Golf Partner Co., Ltd. President and CEO Junya Ishida

Understanding the industry structure and differentiating ourselves from other companies to become the "world's best"

President and CEO of Golf Partner Co., Ltd.　Junya Ishida(Junya Ishida)

■ Profile

After graduating from the Faculty of Business Administration at Hosei University, he worked for Maruman, Japan Three S, Venture Link, and other companies before becoming President and CEO of Golf Partner Co., Ltd. in 2003. He currently serves as an executive officer of Xebio Holdings, a group company of Xebio, and President and CEO of Golf Partner.

Junya Ishida aspired to become a company president since his student days, and with a wide range of experience, he became president of Golf Partner. We spoke to him about his journey from his student days, when he continued to work unique part-time jobs, to how Golf Partner became the world's number one golf company.

■ Trying out a variety of part-time jobs during my student days

I worked part-time as a caddy in high school, and in college I did a variety of part-time jobs, including as a swimming instructor at a pool in Ginza, a lifeguard at a seaside park, helping out at a fur store, and as a private tutor. As a private tutor, I was fired immediately after I told the parents my realistic teaching philosophy, rather than telling them my dream job, "If your child works hard, they can get into the school of their choice!" (laughs). However, I believe I was able to learn efficient ways to earn money and absorb the know-how of various jobs from these experiences.

■Since his student days, his dream has been to become a president

Ever since I was a student, I had dreamed of becoming a company president. However, whenever I talked about it at drinking parties with friends at the time, they would mock me, saying, "There's no way you could become a company president." The reason I wanted to become a company president even though they mocked me was because I had seen my parents struggling financially. My parents originally ran a convenience store-sized supermarket in front of the station. However, with the emergence of suburban supermarkets like Kasumi, the area in front of the station fell into disuse, and my father became a salaryman at the age of 40, which I witnessed as he struggled greatly. So, in order to live a life free of financial worries, I began to think about becoming a company president.

■When I was a new employee, I thought that I would be successful if I was cheerful and clear-spoken.

　When I joined my first company, Maruman, I wanted to work in Tokyo, but unfortunately I was assigned to the Sendai branch. At first, I wanted to work hard in Sendai, but I was afraid that I would be left behind if I wasn't in Tokyo, and because traveling by Shinkansen frequently took a long time, I quit my job and returned to Tokyo.

　My second company was Japan Three S, which has strengths in inheritance tax, and I had the opportunity to work with lawyers and accountants. However, I realized that it was not enough to just be a salesperson and that it was important to study a specialized field. So I obtained Level 3 and Level 2 bookkeeping qualifications and spent about two years training while improving my own expertise.

　My third company was Venture Link, which helped grow Gyu-Kaku, Gulliver, Tully's and other companies. At the time, Venture Link offered consulting and business matching services to regional banks, as well as acting as a sales agent for venture companies and franchise companies. I was assigned to the sales agent business and put in charge of Gulliver, a used car company. At first, I was tasked with recruiting new members, but later I was also tasked with setting up franchises, and I became so engrossed in Gulliver that I gradually began to want to go independent at Gulliver.

■After discussing independence, I contacted the president.

　When I went to talk to Kobayashi, the founder of Venture Link, about going independent, he was against it, telling me, "You'd better not do it." The main point was that it would take 40 million yen to start my own business, but I would only make 20 million yen in profit per store. Another disadvantage was that it would take a very long time to increase the number of stores.

　In fact, at the time, I had a strong desire to launch a comprehensive golf shop called "Golf Partner" that would pioneer a new market for used golf clubs, separate from Gulliver. So Kobayashi created a subsidiary for me and entrusted me with the management of 10 Gulliver stores. Since then, I have been running both Gulliver and Golf Partner, but as a result of constantly communicating that Golf Partner had issues, I was able to leave other franchises, such as Gulliver, to someone else and focus on being the president of Golf Partner.

■Understanding the industry structure helped me increase my golf partners

　Since becoming president, I have focused on increasing the number of directly managed stores. The reason I decided to strengthen the number of directly managed stores is because I thought that if I was confident in a franchise, I should grow it myself. As a result, in my second year in office, the company was profitable and was able to borrow money from the bank. 　

I think the appeal of the golf industry is not only the size of the market, but also the growth in the product quality of golf clubs. First of all, the market size is said to be around 3000 billion yen, making it by far the largest in the sports industry. While this is a different industry, one of the reasons for the growth of the used car industry, such as Gulliver, is that the lifespan of products has increased. The same can be said for golf clubs. Because golf clubs are prone to breaking, the number of repairs increases and the span of time between generations is shorter, but technological advances have made them less prone to breaking, which has led to the growth of the industry.

　One of the reasons Golf Partner was able to capture a 60% share of the used club market is that we took a risk and increased the number of stores, but I think a major factor was our investment in store inventory and appraisal systems. Our appraisal system was set up so that we could change prices about once a week, whereas other companies change prices about once every six months. I think that understanding the structure of the industry and differentiating ourselves from other companies was the key to our increased market share.

■ I want to work with unique people

　When I hire, I tell people that I want unique individuals to find their own success pattern. Among the successful store managers at Golf Partner, there are cheerful ones and others who are not, and there are many different factors that lead to success. Therefore, I don't think there is any one characteristic that will guarantee success. I would like to work with people who can utilize their individuality in their work.

■Message to university students

　Compared to the past, things have become more globalized, and it's becoming harder to confidently call Japan a developed country. Incidentally, golf clubs are the cheapest in the world in Japan. I hope that Japan will bounce back from its current precarious position in the world. Also, Golf Partner has been recognized by the Guinness World Records for the number of used golf clubs sold. I hope that businesses like this, and other business models that are not yet widespread but have the potential to become number one in the world, will become more widely known and help reverse Japan's position on the world stage.

Interviewed by Student Newspaper Online on November 7, 2022 by Hayato Tane, 4th year student at Chuo Gakuin University