This marks my third year as President and Representative Director. Throughout this time, direct engagement with employees on the front lines has given me the sense that the “temperature” of our organization is steadily rising.
Honestly speaking, the years during the COVID-19 pandemic were a struggle. Amid stagnant performance and uncertainty about the future, employees seemed unsure how to embody our Mission, Vision, and Value (MVV), even though it resonated with them when they joined the company. Despite understanding and resonating with our MVV, there was a sense of stagnation; employees found it difficult to translate them into action or leverage them effectively. Policies prioritizing profit and the environment made new challenges difficult, and for several years, we settled for familiar patterns.
But things are different now. Business units that deliver results have emerged, and we are strategically driving new change. We are seeing more opportunities to meet needs in ways we previously could not, and those opportunities are bearing fruit. This has enabled employees to feel confident in their work and that they are making a real contribution. That confidence drives them to take on the next challenge, which in turn leads to an understanding that they are embodying our MVV. I feel this cycle is beginning to pick up momentum, like a gradual upward spiral.
Compared to two years ago, far more employees and teams feel that they are bringing positive change in the workplace through the value they provide. The temperature of our MVV is definitely rising. This, I believe, is the biggest change right now.
Employees being able to say that they are bringing positive change to others through their work is something we rarely saw before. Taking on new challenges creates results, which in turn serve as the driving force to take on even more challenges. I believe it will become increasingly important for management to intentionally broaden this cycle going forward.
To further solidify this momentum, it is vital to create an environment where each and every employee can view their role as “ongoing opportunities to take on challenges.” This means creating not only evaluation systems and training but also more opportunities in routine work to take on new challenges in small ways. I believe building these opportunities will further raise the temperature of our MVV. This is the will and the very culture of management as a whole. I am confident that creating an environment where employees can take pride in their work and find fulfillment will serve as a source for increasing corporate value.
We operate in manufacturing, nursing care, childcare, and construction—domains in which operations must remain active. None of these industries is experiencing explosive growth in Japan. The way I see it, there’s no strong tailwind, but there’s no significant headwind either. It is always a mild breeze. This is what makes us resilient during economic downturns. While it may not seem glamorous, these areas serve as vital infrastructure supporting society and are something we should take on with pride.
In this context, our way of competing is to understand customers better than they understand themselves. We understand our clients’ organizations and operations thoroughly, manage them on their behalf, and deliver results. This is our winning formula. Our hybrid staffing model, in which employees are stationed on-site at client locations to conduct sales and proposals right then and there, exemplifies this. We tailor our work to them completely.
One memorable example is the time we competed for a major contract with over ten rival companies, with only a few selected. The requirements were quite challenging, to the point that it sparked internal debate over whether we should even pursue the opportunity. However, by wracking our brains to refine our proposal, we were able to win. Entrusted with areas nationwide, we reached out to other participating companies to create cooperative systems in regions with staff shortages, transferred staff members as needed, and saw the work through to completion. Having employees be able to take pride in saying that they can deliver better results than anyone else, even under difficult circumstances, is a great asset.
Ultimately, the source of our strength lies in understanding customers better than they understand themselves. This stance has been embodied in our “Power to take calls” at call centers, our “Power to sell” in sales, our “Power to manufacture” in factories, and our “Power to care” in nursing. These have taken root as part of our organizational culture, creating a stable foundation resilient to economic fluctuations, along with an ability to continue seizing new growth opportunities.
Our close customer engagement continues even after we secure a contract. We break bread in the same workplace while managing the staff to create worksites together with our customers. It is precisely this culture that allows us to build trust with major clients and differentiate ourselves from the competition.
Our overseas business has expanded through M&A spearheaded by Chairman Ikeda. We have consistently employed the three criteria of good current performance, an outstanding management team with values that align with ours, and clear strengths that make sense when considering acquisitions. Consequently, we were able to implement PMI that maintains a high level of competency while retaining local autonomy at the companies we have acquired. This was an excellent strategy for our growth phase, which prioritized speed. However, by the time I took over, market conditions had changed significantly. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, demand fluctuated wildly and competition intensified. Each company was resolving issues independently, driven by a strong sense of accountability for “handling things on our own.” While this is an admirable management stance, it highlighted the fact that we were not generating synergy or collaboration across companies.
This led me to believe that we needed to create opportunities for companies to connect. Rather than simply acquiring companies and relying solely on their autonomy, we needed to broaden our management perspective and shift to a system where each company contributes value to the others as members of the Group. The mechanism created for this was the CEO meetings that we began in Singapore and Australia. The underlying issue was the fact that our CEOs did not know each other well. Even years after being acquired, they still had few opportunities to meet face-to-face and remained at a distance, not knowing of any potential for synergy. This is why we started sharing our issues earnestly in person. At first, they simply touted their own company’s strengths, but as they began working on projects together, the seeds of collaboration emerged, and by the second meeting, attitudes had shifted to the point where people were saying, “Why didn’t we start doing this sooner?” The CEO meetings are not just for exchanging information; they have begun functioning as a forum for sharing a sense of risk and fostering unity as a Group.
What I constantly emphasize is not “creating unity” but “sharing a sense of risk and creating change.” Instead of striving to be a good team, let’s first create small successes that increase revenue and gross profit, even if just by a single yen. These cumulative efforts build trust, which ultimately results in unity. We have been working on this for roughly half a year, and I feel that the distance between companies has definitely narrowed and that the overall perspective of the Group has broadened.
Meeting regularly in person with our overseas CEOs, putting issues on the table, and collaborating with one another is a process through which a style of “creating value as a whole Group rather than individual companies fighting alone” has finally begun to take shape. While our overseas business still faces many challenges, these challenges represent room for growth. I am confident that this will serve as a crucial foundation for generating our next phase of growth. I believe that connecting two elements—the passion of leaders on the ground and a bird’s-eye view of the entire Group by management—will be the key to pioneering the future of our overseas business.
The period of our next Medium-Term Management Plan, starting in 2027, will be a preparatory phase for maximizing profits in the Working domain while establishing new pillars in the domain of ILL (“Interesting,” “Learning,” and “Living”), which is the origin of our company name. The Construction domain in particular continues to drive growth. However, current growth will not necessarily continue over the long term. Looking ahead, it is essential to cultivate new pillars in parallel. This is why we need to strengthen the sustainability of profits while developing new businesses so that we can enter a “harvest period” in the next three years.
Meanwhile, our ILL strategy for 2030 and beyond is still in its infancy. However, I believe it is vital to increase the number of ideas—even just “ideas off the top of our heads”—and experiment with them through trial and error. I often chat about this with our management team, but we are exploring the potential for new businesses able to make workers more positive. We are considering a range of ideas at the experimental stage, such as systems to support learning and living, as well as environments where people can grow as they work. Many concepts have yet to take shape, but we have identified our direction: Creating a society that promotes positivity through “Working,” “Interesting,” “Learning,” and “Living.”
Through this trial and error, we aim to solidify the foundation for revenue in Working as one pillar, and establish another pillar with ILL by 2030. Building these two pillars is the future I envision. Furthermore, by 2035, I want ILL to account for significant scale. This is not merely a numerical target, but a path toward achieving our Vision by comprehensively supporting people throughout their lives in the domains of “Working,” “Interesting,” “Learning,” and “Living.” This requires that we increase our cash generation capacity over the next three years and build the fortitude to withstand new investments. I believe that realistic efforts to build a solid foundation are essential for discussing the future.
While many aspects of ILL are still at the “Ideas off the top of our heads” stage, I believe the future begins with such ideas. We take those small ideas—created through dialogue with employees, customers, and partners—and refine them and give them shape. I believe these will serve as seeds for generating significant revenue and social value over the next decade.
I am often asked, “Do you focus on share price in managing the company?” And the answer is, “Of course.” Share price is the means by which we return value to our shareholders. Over the next several years, we will raise our current market capitalization in the 20 billion yen range to a scale befitting our next stage. Like a rocket using 80% of its fuel to break through the atmosphere, we cannot reach the next stage unless we overcome this barrier.
However, numbers are not our sole objective. “Working,” which is one of our domains, is something most people cannot avoid. That is why I want people to believe work is interesting, that there is potential that only they possess, thereby making the idea of “Working” more positive. Taking on new endeavors so that our employees, customers, shareholders, and the people of future generations can all benefit—that is the purpose of the WILL GROUP.
To conclude, I would like to convey a simple message to our shareholders and investors.
“Believe in our potential.”
I take pride not in the past or present, but in “what we will have accomplished when we achieve what we are trying to do.” This is why I ask everyone to keep supporting us and believe in our endeavors for the future. The WILL GROUP will continue to serve as a Positive Change Agent that changes society for the better.
