INSIGHTS

Japan Cloud head of communications Sachie Otsuki talks being global, Japanese media and the power of local narrative

Sachie’s passion for her craft has made Japan Cloud a magnet for media looking to get the scoop on SaaS.  Satchie’s pitch: local narratives anchored in storied, local brands.  A 20-year veteran of Japan’s IT industry, Sachie has seen software companies come and go.  The ones that last tell big stories backed by local customer success.  “We align closely with our partners’ global values and product messaging, but we try to weave them into local narratives that feature the transformation of iconic Japanese brands.”  These stories are “key to building credibility and trust and enabling sales for our partners,” Sachie says.  Read on to learn about the influences that shaped Sachie’s thinking and how she has grown to become a valued resource to key media and Japan Cloud’s partner companies.  This interview has been edited for clarity. 

How did you get to where you are today at Japan Cloud?  Could you share a career experience that was important to you?

Sachie: My experience at a digital marketing services company called Netyear Group, working closely with their then CEO Fujiyo Ishiguro, was pivotal for me.  

Now a public company, Netyear Group was one of the first recipients of funding from Salesforce Ventures in Japan.  I was in awe of Ishiguro-san as she took the stage with Marc Benioff to promote our company​​.  Ishiguro-san is currently an advisor to Prime Minister Kishida’s administration.  

Ishiguro-san did her MBA at Stanford with child in tow.  She started her own IT consulting business in Silicon Valley, joined the board of the U.S.-based Netyear Group and then launched and grew their business in Japan.​​  Her mantra was that Japan had to embrace global standards and diversity. 

Ishiguro-san’s vision for a new Japan shaped my thinking about Japan and is consistent with Japan Cloud’s vision, which is to empower Japanese businesses to become more global and competitive by introducing them to the world’s most innovative and successful cloud solutions.

I started in sales at Netyear and then switched to communications after we went public.  I did everything communications-related at the company.  I interviewed customers to develop case studies, supported outreach for talent acquisition and led investor and government relations.  I worked with academia as well.

The 10 years I spent at Netyear Group​​ prepared me for Marketo and, of course, Japan Cloud.

So you went from a local, public SaaS company to a global SaaS company?  What was that transition like?  What did you take away from your experience at Marketo?

Sachie: Yasu Fukuda recruited me from the Netyear Group​​ ​​and introduced me to the world of high-growth, global SaaS companies.  My Marketo years were a period of high-growth for me as well.

Communicating the benefits of global best practices to Japanese businesses was our mission.  This is different from imposing global product on customers.  We believed Japanese businesses needed to align their operations, as much as possible, with global best practices.  We believed this was essential for them to derive the most value from their SaaS implementations and to raise their productivity.  Over-customizing or over-localizing global SaaS solutions simply maintained the status quo and impeded change.  

This is what we believe at Japan Cloud as well.  Many global SaaS companies come to Japan believing that Japan is unique.  This is not the case at all.  Fukuda’s book on integrating sales, marketing and customer success operations,“THE MODEL,” is a top seller.  Japanese businesses want to change and become more global and productive.  They simply need operational models to follow.

Do you believe you are making progress in realizing your vision of a more global Japan?  

Sachie: Yes, definitely.  While our partner companies are at different stages of growth, their solutions offer Japanese companies the opportunity to raise their productivity and transform themselves across an array of functions, from customer engagement and spend management to finance and accounting and DevOps, among other areas.  

From a talent development standpoint, we offer ambitious Japanese a new career path.  We’re helping them design their careers in the IT industry and to be more global.  

Japan Cloud’s partner companies now have more than 340 employees combined, and they continue to grow.  The knowledge they have access to grows as our community grows.  We’re confident that we’re contributing to their careers, their companies and the globalization of Japanese business.  

It’s been said the ratio of PR people to reporters in the U.S. is now 6:1.  It’s that competitive.  What’s the situation in Japan?

Sachie: I don’t think the situation in Japan is that different.  Due to the growth in the number of local startups, reporters are being bombarded with press releases.  We’re very careful about the news our partner companies distribute.  We don’t want our partners to just push product, which is what many of the local startups and other global SaaS companies tend to do.  We don’t want our partners to lose credibility.

Validation in the form of customer success is key.  Industry analysts, whether global or local, aren’t as influential with customers or with press in Japan as they perhaps are in other regions.  

Among business news dailies, The Nikkei, which is akin to The Wall Street Journal or Financial Times, dominates.  The Financial Times is actually owned by The Nikkei.  

With over three million print and digital subscribers, The Nikkei has the most subscribers of any business news daily in the world.  More than 70 percent of businesses subscribe to The Nikkei.  The Nikkei also offers industry publications focused on marketing and the financial industry.  Nikkei Business dominates among business weeklies as well.

Coverage in national broadcast news programs can also be very impactful.  World Business Satellite (WBS), an hour-long nightly news show, is among the most popular among business executives.  Securing coverage with WBS, or any broadcast outlet for that matter, requires a simplified story and strong visual content, so events often work well with broadcast media.  Having a successful customer is a must.

Japan’s traditional IT industry publications, especially those whose bread and butter were long-form features, are not as influential as they used to be.  They’ve lost ground to more niche online publications.  

Another important outlet is NewsPicks, a social media platform that aggregates third-party business and tech news, original content and commentary from experts and peers.  It has more than four million subscribers.  

Independent bloggers with expertise in specific areas are worth targeting as well.  They tend to publish their content on a platform called Note, which is Japan’s answer to Medium.

How do you secure coverage?  What are the keys to PR success for global SaaS companies in Japan?

Sachie: We align closely with our partners’ global values and product messaging, but we weave them into stories that feature the transformation of iconic Japanese brands, the more conservative the better.  

Japan has more than 37,000 companies that are 100 years old, which is the most in the world.   We work closely with our partners’ customers, huge industrial brands like Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, established in 1884, premium brands like Shiseido, whose origins date back to 1872, and ubiquitous confectionery brands like Morinaga, which was established in 1899.  These are powerful brands.  They represent the status quo.  Stories about their digital transformation have a big impact on Japanese business audiences.  They are key to building credibility and trust and enabling sales for our partners.

My passion is engaging with reporters on an ongoing basis, educating them about the latest SaaS trends and our partners’ solutions, and then sharing these conversations with our partners so we can capture potential PR opportunities.  I believe our portfolio of successful cloud companies, across various segments, makes us a valuable resource to media.   

Why Japan?  Why should global SaaS companies be interested in the Japan market?  

Sachie: SaaS companies should be interested because Japan is the second largest enterprise software market in the world.  Japan also has the most USD 100 million businesses and the most Forbes Global 2000 companies in the world after the U.S.  I believe Japan is a treasure trove of opportunity for SaaS companies.   

Again, Japan is not unique.  Japanese businesses want to change and they are in fact changing.  SaaS companies empower Japanese companies to bolster their productivity and improve their global competitiveness.

Japan is also a low-risk market.  It’s arguably the most open and stable democracy in Asia.  The IT and transportation infrastructure are second to none.  Japanese businesses are also extremely trustworthy and the people are conscientious and polite, perhaps to a fault.  

Japan is becoming such a popular travel destination.  Tech executives love Japan because the food and hospitality are wonderful and everything works!  We’ve seen a steady stream of visitors to Japan in the past few months.

As long as SaaS companies can offer solutions to Japan’s business challenges and their local leadership and organization are properly aligned with their global operations, there’s very little SaaS companies can’t accomplish in Japan.  

Japan Cloud makes sure our partner companies are aligned globally and that their local GTM strategies are integrated.  PR’s role, of course, is to provide the necessary impact and air cover for our partners, enabling them to build trust with customers, generate demand and grow.