[ENG] Fumi Sugeno - Lessons from a Global Impact Leader

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Fumi Sugeno, the Head of the Social Innovation and Investment Foundation, an organization dedicated to building a more sustainable and inclusive society through impact investing in Japan and beyond.

Fumi has built an impressive cross-border career in the NGO and nonprofit sector, with experience spanning Japan, China, and the United States. Through our conversation, we explored what it truly means to lead across cultures—and the complexity that comes with it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi everyone and welcome to Voices Across Borders, brought to you by Multicultural Talent Network. I'm Mina Kim Mock. In this podcast, we go beyond the resume to share real stories from professionals navigating life and career across borders. You will also hear from researchers as well as solo episodes where I dive into key topics shaping the global professionals. I hope you will find insight, connection, and maybe even a little encouragement along the way. Today we are joined by Humi Sugeno, the head of the Social Innovation and Investment Foundation. This organization works to create a more sustainable and inclusive society in Japan and beyond through Impact Investing. Humi has built a cross-border careers in the NGO and nonprofit sector, and she's currently based in the US, where she leads her team in Japan remotely. In our conversation, we explore what inspired her to live and work across different countries, how she has navigated cultural and workplace differences, and the unique challenges and rewards of leading a global team. Hi, Humi. Thank you so much for joining me today.

SPEAKER_00 1:17

Thank you so much, Mina.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

I was really looking forward to our conversation. We have known each other for a very long time, but um I like to disclose how I like to start with your global path. So your first job after grad school brought you to China, and since then you've worked in Japan and now in the state. What drew you to building a career across borders? And looking back at your NGO and nonprofit experiences in China, what felt most different about working in China compared to Japan?

SPEAKER_00 2:02

About what drew me to work in different countries. I guess my upbringing influenced me. I mainly grew up in Japan, but because of my father's job, uh he's an academic, so he would take a sabbatical every 10 years. Then he intentionally choose to bring all the family members to spend a year abroad. I spent a year in Boston when I was six years old, and a year in Oxford when I was 17 years old. And even between that, I think my parents were pretty intentional about if there's any chance. They will bring me, send me to Australia for three weeks, asking family friends to be a host family so that I can go to school there for a little while, or bring me to the States for vacation, and then go to school there a little while, things like that. I think they were very intentional about trying to give me opportunity to work globally. Also combined with that my passion by being exposed to different countries and also through family, friends. I've known people who have international career. I really developed my interest and passion in international development, trying to make people's lives better in different countries. So I think that's the reason why. Um about China a lot of people ask me what I felt different about working in China and Japan. But to be honest, when I was working in China, I never had that perspective or question inside me. I went to grad school without any job working experience, and then after that I went to China to work in an international NGO. So I had nothing to compare. I've never worked in Japan before. But also, I think I was consciously or unconsciously trying not to bring any presumptions, just work together with people there as human to human. And so I would not be comparing or benchmarking with anything.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

That's a good attitude to bring in to work for a company or different uh organizations.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

I did have experiences when I learned in a hard way that ooh, I didn't know this like local system that exists that I have to respect. Working in China, you have to really be aware of the government relationship and how the society works. I was still very young, so everybody took care of me. They would tell me it doesn't matter what happened between Japan and China in the past, here as humans, and then we really respect you. I had many colleagues and partners would approach me in that way. So I wanted to do the same to them, but that means that there's a lot of complexity and subtlety behind your professional relationship that you have with that person. So just to be aware and mindful about that, that's what I was trying there.

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Thank you so much for sharing your insight. Now you are with social innovation and investment foundations, S-I-I-F, and focuses on something called impact investing. For anyone hearing that term for the first time, how do you explain it in everyday language? And what does your work look like on a daily basis?

SPEAKER_00 5:59

Our foundation's name is really long. So it's difficult to pronounce it, but we call it SIF, so S-I-I-F. Yeah. Yeah, that's better to make your life easier. It's a kind of unique foundation in Japan because it focuses on it's not pure philanthropy like charity uh giving grants. It does something called impact investing. And what impact investing in, tell me if I'm not uh using the common language, but um it's about investing into businesses that make people's lives better or the planet more sustainable. That's how I would describe. So for instance, we would invest in education technology company that provides coding education to young people, but coding as means so that they can tackle their own problems in their own community by making their own apps or using that to be creative and to develop their critical thinking. Because in Japan, a lot of young people are losing hope. They don't they feel hopeless about making the society or the community a better place. So we invest in for that kind of company. I play multiple roles. One role is as an impact investor. So I'm partner of an impact venture capital fund in Japan, which means that our daily job will be supporting our investee companies to not only grow their business, but how can they really grow their impact that they're aiming to have? So, to start with, like a lot of entrepreneurs, they have vision, but not necessarily they have articulated what that really looks like. So the first step will be supporting them to identify what their impact goals are. What would make you happy in certain timeframe? What kind of changes for whom do you want to see? So that they can embed in their business model and business strategy about the steps that they need to take to impact their stakeholders. Then we also do a lot of support in terms of how you measure that impact and how do you communicate with investors. Investors would also understand the real value of the business so other investors can support the business as well. I also do advising to other financial institutions. And a lot of my chunk of my work is what we call ecosystem builder. We do a lot of convening, like gather people from financial sector or business sector, government, and then have the work towards the common goal of how we can promote impact investing in Japan or how we can promote impact business in Japan, how can we work together across sectors, private sector, public sector, nonprofit, full-profit? Um, and then recently it's been a lot of work trying to build global partnerships. So, how can we build work together between not only SIEF and oversea organizations, but our stakeholders in Japan and oversea organizations to do co-investment or business development or knowledge sharing, things like that?

SPEAKER_01 9:43

Actually, I have a follow-up question. When you work with partners internationally, globally, how do you usually build trust and collaborations? And do you find yourself adjusting your working style when working with Japanese organizations versus non-Japanese partners?

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Yes. I think Japan is more about working as a team, working as an organization. And generally speaking, it depends on country to country, but generally speaking, US especially, but to some extent Europe, it's more about you as an individual. I try to navigate between those two kind of uh mindset. If I'm too me-me in Japan, it's really not good. Right, right. But if I'm like no me in US or Europe, it'll be like, what's your view? What's your opinion? What do you want to do? Can you make the decision? So, like, even really small things like writing an email. Um, I'm really conscious about using the the right word we or I. I see. In Japanese, you don't even say we or I. Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

Yeah. There's no subject. Yeah. So that can be quite complicated. I think it's just so fundamentally embedded in a working culture approach is very different, just the way they just talk, having meetings, and present themselves. So yeah, thank you for sharing. Um this could be more personal questions, uh, but you are leading a team in Japan while you're living in the state, which means some late night or early morning meetings or calls. As more people work like this across borders. What do you think would help make this kind of setup healthier and more sustainable?

SPEAKER_00 11:43

This is the most challenging thing, like overcoming time difference is the most challenging thing, and I still struggle a lot. Do you have a lot of late calls like after 11 or yeah, so my situation might be a little bit unique because I am working still for Japanese organization and from United States. I'm the only one who's working from outside from Japan.

SPEAKER_01 12:15

Oh, I see.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Yeah, so that's the hard thing. And so I have calls usually from 9 a.m. Japan time, 6 p.m. here in Chicago, and then I try to put like hard stop in terms of calls at 10 p.m. Yeah. I'll block my calendar.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Yes. Oh, really?

SPEAKER_01 12:40

If you feel like if I work late, then my brain is still working, it's harder to fall asleep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yeah, exactly. So and and everybody else is working that hour. So even if I finish my call, I'll be having you know messages and emails, and there'll be things to infinite things to follow up. So really have the discipline that it will just stop working, take time to wind down to fall asleep.

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Right.

SPEAKER_00 13:15

Yeah, but it's really hard. And then the thing is because I also have calls with Europe, sometimes if you have calls with three continents together, oh yeah, that's impossible. Yeah. Very early morning. I don't have enough sleep in between. When I moved here, I had a discussion with my organization foundation so that a lot of Japan-based operations I don't need to follow up, obviously. My colleagues are doing a great job running, doing the management that it needs to happen in Japan. Then maybe to have like a support team in terms of doing more back office, middle office. And then I'm not totally great at it yet, but utilize all sorts of different tools, AI and things like that, to really make it efficient as much as possible. But also, like in the future, I will really like to build more global team so that right now the challenge is that I'm the only person who's outside from Japan. I feel like me versus them.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Right, you're right, because you need allies able to complain together. This is not working.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Yeah, so it uh even like a small thing, setting up a meeting. I think you can tell the difference between people's like how aware they are in terms of global setting. I think in Japan a lot of the people still haven't been exposed to that kind of situation in the past.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

Oh, gotcha. Okay. Hopefully we all find a way to make things a little bit easier. Listener wants to learn more about you and simply just get in touch with you. What would be the best way to reach you?

SPEAKER_00 15:07

Yeah, find me in LinkedIn. Uh, you can send an email to through our foundation's website. But I think finding me in LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Okay. It's F-U-M-I-S-U-G-E-N-O, right? So who means you can? Right. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Okay. Just text me.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Thank you so much for chatting with me today. I appreciate your time. Thank you, Mina. If you're interested in reaching out to us, you can contact us at Multicultural Talent Networks or Mina Kim Muck, M I N A K I M M O K through LinkedIn. Thank you so much for listening.