In this FocusCore Podcast episode, host David Sweet interviews Lars Schandorff, Senior Director of People & Talent for APAC Supply Chain with a global American company. With over 17 years of experience spanning Denmark, Singapore, Dubai, and Japan, Lars has built talent strategies for organizations including British American Tobacco, Seadrill, and Maersk, from managing an $8 billion global portfolio to building the entire talent ecosystem for a $1 billion greenfield factory in Japan. Lars and David discuss how to cultivate a sustainable Japan executive bench instead of relying on expats indefinitely, why executive presence looks different depending on culture, how to keep leadership teams stable through high-stakes transformation, why speaking Japanese is as much about respect as communication, what an "AI native" organization actually looks like in Japan, and what Lars sees as Japan's biggest talent challenge over the next five years.
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In this episode you will hear:
- How to build a sustainable local executive bench in Japan instead of relying on expats
- Why "executive presence" reads differently across American, European, and Japanese leadership cultures
- How to keep leaders and teams steady through high-pressure transformation and M&A
- Why fluency in Japanese is, for Lars, primarily a signal of respect rather than just a skill
- What an "AI native" organization looks like inside a Japanese business, and the infrastructure gap between companies who can afford closed AI systems and those who can't
- Lars's prediction for Japan's biggest talent acquisition challenge and opportunity over the next five years
About Lars:
Lars Schandorff has built his career around a consistent thread: helping organizations grow their people even as the ground shifts beneath them, whether that ground is a collapsing oil price, an acquisition, or an entry into a wholly new market. With more than 17 years of experience spanning Denmark, the Middle East, Singapore, and Japan, he has spent his career designing talent strategy for some of the most demanding transformation environments in global business.
He currently serves as Senior Director of People & Talent for APAC Supply Chain at a leading American company, where he oversees the talent agenda across 11 complex markets. Before that, Lars held senior talent and HR roles at British American Tobacco, Seadrill, and Maersk, building the entire talent ecosystem for a $1 billion greenfield factory in Japan, managing workforce architecture for an $8 billion global portfolio at Seadrill, and helping launch multi-billion-dollar energy projects across Singapore and Korea.
Lars's path to Japan began in Copenhagen, where he studied East Asian studies before joining the Japanese Embassy in Denmark. From there he moved into Maersk's shipping and drilling operations, spent time in Dubai building a global leadership development function, and eventually returned to Japan, where he has now lived and worked for the past eight years. Fluent in Japanese, Lars approaches his work in Japan with a simple philosophy: as a guest in the country, it is on him to adapt, not the other way around, an outlook that shapes how he builds trust with the leaders and teams he supports.
Connect with Lars Schandorff:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lars-schandorff-178baa7/
Connect with David Sweet:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drdavidsweet/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/focuscorejp
Facebook: :https://www.facebook.com/focuscoreasia
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/focuscorejp/
Website: https://www.japan.focuscoregroup.com/
This podcast was proudly produced by Lisa Yasuda.
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