Teruo Aihara, President and CEO of Finex Co., Ltd.

Going one step beyond "it can't be helped" and enriching society through problem solving

■ Profile

Born in 1966. After graduating from Ehime University in 1990, he worked for a domestic IT company before starting his own company in 1993. The following year he became Representative Director and President, a position he holds to this day. The company was listed on the JASDAQ in March 2011 and on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in November 2014. His business areas are medical systems and health tech.

President Aihara says he has loved making things since he was a child. After graduating from university, he got a job at a company, but he couldn't give up on the path to starting his own business. In this interview, President Aihara spoke passionately about his passion for making things, which has always been within him, and the strengths of Finex, which continues to lead the medical system industry.

　I love making things, and as a child, my dream was to become a carpenter. During my university years, my life revolved around club activities. I was a member of the film study group, where I devoted myself to watching and making films, and I vaguely thought that after graduation I would like to work in a creative field. At the time, the bubble economy was at its height, and it was a seller's market. It's hard to imagine now, but I joined Shikoku NEC Software (now NEC Solution Innovators) in 1990 without even bothering to do a proper job search. As a student, I had researched data compression for my graduation thesis, and I think a big factor in my decision was that I was fascinated by the world of programming and computers.

■From the idea of ​​starting a business to the present

　When I started working, the work itself was very interesting. However, I remember that the desire to start my own business, which had been simmering somewhere in my heart since my student days, gradually grew stronger. In my case, I didn't start a business with any particular goal in mind, but rather left NEC in 1993 to take a period of time to prepare for starting my own business and embark on a new path.
　Around the same time, I met a hospital director, and this was my catalyst for entering the world of medical systems. I was asked to see the hospital's systems, and upon visiting, I discovered an astonishingly large general-purpose computer, but it was only used for billing (accounting). I felt it was a waste to use such a high-performance computer for nothing but simple arithmetic calculations. Computers, on the other hand, excel at simple, repetitive tasks. Where humans often tire of or make mistakes, computers can effortlessly repeat these tasks. At the time, however, these tasks were still performed by humans at the hospital. To improve operational efficiency, we began systematizing the hospital's operations. Initially, we focused on small-scale applications, but our flexible business improvement proposals gained a solid reputation, and in 1998, we began full-scale medical system development and consulting. Today, in addition to our core medical systems business, we operate in three key areas: health tech, which is experiencing rapid market growth, and office systems. We have steadily grown into a medical systems company with customers throughout Japan, with our products accounting for approximately 80% of the market share at national university hospitals nationwide. Our most widely adopted system is "Claio," which enables centralized management of patient examination data from each department. Furthermore, one of our current core products is our wearable device, "GAP," which revolutionizes visual field testing. It was developed in-house from scratch and has been internationally patented. The introduction of this device not only eliminates the previously required darkroom and the need for an examiner, shortening testing time, but also significantly improving the early detection rate of retinal diseases that often have few noticeable symptoms. While we have yet to fully launch the device on the market, we expect it to play a major role in contributing to society.

■Following someone else won't lead to business

　I love my job. I feel truly happy when I'm coming up with ideas for new systems and sharing them with my subordinates. Solving problems and venturing into areas that no one has tackled before is our business, and this job, which gives me a sense of accomplishment through creating things, is extremely rewarding. Building an organization is also one of the joys of my job. In the 10 years since our IPO, I've shifted the focus of my work to management, concentrating on "building the organization that a listed company should have." At the same time, I couldn't give up my desire to work on product development, so about five years after our IPO, I created a direct-controlled research and development team, and I'm still personally involved in the development and planning of new products.

■ What a listed company should be

　A company is an organization that provides something to society in exchange for payment. If a company cannot provide something of value, it will not receive payment and will not be able to grow. Among these, listed companies must not only provide value to the outside world, but also thoroughly build an organization that values ​​shareholders and employees, and are required to achieve sustainable growth while managing risk. I myself always keep in mind what a listed company should be like when I manage my business.

■ Commitment to manufacturing

　Our greatest strength is that we develop all of our products in-house. Of course, selling our products is important, but by leaving sales to our partner agencies and narrowing our focus to development, we have gathered members who are truly passionate about creating things and solving problems. We have no concept of vertical divisions by department, and our organization has the cross-functional qualities of a venture company. As such, we hope to continue to develop our business as a company with a strong, muscular team, even if we don't have a large number of employees.
　We also have a strong commitment to hiring. We don't accept simple online applications; instead, we ask applicants to first research our company and write a handwritten essay. By raising the bar for applications to this extent, we attract people who are truly capable and motivated and who will enjoy working for us. We hope to continue to attract people who are willing to continue thinking about ways to improve the world and work together to find solutions.

■Message

　After all, people who find out what they want to do while they're still students tend to be more likely to demonstrate their abilities once they enter society. I personally wasn't able to find this out before I started working, so it took me a while to get to where I am now after starting my own business. Compared to the past, we now have an environment in place that allows you to take on any challenge. That's why I recommend that you clarify what you want to do while you're still a student. And no matter what the situation, I would encourage you to adopt a problem-solving mindset, asking yourself, "How can I improve this?" rather than just accepting it as "it can't be helped."

Interview with Student Newspaper Online on March 31, 2021 by Keio University 1st year student Miyu Ito