Early Life and Untraditional Role Models

Mayumi Chida grew up in a traditional Japanese family with a working father and a stay-at-home mom. Mayumi valued her up-bringing and it helped her set-out to create a professional path that was right for her.

“My mother was an excellent homemaker and my father worked very hard in his career outside the home. I knew early on that I wanted to have a long career where I would work after marriage. And I wanted a career that would challenge me and develop my potential for leadership,” Mayumi said.

Mayumi understood that at the time few women worked outside the home. While she was at university completing her pharmacy degree and getting her pharmacist license, she saw women working in different areas of healthcare such as field sales, hospital pharmacy, and physicians. This experience shaped her decision to choose a career path that was based on team work and allowed her to build professional networks across different areas of healthcare.

Mayumi’s Career Journey

She started her career in customer support for the sales teams in Tokyo in a global pharmaceuticals company. She gained insight into the healthcare industry, the regulatory environment for medicines, and how to manage professional relationships amongst different teams.  

Today, she’s the general manager for Abbott’s Electrophysiology business leading the commercial and sales teams.

Through her career progression that spanned experiences in research and development, sales, and marketing, Mayumi gained deeper insight into how to manage, lead, and inspire her teams to perform at their best.

“I’m continuously valuing the human element of all my professional relationships. It’s an important perspective to start with, because we’re helping people live healthier and fuller lives. That’s a very personal and often emotional journey,” Mayumi said.

In motivating her teams and setting an example that others could follow, Mayumi sets out the following practices to strengthen the impact of her leadership:

Inspire Through Storytelling. Facts, stats, and data alone may not be memorable nor inspire people. It's the story behind the numbers that can impact a team’s performance. People usually remember the emotion they felt when relating to the story. To be an effective speaker, keep the presentations short, but the stories full.   

Be True to Yourself. It's easy to compare yourself to others but you can’t live another person’s life. Make the career choices that align with your aspirations, strengths, and skills. You can learn from other people but live a life that is authentic to you.

Find a Mentor, Or Two. To get an objective view of your skills and strengths, find a mentor or two who you can trust to be candid with you. A mentor often has a perspective that is less centered around your day-to-day priorities. Taking that step back and seeing the “big picture” will open your eyes to better decision making.  

Seize the day. Don’t wait for scheduled one-on-one meetings to check in with your team. Be open to ad-hoc opportunities to connect with your team and solicit feedback. Feel the energy of the people and understand the sentiment of the environment in the moment.

Read the Room. Being flexible is a leadership strength. There may be times to be more open to discuss different ideas and create an environment for feedback. In other situations, direct and clear direction is needed to achieve results.

 “The speed of innovation in the medical technology requires different skills than other parts of the healthcare sector. Things move very quickly. Managing and motivating people is important to drive our innovation forward,” Mayumi said. 

The dynamics of the workforce in Japan is changing. Women are choosing to have a career and maintaining that career after marriage and children. It’s a path that Mayumi understands well. She’s using her experience and leadership to help other women develop their careers.

“It is a cultural shift and I fully embrace it. I want to create a work place that develops women’s professional growth and celebrates their achievements.”