While some people have connections with Japan, others have deep connections. Gregory Glanzmann falls firmly into the latter category. Born in Yokohama’s Bluff Hospital, “for whatever reason all foreigners seemed to go there at the time,” during his father’s assignment in Tokyo as a banker, “of course, he’s Swiss,” says Glanzmann with a chuckle. “The Japanese ‘gene’ was planted then, though not actual genes, my mother is Alsatian,” he adds with another of the laughs that frequently punctuate his speech.
Picture: ©Koichi Ohtani
Living in Japan until he was four, during which time his brother was also born, the family then relocated to Hong Kong. When he reached the age of seven, Glanzmann’s parents decided they wanted him to experience the culture and schooling of Switzerland and so began the first stint living in his ‘home’ country. But Japan was never far from his heart and at aged 16 — “wanting to figure out where I came from” — he applied for an exchange programme through Youth for Understanding. A year at high school in Kashiwa, Chiba followed, living with a local family and steeping himself in Japanese language and culture, including daily kyudo archery practice at the school club leading to the award of a black belt.
“I always knew I would come back,” says Glanzmann, who returned to Switzerland and studied international affairs at the University of St. Gallen, writing his graduation thesis on ‘Japan’s role in Swiss foreign politics’.
Picture: ©Satoshi Mayumi
On your bike
Receiving a scholarship from the Swiss-Japanese Chamber of Commerce (SJCC), he secured an internship in Japan with BMW’s motorbike division in 2006. Between studying business Japanese, gaining work experience, obtaining his motorcycle licence and “riding at events nearly every weekend,” Glanzmann clearly relished his time back in the country of his birth. The internship had barely begun when the BMW team and its partner, carbon material specialists Tras Ltd., won the Suzuka 8hours race. As a reward the two respective team leaders were sent to the Le Mans 24-hour race; with both only being Japanese speakers, Glanzmann was sent to accompany them. This period sparked three long and fruitful relationships: with Tras founder Masanao Nitta, his boss at BMW, and the certainly no less important one with his future wife, whom he met during the internship.
Back at St. Gallen, a master’s in strategy and international management was combined with running the SJCC alumni association and sitting on the scholarship committee. Participation in the chamber continued as he began work at Sony in Switzerland in 2010, “acting as a bridge with Tokyo.” In 2013 Sony sent him to Singapore, where his daughter carried on the family tradition of being born overseas.
Picture: ©Satoshi Mayumi
Back on the bike
Though Glanzmann enjoyed the responsibility of strategic planning for an expansive region that covered most of Asia, Africa and the Middle-East, he felt a little too comfortable. When his old BMW boss asked him to come and work with him in Munich, he couldn’t resist the fresh challenge. Back in the world of motorbikes from 2014, he led numerous innovative marketing initiatives, including a hugely successful global tie-up with LEGO, before being appointed to lead digitalisation of the firm’s sales operations. His eight years at BMW were also ideal for indulging his passion for motorbikes, often riding with colleagues. After executing his final project launching online sales in Australia, his time at BMW ended this year.
Along with keeping in touch with Tras, and even founding a company with its boss in 2009 to make a composite chair, Glanzmann returned every summer to support the team at the Suzuka 8hours. He took the perhaps inevitable next step in the relationship in April when he joined the firm as chief commercial officer at its technical centre in Mishima, Shizuoka.
New paths and branches
Picture: ©Koichi Ohtani
Tras creates lightweight composite carbon materials for Japanese car and bike makers, including working with Suzuki’s motorbike racing division for 11 years, culminating in a first overall team world championship in the prestigious MotoGP in 2020. Suzuki pulled out of bike racing last year and Tras is branching out from carbon into natural flax fibres, which produce 85% lower CO2 emissions.
Though it continues to be involved in automotive, and worked with Toyota on last year’s Asia Cross-Country Rally, building an award-winning Hilux out of natural fibres, Tras is also exploring the medical instrument sector. To that end, it opened an innovation office in Shizuoka Prefecture’s Fuji Pharma Valley in May.
Another shift at the company is entry into the B2C space, beginning with the launch of both carbon and natural fibre business card holders on June 11, the day of Tras’s 33rd anniversary, shortly after the firm joined the SCCIJ. A high-end briefcase is also in the pipeline.
Meanwhile, Glanzmann and his family are adjusting to their new life in the mountains of Shizuoka. He was recently awakened by what he assumed were his son’s footsteps, only to be greeted on venturing onto the balcony by “a red-faced monkey looking down at me from the roof.”
The family’s belongings recently arrived from Europe, contained in which was the bow his high school kyudo sensei gifted him at the end of his exchange year — only approved after some negotiations with the shipping firm over whether it was a dangerous weapon he was reimporting into Japan. Though he currently has more than enough on his plate, Glanzmann says that once things have settled down, “I might do a little bit of kyudo again.”
Text: Gavin Blair for SCCIJ.
Picture: ©Koichi Ohtani
