We held our B2B marketing event, Bigbeat LIVE, on August 2nd. The theme of our 3rd private marketing event hosted by an advertising and marketing agency was ‘Go for it!’ and marketers from all over Japan gathered in Tokyo for the event.
This blog is a report on the second half of our 3rd Stage, which was themed “establishing the core role of a marketer.” During this half, our host, Mr. Motohiko Tokuriki, and our 4 speakers held a panel discussion where they passionately discussed their careers in marketing.
(You can read our previous report here.)
Mr. Tokuriki: The theme of this session is the ‘core fundamentals of a marketer.’ So, I will go ahead and move on to the 1st question.
Q: What thing has had the biggest effect on you?
Mr. Ueyama: The CEO of the start-up company I worked at used to always say ‘you’re dumb’ and I got really frustrated. I wanted to change myself so much. So, I started to reading books. I read The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. That’s when I changed jobs to GLOBIS and I studied really hard. And I used the things I was studying at work and things started to change.
Mr. Yamaguchi: I had a lot of customers who were non-Japanese. And we run into misunderstandings due to cultural differences. If I think about it now, I think it imprinted the importance of ‘thinking with reason’ and ‘fighting dispute.’ I think it was a really good experience for me.
Mr. Shimabukuro: I married my girlfriend who I dated for all 4 years of college. I think my core fundamental is ‘wanting to make the person near me happy.’
Ms. Nagahashi: In the short term I think the thing that had the biggest effect on me was posting on Note (a popular Japanese online publishing platform similar to Medium). I also wanted to deepen the customer experience that I had done up to that point. Those two things got me to the place where I am today. In the long term, it was having my child. It put time constraints on my schedule, and I had to get as much done as I could while I was at work, and because of that work became boring and I lost motivation. It made me want to do a job that I felt had meaning.
Mr. Tokuriki: That's interesting. Similar to Mr. Ueyama, being at you lowest point gave you the ability to really think about what you wanted to do and think about your core. Next, we have a question from twitter so why we don’t move to that.
Q: That are a lot of people who say you should specialize in multiple fields. Do you aim for a career that specializes in multiple things or one that is highly specialize in one field?
Let see what our speakers think about those 2 points.
Mr. Ueyama: If you can reach the top 1% of a field, you with probably be able to survive, but I think it is really difficult to get there. For example, even if I was in the top 20 percent of international growth, there are still a lot of other careers in data science and non-English speaking countries that I can grow in. There are not too many people who have all three of those things. I am able to make a career out of multiple things like that, I’ll be able to survive. In order to survive on the global field, you have to be able to say two things ‘what you can do’ and you have a track record supported by numbers.’ That’s how I plan on surviving.
Ms. Nagahashi: I am currently working at a western RPA company, but I was determined well before I started my current job that I wanted to work at foreign owned company. Part of the reason is that if you can speak business English then your opportunities will widen. It’s a way to reduce the risk in the case the state of Japanese companies worsens. So, I don’t think it is about specializing in multiple parallel fields, but instead you need to combine a variety of vectors. This is even true for my hobbies; yoga and graphic recording. They may be hobbies now, but who knows, they could become part of my work life.
Mr. Yamaguchi: I think I am close to that opinion. For 14 and a half years I have only had a single assignment job. I am free on the weekend, but a lot of the things I do connect to my job and I am very busy. You should read a lot of books and go to different places. You will be able to tell your own reactions and feelings from the experiences, and the bigger the reaction the easier it is to judge what you want. But I think it is important to experience different things and meet a lot of different people.
Mr. Shimabukuro: I don’t know if you would call them tags or labels, but I think it is important to have index that you can use to your advantage. When I worked at PARCO (one of the most famous fashion shopping centers in Japan) I worked in retail management, so I had to get training in disaster response, and I had to get a food hygiene management license. I also have experience in social and ad tech. I wanted to get experience with apps, so I joined my current company.
Mr. Tokurirki: I think this is a question that a lot of people who work at Japanese corporations have. Up until now, Japanese corporations mostly hired generalists. But recently, many people have suddenly started think they need to become a specialist and people tend to think about it in black and white terms. It is important to combine a set of skills, but don’t let becoming a ‘specialist’ get in the way of your career.
Personally, I think it is a cause from Japan’s ‘club culture.’ For example, getting angry at someone on the soccer team playing baseball. People seem to think if you can not master one road then its over. It is necessary to rethink this idea when thinking about your career.
Mr. Tokuriki: Next question.
Q: When did you first call yourself a marketer and actually feel like one.
Does everyone here define themselves as a ‘marketer?’
Mr. Ueyama: I don’t.
Ms. Nagahashi: No, I don’t either.
Mr. Tokuriki: This is maybe another feature of Japanese marketing. Personally, I think that marketing should be defined as ‘creating a market.’ If you decide to create a market, think you have you to think as an entire company. You can’t have successful marketing with only marketers. It doesn’t matter what department you are in, the role of a marketer is to think about how you can contribute to your companies marketing. I think I would like to take up some questions that are related to this.
Q. What job and position do you think you will be doing in 10 years?
Q. What is your overall goal by focusing on upping you career? Are you interested in entering the executive level of your companies?
Mr. Yamaguchi: This same question was in a company pamphlet at my work when I was 31 years old, so I have answered this question before. At that time, I was having a lot of problems at work and it was very difficult. My answer ended up being ‘I want to become the type of person that everyone says they want to become.’ After that I started thinking it would be good to start collecting all of the good aspects from people and start building a collage on myself. So, there isn’t really a position or job that I am specifically aiming for and I don’t know where I will be in 10 years, but I want to be able to give people energy and support.
Mr. Shimabukuro: To be honest, that depends on if there are apps in 10 years.
Mr. Tokuriki: Smart phones have only come out just recently.
Mr. Shimabukuro: Exactly. I feel like in 10 years I will be doing a job that doesn’t currently exist now. So, I am currently trying to prepare for that. Honestly, I don’t know if I will be an executive or a regular player. I can’t really envision 10 years in the future at this time.
Ms. Nagahashi: I think my answer is almost the exact same. I think I might be working a job that doesn’t currently exist in a position that does not exist now. If you think about it, the ‘customer marketing’ position didn’t exist 10 years ago, and I don’t think 10 years ago I saw myself in this position.
Mr. Ueyama: I want to be able to make 8 million out of 1 billion people smile. To do that I want people in the global market to think of me when they think about international growth. I don’t know if I will be working for one company or if I will be helping multiple companies at that time.
Mr. Tokuriki: I see that you want to become a specialist. What about youthree?
Mr. Yamaguchi: My ultimate goal is to become a college professor. That is the only way I could surpass my father who had a doctorate and taught at Kyoto University. But it also gives me the opportunity to make connections with a variety of people and have an influence on young people.
Mr. Tokuriki: That’s a very interesting goal.
Mr. Shimabukuro: Currently, I want to continue as a regular player. I wonder of that means being a specialist.
Ms. Nagahashi: I’m not exactly sure that I want to be in management or not, but I want to do new things. And if there is something that excites me, I won’t hesitate to jump at the opportunity.
Mr. Tokuriki: Let’s move on the last question. In the past, I used to think that the audience and the speakers where completely different people. I thought that I was just a normal ‘salaryman’ who would never take the stage as a speaker. But I think there are a lot of people in this crowd who should take this stage and talk about their experience. But first they just need to somehow get their information out there or put their foot forward and they will make the connections they need to. 1 year should be more than enough time. I want the audience here to start taking action to change something tomorrow.
And with that I want to ask the speakers to give a hint on how the audience can change their mindset.
Mr. Shimabukuro: It’s a little flat, but we don’t need to exchange business cards, you can just follow me on twitter or send me a friend request on Facebook, and I am happy to make new connections with the people here.
Ms. Nagahashi: I think it is just like Mr. Tokuriki is saying. Bigbeat LIVE is a great opportunity to be a speaker and they are very open to anybody. A year ago, I never thought I would be allowed to talk about my experience on stage. I know it sounds like a broken record, but I think Mr. Ojima is right when he says if you put yourself out there, you will get a response.
Mr. Yamaguchi: I think acting is important. It is ok if other people see it and don’t understand why you are doing what you are doing. For example, at last year’s Bigbeat LIVE, your life may not have taken a 180-degree turn, but it took a 12-degree turn. If you think about it this way, then anybody could do it.
Mr. Ueyama: I agree as well. You have to take action. If you are working and taking action then the likelihood that you will change yourself increases, but if you aren’t doing anything, then nothing will change. In order to start taking action to change something I think it takes a strong will. One way I motivate myself is I have made a bucket list with my wife all of the things we want to do before we die. We originally wanted to move to San Francisco by 2020 but we are actually ended up moving to Sydney. But I think its good enough. I can’t recommend it enough, but it important to think about the type of person you want to become in the long term. Establish rules and goals. ‘I will do this by this year, and make this much money, and live in this place.’ By doing this you can envision the person you want to become, know what you need to do, and motivate yourself to act. If there is someway that I can help you, just tweet at me.
Mr. Tokuriki: Times are really changing. It is a completely different world from the one before the internet. There was the Showa Period and then the internet came and the way we have been doing business should’ve changed with the times. But in reality, it hasn’t really changed since the Showa Period. Especially at large companies. They still do things the same way since the Showa Period and their techniques and strategies are all so outdated that when you enter them it feels like a parallel world. Its very like that the boss that you don’t like very much is still in the Showa Era mentally, but the truth is that we are now in the Reiwa Era where there are so many technological tools available to anyone and everyone. So let’s all take the first step towards change and talk to each other frankly during the reception party. Thank you everyone for your time today.
Thank you for reading our report on the 3rd Stage of Bigbeat LIVE. We will continue to post reports on our breakout sessions soon!
Below, you can read another stage reports;
| Bigbeat LIVE | 1st stage | 2nd stage |
| Marketing is the greatest tool of management | Creating Customer Success | Organizations change with Empathy |
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| Special stage: Local stage | Special stage: Global stage | Special content |
| Why local governments need marketing | Overseas Expansion | Making the story - our original beer for Bigbeat LIVE |
 |  |  |
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