INSIGHTS

This year has been an eventful year for the U.S. technology industry but, here in Japan, it’s a different story.

Perhaps because Japanese enterprises are still in the early stages of their shift to the cloud or perhaps because macroeconomic indicators point to a stable economy with inflation largely in check and interest rates still hovering around zero, demand for enterprise software continues relatively unabated.

Japan Cloud added three new partnerships this year－Mirakl, PagerDuty, and Gainsight. In total, we now have 11 companies with a combined workforce of more than 320 skilled and passionate people－a 68 percent increase over last year.

As the year comes to a close, I’d like to express my sincere thanks to everyone－our partners, their customers, our advisors, and the Japan Cloud team and their families－who contributed to the growth and success of Japan Cloud in 2022.

Japan Cloud Community in 2022

Japan Cloud is a community where our partners share and learn from each other as they grow in Japan. Our GTM Playbooks, Executive Development Programs, CEO Club Meetings and Best Practice Sharing Sessions have become increasingly valuable as our portfolio of world-class partners has grown.

Throughout the year, Japan Cloud held numerous best practice-sharing sessions covering a range of topics such as Sales, BDRs, Marketing, HR/Office Operations, and FP&A.

In September, we hosted the Japan Cloud Community Event, which brought together 80 in-person attendees and 50 online attendees. The event was a great opportunity for the community to share customer stories and best practices across various areas such as sales, marketing, Customer Success, and HR, and to learn about functions beyond their own specialties. The enthusiasm was palpable, and it was clear that the Japan Cloud community is a powerful force.

In early December, we held our annual year-end Holiday Party, with over 100 attendees. The event featured presentations, games, prizes, and best practice breakout sessions across different groups.

We asked each member to share their hopes for 2023, and their responses are displayed on our office wall for everyone to see.

Looking Forward to 2023

As we look to 2023, our focus remains unchanged: exceptional GTM execution. This means that we will continue to:

1. Develop our GTM playbooks and conduct Best Practice Sharing Sessions and development programs;
2. Strengthen relationships with our core group of buyers – CFOs, CMOs, CIOs as well as DevOps and ITOps heads; and
3. Attract and develop the best talent that Japan has to offer.

As Byron Deeter of Bessemer Venture Partners said in a recent interview, “what we’re seeing is a fundamental replatforming of business.” The replatforming of Japanese business is what our partners do. Empowering our partners to deliver on their promise to customers is what we at Japan Cloud do.

In 2023, we plan to add one hundred new members to the Japan Cloud Community, in addition to new partnerships.

Together with their peers, our new members will have the opportunity to immerse themselves in enterprise cloud best practices and take a leading role in driving operational excellence and customer success at their companies. Their efforts will contribute to the “replatforming” of Japanese businesses, enabling them to be more open, agile and globally competitive.

Allen Miner, Yasu Fukuda and I feel tremendous joy when we think about the learning and growth opportunities ahead, and we feel immense gratitude toward our partners for putting their trust in Japan Cloud.

We wish all friends and family a happy and safe holiday season and a new year full of health, learning, and success.

Aruna