APA Group President and CEO Kazushi Motoya

The starting point was something my father taught me: "Sharpen your sensitivity to information."

President and CEO of APA Group　Kazushi Motoya　(Motoya Ishi)

■ Profile
Born April 20, 1971 in Fukui Prefecture. Originally from Ishikawa Prefecture. Graduated from Ishikawa Prefectural Kanazawa Nisui High School in 1990. Graduated from the Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Economics, Gakushuin University in 1995. After working at Sumitomo Bank for five years, he joined APA Hotel Co., Ltd. as Managing Director in November 1999. After becoming Senior Managing Director in 2004, he became Representative Director and President of APA Group Co., Ltd. in May 2012, and has served as Group Senior Managing Director, Chief Financial Officer, and General Manager of the Global Business Division. In April 2022, he was appointed President and CEO of APA Group, a position he holds to this day.

As a leading company in the development of hotels and condominiums, the APA Group is a name that everyone has likely come across at least once. Its CEO, Kazushi Motoya, is known as a manager who is always ahead of the times and brings about numerous innovations. We spoke to Motoya about the mission he feels he has "embraced since the moment he was born," as well as what he keeps in mind every day to keep up with the latest trends in the world.

■Leadership lessons from my father

　On the day I was born in 46, my father went independent and filed for incorporation, and the current APA Group was born. I was told from a young age to "take over the company, take over," so I accepted my fate and thought, "I'll become a manager one day."
I believe that in life there is fate and destiny. Career and marriage are fateful choices that can be made actively, but destiny cannot be escaped. When I was in elementary school, even if I went to bed at 9 p.m., my father would wake me up around 11 p.m. when he got home. I would give him a massage and tell him about what had happened at school that day. By talking to me during the massage, my father was probably forcing himself to communicate with me. He told me, "I want to raise you not just as a child, but as a person," and I learned a lot about the art of being a leader from him. Of the many lessons he taught me then, the one that remains with me to this day is the importance of staying informed.

■ During my university days, I was conscious of "learning about society"

　I spent my time in Kanazawa up until high school, but I wanted to go to Tokyo for university, so I enrolled in the Faculty of Economics at Gakushuin University. I took a year off before I could get in, but my generation was known as the baby boomer generation, and the population was large, so the competition for entrance exams was fierce. It was so common that the Japanese word for "one year off" is "hitonami." During my university life, I joined two clubs, the German Cultural Research Society and the tennis club, and also worked part-time as a private tutor. As a private tutor, I focused on teaching students how to get good grades efficiently with minimal effort.
However, during my time at university, I was conscious of learning about society. My parents always instilled in me the message that "you should focus on studying society rather than on tests." They told me that there is a reason for everything, and that I should get into the habit of asking "why?" to find that reason. If you don't question things, you lose the ability to "create" anything.

■ Hone your information sensitivity in the heart of Tokyo

　Increase your sensitivity to information
These are the words my father told me. If you can grasp upstream information, you can turn it into a job. If you keep an eye on what's happening in the world and always gather cutting-edge information yourself, you can turn it into a business. Conversely, people who are not sensitive to the world are not suited to business. For example, what becomes popular in Tokyo becomes popular in the countryside later. Time differences create disparities, and this can become a business.
I think Japanese people have two distinctive characteristics. The first is respect for long-established companies. The second is admiration for Western brands. This, too, is based on a regional timeline. The APA Group is not a long-established company, having only been in business for 51 years, but it has become the 19th largest hotel chain in the world in terms of number of rooms. I think this is due to how it utilizes information.
　When I was a senior in college, my father asked me, "Are you sure you want to take over?" He said, "If you want to, go to the bank. If you don't want to take over, you can go anywhere, but you have to write a letter saying, 'I renounce my legally reserved share of the inheritance.'" What he meant by "Go to the bank" was, "Money is like the bloodstream of humans, so learn the mechanics of money."
I decided to take over the company and joined Sumitomo Bank. There were two reasons for taking over. The first was to show my filial piety to my parents. The second was that, although it would be impossible to start a business from scratch as an entrepreneur, I thought it would be good to grow an existing seed into something bigger like a snowball.
At the time, there were only four hotels in the region, and I felt there was potential for the business to grow. I also felt that "in order to run a business, you need to understand the psychology and techniques of banks." After gaining an understanding of credit screening and tax procedures at the bank, I returned to the family business.

■ Advances in IT and efficiency, evolution of the APA Group

　At the APA Group, we have adopted prepayment. While making a reservation can be a time-consuming process, prepayment reduces cancellation rates. Another benefit is that customers can choose their room, allowing us to provide services that meet the needs of a variety of people. We are the first in Japan to introduce prepayment in the hotel industry.
　In terms of efficiency, we have minimized the back-of-house area and increased the space for each guest room. Employee rooms are rented elsewhere, and any wasted space is turned into guest rooms, allowing for profitability.
　The APA Group also focuses on IT, and was one of the first to adopt online reservations. With each new initiative, we strive to innovate to ensure customer satisfaction does not decline. We have enhanced our website and created an app that allows us to connect directly with customers, so that they can experience success and catch up on their arrival time.

■The hardest thing about daily life is not being able to switch between ON and OFF

　What I find difficult about running a business on a day-to-day basis is that being an office worker and being a business owner is completely different, and you can't switch between on and off. You're constantly thinking about ways to make your work more efficient. I go golfing for fun, but I also run my own golf course, so I can't help but think about how to run it more efficiently. It's precisely because work and leisure are connected in this way that I can sometimes find hints. For this reason, I often stay at other hotels to get ideas.
　Hotels are an experience-based business. When people die, the things they regret are the things they "want to see," "want to eat," and "want to go." These are at the heart of our insatiable desires. Hotels satisfy this latent desire for experiences. In the pursuit of how to become a hotel and be chosen, we do our best through repeated trial and error. Of course, sometimes we fail. But that's because of timing. Perhaps we were just too early. To prevent such mismatches from occurring, we always strive to adapt with the times.

■Message to students

At APA Group, we want to hire proactive, open-minded, and motivated students. I want to be the fastest and be right in the center of your triangle.
　I believe that all of you university students are now at a crossroads in your lives. The important thing at times like these is to jump in without hesitation. There may be many things that make you anxious, but first try it out and think about it. I hope that you will be greedy for experience without hesitation and try new things. Live a life that you can be satisfied with.

May 2, 2022 Student Newspaper Online Interview by Mari Okabe, 2nd year student at Kunitachi College of Music