The Makana Partners magazine
Makana 2.0
HR, leadership and technology shaping Asia's future. Every issue is here as readable articles, and as the printed pages.
All issues
Issue 05 · May 2026
7 articles · 21 pages
Issue 04 · October 2025
9 articles · 36 pages
Issue 03 · April 2025
11 articles · 28 pages
Issue 02 · December 2024
7 articles · 19 pages
Issue 01 · May 2024
9 articles · 19 pages
Issue 05 · May 2026
Letter from the Editor
Letter from the Editor
Yan Sen Lu opens Issue 5 with a Golden Week trip to Shizuoka and a farmer's answer to "what is enough", then introduces the issue's themes of BANI uncertainty, Japan's talent market and leadership.
Market Trends
Market Trends: Japan's Bilingual Executive Talent
Demand for bilingual executives in Japan keeps rising while the senior talent pool stays limited. The page sets out key trends, challenges and opportunities, and what will favor employers over the next six months.
Feature
How To Train Your Leaders
Jody Ono argues that leadership is not a training need. She separates management from leadership, cognitive from non-cognitive skills, and explains what organizations must do to develop leaders.
Feature
リーダーをいかに「トレーニング」するか
ジョディ・オノ氏が、マネジメントとリーダーシップの違い、認知的スキルと非認知的スキルの区別を示し、リーダーシップは「トレーニング」が必要なものではないと論じる記事の日本語版。
Feature
The Cockroach Way: How to Survive, Adapt and Thrive in a BANI World
An excerpt from Sebastian Chen's book argues that a brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible (BANI) world calls for resilience, emotional steadiness, optionality and small adaptive steps.
Feature
Tomorrow's World Is Here. Are we Ready?
Jonathan Stewart looks at how AI is turning employees from passive users into active creators, and sets out four interventions HR leaders need to make on work design, capability, leadership models and AI governance.
Placements
Recent Placements
A list of thirteen recent placements, each shown as a role and its industry, from HR Director in Healthcare to Country Manager in Industrial Manufacturing.
Issue 04 · October 2025
Letter from the Editor
Letter from the Editor
Yan Sen Lu, writing on a flight across the Pacific, reflects on quiet time, the future of AI and what people may rediscover if AI takes over much work, and introduces the issue.
Market Trends
Market Trends: Japan's Bilingual Executive Market
Demand for Japanese-English bilingual executives keeps rising while supply stays structurally limited, pushing up pay expectations and hiring timelines. The page sets out key trends, challenges and opportunities.
Feature
Why Japan Might Benefit the Most from AI
Jonathan Baier argues Japan's craftsmanship culture and demographic pressures make it well placed to benefit from generative AI, once it builds the digital, cloud, data and security foundations AI needs.
Feature
なぜ日本がAIから最も恩恵を受ける可能性があるのか
ジョナサン・ベイヤーは、日本の職人文化と人口動態の課題から、生成AIが日本に大きな恩恵をもたらす可能性があると論じ、その前提となる基盤技術を挙げる。(Japanese edition of the feature.)
Feature
Finding a New Chair at the Table: HR’s Role in the Age of AI
Sue Gannon argues that AI is already reshaping HR and that the function can evolve from strategic partner to intelligence integrator and human-centered innovator, built on what AI cannot replace: the human in HR.
Feature
From Network Core to Edge: Telco Modernization Today
Timo Jokiaho explains how open, cloud-native infrastructure helps telcos unlock efficiency, build in security and compliance, expand revenue and accelerate transformation in a 5G and AI-driven world.
Feature
The Changing Equation for Talent: What Professionals Really Want!
Smriti Handa says salary and stability no longer win talent, and sets out four expectations (flexibility, growth, purpose and wellbeing) with notes on how each plays out in Japan and what recruiters should do.
Feature
Five Key Points for Successful Onboarding: Building Engagement and Performance from Day One
Fumiko Takahashi sets out five key points for onboarding, from defining stakeholders and 90-day goals to digital tools, human connection and diversity, plus continued support beyond 90 days.
Placements
Recent Placements
A list of fourteen recent placements by role and industry, from HR and finance leadership to engineering, product and sales roles.
Issue 03 · April 2025
Letter from the Editor
Letter from the Editor
Yan Sen Lu welcomes readers to the third issue of Makana 2.0 and introduces the four articles in it, from Japan's labour shortage to hiring leadership talent.
Feature
How Underprivileged Groups Can Solve Japan's Workforce Shortage
Francis Fung argues that single mothers, women wanting to return to work and youth in poverty are an untapped answer to Japan's labour shortage, and sets out steps HR and leaders can take.
Feature
Organizational Development in the Age of Division with MVRV Thinking
Hiroyuki Nagashima proposes MVRV (Mission, Vision, Relationship, Value), adding relationships to the usual MVV framework, and argues dialogue and technology improve relationship quality in an age of division.
Feature
「分断の時代」はMVRV思考で組織開発を進める
長島宏之氏が、MVVに「関係性(Relationship)」を加えたMVRVを提唱し、分断の時代には対話とテクノロジーで関係性の質を高める組織開発が必要だと論じる。
Feature
Defining the Ultimate Roles of an HRBP
Naotake Momiyama names three ultimate roles of an HR Business Partner: contributing to business strategy, leading organizational structure design, and leading assignment of the right talent to each role.
Feature
Bridging the Gap: The Key to Unlocking Japan's Business Potential
Yan Sen Lu argues that the most critical attribute of a senior leader at a multinational in Japan is the ability to bridge cultural divides between Japanese corporate culture and global headquarters.
Podcast
The Makana Podcast: Conversations Shaping the Future of Recruitment
A guide to five Makana Podcast episodes hosted by Yan Sen Lu, with guests from Adecco, Recruiting Brainfood, Adobe, Dialectica and Cathay Pacific, plus how to contribute or sponsor.
News
Celebrating Makana Partners' 6th Anniversary
Makana Partners marks its 6th anniversary with thanks to clients, bilingual candidates, its All-Star team and vendors, and says this is just the beginning of the journey.
News
マカナ・パートナーズ 6周年のご挨拶
マカナ・パートナーズが創業6周年にあたり、クライアント、バイリンガルの候補者、ベンダーへの感謝を述べ、これからの旅の始まりに過ぎないと結ぶ。
Market Trends
Market Trends: Bilingual Executives in Japan
Demand for bilingual executives in Japan is rising with globalization, but talent scarcity, weak foreign-talent integration and the weak yen pose challenges for employers.
Placements
Recent Placements
A list of nine recent Makana Partners placements by role and industry, spanning technology, healthcare, manufacturing and financial services.
Issue 02 · December 2024
Letter from the Editor
Letter from the Editor
Yan Sen Lu explains what has kept him motivated through 20 years in executive search and recruitment: impact, lifelong learning, human connection and being a steward of trust.
Interview
Building Inclusive Futures: Miho Takiguchi on Leadership, Organizational Development, and Diversity
Miho Takiguchi of Universal Studios Japan discusses organizational development versus talent management, psychological safety, DE&I, hybrid leadership and why wellness will shape the future of OD.
Feature
Adapting Business Models in the Age of Digitalization, AI, and Global Challenges
Remi Padel argues that large companies must modernize decision-making with digital tools and AI, and that cultural understanding is essential to making transformation succeed in global organizations.
Feature
Strategic Planning: How Boxing Champions Prepare for Success
Loic Sar draws on coach Ben Davison's work with Anthony Joshua to show how long-term vision, regular analysis, adaptability and execution apply to business planning.
News
New Practitioners: Masayuki Koito and Koji Okano Join Makana Partners
Makana Partners welcomes Masayuki Koito as Director for Japan and Koji Okano as Principal Consultant for Japan, with their executive search and IT recruitment backgrounds.
Market Trends
Market Trends: APAC Executive Search
An overview of the Asia-Pacific executive search market: demand for technology, sustainability and finance leaders, digital leadership roles, India's growth and a more candidate-driven market.
Placements
Recent Placements
A list of twelve recent Makana Partners placements by role and industry, from country managers and HR directors to a designer and a frontend engineer.
Issue 01 · May 2024
Letter from the Editor
Letter from the Editor
Editor Yan Sen Lu introduces Makana 2.0, a quarterly magazine on talent acquisition, leadership and technology with a special focus on Japan and Asia.
Feature
Is Skills-based Hiring the Future for Talent Acquisition?
Jonathan Stewart sets out the pressures facing talent acquisition, the case for defining roles by skills, and why subjectivity and maintenance make skills-based hiring hard to implement today.
Feature
Understanding Organizations and Identify Challenges
An HR leader describes how he analyses a new organization: engagement survey results, one-on-one meetings with stakeholders, and a review of HR mechanisms, over roughly three months.
Feature
A Brave New World: Navigating Your Organization's Generative AI Strategy
James Mesbur argues that organizations should start with the business problem, not the technology, and shares the first item of a 10-question checklist for Generative AI projects, using customer support as the example.
News
Celebrating 5th Anniversary
Makana Partners marks its fifth anniversary with thanks to clients, bilingual candidates, its team and vendors.
News
Celebrating 5th Anniversary (日本語)
マカナ・パートナーズが創業5周年にあたり、クライアント、候補者、ベンダーへの感謝を述べています。
News
New Practitioners
Makana Partners welcomes Ella Choi as Senior Director and Jayson Pe Benito to its technology recruitment team.
Market Trends
Market Trends
Japanese firms are expanding spring 2025 hiring amid labor shortages, young workers are looking abroad, and Japan is reworking its foreign labor programs.
Placements
Recent Placements
A list of eight recent Makana Partners placements by role and industry.