Culture co-creation: The key to building a truly global organisation

“True team cohesion comes from a deep, collective commitment to a shared set of values. At Sansan, our values—the Katachi of Sansan—are not just words. They guide our work and allow us to thrive across different cultures.” – Kazunori Fukuda, Managing Director, Sansan

As organisations expand across borders, the challenge for HR leaders is no longer simply managing operations—it is about fostering a culture that transcends geography while preserving the essence of an organisation’s core values. Kazunori Fukuda, newly appointed Managing Director of Sansan Global Thailand, shared with HRM Asia how to do just that.

With a career spanning Japan, Chile, the UK, Singapore, and now Thailand, Fukuda has witnessed firsthand the complexities of leading multicultural teams. His approach is grounded in what he calls a “third culture”—a model that blends Japanese discipline and long-term vision with the agility and local insight of South-East Asian teams.

“A ‘third culture’ is a modern-day approach to building a truly global organisation that deliberately moves away from strictly traditional models,” Fukuda explained. “Our headquarters in Japan does not dictate a global standard, nor does it simply hand over the keys to a local office. We aim to combine the best of both approaches to create a more dynamic operating model.”

Unlike traditional structures where headquarters designs strategy and local offices execute, Fukuda said Sansan encourages co-creation. The organisation’s Global Development Centre in the Philippines, for example, is not just an outsourcing hub. “Local engineers have genuine ownership over the global products they develop, as well as a career path. This creates a level of commitment, insight, and sense of belonging that you can never achieve through delegation,” he said.

This philosophy is especially relevant as Sansan expands solutions like Bill One, a platform designed to digitise invoicing processes in markets such as Thailand. “The challenge of moving business processes from paper-based to full digitisation differs from our organisation’s challenges in Singapore or Japan,” Fukuda noted. “A third culture respects this and empowers local teams to find the best path toward the common goal.”

For Fukuda, strong corporate culture is not about everyone doing things in a rigid way. “True team cohesion comes from a deep, collective commitment to a shared set of values. At Sansan, our values—the Katachi of Sansan—are not just words. They guide our work and allow us to thrive across different cultures.”

He emphasised that a strong culture enables employees to express these values in their own ways. “We empower every individual to make decisions with determination and intent, paving their own way forward rather than blindly following a set path,” he said. “We encourage everyone to face their mission and love their work, bringing their unique energy to a shared purpose.”

A human-centric approach to digital transformation

When it comes to digital transformation, many organisations make the mistake of focusing on technology first, viewing it as a technology problem to be solved. Fukuda warned that this tech-first mindset is a leading cause of failure.

“You risk solving, or trying to solve, the wrong problem,” he explained. “The team becomes obsessed with implementing a specific technology rather than focusing on the fundamental business problem they’re trying to solve.”

A tech-first approach can lead to tools that lack demand, creating friction and frustrating employees. Fukuda advocates for a human-centric approach, which “flips the entire process on its head.” The process begins with empathy, involving sitting with teams to understand their daily frustrations and mapping out their workflows. The goal is no longer to “implement technology” but to “make this person’s job less frustrating and more valuable.”

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“You build solutions that get adopted organically because they’re genuinely helpful,” he said. “You empower your employees because they’re part of the creative process, which turns resistance into advocacy.”

To achieve this, Fukuda believes the single most important human skill for leaders to inspire is curiosity. A curious team is never satisfied with the status quo; they will be curious about their customers’ real problems, new ways of working, and learning new skills without fear of failure. “Adaptability, creativity, and resilience are all vital, but they’re born from a deep, relentless curiosity,” he added.

Fukuda’s definition of leadership has undergone significant evolution throughout his career. He started in a world where leadership was synonymous with expertise and authority—a “director’ with all the answers. Today, he sees the leader’s role as more of a conductor of an orchestra of experts.

“My job is no longer to know everything, but to create an environment of psychological safety where a diverse group of specialists can collaborate, challenge each other, and do their best work,” he stated. “It is a transition from providing answers to asking the right questions.”

His advice to aspiring global leaders is succinct: “Lead with informed humility. Humility, because past success in one market doesn’t guarantee success in another. Informed because you must do your homework—study the market, understand the data, and learn the cultural nuances. This combination allows you to pair rigorous analysis with openness to new ideas, earning trust while steering the ship with purpose.”