0:04

Welcome to talking success with asthma mayor in partnership with withs the international law firm,

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Benevolence and consciousness, arch of things are very important to me.

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The most rewarding thing is pulling people up, helping them realize their potential.

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We are of a much larger harmonic.

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And when you see it that way, as yourself as this like little tiny being on this little spec of dirt, you go, that's a humbling thought.

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I'm asthma mayor. This series, we're hearing from a wide array of guests, all sharing what they've learned from life's curve balls, because we all face moments of crisis.

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It's how we respond. That may all the difference.

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Success is probably the fact that you deserve your colleagues, your partners, you work with the colleagues that you deserve.

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This is a very different society here where the group is more important than the individual

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Today. I'm speaking to Vasant table.

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Although he's originally from France, Vasant began his career in Tokyo.

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Japan will working for a bank in do Suez.

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This was in 1990, and although he returned to France in 1992 and began rising through the ranks of credit bank, he returned to Japan in 1998.

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After a six year stint to CEO of credit, agricul securities, Japan, he's now a managing partner for a climate impact fund.

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Vasa. Thank you very much for joining me.

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Thank you for having

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Me today. I'm gonna begin with one of our big questions.

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It's quite unusual. So brace yourself. What would your superhero name be and

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Why then the, uh, answer would be, um, quite unusual as well.

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Probably, uh, without hesitation. My super hero is Miu Muhi, he's, uh, the greatest Sam of all times reading about his life and his writings.

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And so on his art, looking at his art as well.

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It has inspired my life a lot and basically I'm living outside of the work and, uh, on his past and, uh, embracing all the, uh, all the Japanese culture, uh, from the art side, spiritual side.

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So that's, that's the big source of inspiration for me, Mihi.

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Everybody should read about his life.

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And is he the one who inspired you to go to Japan?

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Yes, clearly. Um, I've been practicing martial arts since seven in France.

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I was practicing Zan and reading everything I could find about the Japanese culture.

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And one day I, I wrote the book of Yohi, uh, on the life of Mihi.

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And I just, you know, I stayed three days at home, read it a few times, closed the book and decided to go to Japan.

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My life was in Japan. That's it. I could find in this book a bit of all the, the Japanese culture in terms of Buddhism, Shintoism, martial arts, some right way, uh, the way, uh, this gentleman has studied, um, all kind of activities in, in, in the society.

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He has been working with some businessman.

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He has been staying, studying some geisha, how they work.

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He has been studying arts. He has created probably the most efficient way to, to fight in those days with his, uh, two world style that I am practicing.

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Now, I have been practicing as well.

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Some school of his opponents. I had some luck to be invited in some of the dojos where a lot of big summer I came.

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I mean, the, the God of the, the Bushido in Japan is in, uh, is in KHI Jiu in Iki.

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This is where I am practicing still.

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And a lot of things, uh, I do practice then, uh, who became a friend who is exactly the same Zaza school of, uh, Muhi is quite amazing.

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One of another friend who has a mountain in QSU, where there is a tomb of MIMO Muhi one of my client was from Oyama where Mihi was born.

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I mean, all the life has been by incidents.

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I'm just, you know, encountering people linked with his life.

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It's quite scary actually. <laugh> but it's amazing.

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I mean, yeah. <laugh>

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So you had a kind of idea of what you wanted to get from Japan, what you thought you would find in Japan when you went there, what was the reality?

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What did you find?

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Well, that was, this is very funny because I came to find a martial art master who would take me as a discipline.

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And I came to find a Zen Mon who would teach me Zen.

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And I arrived in narrator, in Japan, in the, in 1990, at the top of the bubble economy where everything was about industrial fight, everything was gray, everything was full of businessmen, all looking the same and, uh, buildings with a lot of lights and bar and restaurant at every floors, completely opposite of where I came from and completely opposite of the image of Japan I had, which was a wooden houses, kimono, uh, you know, and it was bit, uh, bit of a shock at the beginning and the culture as well.

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Uh, the way the society moves, this was not explaining the books and the way at work, the, the, the life at the office, the way people communicate, everything has been a big shock.

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Yes, but it was interesting. Another challenge, I mean, from what I expected, I am

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Sure. And I, in terms of your career, you spent a large chunk of your career so far with credit agricul.

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What was it that made you leave a very high flying position there to seek new challenges?

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Did you feel that you had achieved everything you wanted to, or did you have a calling elsewhere?

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Yes, it's also very interesting question.

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I I've been at iCal.

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I arrive as a trainee and I spent 28 years of my life there.

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I could have continued with iCal, but I had to leave Japan.

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And I was discipl of one very, I ranked a judo master who passed away two years before, and I was accepted as a dispel of a master of Samari family, but was getting old as well.

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And I was very close to get all the last teaching to receive my diploma, to teach on.

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So on, basically I wanted to stay close to this master because I have to receive all this culture and transmit it again.

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And the carrier at did at that stage was less important in my life.

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And I felt I could help the Japanese investors better getting out of the sell side and move to the buy side, because along the carrier, I arrived as a derivative trader prop trader.

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I've seen the, you know, just after the Asian crisis, 1998, I've seen the, the first negative rates, the zero rates, interest policy, a lot of things Liman shock on and so on.

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So stayed next to the master till the end and help the client better was very important

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For me. Tell me about the moment if there was a moment, I mean, maybe it was, is a gradual or thing when you realized that you wanted to get involved in the whole area of the environment.

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You know, this is something we've been talking about for decades now, but now there seems to be a real push.

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It seems to be a real moment from where I'm sitting anyway.

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When did you think I have to do something?

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I have to get involved?

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Look, first of all, I've been all is close to nature by, you know, family, uh, martial art, the Japanese culture and everything.

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But I was working K, which was very large cooperative bank in Europe, probably the largest close to the farming, uh, world.

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And we've seen the need after the lemon shock to, you know, do something with, with, uh, like a, some kind of ethic and, and sustainability in finance as well and close to the real world.

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And greater recall was the first, the funder of the, of the green bone principles.

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And we started to innovate in that field in the very early stages we've been selling in Japan since probably around 2011 already.

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And the, the, the Japanese market was already very sensitive to all we can do that makes the world a little bit better.

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So for me, it was just completely natural being in a green bank cause iCal is still the green bank and writing the first pages of the history of the green bones and all the green finance green loans and so on.

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Um, there was a logic to, to keep pushing for that.

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Although, uh, for a while we've seen a lot of people trying to follow the trend on launching all kind of products that we call now greenwashing.

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And it's a good thing that the regulator is cracking down a bit of some of the products that have been passed to the retail that, that, that go a little bit too far compared to the real real impact.

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I met some friends in, in the Spanish community who are a great expert in this, in this field, in this industry.

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And I realized so much money can be made in the renewable energy for the investors.

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And you can easily do some good for the planet, bring value to your investors, whatever the type of profile, the risk profile they need, you know, double digit return or single digit, but very stable cash flow, very, you know, long term for sticky investors like for like, you know, pension funds or whatever.

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And I realized this asset class is just extremely strategic because we need it.

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It is cheaper. For example, if you look at the solar renew energy, it is cheaper now than fulfill.

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It's all natural. And so win-win for everybody.

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So I thought we should push a little bit more in that in, I started my career as a, as a software engineer and software developer, and I've been always close to technology and I was studying blockchain and I realized how blockchain is another industrial revolution.

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And this blockchain is gonna need more and more energy, you know, for the encryption.

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So if we do nothing, the cloud itself is gonna really destroy earth faster because it consumes a lot of energy.

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So we need to do something in terms of renewable energy and we could use and leverage on the technology to prove as well to the investor, the impact on the environment, using this blockchain on, on, you know, AI on all the, you know, state of the up technologies.

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So basically I just ended up with a new project.

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I spoke to some friends in the industry to link the renewable energy plant with the blockchain, the technology.

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And we could start, you know, paving the way towards a real innovation, but something at the opposite of the greenwashing, something with a real impact that you can measure with machines and the client can check on his mobile phone and you feel good about it because you can see on a daily basis, unless you produce energy, almost carbon machine, you have avoided, and it's done by machine it's, you know, temp proof, all automated.

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There is no room for any fake or self reported black box type of things.

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There is a lot of opportunities to work more on this kind of asset class of the renewable energy, which is completely DEC correlated from the economy, from the stock market, whatever.

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Even if you have a complete internet blackout, still, the sun will rise and your plant will create energy on, and same for the wind for the biomas, it's a bit different because you need a bit of human intervention.

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But, um, when you look at the, uh, hybrid type of energy with a clean hydrogen, with a Aldo wind and everything, there are so many things we can do.

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And so, so much innovation coming that there is a way to create nice products for the clients.

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And that's what I'm doing now, by the way. <laugh>

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Well, I'm glad to hear it. It sounds very optimistic, which is we need a bit of optimism right now.

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Um, so vaso the street behind you. It's what, what happens on the street behind you?

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I can hear

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Music. I think it's Friday night already in Tokyo.

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So we all, I mean, a lot of, um, cars and some of loud speakers in Japan.

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Yeah. Friday night,<laugh> it started

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And you're in the office. <laugh>

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Yes. I'm, I'm in the, yes, I am in the office. You're

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A hardworking man. I'm sure you are aware.

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This podcast is all about kind of defining moments and how we respond to those it's in a successful way.

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And I wonder what Japanese culture has taught you about understanding these kind of key ideas of success, failure and make or break moments.

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First of all, in Japanese culture is teaching you about looking for the beauty of nature, respect, nature, and always the search for S STT can fill with your body rather than pure.

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You know, what we can find in the waste, more like logical or Caucasian type of analysis.

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So in Japan, I found this, you know, way to fill things.

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I wouldn't go too far about filling energy, blahing, martial arts, but actually you do need to feel open and you do need to feel the energy fields of the open and to progress in the martial at, at certain level.

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And I found that I found a way to connect this.

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So Japan has, has taught me about the fact that human have to adapt to nature.

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This is a very different society here where the group is more in important than the individual.

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You see so many athletes in the Olympics or whatever, who just cry because they failed.

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They only get the silver or the bronze medal, cuz only thing important for them is a gold medal in Japan.

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Just be the number one. And, and you see the European athletes who just jump on, you know, are so happy to get whatever medal.

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Uh, so the, the Japanese culture is a little bit different here in terms of success or, or failure.

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Uh, for me, what I got in Japan that I didn't have in when I was working in, in, in, in France is that there is really, uh, some how to say reward or energy, uh, working with a team and you move really more as a team.

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The team protects you. And maybe if we can, we can say that success is probably the fact that you, you deserve your colleagues, your partners, you work with the colleagues that you deserve and you get at the end, the client that you deserve and the clients do protect you here in Japan.

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I mean, they take care of you. It's very difficult to start a transaction, but once you are being recognized and have a relation it's for life, basically, if you're a professional, uh, this helps you to really be yourself and, um, enjoy every 50 minutes you spend at work trying to, you know, bring value and have fun, you know, pushing the limits and uh, making dream dream come true.

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But being yourself, Japan has taught me to how to enjoy the moment through the, probably the Japanese culture.

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When you do as in the past or the future, doesn't count, just try to feel the present.

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And when you are in a fight, you just feel now with your heart, what's going on around, and this helps you to connect to higher energies and be happy.

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And the fact you're happy at work or the client, see you working with passion with your team.

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They want to be part of it. They give you business.

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So if you work professionally with discipline and having fun with your team figures come, no problem success is coming.

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So this is what I found in Japan. And didn't have in Europe where there is more individual competition, um,

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I'm really keen to find out what is next for you and the world of sustainable investments.

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It's very clear where we have to go. It's very clear where we have to contribute and where the, the industry needs to go.

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We, we speak a lot about the green bones, the, the green finance and so on.

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It suddenly became very trendy. And for me, it's a bit of a surprise because we've been working on it for last 10 years.

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What is important is the sustainability of the, of the products and the monitoring of the impact.

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And behind that a duty for all of us to act, to protect the biodiversity behind the climate.

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So it's time to act altogether. And I think we have the tools now with the technology to do it.

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And to me, the, the renewable energy is a fantastic sector to, to contribute to the world and to the investors.

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One day, a friend of mine, uh, basically created family office and we discussed about, you know, the, the way they're gonna manage and, and the, the strategy around the family office.

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And I realized coming from the sales side, I realized how important it is to manage your wealth in a sustainable way for the X generations.

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And I found it extremely healthy. And I think with the real assets around the renewable energy, you have opportunity to really bring or contribute to this, you know, sustainability for the planet, for the wealth of the investors.

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And there is so much need in Asia as well to protect the, the climate attended biodiversity.

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Then we have, we are the best place to, to do something.

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And there is so much cash in Japan to be invested, but I just have to make the bridge.

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You know, it sounds very easy, but actually<laugh> takes a lot of energy, but this is where we're gonna go.

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I just want to air finish with, um, by asking you a couple of quick fire questions.

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Okay. So the first question is what's the skill that you use most in your work?

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I, I feel from my heart, I listen from my heart and I decide with my heart, this is what martial arts taught me.

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Um, do you have a favorite time of the work day?

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The best time of the day is when you meet with the clients and you can listen to their needs and the idea come to really make the product they need and they get so excited about it.

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This is really magic, a magic moment. I love it.

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I can hear that. What advice do you wish you had listened to sooner?

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Uh, take a little bit more care of the internal politics on your management, because I just only focused on delivering on the battlefield, listen to the clients, protect my teams.

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I did care enough about the internal things.

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And sometime it's wise to spend a bit of time with your internal clients do not ignore your internal clients.

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It can make your success a bit faster for the young people coming to the, to the

18:27

Market. Interesting. Now, apart from the book that you mentioned at the beginning of the interview, is there another book that has been incredibly important to you?

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Uh, yes.

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There is, uh, a book from, uh, actually the, uh, JIT, uh, priest, Mr.

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Kaki, about the Zen on the Bible, who was explaining how to practice as a Christian through the Zen.

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And I, I actually met later, uh, priest in, in Japan who was practicing Saan as well.

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And this link between the, uh, west Western world and the, you know, Asia, Susan meditation, Buddhism, and so on.

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I mean, yeah, this book was Zen on the Bible from Kaki was inspiring for me.

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Well feel from your body link, the spiritual with the body, through the meditation.

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And

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Finally, Ian, what qualities do you admire in other people?

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Wow, that

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Is, there are so many,<laugh> various type of people and qualities to admire.

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Uh, this is very tricky question<laugh> in Japanese.

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We say a Yankee take things positively, be constructive, keep fighting, finding joy in the challenge and keep moving together.

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This is one, another one is capacity to listen and the most important.

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Anyway, however is the like, you know, into, on beauty, the heart of the person, this is most important.

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That's fantastic. Van San. Well, thank you so much for speaking to me.

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Thank

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You very much. It, it was a pleasure.

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Well, I love talking to Vanson. He was very chilled.

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He had a really pure message. You know, he talked about listening to your heart and do everything connected with your heart, which is a kind of great message to live by.

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And also most importantly, he was very optimistic and that was really great to hear.

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Thank you for listening to talking success.

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You can find out more about weathers on their website, weathers, worldwide.com.

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And if you've enjoyed what you've heard, please follow us on your podcast app to get updates on the latest episodes or leave us a review next week, I'll be speaking to Neha NaRCAD founder of major tech firm, Colu about changing the world of technology, both in terms of software and making this sector more inclusive.

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Talking success is a feast collective production.

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The producer is Leo.