Mr. Seji Hamanishi is the Assistant Director, ICP division of Canon India Pvt. Ltd. He has come on board the management team of Canon India after a successful stint at Canon Inc and Canon USA.

With 24 years in the company, Mr. Seji Hamanishi has a rich experience across divisions and has worked with Canon Inc. for Laser beam printers, Inkjet printers and Imaging products. He has also been widely regarded for his contribution to Canon USA and Amsterdam in his previous assignments.

Mr. Hamanishi is a photography enthusiast himself and is passionate about cameras.

TRANSCRIPT OF THE PODCAST
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Kiruba's question: What are some moments of pride for you in your 24 years of experience in Canon?

Seiji San's answer: There are two achievements in my career which I'm very proud of. The first is in my early stage of my career in Canon in the year 1988. It was the year after I joined Canon Inc. I was a door to door sales person. It was a very tough job back then. In that era, I became the number one sales person in Canon. Not just in my branch but across all branches in Tokyo.

At that time, I had a rival who was a very high achiever. Many people gave up in competing with his performance. I asked myself how I can beat him in performance. I kept this to myself and did not mention it to anyone. Then, on the last day, I submitted my records and much to the surprise of my rival and everyone else, I was number one. This experience taught me an important lesson. Its not just effort that's important but strategy too.

The second achievement happened last year and this year. Before taking up the India operation, I was in-charge of Tokyo Direct project. Its a new process. Before Tokyo Direct project, we had to purchase the products from Canon Singapore because we are its subsidiary company. After April of 2011, Canon top management decided to procure products straight from Canon headquarters in Tokyo. This is a very huge project. We had to change the entire business model and procedure.

I was in-charge of the project. I had to manage all the divisions. Not just camera product group but also other product group, accounting and logistics. Eventually, effective from April 2011, we were able to move to Tokyo Direct project. This project was a very good opportunity to enhance my overall experience.

Projects of this magnitude are usually done by seniors and top order people because one had to negotiate with many divisions. I was glad to get this project done successfully. After the success, I was assigned to work for Indian market.

Question: What are the important life lessons you have learned in your life?

Answer: Don't give up until you become number one or whatever your objectives are. You should not only put in your effort but you need to be smart. You need to find out what is the best way to achieve your objectives. One should be smart not only in managing business but also private time.

Question: How do you manage your work-life balance?

Answer: What I'm going to say is my personal strength. After leaving office at 5pm, I can forget everything about my job. Some people always wonder how I'm able to do this. Some people think of work on both weekdays and weekend and end up in nervous breakdowns. My strength is my ability to forget about work as soon as I leave office.

(In a jovial tone)But after I came down to India, there's no work-life balance. Its always 100% job. Only sleep time is my private time. I just joined the India office and I need to learn a lot. As of now, my family is in Tokyo. Once they join me, I will focus back on work-life balance.