Tomoya Sato, President and CEO of Human Holdings Co., Ltd.

Find the person you want to be and carve out your own path in life

Tomonari Sato, President and CEO of Human Holdings Co., Ltd.

■ Profile

Born in Hyogo Prefecture in 1963. After graduating from the School of Commerce at Kwansei Gakuin University in 1987, he joined Nikko Securities Inc. After working at Hongo CPA Office (now Tsuji & Hongo Certified Public Tax Accountants Corporation), he joined The Human Co., Ltd. in November 1991. He has served as a director at various Human Group companies, and in August 2002, he was appointed Representative Director and President of Human Holdings Co., Ltd. (current position).

Tomoya Sato, president of Human Holdings Co., Ltd., has led a wide range of businesses to success, centering on a people-oriented approach to support people in living their own lives under the slogan "Value Promise: SELFing." Behind his success, there have been many struggles and thoughts. We spoke to him about his life up to the present day, when he inherited the company from his father, and his outlook for the future.

■ Gaining experience during my student days

I viewed my university life as a time to gain various experiences outside of my studies and to prepare for independence as a member of society. When I first enrolled, I was freed from studying for entrance exams and had more free time, but I felt a sense of crisis as the days just passed by. It was at this time that I became interested in a full-contact karate club that met in the university's courtyard, and joined in search of excitement. I also joined an English conversation club that guided foreigners in English, enjoying a fulfilling campus life. When I entered my third year, I had to decide which seminar to join. Although I was in the Faculty of Commerce, I was not good at subjects like accounting, so I chose a seminar that taught marketing, which was less focused on numbers. In my fourth year, when the number of classes decreased, I had the valuable experience of working part-time as a secretary to a member of the House of Representatives. With the July election coming up, I ended up helping out, even ignoring my job-hunting schedule. However, I focused on my job search for about a month, and ultimately decided to work for Nikko Securities (now SMBC Nikko Securities).

■ From a major securities firm to a venture company

I joined a securities company because I wanted to start my own business. One of the reasons for this was my father, who had left his job as a salaryman to start his own business. However, it wasn't that we were close; in fact, it was the opposite. I wanted to leave home and become independent, which led me to consider starting my own business. My interest in business also grew through the marketing I studied in seminars. I chose to work at a securities company because I believed that to succeed in starting a business, I needed to develop sales and negotiation skills. After researching where I could acquire these skills, I came to the conclusion that the best place to do so would be to work at a company where I could work in a strict sales environment with quotas. I had a simple image of a securities company being the perfect fit. I actually devoted myself to my work as a securities man, running every morning to find clients who would purchase 50 million and 100 million yen worth of investment trusts each month. After starting work, I was able to face my father, with whom I had a feud, as a person and as a parent. At the time, The Human Co., Ltd., the predecessor to Human Holdings Co., Ltd., which my father founded in 1985, was in its fourth year of operation. I decided to join the company because I thought there were things I could learn only from a venture company like that.

■ Major reforms to work styles that were once considered armchair theories

After taking the company public on the JASDAQ as president in 2004, the company faced a management crisis in 2007, and I was tasked with turning it around as president of a subsidiary. At the same time, the company urgently needed to strengthen its sales capabilities. At the time, society was slowly beginning to change its attitude toward work, with terms like "black company" and "power harassment" and "sexual harassment" coming into common usage. However, even within the company, the "Showa-era sports-spirit" sales attitude remained deeply rooted. For example, when I asked, "What have you been teaching your subordinates?" I was once told, "I've been encouraging and motivating them." There was a perception that "sales training = your job is to scold your subordinates" and that "if they resign, you can just hire someone else." Even in such a work environment, it was a time when subordinates didn't quit.

Feeling that "we can't continue like this," we reviewed all of our previous sales and training methods and sales processes and revised them to include detailed data. We also changed our training to be based on concrete evidence, such as extracting the know-how of skilled salespeople as data. Some people resisted, saying that there was no way an approach that was so different from what had been done up until then would work. However, by continuing steadily and without wavering, we were able to achieve results.

■From the origins of education to business for the world

A few years after becoming president, I set a goal of achieving 100 billion yen in sales and 5 billion yen in operating profit, and I find it rewarding to work towards that goal. In order to strengthen our company's strengths, we have changed from a situation where each business, such as education, human resources, and nursing care, was run parallel to another, and are shifting to a business model that focuses on education and synergies with each business. When we thought about what kind of education we were working on, we decided to focus on developing human resources in new growth industries. Since launching a new business in an unexplored area can easily lead to labor shortages, we focused on developing the human resources involved in that business.

Based on our management philosophy of "Value Promise: SELFing," which defines the value we provide to all stakeholders, we help each and every customer discover who they want to be, design a process to get closer to that person, and provide support. At the same time, while work is premised on being beneficial to society and people, we believe that supporting our customers' "SELFing" also leads to increased internal motivation among our employees. We are proud to say that this value promise is well-crafted, even compared to other companies.

■Message

I believe that if you can find your ideal self, your life will be more fulfilling and enjoyable. Try drawing a mandala chart, which is also used by Shohei Ohtani. Write "the person you want to be" in the center square, and in the surrounding squares, like a mandala pattern, write "how to become that person." Our company's employees also do this, and it teaches them the importance of having goals. People who are successful in business and worthy of respect have clear goals. I would love to work with students like that.

Interview with Student Newspaper Online on February 2, 2022 by Akane Isa, a fourth-year student at Toyo University

Akane Isa, 4th year student at Toyo University / Honoka Hama, 3rd year student at Toyo University / Minami Okada, 4th year student at Seikei University