Hiroshige Sugihara, President and CEO of Geotechnologies Inc.

2023.04.18

Aiming to "create an XR world" with "location information and people flow data"

President and CEO, Geotechnologies Inc. Hiroshige Sugihara(Hiroshige Sugihara)

■ Profile

He has a proven track record as a leader in the IT industry, having led Oracle Japan to a 2.3-fold increase in market capitalization to 1.3 trillion yen, and Hewlett-Packard Japan G.K. to a V-shaped recovery in business performance. He is well-versed in Japanese, US, and global management, as well as digital transformation.
He joined the company in June 2021 and became Representative Director, President and CEO.
Since December of the same year, he has also served as a visiting professor at the Tohoku University Green Future Creation Organization.

We spoke about a wide range of topics, from his journey since he dreamed of becoming an entrepreneur while studying abroad in the US during his university days, to the future that President Sugihara Hiroshige, who has revolutionized digital companies in both Japan and the US, envisions using location information and people flow data, which he calls the "last frontier," and the specific measures he is taking to transform his company.

In high school, he was in the rugby and light music club, and in college, his father told him to go to America to study. He wanted him to become a global talent, such as a UN staff member, and he wanted him to see America as the quickest way to achieve that.
When I actually went to America, I was faced with the task of confronting my own identity. Who exactly are you, where do you come from, and what do you really want to do? Living as a student with foreigners of the same age completely changed my values, which had been based on the idea that I would become a salaryman, and I made two major realizations.
The first thing is that in order to succeed overseas, you first need to know Japan. I thought that if I couldn't say anything about my home country, I would end up being a half-baked person. Unless I can tell foreigners that my identity is Japanese, I won't be able to win.
Second, entrepreneurs are at the top of the food chain. In America, it's citizens who elect politicians, and entrepreneurs who hire lawyers and doctors as clients. I decided it would be better to start my own company, so I dropped out of college, feeling I didn't need a degree.
After returning to Japan, I searched for a company where I could learn about entrepreneurship while obtaining funding, and joined Forval, a trading company that sells telephone and communication equipment and office equipment. I had studied the rise of computers, the forerunner of digital technology, at an American university, and felt that a communications revolution was about to occur in Japan as well.
A major turning point for me was when I was responsible for setting up Forval in the US, which quickly became a public company in Japan. I failed hundreds of times, but founding a company, building a sales network, and exporting technology was a valuable experience. My next job was at EMC, a storage company that stores mission-critical data. It was there I realized that communications is the transfer of data from point A to point B. After that, I worked at HP Japan, before becoming president and CEO of Oracle Japan, a major US database company.
I joined Geotechnologies in 2021. Although it is a Japanese company, they still have dreams and hopes, so I was asked to revive it as a completely new company and help it grow significantly, and I agreed.

■The potential of "NFT art" and the "XR world"

Having been in the digital industry for a long time, I have come to see that the final frontier that will see significant growth in the future is "location information, people flow data, and digital maps." Our company is the only Japanese company that has this, and we are preparing to go public in the next few years. We are expanding not only in Japan but also globally, and have begun operations in seven countries around the world since this year.
Last year, we established a Metaverse division and began selling the industry's first location-based NFT art, which uses digital maps, to the world, selling out in the same day. NFT art is, quite simply, about "emotion." There are 100 different treasures for every individual. Our company provides "emotionally resonant items" by converting treasures like trading cards and pennants, which were previously only available in the real world, into digital data. Our next goal is "XR: the fusion of virtual and real." Simply put, it refers to a worldview where you can bridge the Metaverse and real worlds and travel back and forth.
The current metaverse is a game, so it floats in the air and does not exist in reality. By replicating real-world scenery with location information of people, objects, cars, and buildings, we will create a virtual world where people's movements can be understood. Your avatar will appear on the monitor, and if you want to go see the cherry blossoms at Rikugien Garden, you can go. What's more, even if you're in New York, you can go to Rikugien Garden. If someone with a bad leg wants to go to Nikko, they can. We believe that this fusion of virtual and real can be used in a variety of industries, including remote medical care, logistics, and finance.

■ Strengthening organizational capabilities through "Sugihara-style" corporate transformation

There are four main measures we are taking to transform our company.
The first is "creating a flat organization." The reason for wanting a flat organization is that too many layers are inefficient. For example, the company I previously worked for had 320,000 employees worldwide, and for one person to go on a business trip, approval had to go through 12 different approval documents. This makes it impossible to manage quickly. By creating a flat organization, we can find talented and capable people.
The second is "promotional personnel." We promote people to executive positions even when we think, "This person is too young to be an executive." Even if they are young, by promoting them, they are able to carry out their roles and achieve results. We also ask employees what they want to do, and by placing them in areas where they excel and in positions they want to work in, we create win-win relationships for both parties.
The third is the establishment of the industry's first Total Customer Experience (TCE) division. This division aims to improve customer experience and satisfaction by visiting customers from a neutral standpoint, listening to their positive and negative experiences with our company, and making improvements.
The fourth is the "establishment of our company constitution, the GT PRINCIPLES." For example, Article 1, "Love Our Customers," means that we cannot tolerate anything out of love for our customers. In other words, true love means building a relationship strong enough to correct a customer's mistakes. Our company, which has 10 other articles, seeks people who "cannot be discouraged, even if they're crazy, and use failure as motivation." In other words, in this age of no-right answers, we want to work with people who are not bound by stereotypes and want to take on adventures, who are always thinking up interesting ideas, and who want to work across reality and fantasy. Furthermore, we also want people with an "animal spirit" who are willing to take on anything. That may be rare, though (laughs).

■Message to university students

We are currently looking for interns, so please contact us! If you are interested in the world of metaverse, location information, digital maps, and NFTs, please apply. All you need to do is download Trima. At first glance, it may seem like just a points-earning app, but the human flow data obtained from it will be beneficial to society and people, and there are sure to be good things in the future. We look forward to working with you!
<Internship Inquiries　recruit_newgrad@geot.jp>