Merrill Lynch Japan president bullish on being a woman

When Izumi Kobayashi started working as an "office lady" photocopying, fetching tea and doing other menial jobs at a Japanese chemical company in 1981, no one expected her to blossom into who she is today.

Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co. President Izumi Kobayashi talks about her career in an interview last week at the securities firm's Tokyo head office.

Even now, her tiny physique, engaging smile and MBA-devoid resume give no hint that Kobayashi, 46, is president of Merrill Lynch Japan Securities Co., where she has worked for 20 years.

Although more women have chosen to have careers since the Equal Employment Opportunity Law was enacted in 1985, few have managed to make it into the top echelons of corporate Japan.

According to a survey by research firm Teikoku Databank Ltd., only 5.64 percent of the roughly 1.2 million firms in its nationwide database had female presidents as of the end of last June.

By comparison, 17.5 percent of the board directors at 78 companies in the United States listed in Fortune magazine's 200 largest global companies in 2004 were women, according to Globewomen.Com, a U.S.-based group that provides information about the world's businesswomen.

While Kobayashi, who assumed the presidency in December 2001, is viewed as a role model for many younger women, she said she has hardly been conscious of the fact that she is a businesswoman.

But she guessed that being a woman -- in addition to her ability as a trouble shooter -- might have been one of the elements that got her selected as president when Merrill Lynch Japan conducted a drastic restructuring that eliminated 1,200 jobs and closed 20 of its 28 outlets nationwide.

"Given the particular situation the firm was facing at that time, I could see why I was chosen," Kobayashi said in a recent interview.

"A woman can say tough things without spawning bitter feelings among employees," she said, noting that as a longtime employee of the firm, she was able to minimize anger from workers and gain cooperation for the restructuring.

Merrill Lynch has since regained its financial strength, posting a net profit of 14.1 billion yen in fiscal 2003, compared with its net loss of 59.9 billion yen in fiscal 2001.

Last month, Kobayashi won the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year, an award that honors outstanding Japanese female executives.

Her current challenge is to ensure that Merrill Lynch Japan continues to play an integral role of the Japanese market.

"You can carry out restructuring with a clear goal in mind," she said. "What is more difficult is to set a new goal, when people are unsure how the market might change, and lead employees toward it.

"Financial services in Japan are changing drastically. . . . We need to create a business that wins (customers') utmost trust."

Kobayashi said becoming an executive was not her goal when she started her career.

After graduating from Seikei University in Tokyo in 1981, she took a clerical job at the trading division of Mitsubishi Kasei Corp., now Mitsubishi Chemical Corp., without giving much serious thought to her career, she said.

After four years, Kobayashi decided she wanted to do a more substantive job to develop her capabilities and moved to Merrill Lynch Japan's commodities futures subsidiary.

"I found that in those days, only foreign firms gave women challenging jobs," she said. "Although I had no financial knowledge, I thought young women might become more interested in stock investments in a few years' time."

What excited her most was setting up and running the firm's back-office for derivatives operations.

"In derivatives, you don't know what will happen next," she said. "I liked to analyze developments and come up with the best way to handle the situation.

"Then I would think about preventative measures so it wouldn't happen again. I enjoyed the learning process."

She takes a similar approach when she makes mistakes.

"I take steps to minimize the impact of my failures," she said, adding that she does not get depressed by her mistakes, thanks to her personality, which she described as being able to "move past mistakes in the time it takes to walk three steps."

Regarding the current situation of Japanese working women, Kobayashi said she feels they tend to set their own limits.

She added that Japanese employers tend to try to cast employees in certain molds by putting them on specific career paths.

"I've continued to take on new tasks and expand my capabilities since I began sailing in regattas at my university," she said. "If you want to expand your potential, you've got to break out of the framework you are in."