-torrens-managing-director-hays-japan","published_at":"2026-02-06T22:30:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/japan-s-top-business-interviews-podcast-by-dale-carnegie-training-tokyo-japan-294627/284-grant-torrens-managing-director-hays-japan","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/japan-s-top-business-interviews-podcast-by-dale-carnegie-training-tokyo-japan-294627","url":"https://japanstopbusinessinterviews.libsyn.com/284-grant-torrens-managing-director-hays-japan","audio_url":"https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/japanstopbusinessinterviews/Grant_Torrens.mp3?dest-id=2099903","summary":"\"First thing I'd say is do it… just throw yourself into it.\" \"Spend the first ninety days getting to know the people… listening… before acting.\" \"Communication here is more high context… there's a lot of reading between the lines.\" \"Trust is doing what you say you would do.\" \"A leader is someone who takes a strategy and a vision breaks that down into habits… and empowers people to execute.\" Grant Torrens is an Australian recruitment leader and long-tenured Hays executive who became Managing Director of Hays Japan after a two-decade, multi-country journey with the firm. He joined Hays in London in 2006 through its graduate program—initially as a jobseeker who \"fell into recruitment\" like many in the industry—working a demanding hedge-fund desk in the City. After navigating the Global Financial Crisis, he took a career break to travel across Southeast Asia, where a short visit to colleagues in Singapore turned into a relocation, leveraging Hays' global internal mobility and his transferable financial-services recruitment expertise. ] Years later, he was offered the Japan role—but COVID-era border restrictions meant he effectively \"ran Japan from Singapore\" for about 15 months, relying heavily on his Japan leadership team and building data-driven management systems to lead remotely. When he finally relocated to Tokyo, he focused on deep listening, high-clarity communication, and change management—while guiding Hays Japan through a strategic shift toward stronger service for Nikkei clients and hiring more Japanese nationals, including team members who don't work in English. Grant Torrens' leadership story is built on three threads: global mobility, remote-first problem solving under pressure, and culture-building at the intersection of Hays' global norms and Japan's high-c…","meta_description":"\"First thing I'd say is do it… just throw yourself into it.\" \"Spend the first ninety days getting to know the people… listening… before acting.\" \"Communic…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":3854,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/japan-s-top-business-interviews-podcast-by-dale-carnegie-training-tokyo-japan-294627/episodes/284-grant-torrens-managing-director-hays-japan/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/japan-s-top-business-interviews-podcast-by-dale-carnegie-training-tokyo-japan-294627/284-grant-torrens-managing-director-hays-japan.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}