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Jan 15,2006 - Jan 22,2006 |
14 - The Italian Canadian of the Rising Sun
Sharp Canada's Giuseppe (Joe) Anzini bridges the gap between Japan and Canada
By Antonio Maglio
Originally Published: 2002-12-22
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Giuseppe (Joe) Anzini
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This elegant man, with penetrating blue eyes, could in a few months become the first non-Japanese president of Sharps Electronics of Canada. But not just that. He could be the first Italian Canadian to ascend to such a prestigious post within the Japanese company giant, a world leader in electronics, from computers to television sets, vacuum cleaners to cellular phones, camcorders to digital cameras.
Giuseppe (Joe) Anzini, a Calabrian from San Giovanni in Fiore (Cosenza), is not shy. "Yes, indeed," he says, "there's a chance I could succeed to Mr. Kazuo Sasaki, Sharp Canada's current president. I'm the VP in charge of operations, so the de facto number two, and since I believe the work I did in these 14 years was good, succession should be a natural fact."
Let's say you have no competitors...
"This is not the problem. Let's say instead that I gained the trust of the Japanese, who are serious people and look for results. I gave results."
Which results?
"First of all I localized this company, which is a multinational all right, but is used to sending Japanese managers to run its subsidiaries all over the world. When I arrived here, the managers were all Japanese, and I was the only 'foreigner'; now there are only five of them. More than that, I proved that, globalization notwithstanding, only local people can truly understand in depth the needs of a local market. Mind you, mine was no polemic argument: the top management in Osaka understood I was not acting against the Japanese, but rather in favour of Sharp. The first to acknowledge this was Mr. Sasaki, the current president, who wanted me as his right-hand man, and with whom I established a loyal collaboration and friendship."
Giuseppe Anzini, 49, came to Canada from Calabria with his family when he was seven. They settled in Montreal, where he got his M.Sc. in Business Administration from McGill University. His first job was with Canadian National Railways, then with Northern Telecom, both in Quebec.
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