McKinsey & Company promotes Noriko Kuya to senior partner in Tokyo
Global management consultancy McKinsey & Company has promoted Noriko Kuya to senior partner in Japan, where she leads the firm’s people & organisational performance practice.
Kuya has spent more than two decades at McKinsey & Company, including time in the firm’s offices in Frankfurt and Paris, a perhaps unexpected career after gaining a masters in earth & planetary science and applied physics from the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
McKinsey however credits that training in applied physics in allowing Kuya to bring deep analytical rigour to her role as people & organisational performance practice leader for Japan, helping organisations to solve their fundamental human challenges.
Based out of Tokyo, Kuya, who also holds an MBA from the University of Cambridge, supports a number of the country’s major industrials and electronics, manufacturing, infrastructure, and transportation & logistics companies on how to align their leadership, lead through change, and unlock the full potential of their people and workforce.
And she says that the firm’s local clients are feeling a sense of urgency more than ever, facing a surge of AI disruption alongside heightened geopolitical risks and global competition; “Many are ready to act to seize opportunities or solve long-standing issues. Our work helps them unleash the united power of their organisations. That’s what I get most excited about.”
In electing her to senior partner level, McKinsey noted Kuya as being known for the depth of her client relations, her instincts in counselling senior leaders in sensitive situations, and her ability to build trust, giving as an example her work in helping to create the ‘Japan Bower Forum’, which has brought together local CEOs for “candid conversations and deeper reflection.”
Described as a slightly uncomfortable concept to begin with, the confidential sessions are now considered an essential outlet for dozens of chiefs, where they can openly discuss business challenges with their peers; “We weren’t sure if this kind of format would work, but our partners have tremendous relationships with CEOs, and saw room to make something special happen,” Kuya said.
As for her direct client work, Kuya provides support across a variety of areas, including strategy, operational improvement, and leadership evaluation and training. She also deigns and implements organisational transformation projects and capability-building programs, and conducts comparative research on corporate practices and cultures in Europe, the US, and Japan.
