Jun Tsuchiya, Senior Executive Officer and General Manager of Corporate Information Department, M&A Capital Partners Co., Ltd.

The patience and listening skills I developed in the soccer club are useful in my current job.

Senior Executive Officer and General Manager of Corporate Information Department, M&A Capital Partners Co., Ltd. Jun Tsuchiya(Tsuchiya Jun)

■ Profile

After joining a major home builder, he was involved in sales and proposals for detached houses and apartment complexes for inheritance planning and asset management to business owners and wealthy individuals. After joining M&A Capital Partners as its first employee, he has been primarily involved in M&A in the healthcare industry since 2008, establishing a specialized department and achieving industry-leading results, boasting the highest total number of M&A deals in the company. He will be appointed Senior Executive Officer in October 2022.

"In M&A, which is one of the biggest decisions in the life of a transferring company owner, it is most important to be close to the other party," says Tsuchiya, Senior Executive Officer at M&A Capital Partners. Armed with the "attitude of never giving up and being close to the other party" he cultivated during his time on the soccer team in high school and at a housing manufacturer he joined as a new graduate, Tsuchiya continues to develop new clients in an industry crowded with competitors. We spoke with Tsuchiya about a wide range of topics, from his career to the strengths of his company, and his thoughts on recruiting new graduates for 2023.

One of the most memorable experiences from my student days was my time in the high school soccer club. My teacher was strict and would tell me, "If you can't play to your satisfaction, go home!" But I spent my days practicing hard, aiming to play at the National Stadium in the high school soccer championship next year, and that really strengthened my mentality. As the team's game captain, I led the team and also acted as a mood maker to raise the team's morale, so I think my time in the soccer club helped me develop the patience needed to achieve dreams and goals, as well as the ability to listen to others and empathize with others, which are both necessary in the workplace.
This is a very important thing when working as an M&A advisor. Owners put their lives on the line when they decide to sell their companies. Our company's business card states, "We respond to decisions with sincerity." This attitude is connected to our determination to accompany owners to the very end without giving up, and our actions demonstrate our commitment to supporting owners.
However, my father was a first-class architect, and I myself had aspirations of becoming a design engineer, so I went to university to study architecture and got a job at Sekisui House after graduating. I joined a house builder hoping to help people buy a home, a major purchase they make once in their lifetime, and do work that would leave a mark on the market. However, because there is a lot of competition among house builders, you are required to not only listen to the customer's wishes, but also to be able to provide suggestions that will help you get close to them and resolve any questions or concerns. I can say that my encounters there changed my life.

From meeting people to contributing to society through M&A

There are three reasons why I entered the M&A industry. The first is "people." When I joined Sekisui House, a senior colleague on the same team was our current CEO, Nakamura. Meeting Nakamura, whom I respected both as a salesperson and as a person, was a major turning point that changed my life. During my time at Sekisui House, many of our clients were building maintenance and restaurant owners, and we often consulted them about business succession. Nakamura set out to create a new market for business succession in the M&A industry, and went independent and started his own company. At that time, I also sensed the potential in Nakamura's big challenge, and I decided to devote my life to joining M&A Capital Partners, which had just been founded, as its first employee.
However, of course, things were not smooth sailing from the start. In the early days, M&A itself had a bad image and no credibility, so we had to sign non-disclosure agreements.^■We weren't even allowed to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and in the second or third year after our founding, we struggled with financing and nearly went bankrupt twice. (*Non-disclosure agreement... a type of agreement that is concluded when considering M&A, and must be concluded at an early stage.) At that time, we managed to revive thanks to an investment of just under 100 million yen, and gradually built up a track record and trust. When we listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Mothers (at the time) in 2013 and on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (now Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime) in 2014, and rang the bell of a bountiful harvest, tears naturally welled up. I felt like we were finally at the starting line, and could work with trust and a brand. The feelings I had at that time still fuel me today.
The second reason I entered this industry is because I was impressed by the dynamism of M&A. All of our client owners are already successful in society. I was fascinated by the dynamic world in which these owners make the once-in-a-lifetime decision to sell their companies for tens of millions to hundreds of billions of yen, and I wanted to help them make that decision.
The third reason is the high level of social contribution this job makes. Nationwide, there are 127 million business owners over the age of 70 who have no successors. Of these, approximately 600,000 remain profitable and are at risk of going out of business due to a lack of successors. A company employs employees, who have families and whose lives depend on it. Not only that, but the company also has business partners. Letting a company's name go out of business has an impact on everyone involved, and even on the local economy. The high level of social contribution this job offers—saving profitable companies that would otherwise go out of business through M&A and protecting jobs and the country's GDP—really made me want to devote myself to this job.
Since our founding, our company has generated over 1.65 trillion yen in economic activity savings, and in the most recent fiscal year, this has led to the maintenance of employment for approximately 24,000 people. Even when looking at the numbers, I feel that the social responsibility we can shoulder is particularly large, and I realize that this is what makes our work rewarding.

Becoming a unique organization with our unique methods and human resources

In an M&A industry with approximately 3,000 players today, our firm is positioned to lead the industry by promoting client-first "the right M&A." There are two main ways we differentiate ourselves from other companies. The first is our "outbound approach," which is also our business model. Unlike our competitors, which use the inbound approach of generating deals through referrals from financial institutions and accounting firms, our M&A advisors personally write and call owners directly to carefully develop potential clients, explaining the specific appeal of the buyer to the owner. By using this approach, the brokerage commission rates our clients pay are among the lowest in the industry.

The second is that we have a strong team of talented people. Our company is made up of professionals who have achieved top-class sales results at well-known companies. This is why we are able to develop new customers through outbound sales, as I mentioned earlier. Another feature of our company is that we have many honest people with strong interpersonal skills, in addition to strong sales skills. Our CEO, Nakamura, always participates in the final interview of new hires to assess their interpersonal skills.
After joining the company, there are monthly knowledge tests to maintain high levels of proposal ability, and all M&A advisors, including Nakamura, work hard to improve themselves.
Furthermore, Nakamura, just as he has been since the company's founding, still visits clients daily as a player, making proposals that are in line with their lives, and it is because all employees follow his example that our M&A advisors continue to work hard on self-improvement every day, earning the trust of our clients and creating the "M&A Capital Partners brand." This, in turn, leads to our company's strong proposal capabilities and human strength, and I believe is the source of our ability to achieve "the right M&A."

2023Starting this year, we will also start hiring new graduates.

In terms of human resource development, we began hiring new graduates in fiscal year 2023. For a long time, we only hired mid-career candidates with a certain level of work experience, but we have now begun recruiting new graduates in order to build a strong organization. Rather than setting a fixed number of employees, we aim to welcome individuals who fit our company's standards and the type of person we consider to be our ideal. The ideal candidate is modeled after our company's abbreviation, MACP. M stands for "motivation." We look for candidates who have a strong passion and drive to serve owners who make life decisions. A stands for "analysis." This refers to deep analytical thinking. Owners see you as a partner entrusting their lives to them, so we look for candidates who have the intelligence to adapt to changing circumstances. C stands for "conscientiousness." This is exceptional integrity. This job cannot be thought of solely in terms of self-interest. We look for candidates who have the integrity to take on owners' lives with sincerity. P stands for "personality." No matter how smart you are, if you don't have the charisma to be liked by owners, it's a tough world. In this way, we cherish our client-first philosophy and culture, and aim to become the world's top investment bank.
Responding wholeheartedly to the owner's decision is our mission.

Message to university students

I think what you need to do now is to find your dreams and goals in life and create your own axis. I hope you will find values ​​that are not based on money, and look for a company where you can work with high motivation towards your axis.

Student Newspaper Online, August 2, 2023, Interview by Yui Takemura, 3th year student at Senshu University