PRWA Exchange: Gothenburg to Tokyo
The PRWA Exchange Program was designed to expand professional expertise and experiences of our member agencies and their employees by giving them an opportunity to work at another member agency for a period of time.
Recently, Michael Stenfeldt from Nowa Empower/Thinc Collective (Gothenburg, Sweden) was hosted by Robert Heldt at Custom Media’s offices in Tokyo, Japan. They both kindly agreed to answer a few questions about their experience to provide information for those interested in participating in the PRWA Exchange Program, either as a host or a guest.
How did the exchange come about?
Michael: I was elected Employee of the Year within Thinc Collective in Sweden in December 2023. Then you can choose to travel to any office in the world within PRWA for one week during the next year. I chose to go to Tokyo and visit Custom Media, and Robert and his colleagues were willing to host me.
What were the goals of the exchange? Were they accomplished?
Michael: My goal was to experience a completely different culture than my own, as well as get to know the employees at Custom Media and try to learn about how they work in the Japanese market.
A week is a short time to discover Tokyo and get to know Japanese society, I’ve only scratched the surface but would love to go back to discover more. I’ve met most of the Custom Media employees in person. They were kind enough to let me take part in project meetings regarding their clients and we had interesting discussions about similarities and differences in working methods in Japan and Sweden. I’m very pleased with my stay in Tokyo and by the way Custom Media took care of me.
Robert: Goal was to introduce Japan and a different culture to Michael, show him how we operate and give him some experiences of the work we do.
What was the arrangement between agencies?
Michael: Thinc Collective paid for flight and hotel, Robert was kind and suggested suitable hotels near Custom Media, as well as some attractions in and around Tokyo. I got a desk on the days I was in the office and they took me to lunch.
Robert: Michael’s agency took care of his costs, we offered him a desk and space to work at our office, and introduced him to the team.
What did a typical day during the exchange look like (activities, meetings…)?
Michael: I came to the office at 9:15 am, attended meetings when relevant, socialized with the employees, otherwise I worked with my own projects. Japan is 8 hours ahead of Sweden so I could work fairly undisturbed until 5 pm Japanese time, when Sweden woke up.
Robert: Michaels started work from our typical 9:30 am start, participated in our weekly company wide employee meeting, joined some internal client work brainstorming sessions while doing his own agency’s work. He joined our colleagues for lunch and coffee chats.
Was there a language barrier? How did you mitigate it?
Michael: The employees at Custom Media are bilingual; Japanese and English, and my English is not too bad so I didn’t experience the language as a problem in my dealings with Robert and his colleagues.
Robert: Since all our internal communications are in English, we did not have any language barriers.
Do you have any tips and tricks for those who are interested in partaking in the Exchange Program?
Michael: I wanted to go to Tokyo because I expected it to be very different to Sweden. But I was convinced to go there when I read about Custom Media on their website: the way they want to be perceived when it comes to how they treat both customers and employees matches well with my own way of looking at this. I had the opportunity to talk to Robert about this on several occasions during my stay in Tokyo.
Robert was kind enough to have a couple of digital meetings with me before I left Sweden. Then we had the opportunity to get to know each other and talk about plans for my stay with them. That helped me a lot.
Robert: It helps to plan ahead and reach out to the hosting agency at least a month or two in advance. This will give you some time to schedule an online introduction meeting, get to know the goals and expectations from both sides and also get travel tips to make it a pleasant experience.
Benefits of such a program?
Michael: I think it’s a great opportunity to get to learn more about another culture as well as each other and each other’s business. If you’re lucky to have a person as Robert and his colleagues as generous hosts, you might even be invited to a party at the Tokyo American Club ☺
I really enjoyed my stay in Tokyo and the way I was welcomed by Custom Media. I would love to go back to Tokyo and Japan!
Robert: Cross cultural learning, sharing best practices and experiencing other agencies processes.