What are the most significant cases or transactions that you have been involved in over the past year?

As the Japan Lead for Contract Management, I have direct and indirect oversight of all key projects for Accenture Japan and Global, if Japan business is involved. This would be mostly on the post-contractual delivery side, be it non-compliance to the contract from the client side or delivery challenges faced by us. For sales phase with existing clients, especially for renewal or new phase projects, I/my team becomes involved as a negotiation member sitting alongside our business members.

Based on your experience, what is the key to collaborating successfully with business partners?

There are many factors for a successful collaboration, such as business awareness and acumen, financial nous, knowledge of the business and the client and KPIs. However, if I were to pick one attriburte, it would be empathy. Some may wander what empathy has to do with the legal team, but that’s exactly the point. When you answer a legal question, you must have both IQ and EQ. You have to be able to solve the intellectual question and at the same time answer what the business needs, and this sometimes you need to read between the lines and really read into the business psychology.

Apart from legal matters, has the team worked on other company initiatives you would like to highlight?

Our Team, in line with the company’s stance, focusses and invests time and effort in Inclusion & Diversity. One example of this is the International I&D Team which we have set up last year – as our team members are not limited to Japanese nationals, but have Indian, Malay, Chinese, Vietnamese and Mongolians as well. What started as a casual chat group has now blossomed into regular meetings on different cultures, languages, business manners – and in less than 12 months the Team has really expanded its members and knowledge on multicultural issues. We have celebrated Thanksgiving dinner together and plan to go to Divali festival in November.

Another I&D initiative has been lunches with Female Executives at other major companies (with seven conducted in the 2024 financial year), where attendees were not limited to the legal function but HR, finance, marketing and other support functions. Several seminars inviting female executives have been held also, through the leadership of the I&D Committee, consisting of five key members of the department.
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What is a cause, business-related or otherwise, that you are passionate about, and why?

Not exactly a cause, but more a method/tool/future – it has to be Technology. Everyone is talking these days about Gen AI – but my interest in IT started back in the late 90s when I started off my career. However, when I moved to Hong Kong with my first law firm in the early 2000s after dealing with the Y2K panic (which fortunately never developed!), the IT bubble burst, so I had to look into alternate arenas in law. However, from working with GENPACT (after it span off from GE in early 2000s) to advising various multinational IT companies in the Middle East and Northern Africa (Google, Yahoo amongst them) I have finally been able to come back to my passion – when I joined IBM in 2019, then Accenture in 2023. As many are commenting, we are facing a seismic shift in how we work, and companies and departments that are conscious that “Change” is now the norm and technology will cover all facets of our lives, including at work, will stay ahead of the competition. I feel I am in the right place and company to feel this change and to ride this wave of technology.