Ken Ariizumi, President and CEO of BIGLOBE Inc.

Aiming to be unique with a frontier spirit

President and CEO, BIGLOBE Inc.　Ken Ariizumi(Takeshi Ariizumi)

■ Profile
Born in Yamanashi Prefecture. Joined KDD (now KDDI) in 1984. Designed server systems that calculate location information in preparation for the commercialization of the world's first GPS-equipped mobile phone. Served as General Manager of the Solutions Promotion Division and Executive Officer. In January 2017, he became Representative Director and President of BIGLOBE Inc.

He turned down the offer to take over his family's ironworks and went to university instead. While IT is now a commonplace technology, at the age of 18 he predicted the industry's growth. He continues to make great strides, relying on his unique instincts, focusing on satellite and communications development. We spoke to President Ariizumi, who aims to be the only one, not the best, about BIGLOBE's future outlook.

When I was a student, there was no internet or convenience stores, so I spent every day and night in my boarding house writing lab reports.
My parents wanted me to take over the family ironworks after graduating from high school, but I went on to university instead. There, I predicted that the computer industry would grow in the future, so I majored in engineering and researched superconductivity, which is used in linear motor cars and other applications. I thought that this technology could create a new world of computing. I continued my research into how to induce superconductivity at near-room temperature even after becoming a graduate student.
When I started job hunting, computers and communications were all the rage in the industry. Satellite communications were the big thing at the time. I chose Kokusai Denshin Denwa Kabushiki Kaisha (KDD, one of the predecessors of today's KDDI) on a whim, and took my first steps into the world of communications.

■From engineering to the world of management

After joining the company, I worked for about three and a half years in system operations at the Ibaraki Satellite Communications Station. I was mainly involved in operating radio equipment on satellites. After that, I was put in charge of designing satellite communications equipment at the Tokyo headquarters, where I built the satellite itself in cooperation with countries around the world. After launch, I also designed functions such as attitude control while monitoring the satellite on the ground.
After joining the company, I spent eight years working on-site and in design, before moving to the Human Resources Department. I was originally scheduled to stay in the Human Resources Department for two years, but due to a series of company mergers and other events, I ended up staying for four and a half years. At the time, the IT industry was undergoing an industrial revolution, with internet services moving from academic use to commercial use. I felt that if I stayed away from the field, I would die as an engineer, so I desperately persuaded my superiors to let me return to engineering, and finally I was able to do so. From 4, I worked in the corporate solutions business for 17 years. I believe that being involved in this business played a major role in my personal growth. The only way to understand a customer's true feelings and insights is to meet and talk face-to-face. The system we delivered to the customer caused problems, they complained, and we made improvements. We created what the customer wanted, and they were pleased.
Repeating this process will build up your experience, motivation, and relationships.
I became president of BIGLOBBE in January 2017, and have been in that position ever since. My superiors have always advised me that a leader needs to have a "50:30:20 ratio of people in charge, managers, and executives," and I have consciously put this into practice.

■Get the Black Ocean

Whenever I came up with a new solution, my boss would always ask, "Why will this sell? What are its strengths? How is it differentiated?" In a red ocean, even if a market has a certain size, if it cannot be differentiated, it will eventually decline due to homogenization. What surprised me when I came to BIGLOBBE was that the consumer business, unlike the corporate business, was crowded with competitors. In order to survive in such an environment, the following two ways of thinking are important. The first is to analyze BIGLOBBE's strategy using STP analysis and put it into practice while differentiating. The second is to acquire the backcasting method of thinking. In other words, you need to think about what you should do now based on what you want to be like in the future two to three years from now. The teachings of backcasting, which involve looking ahead, deciding what you want to do, and then deciding what to do to achieve it, were very helpful.
I think that most people's image of BIGLOBBE is of the telecommunications industry. I think that's because they have had a frontier spirit since the dawn of the internet and have been involved in many businesses.
However, now that the growth of the telecommunications business has reached a saturation point, we are once again demonstrating our frontier spirit and using backcasting techniques to pioneer new things that the world does not yet have but will need in the future. The forefront of these efforts is the social environment business. Specific projects we are currently working on include a hot spring travel business for corporations that contributes to health management, a building energy control business using AI, and a renewable energy business that utilizes the natural environment without putting a burden on the earth. Building energy control utilizes AI to improve power consumption efficiency, something that is unprecedented in Japan. Furthermore, for renewable energy, rather than solar and wind power, which tend to require large-scale equipment, we are developing a system that collects electricity from water, soil, and compost made from food waste, and we hope to provide this to the 13 billion people around the world who still do not have access to electricity.

＊message＊

I recommend that all students go abroad. I want them to go overseas and learn how to create businesses. Japan has excellent manufacturing technology, but its ability to combine these technologies to create a business is extremely poor. Uber is a perfect example; it does not use any new technology, but is trying to become the world's largest taxi company using only location information and email. I want young people in particular to go abroad and be exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking, and to increase the number of world firsts originating from Japan.

Student Newspaper, October 1, 2022 Issue, Kanto Acupuncture and Moxibustion College, 10rd Year, Takehara Koryu