Balanced approach

THERE is a delicate balance to strike when one is a Frenchman heading a 238-year-old corporation in Japan, a country where foreigners are still a rare breed among chief executives. And when one's mission is to globalise the business without destroying a deeply rooted culture, it can be hard to find that balance without stepping on a few toes.

However, Christophe Weber, chief executive officer of Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, has not let that hold him back from taking some big steps to achieve greater heights for the company.

One of these big moves was a US$62 billion acquisition of global biotechnology company Shire, completed in January, a move that nearly doubled the size of the Takeda organisation and drew criticism from several quarters. Some feared that the financial risk of the acquisition, said to be the world's biggest announced in 2018, was too high, while others thought it would dilute Takeda's Japanese heritage.