Yuto Takahashi, CEO of Levatec Co., Ltd.

By supporting human resources that connect not dots but lines, "make Japan an IT-advanced nation."

CEO of Levatec Co., Ltd.　Yuto Takahashi(Yuto Takahashi)

■ Profile
After graduating from Osaka University, he joined Leverages as a new graduate in 2014. In his second year, he established the Osaka branch, and was subsequently appointed branch manager, responsible for establishing and formulating strategies for four domestic branches. While carrying out domestic operations, he also launched an engineer referral business at the Indian branch. In 2019, he was appointed general manager of the LevaTech IT Solutions Division, responsible for strategic planning and management of "LevaTech Freelance." He will serve as CEO in 2021.

As a group company of the rapidly growing Leverages, Levertec offers a wide range of human resources services under the vision of "Making Japan an IT-advanced country." With the shortage of IT personnel in Japan becoming an issue, how can they solve this difficult problem? We spoke with Representative Executive Officer Yuto Takahashi about the current state of IT in Japan and the appeal of the company.

One of the most formative experiences in my university life was taking a year off from my junior and senior years to study abroad in Seattle, USA. I spent the first nine months studying alongside local students and the remaining three months interning. Seattle is home to the headquarters of Microsoft and Amazon, and I had the opportunity to chat casually with employees there. At the time, Steve Jobs drove a Toyota out of concern for the environment, and there was a strong respect for Japanese manufacturing. However, there were few Japanese computers and apps available, and I felt frustrated when people implicitly pointed out Japan's lack of IT. After returning to Japan, I struggled between continuing on to graduate school or finding a job, but after about a month of job hunting, I decided to join the venture company Leverages. The deciding factor was that I enjoyed the experience of getting hands-on experience during my internship in the US. Furthermore, given that I don't know what the current state of Japanese companies will be in 10 years, my job search was focused on being able to make a living on my own, so I chose a venture company, where I could do a variety of work and create things on my own.

■Current situation and issues regarding IT human resources in Japan

At Levatec, we are working to "increase, develop, and connect" IT companies and talent, with the vision of "Making Japan an IT-advanced nation." Our main business is connecting companies and talent. Specifically, we match freelancers with companies, and also provide support for mid-career and new graduate recruitment.
As for the "development" part, we operate programming schools and programming schools for working adults who have no experience in IT. For example, we provide digital transformation consulting for people who don't know how to use a computer, and we also operate a quality assurance business that provides software quality control and quality consulting.
And the "increase" part, which seems to be a major challenge, is an effort to increase the number of development organizations.
A notable difference between the US and Japan is the type of workforce that IT engineers belong to. In the US, 8% of engineers work directly for companies like automobile and hotel companies, while the remaining 1% work for companies specializing in IT development. In Japan, however, it's the exact opposite: 2% of engineers work for companies like automobile and hotel companies, and 8% work for companies specializing in IT development. This is actually a major obstacle to IT operations, as requesting a systems company to update an app takes a long time. However, there's a need to expand development organizations so that companies can develop the software themselves. Therefore, the "expansion" part is a major challenge, and efforts are being made to create teams for companies that don't have IT engineers, so that they can operate independently.
We are developing our services with the concept of supporting engineers from the beginning to the end of their career. Because it is not uncommon for engineers to change jobs four or five times, we are conscious of providing long-term, continuous support rather than short-term, point-by-point support.

■ Differentiation through "people" and "loyalty"　

At other companies, job postings are often received from human resources, but at LeVatec, our business model involves visiting companies about 10,000 times a year and meeting with on-site project managers. In other words, observing "what kind of people you're working with" is also an important element, so our ability to gather internal information by visiting companies and match them with talent is a major strength.
Furthermore, in today's world, where it's becoming increasingly difficult to gain a competitive advantage in services, it's said that maintaining customer loyalty is more important than increasing it. For example, when you go to a hair salon, factors like whether you can easily make an appointment and whether you don't have to wait are important. Therefore, we strive to increase customer loyalty by meticulously defining and repeating waste-free operations, which is key. And what supports this is our people. I believe that our fundamental strength lies in our hiring and training of ambitious people who enjoy taking on new challenges. Furthermore, when it comes to hiring, we want to work with people who possess "trust, intelligence, and passion." These include trust that allows us to entrust them with tasks, interpersonal intelligence that allows them to communicate smoothly with others, and logical thinking skills. Above all, we believe that passion is what wins, so we prioritize these three points when hiring.

■Message to university students

When you're a student, you tend to want to go to an environment where you can directly utilize the environment you learned in. There's nothing wrong with that, but I think it's unfortunate that what you've learned is not even 1% of what the world has taught you, and that it's unfortunate to think about work only in that context. I think today's university students are also using social media, but the online world seems open but is actually disconnected, so I think it's important to not just use the same things on social media, but to try out a variety of things, and to try out things that seem interesting even if they're not related to you. I myself traveled to about 10 countries overseas as a university student, and I feel that the new discoveries and experiences I gained are useful in my time as a working adult. As a working adult, you have less time to learn about things outside of your company, so try to get in touch with worlds you didn't know existed while you're still a university student.

Student Newspaper Online September 11, 2024 Interview by Yuka Matsuzaka, 3rd year student at Keio University

Yoshikazu Kamei, a third-year student at Chuo University / Mayuka Kato, a third-year student at Otsuma Nakano High School /
Toyo University second-year student Rinno Koshiyama / Keio University third-year student Yusaka Matsuzaka