Most companies arrive in a new market with a finished product and a plan to localise it. FJCC member PUROSI did the reverse. Before the company had anything to sell, its founders spent their first months trying to understand the country, its people, and the way work, leadership and human capital development really happens there. In this FJCC Member Insight blog, Nora Tåg, CEO and co-founder of PUROSI shares the three lessons that shaped the company’s journey.
FJCC member PUROSI is a management advisory and human capital development company that helps organisations in Japan strengthen leadership, culture, and performance. Founded by Nora Tåg and Satu Ahlman, it runs a hybrid development program that pairs face-to-face workshops with personal AI coaching, building self-awareness, resilience, and self-leadership at every level of an organisation, from executive teams to emerging talent. The approach draws on Finnish principles of harmony, functionality, and simplicity, and it is designed specifically for the Japanese market.
What pulled the founders in was a puzzle. How had two countries as far apart as Finland and Japan formed such a strong bond? The more time Tåg and her co-founder Ahlman spent exploring the Japanese market, the clearer the answer became. Beneath the geographic distance sat a strikingly similar value base: a shared respect for trust, quality and modesty. Yet despite the additional commonality of both countries being very hardworking, their working cultures were very different.
“We were fascinated by that contrast,” says Tåg. “Two cultures that feel so different on the surface, yet recognise something familiar in each other underneath. We decided to sit with that question rather than rush past it, and it ended up shaping everything we built.” Rather than designing a product in Finland and adapting it afterwards, Tåg illustrates, PUROSI let the market come first.
The results speak for themselves: PUROSI is now securely in the Japanese market with clients in several leading Japanese corporations, and a steady stream of new clients, interested in utilising PUROSI’s solutions to take their organisations to the next level. It’s with the knowledge gained from this successful market entry that Tåg now wishes to pass on three lessons to help any Finnish company heading the same way.
Give first, and keep giving
Networking in Japan works as a practice of generosity rather than a transaction. Tåg’s advice is to give, to help wherever possible, to share knowledge freely, and to introduce the people who should meet. “Give, give, give, and help others whenever you can,” she says. “Goodwill has a way of finding its way back to you, often from a direction you never expected.” Much of PUROSI’s early momentum came from exactly this. Co-founder Ahlman built the company’s first network through LinkedIn, a presence that is now growing rapidly across Japan.
That same openness shaped how the founders learned to handle guidance along the way. PUROSI has leaned on advisors at key moments, and Tåg is quick to credit how much that counsel has been worth. She is equally clear that outside input has its limits. “We have had advisors, and they have been very valuable, but as a founder you still need to be ready to put in the work yourself,” she says. “And when you receive advice, listen to yourself as well, and decide how you want your business to be built.”
Stay humble, and explain more than feels necessary
Humility, in Tåg’s experience, opens doors that confidence cannot. She encourages founders to explain every small detail, to answer the question behind the question, and to offer information long before anyone asks for it. “Always stay humble, and be ready to explain even more than feels needed,” she says. “Be prepared to provide information on every little detail.” What can feel like over-communicating in Finland reads as respect and reliability in Japan, where trust is earned one careful answer at a time.
Believe, and be ready to commit
At the start, almost nobody believed in what PUROSI was doing. Belief, Tåg notes, has to come from within first, and commitment matters every bit as much. “Japan is not a country you simply enter,” she says. “You have to commit, and you show it by being present.” A company earns its place by turning up again and again, until people understand it intends to stay.
Underpinning all three lessons is a willingness to fall in love with the slow work of building relationships and trust. The rewards that eventually arrive are far larger than any quick deal could have produced. Against almost everything the founders had been warned about, PUROSI closed its first client just nine months after the first trip to Japan, with nothing more than a demo to show for it. The demand was real, and PUROSI was ready to commit.
“Japan rewards patience, presence, and genuine care for the people you work alongside,” says Tåg, who also serves as vice-chair of the Finland Japan Chamber of Commerce. “There are no quick wins here. There are big ones, and they are worth every bit of the effort.”
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