Since the R&D Group has begun to prepare towards global integration in 2019, RDS has already been involved in workshop activities, projects, and events globally that fosters collaboration and paves the way for integration. I believe every member was excited, including myself, that the team has finally become unified.

We have been working cross-functionally across the globe, and the pre-integration laid the foundation of how we work. Thus I did not feel any significant change, but rather a part of natural process. Especially with Tokyo – we had continuous connection as the same Asia Pacific area market company, and a few development assignee came from Tokyo before.

Every day I feel it is such a privilege to have an opportunity to work at RDS – communicating with colleagues based in 5 locations worldwide! It’s not only about the cultural background, but the diversity of professional background that realizes different perspectives which contributes to build the team.

I was glad to know that we will work all together so we can share experience and knowledge to achieve better results together. Living in a small town like Trier, what we experience every day at RDS is very valuable.

The rich diversity we have in this integrated team, like skills, expertise, experience, and perspectives is one of our strongest advantages, so I felt it might accelerate upon official integration.

However, at the same time, a bit worried that we were still working with separated systems and that the cultural differences can make it very difficult.

Like Raphaela said, we had to change various ways of operation between each country or even within a single basis. As for Japan, we handed down project management operation to the marketing team, and mirrored the responsibility domains with JTI to prepare for official integration. We had to mitigate the big gap so especially the Japan team had to fix the entire system.

The process can be compared to building a bridge, you need to start connecting from different angles and points on both sides to make it work.

At RDS, we value how be build global relationships besides the quality of our business skills. Since the team is still young, we still have gaps on how we operate the team system or how we communicate. Therefore my role is to fix such gaps as an “Intermediator” between each locations’ colleagues to make stronger connection and communication basis.

Having experienced numerous departments at JTI for 17 years, I strongly feel the necessity of intermediators, especially when it comes to share the value of innovation between technical and marketing team. Intermediators provide impact to both sides on topics like this.

Maria and Sebastian also work on similar role as me.

I think my responsibilities are to take care of the member to liberate their potential when realizing ideas, or remove whatever impediment is preventing them to perform at their best. Since the start-up phase of RDS, I have continued to focus on to encourage and facilitate my colleagues to reach out and build personal connection – between us as humans.

With time the focus shifted on joining team’s initiatives, eg. our team “objective & key result” setting process, which was literally invented by the team itself.
My role was newly established in January 2022. I am taking care of the member's development which literally means organizational development, and to make sure necessary training is offered respectively to proceed this agile journey – Moreover, it's rather about creating a fruitful atmosphere.

I'm also currently in charge of team capability development as well. Capability does not only mean by skill qualities, but how we connect or build global relationships, which may relate to what Raphaela said previously.

Currently we are focusing on developing minimum viable product. I think the agile set up is built to focus and explore into consumer needs.

I think the biggest overcome upon building an agile team was maybe the traditional reporting system.

I was just talking about this with Raphaela last month – This may not be limited to Japan, but while the arrangement of reporting, communicating, and consulting with superiors is still important for effective and efficient project implementation, it may sometimes be a kind of hierarchy. I think it is also a challenge to achieve a flat and agile structure.

Actually, it was same in Trier, too, or it may be the same in all professional environment. It’s interesting we also had the similar challenge with Japan. In the past, I had to wait for directions from my boss what to do for the day or who to communicate.

We had similar structure in Hong Kong, too – Sometimes information was exclusive to a certain group of people who needed it for the moment, However, If you wait for information to come down, the moment you access to it you are already behind of the situation. I think our team lead did a very good job in creating this environment where we feel comfortable to voice out.
I feel the sense of hierarchy weakened and transparency has improved a lot, and it could not have been without the comfortable environment to speak out instantly and to reach out directly to your needs.

It is very outstanding that we are the only department to have actually dismantled the old reporting lines.

Even so, the balance between a sense of cooperation and efficiency is very difficult and will continue to be our challenge. As next steps, Japan team is participating in the work of the organization's management together with the global members, including involvement in the community which is the organized group of professionals who shares the same interests in resolving an issue, improving skills and learning from each other's experiences.

I believe RDS can provide operational innovation, small yet steady, that may make a big contribution to the whole JT group in the future.

Other examples of our effort to make an agile team is the regular “weekly / bi-weekly” RDS update presentation meeting that can be used by any team or individual to share news and information with other members in our department. These update meetings are being recorded, so everyone can follow despite being in different locations and working times.

Previously we have done some workshops for deeper understanding towards each other’s culture so we could realize an autonomous, organic atmosphere to be agile.

We had a common online team building activity that everyone enjoyed. We established a regular coffee meet up for newcomers in the global team from various locations, so there could be a casual space where everyone feels comfortable to exchange, ask questions and get to know each other. We will keep up a regular exchange to share knowledge, make sure to understand and learn from each other.

Behaving naturally towards the members will raise productivity as a result. For instance, the smallest questions like “Is it okay to call a Japanese member on a Friday evening?” “How is everybody going to spend around Golden Week, or Chinese New Year?” could be casually asked if you have already maintained organic relationship. I couldn’t have imagined working and caring about other countries’ national holidays.

The current situation could not have been realized without human-based relationships. The sense of one team is getting stronger day by day even now.

To tighten the connection, we will start to meet in person as the restrictions allow to do this again.

Also, the work style brought by the pandemic, like adopting video chat/conferences frequently when working at home, made us eager to learn about each other’s background including families and personal matters.

Knowing each other, understanding each other with respect beyond “job” but with humanity…I always feel this attitude is making the atmosphere of this team.

I think the most important thing is to be open minded and to be curious. What I learned most at RDS is that you can overcome any cultural hurdle or time zone difference and exchange ideas despite nationalities or background, as long as you approach others with empathy and seek connection.

I agree…Not only about your colleagues, but just about anything. Curiosity will let you find ways to learn things right and let you have ownership to any process as well. It fuels you.

For me, RDS is a place where I could learn from every interaction the team takes and gives me a sense of augmenting location and idea.