Evolable Asia Co., Ltd. President and CEO Hidetake Yoshimura

Act before you think, that will give you the best answer

President and CEO of Evolable Asia Co., Ltd.
Hideki Yoshimura

Born in 1982 in Minoh City, Osaka Prefecture. Graduated from the Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, University of Tokyo, majoring in business administration and financial engineering. While at university, he founded Valcom Inc. (which merged with Evolable Asia Inc. in October 2009). In 2007, he co-founded Evolable Asia Inc. and became its CEO. The company was listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers in 2016 and on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2017. In 2018, he became CEO of AirTrip Inc. (formerly DeNA Travel Inc.).

Inspired by Bill Gates, CEO Yoshimura started his own business while he was a student. He chose to act rather than think, taking on one challenge after another, and eventually landed in the travel industry. By using ingenuity not found in major companies, he entered the discount ticket sales business and transformed the environment around him. We asked him about his belief in not shying away from hardship.

When I was in junior high school, Microsoft founder Bill Gates was already a celebrity. I had a strong admiration for Bill Gates, so I decided in junior high school that I would start my own company while I was in college, just like Bill Gates.
At the time, my motivation was more that I just wanted to start a business rather than that I wanted to do this business. During my first and second years at university, I studied business at a friend's company, and then started my own business in my third year at age 20. At first, I worked in staffing and sales promotion for students. Later, I started in the travel industry, which led to the current company, AirTrip.

Three criteria for choosing a business

　I have three criteria when choosing a business: 1) It's a niche business at the moment. 2) If I enter now, I can become a leader. 3) There's a possibility that the market will expand in the future due to external factors.
　For example, in the case of AirTrip, when the company first started its travel business in 2007, there were only two domestic airline options: JAL and ANA. Therefore, there was absolutely no need to compare domestic flight fares. This is ① and ②. However, with the entry of low-cost airlines such as LCCs into the market, the number of domestic flight options increased from two to over a dozen, and the need to compare fares arose. This is part ③.
　When I acquire a company, I use the same criteria to look at the company and decide whether to acquire it or not. I acquire one company every two months, and the profits of the acquired subsidiaries have increased by about three times in a year. Currently, we have about 60 subsidiaries.
　The hardest thing about the company I started as a student was managing the company's finances. It was especially tough for a while after I started the travel business, because in this industry, we often had situations like, "We're short 50 million yen for just three days." It was common for the money to arrive four days later, but for us to have to pay within three days.
　In this world, even one late payment will cause you to lose trust. So I often did things like buying 55 million yen worth of travel on credit and selling it to an agency for 50 million yen in cash. It would result in a 5 million yen deficit, but I was willing to go to such lengths to avoid a payment accident. For a while, I also lived a life of "sleeping in the office in a sleeping bag until 4am, then working from 8am." This was physically demanding, but because I did it because I loved it, I never found it too difficult.
　One of the defining features of our company's strategy is OEM (original equipment manufacturer). For example, we would have Askul start the "Askul Travel Service" and then operate it ourselves. Since it's difficult to differentiate between airfare price comparison sites, it ultimately comes down to SEO (search engine optimization). So, if a large company spends a huge amount of money on SEO, we wouldn't be able to compete. So we decided to embrace OEM. Specifically, we sold travel packages in conjunction with the T-Point Card. This was a huge success, and AirTrip became more well-known.

I want to see new scenery, so I'll change the situation.

　I want to see new vistas. In Japan, Masayoshi Son must be seeing amazing vistas. I want to see the same vistas as Son. There have been several moments in my life when my vistas changed, and there are three in particular that I felt were significant. The first was when our financing became easier and we had more financial leeway. The second was when we went public in 2016 and realized we had gained significant social trust. The third was when we acquired DeNA Travel. Our top priorities change depending on the situation, so I felt great when I was freed from the first round of financing. After our second and third IPOs and acquisitions, the people I was able to meet changed. People I hadn't met before but couldn't meet with started to meet with me, and my client base gradually expanded. So, I'm determined to keep working hard to see even better vistas in the future.

Message to students

I had been running a company since I was 20, so I had no intention of finding a job. However, I wanted to know my current value, so I took employment exams at about five companies. In the end, I was rejected by all of them. What I learned then was that being rejected doesn't necessarily mean that your abilities or personality are being denied. So, to all job-seekers, I urge you to persevere even if you don't get results. The most important thing I want to tell students is to "find what you want to do quickly." Decide what you want to do and take action immediately. Taking action will help you grow. Even if it ends up being a detour, I believe that is the optimal solution. So, first and foremost, find what you want to do.

From the October 31, 2019 issue of the Student Newspaper (by Yoshio Ogawa, a fourth-year student at Keio University)