INSIGHTS

An Interview with Shuji Chiba, Director of Consulting and Head of Talent Acquisition and Development at Japan Cloud

“I requested a position in sales but they placed me in HR,” says Shuji Chiba, director of consulting at Japan Cloud, in reference to his first job out of college. These words speak volumes about where Shuji’s heart is. From a 147-year old Japanese printing giant to high-growth global SaaS companies at Japan Cloud, with stints at Mercer, Accenture, Salesforce and Marketo in between, Shuji has experienced the full gamut of HR work. But what’s been consistent throughout his 20-year career is his desire to be close to, and impact, the business. Shuji’s passion for recruiting and developing Japan’s best and brightest talent to drive business results makes him indispensable to Japan Cloud, our partners and Japan’s IT industry. Read on to learn more about Shuji’s career journey, his take on Japan’s human capital dilemma and how global SaaS companies are positioned to address it. The interview has been edited for clarity.

What is your role at Japan Cloud? And why Japan Cloud? What motivates you day in and day out?

I recruit, coach and develop people for the most exciting, high-growth SaaS companies in the world. We focus on hiring and developing the best talent in Japan so they can contribute to our partners’ and their customers’ success.

I can’t imagine doing anything else, though I don’t think I could enjoy my work as much or be as successful if it weren’t for my colleagues. We’re extremely collaborative and gritty. We’re passionate about growing our partners’ revenue and find huge satisfaction in creating career opportunities for the next generation of IT leadership in Japan.

We’ve grown to a community of 11 companies with over 320 employees. And we continue to grow. The likelihood of success grows for our partners as our customer and talent networks grow. This is so exciting for me personally but it’s good for Japan’s IT industry as well.

How did you get to Japan Cloud? Could you tell us a little about your career path?

I requested a position in sales but they placed me in HR (laughs). This was at Dai Nippon Printing (DNP), the company I joined straight out of college.

DNP was founded in 1876 and is one of the largest printing and coating companies in the world with revenues of over USD 10 billion. I implemented HR management systems looking 10 years into the future. I learned a great deal about traditional Japanese HR at DNP but wanted to be closer to the business. I wanted to be in a more dynamic environment where I could be more proactive and make a difference, so after a few years I left for Mercer and then Accenture.

It’s at this time that I discovered the development side of HR. I worked with Japanese companies as well as foreign firms in Japan, focusing on developing sales people and improving their productivity.

One of my favorite projects at Mercer was with a global marketer and distributor of high-end spirits. The goal was to improve sales outcomes, so we revamped their sales processes, implemented a CRM system and trained their salespeople to sell effectively. Another project was with a leading telecom company where we trained salespeople to sell fiber optic services.

These projects prepared me for my work at Salesforce and Marketo, where I focused on enabling salespeople in a very hands-on way.

At Salesforce, I actually reviewed sales proposals. Salespeople would bounce ideas off me. I attended sales calls. I loved the pace and being able to see results on a daily basis. The sales teams I worked with won deals. I was playing a part in the company’s growth as well as the career development of my colleagues. I was leading impact-driven HR. I knew then that this would be my future.

Going from a big, traditional Japanese company to consultancies and companies like Salesforce and Marketo must have been a big change for you?

It was. I was at Salesforce when it grew from 500 to 1,500 employees in Japan. I really looked up to, and was inspired by, the company’s early employees. They were extremely self-motivated, collaborative and customer-obsessed. I wanted to lead a company’s growth and feel the excitement that they felt.

This is why I joined Yasu Fukuda at Marketo, which had only 30 people at the time. We were very much in startup mode. I headed sales enablement, sales operations and HR, in particular talent acquisition and development. We grew the company to 100 people. It was an exciting time and a great learning experience for me.

“Reskilling” is currently the mantra for Japanese companies and workers. My Marketo experience was a form of reskilling for me. It was definitely a career highlight.

As for reskilling, what challenges do Japanese workers face? Where do they need to improve? What are their strengths?

I think the biggest challenge for Japanese workers is that many people don’t know how to design their careers. Japanese companies with lifetime employment used to design their careers for them but now the expectation is that they plan their careers themselves. But they can’t. Japan is becoming more global by the day. Technology is transforming how people work. Many Japanese just can’t keep up. Japan is aging rapidly too.

Japanese companies desperately need to bolster their human capital. They need to raise worker productivity. But this is not that easy. It’s said that 10 to 20 percent of employees at Japanese companies are “internal retirees.” Their productivity is very low but companies have to accommodate them because of lifetime employment.

As for Japan’s strengths, I believe the Japanese are an extremely earnest people. They are very trusting and trustworthy. They follow rules, though this can be a detriment as well, of course. They’re adaptable and don’t give up easily. Given the opportunity, they will do their best to learn and improve themselves as well as society. And, as many visitors to Japan may know, the Japanese are extremely collectivist and conscientious. These are all admirable qualities culturally as well as in business.

How does Japan Cloud contribute to Japan’s reskilling? Any success stories that you can share?

With our partner community growing, we offer so many opportunities for people who are willing to work hard and continue learning. It helps to be able to read and understand English but if they’re willing to work hard, improve themselves and are ambitious, we can support their professional development.

We offer an Executive Development Program and CEO Club meetings for country managers. We’re constantly running workshops on management, sales, marketing and Customer Success. We run courses on how to effectively implement our GTM playbooks as well.

We just recently introduced a workshop on giving and receiving feedback in partnership with Masamune Mimura, the CEO of Concur Japan, who recently published a book on the importance of feedback in growing a company, as well as developing the skills of individual employees.

In the past, foreign companies were a career option that, generally speaking, was limited to mid-career professionals. Japan Cloud gives growth-minded people, regardless of where they are in their careers, the opportunity to challenge themselves in the IT industry, move from domestic companies to global companies or from large companies to a startup-like environment.

That said, growing a SaaS company in Japan from scratch can be extremely challenging. You are foreign. No one’s heard of you. You have very little credibility. And Japanese customers can be very risk averse. It’s hard to succeed in such an environment.

To be perfectly honest, many new recruits at our partner companies struggle. But that is where the Japan Cloud community comes in.

Personal growth is all about falling down and standing up again. An inside sales rep at one of our partner companies struggled at first. It was his first time at a foreign firm. We took a chance with him because he had passion and was willing to learn. While he stumbled, we coached him and made sure his teammates supported him. He also learned from his peers in the Japan Cloud community. He still faces many challenges but he is growing for sure.

Why should global SaaS companies be interested in Japan?

Global SaaS companies have the opportunity to generate significant revenue in Japan. There’s so much opportunity in Japan, not just in business applications but in DevOps and infrastructure as well.

Digital transformation will remain essential as Japan’s population continues to decline, Japanese society changes and workstyles change. Japanese companies have to address their human capital challenges. They desperately need to raise their productivity. Global SaaS solutions are essential for this.

SaaS companies entering Japan struggle most with acquiring talent and effective GTM. I believe that we increase the odds of hiring and developing the right talent to successfully build an attractive business in Japan.

There are good people in Japan who are looking for opportunities to design and grow their careers. We have a talent database of highly coachable people with a growth mindset. We recruit and develop these people so they can accelerate our partners’ business, realize success for themselves and energize Japan’s IT industry.