Hiroyuki Nishiyama, Director, Group Vice President, COO, Assistant to the Group Representative, and Group Human Resources Development Manager, GMO Internet Group, Inc.

There is no challenge that cannot be overcome. A new world lies ahead.

GMO Internet Group, Inc.
Director, Group Vice President and COO, Group Representative Assistant, Group Human Resources Development Manager
Hiroyuki Nishiyama(Hiroyuki Nishiyama)

■ Profile
After dropping out of Kobe University, he founded Ryoma Co., Ltd. and worked as an entrepreneur. In 1999, he joined the Group and successfully listed MagClick Co., Ltd. (now GMO Ad Partners Co., Ltd.) on NASDAQ Japan (now JASDAQ) in 364 days (the shortest listing record at the time). In 2015, he became Executive Vice President of GMO Internet Co., Ltd. (now GMO Internet Group Co., Ltd.). As COO, he serves as assistant to the Group Representative and oversees the Human Resources Development Department.

GMO Internet Group, Inc. is a company that develops businesses centered around internet infrastructure. Founded in 1995, the company has set targets of 10 trillion yen in sales, 1 trillion yen in profits, 207 companies, and 200,000 partners (employees) by 2051. We spoke to COO Nishiyama, who is working hard toward this 55-year plan announced at the company's founding, about his own career and the company's growth strategy.

After I entered university and lived there for a while, I began to feel a sense of discomfort, as if I was at university to get a job, or to get into a so-called good company. When I started to think like that, university became less stimulating, and I began to look for opportunities to be active outside of school, so I started a business with some friends that arranged for driving school training camps.
In this way, I started my business while still enrolled in university, but eventually dropped out and chose the path of business. The reason for this was that I felt that doing both my studies and business was half-hearted, and my father had told me, "If you're enrolled in university while working in an environment where you can quit at any time, how can you beat the professionals in that industry?" I considered whether the title "university graduate" was really necessary for me, and made this decision.

■ My destiny-changing encounter with Representative Kumagai

After leaving university, I founded Ryoma Co., Ltd. with the hope of becoming a pioneering company. However, the company did not get on track and I ended up selling it, but the people I made at that time are still my irreplaceable allies.
Later, in my 30s, I started a company again, and while running a company that provided media content such as publishing and music, I met Kumagai, the current group representative, and he asked me if I wanted to work with him. Kumagai told me, "The Internet is a revolution! What would you do if you didn't join the revolution?" At the time, I had my own company, so I was honestly hesitant. However, I was excited about the amazing things that would happen if the Internet became widespread, and I thought I could do something interesting.
Since then, we have been working with the philosophy of "Internet for everyone."

■ Create a system that brings together capable people

The appeal of the GMO Internet Group can be summed up in one word: it is a collection of venture companies. The basic role of the group is to "create a system that brings together people who can do things, rather than doing everything ourselves."
The reason we decided to adopt this style is that internet services are limitless and expand in many directions. There is a limit to what one person can come up with. We believe that creating a system that brings together experts and encourages them to use the company is far more important in drawing up a growth strategy. We call this "Liangshanbo Management."

■No.1 & STEAM Human Resources Recruitment ~New Graduate Annual Salary 7.1 Million Yen Program~

The COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst for launching the "No. 1 & STEAM Talent Recruitment - New Graduate Annual Salary Program of 7.1 Million Yen." Since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, we've conducted evacuation drills and remote work training every year. As a result, we were one of the first to switch to fully remote work, but when we actually tried it, various problems arose. For example, stamping. Previously, employees had to come into the office, risking infection, to stamp documents. However, we offer a service called "GMO Sign," an electronic seal. Two days after our decision to abolish stamps, we completely eliminated the use of stamps. This alone reduces the time required to come into the office, and the stamping process itself takes just a few seconds.
In this way, we identified the issues and took stock of our work with the remote work that began with the COVID-19 pandemic. We decided to return the profits generated by increasing each individual's productivity to our partners (employees) and to raise salaries to the highest level.
We aim to be a corporate group that will continue for centuries. To that end, we have decided to return the investment to our human resources. As part of this, we have launched the "No. 1 & STEAM Talent Recruitment - New Graduate Annual Salary of 7.1 Million Yen Program" to attract the talent known as STEAM talent who will support the next generation. We encourage everyone who has the drive to take on unprecedented innovation and want to try it out to take on the challenge.

＊message＊

In today's world, there are more jobs than ever before, and we live in an age where it's easy to make a living. I think the important thing is to be able to take on challenges without fear and with confidence. Even if you try something new and it doesn't work out, there's always another path that will open up.
As stated in the GMO-ism Spirit Venture Declaration, problems that you cannot solve will not arise for you in the first place. What you perceive as a challenge only becomes a challenge because someone else has expectations of you. Whatever happens, think of it as the very limit of what you can do now, and don't you want to see the new world beyond when you overcome it?

Student Newspaper April 1, 2022 Issue, Nihon University 10rd Year Student, Maho Wada