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“Newest is best!” Careful, Consistent Management for Continuous Record Growth D-POPS GROUP has 24 group companies that we call partners (at the time of publication). For this article, we interviewed Tomoyoshi Yamashita, the President and CEO of PLUST.Co.,Ltd. (Plust from here on)—which joined our group in September 2024—and Jiro Masaki, Plust’s Senior Managing Director. (This interview was conducted in July 2025.) This is the latter part of the interview. To read the first part, click the link below. https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/plust-interview-first-part/ ◆Case Study Interview Videos Sugihara: I watched the interview videos of case studies published on Plust’s website, and I was very impressed by one customer who said, “All their staff, both men and women, have such great personalities that it really underscores their company’s merit, and even the CEO’s merit…” I felt like the sales and marketing teams’ sincere attitudes have become a part of the company’s branding itself. Yamashita: Thank you. Before adopting a product or service, it’s not uncommon for customers to worry, “Can I really trust Plust with this?” or “How do other business owners in the same industry actually feel after implementing this?” We believed that customer voices were the solution to alleviate these anxieties even a little. Naturally, we started from zero, asking our customers one by one for their feedback. As the number of such interviews gradually increased, it allowed us to view our company objectively. For example, understanding why they chose to work with us, or specifically how our support delighted the customers, has become a reference for how to support future customers. We realized things like, “If we respond this way, the customer will say they were helped”, and “If we think together about the store like this, the owner will be pleased.” Also, through watching these interview videos, our customers basically teach us about our own strengths all over again, and it enables us to think, “Ah, this is definitely our forte. Well, in that case, let’s bring out our team’s strengths even further!” Sugihara: The Japan Marketing Research Organization (JMRO) ranked your company as first place for “Number of Public Interviews of Satisfied Customers” in both the “Storefront App Development” and “Web Development” divisions. It’s remarkable that you conduct so many interviews. How do you go about arranging them? Yamashita: Actually, during the contract phase, we ask questions like, “If you implement our services and are satisfied with the results, would you be willing to cooperate in a post-implementation customer interview at a later date?” We also write this request directly into our contracts. Many of our customers respond by saying things like, “As long as it turns out well, that’s fine” or “If you produce good results, then we’ll be happy, and your sales and marketing teams can certainly use them!” But I can’t say there aren’t some who politely decline our request because they are honestly shy. Almost all of the interview videos are produced by our company’s media production department’s video team. Sugihara: That’s wonderful. What kind of reactions do you get from all of the customers and employees who watch those videos? Yamashita: First, for our employees, we basically created a “Case Study Interview Video” channel on our internal Slack, so when an interview is released, it’s shared company-wide. I think they are also displayed on monitors in the office, but when we share the interview with our company Slack, we can let everyone know who the support staff member was, who initially connected with the customer, and who the sales representative was. The customers’ own words let everyone understand in what manner they received their support. Normally, people in different departments or those in sales roles don’t know in detail how closely the support team works with customers. When a customer speaks highly of the support, sometimes they mention them by name, which shines a spotlight on the support staff and on those who are doing a good job with their sales. Also, in cases where customers watch the video during a business negotiation, some of them immediately say, “All right, then. We’ll leave it to you!” And others will call us in the following days to say they’ve decided to proceed with the contract. So I think those videos really help customers to envision a good working relationship. Sugihara: In that sense, you’ve created a system where the acquisition sales team members share the spotlight with the customer support and customer success team members. Yamashita: That’s right. Masaki and I are constantly mindful of creating a system that puts the spotlight not only on sales staff but also on employees who are doing important work that may not be easily quantifiable. Of course, in a sales company, sales often get the most recognition. But I believe that the whole company gets more energized when we make sure that the people who are working hard in their respective, important positions are properly acknowledged, rather than just the sales staff. Sugihara: Back-office staff departments like accounting and HR, which don’t have direct customer contact, are also certainly vital. Do you have ways of highlighting them within your company? Yamashita: We do have a Monthly MVP program, where the person who shone the brightest that month is selected from each division or department. About 15 candidates are selected for the Monthly MVP across the entire company. From those, we decide on one person each for the top sales award, the division MVP, and the Plust Monthly MVP. The final award recipients receive a certificate of commendation and a bonus, and the results are also publicized externally on our social media platforms like Instagram. Our public relations team makes sure these social posts are written so that when the employees, their family, or friends see them, they can feel like they are doing good work and being successful. In June, the information systems team leader, who responds to everyone with system-related questions every day and even worked on weekends to handle our recent head office relocation, was the company-wide MVP. Sometimes the MVP is the top salesperson with an overwhelming lead, and sometimes it’s a support staff member who received high praise from customers. It’s different every time. ◆Origin of the Company Name Sugihara: I’m glad to hear about such positive initiatives. Moving on to the next question. The mission and values page on your website explains the origin of your company name, and it’s quite impressive. The circles of “PLan”, “Unique”, and “Solution” are all encompassed by the foundational circle of “Trust”. As your customer feedback suggests, it seems that all of Plust’s employees work to build a strong relationship of trust with your customers. Could you elaborate on this philosophy? Yamashita: “Plan” refers to a total commitment to providing plans aligned with the customer’s perspective. “Unique” means offering proposals to customers out of our own originality. “Solution” means solving the problems that customers face. By fully committing to these three initials—PLUS—we ultimately aim to win the “Trust” of our customers. That’s the full meaning behind our company name. This has been the case since our establishment. Although I mentioned earlier that we were working every day without deeply internalizing it, our philosophy itself was actually always there. However, when trying to integrate those ideals into our daily operations, there was a large gap between the stated ideal and the reality on the ground at the time. I was a less mature manager then and couldn’t successfully connect the two. Sugihara: So the meaning of the company name was decided at the time of its founding. Have the mission and philosophy remained the same since then? Yamashita: The core foundation of our ideology hasn’t changed, but our mission, vision, values, and their verbalization were discussed and finalized over about six months, approximately three years ago, with Masaki and the heads of each division working together. To create something that could lead to the realization of our values, leaders from different roles gathered and created it, compiling it into a brand book. When deciding on the values, we turned ideas like, “Everyone at Plust often uses this kind of language” or “This really feels like us” into written statements. Masaki: That’s right. Even if we had a vague doctrine in the beginning, no one was really looking at it or striving for it. But as the number of people grew, we realized that wasn’t sustainable. President Yamashita provided the opportunity, and we undertook a project to create our philosophy and mission. We established these principles by asking “What are the things that Plust must value?” and “How can we maintain Plust as the foundation for everyone’s happiness?”, and then we made those our permanent motifs by preserving them in the form of a brand book. Since our brand book was created, it’s become easier to convey our values to new recruits. We can show them the brand book and say, “This is what we aim for”, and communicate that we only want people who resonate with this to work at Plust. In terms of recruitment, we have people who apply because they saw our philosophy, mission, vision, and our five values and felt an affinity for them. ◆Local Area Sustained Support Project Sugihara: I can see the history of your extensive social contribution activities on your website, with a cumulative total of about 40 million yen. What was the thinking behind these donations and support activities? Yamashita: We call these activities our Local Area Sustained Support Project. Now, this might not be the best way to say it, but the work that we do from day to day could be described as the “ultimate repetition”. It involves sales activities, carefully setting appointments, enthusiastically negotiating, providing solid support, and satisfying customers with website production. However, I believe that if there is a greater cause, or if we can feel that the work we do every day is useful to society and contributes to someone’s happiness, we can approach the tasks at hand with a more earnest attitude. Also, emotionally speaking, doesn’t it feel good when someone thanks you for your work? While our contributions may be very small, we hope that through donations and activities, we feel we are helping those in need even a little bit. That being said, our mindset is a little bit different from those involved in purely voluntary work, in the following sense. We feel good if we can make someone happy, even a little, but it wouldn’t be right if making that person happy meant reducing our business profits and effectiveness. If we could generate solid profits and also contribute to the world at the same time, that would be pretty cool, since people usually assume you can only achieve one or the other. If you look at it that way, it makes sense for us to commit to doing both. We want to generate solid profits, give back to employees through their salaries, and contribute to society while growing the business. Then no one would be able to complain about our company, so we want to continue these types of activities as long as possible. Sugihara: That’s a wonderful plan. Now, onto the next question. You moved your head office in May this year, so what was the concept behind the design of the new office? Yamashita: This was a head office expansion and renovation within the same building, the first in 11 years. Since we have sales offices all over Japan, I wanted a space that truly felt like, “Now, this is where the headquarters are!” We discussed the interior design extensively with the contractors and paid close attention to every detail, not just because we wanted it to be stylish or cool, but because we wanted it to reflect our ideology and brand book. We spoke with various contractors to create it, and because we plan to use it for a long time, we wanted an atmosphere that wasn’t overly flashy—a bright office with good energy that people would want to commute to. One that is calm and somehow exudes trust. We have to perform a lot of stressful tasks every day, so we wanted an environment that would offer our employees a moment of healing when they’re at our headquarters, facilitate brainstorming, and not become tiresome over time. ◆A Decision for the Sake of Growth Sugihara: Thank you. By the way, you decided to join D-POPS GROUP last fall. It’s easy to imagine that Plust, being such an excellent company, was receiving numerous M&A offers at the time. What was the main factor in your decision to join D-POPS GROUP from among those? Yamashita: I think it was ultimately President Goto. I met many other truly excellent people, including CEOs and executive members of publicly-listed companies, who would talk about how they wanted our group to be or what field they wanted us to be active in…but they rarely asked what I or Plust wanted to do. I told Masaki this before, but as the founder who started the company, joining any group—even a large corporation—was not an easy decision for me. Furthermore, I felt that if I were to make that decision, it had to be a partnership that would genuinely lead to a brighter future for Plust and all the employees working in the company. President Goto was the only one who focused on asking, “What do you want to do going forward, President Yamashita?” I was very pleased that he prioritized hearing my intentions first. I told him that I wanted to grow further as a manager, and I wanted the company to develop even more to realize its values. I then shared what I was thinking and what I anticipated our future challenges might be. As we met several times and had meals together, President Goto told me, “We will continue to entrust the management of Plust to your leadership, President Yamashita. We intend for D-POPS GROUP to essentially be a cheerleading squad, supporting Plust’s development and the flying leap that you and your team are aiming for.” That statement was huge for me, and it gave me a strong vision of working together in the future. Because of this, I was almost fully decided on moving forward with President Goto and D-POPS GROUP. Then, I went to dinner with Masaki, shared my thoughts on joining the group and my future plans, and he also agreed. We informed our employees after September’s accounting was closed, so it was around October. We explained it in about seven phases. Sugihara: Senior Managing Director Masaki, what did you think when President Yamashita told you about joining the group? Masaki: When President Yamashita first told me about it, our company had been growing in size, and we were reaching a point where we had to consider how to continue for many more years on our own. President Yamashita was already contemplating various things. When he suddenly told me the plan, I recognized that joining this group was the optimal solution for resolving the various issues that would inevitably arise. I was convinced after hearing all the details. Also, even up to now, whenever President Yamashita approves someone, or should I say is impressed by someone, they are generally wonderful people, so I trusted that this was not a mistake. At the time, I hadn’t met President Goto yet, but I wasn’t worried about that aspect at all. Sugihara: On the night of the signing day for joining the group, there was a charity party hosted by D-POPS GROUP’s Chairman Semmoto, and both you and President Yamashita attended, right? Masaki: That’s right. I was working at the Saitama office when I got a call telling me to come to Nihombashi immediately, ha ha. I left for Nihombashi right away, while wondering to myself whether it was really such an amazing party that I had to drop everything. When I arrived, every single one of the participants were truly remarkable people, and it was great to attend such a fantastic event and hear such valuable stories. ◆“Realizing a Venture Ecosystem” Sugihara: D-POPS GROUP’s aim is “realizing a Venture Ecosystem”. What parts of this goal do you resonate with? Do you have any shared mindsets or activities aimed at creating this Venture Ecosystem together? Yamashita: When it comes to Venture Ecosystems, Plust currently has three group companies, so we kind of have our own small-scale Venture Ecosystem. By working together on things, we are experiencing the generation of synergy that transcends the borders between divisions. For example, our website support members sell security products (OA equipment), or we generate referrals when we encounter a company that wants to build a website. When I consider that such things are happening across divisional boundaries, I deeply resonate with the Venture Ecosystem that D-POPS GROUP is trying to create. Even just by having invoices that previously went externally now circulate within the group, money flows better, and we may even see the creation of new businesses. Even our own management team thinks that this system is a good way for our company to survive without collapsing. ◆5-Year Vision Sugihara: Thank you. What is your 5-year vision for Plust? Yamashita: In any case, we want to see, even more than today, people who are glad they work at Plust. I view sales as a means, not an end, so I honestly don’t have a strong focus on reaching a specific target for profit or business structures. However, I’ve always paid special attention to the idea that both myself and everyone I work with must continue to embody our value of “newest is best”. Five years from now, rather than raising a glass over glorious memories from the past, saying “Those were the good old days” or “I was amazing back then”, I want us to have taken on lots of challenges, and piled up more failures as well, and then with more employees than before, say with a smile, “We, right now, are the best Plust has ever been!” Sugihara: Then, in order to reach this future where all your employees and stakeholders feel happy, what challenges and efforts do you think you’ll have? Masaki: In the same way that we’ve been running this company for the past 20 years, we don’t think too much about the future, and I mean that in a good sense. Our thinking is that we shouldn’t be focused on the past or the future, but on how things are right now, and if things now aren’t the best, that’s not acceptable. So, I don’t think it’s good to look too far ahead, and we should definitely not dwell on the past. What we see today is the result of building up year by year, while being conscious of whether we are happy right now and whether this is the best we’ve ever been. Obviously, as managers, we have to think about the next five years, but we don’t have many numerical targets. I can say one thing, though, which is that we want to continuously update our performance record every year as much as possible. Yamashita: Actually, there was a period when we created five-year and ten-year plans, but unexpected events like the Lehman Shock, the Great East Japan Earthquake, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Noto Peninsula Earthquake kept occurring every few years, meaning plans didn’t go as intended. From that experience, I’ve come to feel over these 21 years that, although it’s not glamorous, dedicating ourselves to doing our best and building up day by day is ultimately the shortest path to a bright future. ◆Message to Readers Visiting Our Website Sugihara: Finally, could you each offer a closing message to the readers visiting our website? Yamashita: I will speak to entrepreneurs who might be considering joining our group. I think many founders like me, who have run their companies for years on their own, might have resistance to joining a group in the middle of leading their own companies. I also struggled internally with that same sense of reluctance, but D-POPS GROUP really allows me to continue leading my company. In addition, they act like a cheerleading squad, supporting us strongly from behind, and aid in the growth of our company. So, if anyone is considering joining, I think it’s worth having a conversation. Also, when more excellent people join the group, it stimulates us, making things even more interesting. So, if fate brings us together, please don’t hesitate to reach out! Masaki: After joining D-POPS GROUP, they have such amazing leaders and advisors, so being able to receive valuable advice from them is an unprecedented benefit for us.   Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara.   PLUST.Co.,Ltd. Company President and CEO: Tomoyoshi Yamashita Address: 20F and 24F Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Saitama Shintoshin Bldg., 11-2 Shintoshin, Chuo-ku, Saitama, Saitama-ken Established: October 22, 2004 Website: https://www.plust.jp/

“Newest is best!” Careful, Consistent Management for Continuous Record Growth D-POPS GROUP has 24 group companies that we call partners (at the time of publication). For this article, we interviewed Tomoyoshi Yamashita, the President and CEO of PLUST.Co.,Ltd. (Plust from here on)—which joined our group in September 2024—and Jiro Masaki, Plust’s Senior Managing Director. (This interview was conducted in July 2025.) ◆The Motivation for Founding a Company Sugihara: Thank you for agreeing to this interview, President Yamashita and Senior Managing Director Masaki! First I wanted to say, President Yamashita, I always notice your wonderful smile whenever we meet. I imagine being a business owner involves a lot of hardship. What I want to know is, are you constantly cheerful by nature, or have you already overcome so much difficulty that now you can be this sunny? Yamashita: Oh, you’re too kind! I have experienced countless difficulties, ha ha. Experiencing various difficulties is just my normal mode. When I founded my company, there were times when I looked quite stern. I think I unconsciously wore an unhappy look when our sales weren’t growing or when there were issues with management. However, I feel like I was consciously trying to smile and be cheerful. Sugihara: Senior Managing Director Masaki, you’ve been with President Yamashita since before the company even existed. What is your perspective? Masaki: Recently, as the number of employees—including women—has increased, his way of communicating with the entire organization has changed from the past. However, in meetings attended by our executive members, he is still as strict as ever. He delivers that strictness with love, and that combination is something we executives are completely aware of. Sugihara: I guess since my relationship with President Yamashita is still relatively new, I have no idea what his stern face looks like! Now, let’s move on to the main topic. First, could you tell us what motivated you to found Plust? Yamashita: I had always wanted to be a CEO someday, but at the time, I lacked the courage and the drive, and honestly, I didn’t even know how to become one. So, after graduating high school, I spent four years in the Air Self-Defense Force, and then I worked as an employee at an IT startup company. That’s where I met Senior Managing Director Masaki. While I was entrusted with responsibilities such as the OA equipment business at my previous job, I gained experience as a salesperson, a manager, an office head, and I helped establish a new business office on two separate occasions. This gradually gave me the feeling that I was essentially managing a small company by myself. I started thinking if this was the case, I probably could run my own business, so I decided that the time had come to put my vague dream from the past of becoming a CEO into motion, and I started it alone in my own home. For the first six months, I worked as a sole proprietor with a company that was wholesaling OA equipment, and I was allowed to operate under the name of their business office. After that, I registered my company and created Plust Limited Company. Since I had established business offices twice in Saitama Prefecture (in the cities of Warabi and Omiya) at my previous job, I was familiar with the area, so I decided to found my company in Saitama. ◆How the Two Met Each Other Sugihara: How exactly did you meet Senior Managing Director Masaki? Yamashita: Well, we met at our previous company, when I interviewed him. After he joined the company, Masaki was placed in a slightly different location from mine, but he was consistently at the top of our sales rankings. At some point after his interview, we started working more closely together, and as I got a sense of his personality, we became quite good friends. After that, we became separated again while I established the business offices in Saitama and he continued working in Tokyo, but when I was moved back to Tokyo, we started working together once more. At that time, we were in the positions of office head and manager, and we began to discuss deeper topics than we did when we were just salespeople. At some point, a mutual acquaintance of ours separately invited both of us to start a company together. I was to be a board member, and Masaki was to be a salesperson. However, the person who invited us requested, “Don’t tell anyone else about this”, so neither of us brought it up in conversation with each other. But then I realized that this person must have invited Masaki too, so I finally asked him about it. At that moment, Masaki asked me, “Are you going to do it?” and I replied, “No, I’m not. I’m going to start my own business.” Then he said, “Why don’t we do it together?”, and that’s how the two of us decided to launch a company. To be totally precise, the first person to join me was Ono, who was a subordinate from our previous company and is now a Division Manager and executive officer at Plust, but Masaki did join us a year later. Sugihara: That was a fateful fork in the road. Senior Managing Director Masaki, when President Yamashita invited you to start a company, did you make an immediate decision, even though the future was completely uncertain? Masaki: Actually, since he was my boss and I was working under him, I was the one who said, “You should definitely go for it and start a company!” Our previous company was a really intense sales company that was growing rapidly, but I felt that President Yamashita, with his sense of cleverness that was no different from now, stood out from all the pushy salespeople there. He also had accomplished some considerable achievements as a manager, so I really wanted to work with him. Sugihara: From your perspective, what was your impression of President Yamashita at the time when you first met him? Masaki: As I mentioned, our initial meeting was at my job interview. I think I was in my late 20s when I went for the interview at our previous company. I naturally assumed that my interviewer would be someone of the usual age for conducting a job interview, but then I saw President Yamashita. I believe he was in his early 20s at the time. His hair was longer than it is now, he was tanned, and he gave off a very high-energy vibe, ha ha. ◆The Journey So Far Sugihara: Counting from your company’s founding in 2004, this is your 22nd term (your 21st term was considered a non-standard 5-month period due to a change in the fiscal year end to February) of operations. What have the months and days been like until now? Yamashita: Ahhh, it’s been full of ups and downs. Not even once has there been a period of stability. But the time has certainly flown by. Looking back, I think it’s been pretty interesting overall. Sugihara: But if you look at the management indicators, you seem to have had plenty of stability and growth. Yamashita: It might appear that way at first glance, but the number of failures has been overwhelmingly greater than our successes, and I was fortunate enough to have been helped by various people, which is how we managed to get by. I truly feel that we were lucky. I don’t particularly feel that I’ve worked that hard, either. Aren’t I just doing the minimum that is expected of me? But I guess I’ve always done what was necessary for the company, with an attitude of “That’s something a CEO would do”, or “I’m not just an employee, I’m the founder of this business, so I have to do it”. In the beginning, it might look like sales were increasing, but for several years, even though our sales were increasing, it was only by tens of millions of yen. If we fumbled our sales for even one month, we would fall below the previous year’s numbers. Initially, I didn’t have a clear vision. It was only about earning money, earning more than I did as an employee, or achieving success. If anyone were to ask me if I had a mission to contribute to society at that time, I would have to be honest, I definitely didn’t think about it as deeply as I do now. I was much more concerned about how to generate profit or how to increase the number of contracts. I was diligently working hard on various things every day, but I was living a stoic life with no vision, working from morning until late at night with few days off, until you could say I had hit my limit. So, while the beginning might look like a steady climb, things were actually very tight. You know, I think the catalyst for the company getting on track was actually the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. Until then, our main focus had simply been to increase orders and future profit, but suddenly, we couldn’t properly do the work right in front of us. There were times when we had planned power outages, so there was no electricity. Or times when there was no internet, so web designers couldn’t work. Of course, telemarketing was impossible. After desperately thinking about what we should do, we tried cold-calling, we bought generators faster than the government, somehow connected them, and worked in rooms smelling of gasoline. We experienced what it was like to just have to survive. Not only that, but I started wishing we could do something for the people who were struggling because of the earthquake. Initially, we provided condolence money for the families of our employees and donated to the Great East Japan Earthquake relief fund. My desire to contribute to society began to sprout from doing those things. In addition to that, after we started setting clear numerical targets for the year at the beginning of each new year, it became a mission or a target that we had to surpass, and with everyone’s cooperation, we achieved it. I decided to keep setting goals like that, and as a result, we surpassed the previous year every year. It was also significant that we formed a habit of sharing our objectives with the whole company. Sugihara: That’s wonderful. So, by continuously building on each previous year’s results and aiming for even a one-yen increase, you’ve been able to keep going for 20 years. Yamashita: That's right. In the book Good to Great, there’s a reference to some people getting on a bus, others getting off, and still others getting on at the next stop. We kept repeating this, and at first, there was no destination, but gradually it became, “It looks like fun if we go this way”, or “This might work”. During that process, the people on the bus gradually changed, though some people stayed the same, naturally. By accumulating those efforts, we reached our 22nd term, and what we are thinking about and doing now has evolved from that pattern. ◆Company Overview and Business Strengths Sugihara: Now, could you please tell us about Plust’s current business and its differences or unique features compared to other companies in that field, which have allowed it to grow continuously for 21 terms? Yamashita: Sure. We have three main business pillars. The first is the sale and maintenance of OA equipment, which we’ve done since our establishment. The second pillar is website production and operation support for small and medium-sized businesses. The third pillar is the sale and support of a customer relationship management (CRM) system linked to an application. These are our three business areas. Sugihara: What are the strengths of Plust’s business? Yamashita: Though I may be biased, I believe it’s our support capabilities for our customers, which are on par with our ability to make brilliant propositions during business negotiations. We have a support system that focuses on building a long-term relationship, rather than stopping once a sale has been concluded. Since few companies go to that extent, we focus on customers who feel secure in using our services consistently and those who become repeat customers. This connects back to what I mentioned earlier. When we first started, the goal was simply to sell, sell, sell, as much as possible…but we realized that wouldn’t sustain us. We understood that we needed to provide solid support after the sale and maintain longer relationships, or we would be eliminated. Sugihara: Customer support is an often-overlooked area, yet you deliberately focus on it. How do you instill this mindset in your support team staff? Yamashita: It’s true that customer support is a job where performance is not as easily visible as it is for a salesperson. But if support team staff lose motivation just because they aren’t in the spotlight, customer satisfaction won’t increase. So, I thought about how to put the support team in the spotlight, and I figured that if our company’s customer support was solid, our salespeople would find it easier to close more deals with customers. What we came up with and put into action was a means to get raw feedback directly from customers. We feature customer interviews on our website and even create videos of customer testimonials. When our employees see this, they realize things like, “Ah, this was the work of our support team” or “If they are doing this, our company is definitely better than others”. I felt that pointing out the company members who tirelessly support our customers behind the scenes would not be a negative at all, it would be a positive. Sugihara: Ah, so that’s how your website became like that. By the way, you mentioned having three business pillars. What was the catalyst for developing those three pillars? Yamashita: All three of those pillars are, in a sense, things that have helped us in running our company. In the early days after our establishment, we naturally used business phones, multifunction printers, and other OA equipment in our own company, and getting the best OA equipment available made it much easier to do our work. And the website is what we use to let more clients, customers, and job seekers know about the unknown company called Plust. In fact, over 95% of our employees joined the company after seeing our website. If we hadn’t invested in our website, we wouldn’t have been able to meet everyone we have now. The app is slightly different, but in terms of our CRM system, we’ve seen first-hand that if we hadn’t properly used a CRM system, including during the earthquake, our sales would not have grown at that time. It’s something that saved us and allowed our company to survive. We have a strong desire to offer the products and services that saved our business to all the executives out there who are diligently working on their management every day. As a result, instead of general households, we target business operators as much as possible. We want to do business that helps those operators while also increasing our own performance. I believe this is mutually beneficial. Sugihara: You’ve become a large company now, but you originally started from a small home office. You adopted the necessary products yourself as a small-to-medium enterprise, and then in turn, expanded your business into selling those same products to your customers. Yamashita: That’s right. As we primarily sold OA equipment, mainly business phones, our customer base grew steadily. However, there was a very tough period for OA equipment as well. The leasing of business phones became a social issue, making it impossible to sell through TV and newspapers, and leasing companies withdrew. At that time, we received requests from several customers asking, “Do you make websites?” We realized there was a strong need for websites, and we decided to launch a website business for small and medium-sized enterprises. And as the number of customers grew, we recognized the importance of getting our customers to come back again and again, and we started thinking about other methods of customer management besides websites. Back then, in the days before apps, we started with email systems linked to customer management, like newsletters. As times changed, that kind of system turned into apps, and now we also have a business for store-based apps. The products we handle change with the times, but we want to provide services and products that can help our customers’ companies grow or solve the problems they face. Sugihara: So that’s the process by which you’ve developed your businesses. Speaking of which, you have contracts with 6,000 corporate customers nationwide, and you offer a diverse range of services. Could you share some of the innovations you’ve made in your sales, marketing, and customer support systems? Masaki: I think it’s about being attentive, consistent, and meticulously keeping in touch with them. There are still things we need to improve, but the sales, marketing, and customer support teams try to check in on the current situation with customers, even if it’s just a phone call to see what they might need.   ~To be continued in Part 2~   Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara.   PLUST.Co.,Ltd. Company President and CEO: Tomoyoshi Yamashita Address: 20F and 24F Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Saitama Shintoshin Bldg., 11-2 Shintoshin, Chuo-ku, Saitama, Saitama-ken Established: October 22, 2004 Website: https://www.plust.jp/   Next, in the latter part of the interview, we discuss: ・Case study interview videos ・Origin of the company name ・“Realizing a Venture Ecosystem” ・5-year vision ・And other topics Be sure to check it out here: https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/plust-interview-latter-part/

D-POPS Corp. (D-POPS from here on) (page in Japanese only) has utilized our Venture Ecosystem to develop a structure for managing customer relationships as they strive to closely attune their shops to customer needs. Through joint development with two other companies in our group, they were able to solve major challenges that they could not resolve on their own. This article summarizes the challenges D-POPS faced and how they used the Venture Ecosystem to reach a solution. 1. Challenges Faced by Mobile Phone Retail Agencies Mobile phone retail agencies play a crucial role as a point of contact for consumers to sign contracts with mobile carriers and purchase devices, but in recent years, they have faced various challenges. ① Low Profitability and Intense Competition The market penetration for mobile phones in Japan is extraordinarily high, making it difficult to acquire new contracts. As the market is saturated, a significant increase in the number of contracts is unlikely. Furthermore, reductions in communication fees, a decrease in sales incentives, the strengthening of online sales by each carrier, and the spread of MVNOs (low-cost SIMs) have led to a shift toward low-priced plans. All of these are contributing factors to the decline in profitability for retail agencies. ② Product Complexity and Customer Service Difficulty The rate plans of each mobile carrier are extremely diverse, making it difficult to understand all plans and propose the optimal one to the customer. Especially for users with low technological literacy, such as the elderly, procedures for plan changes and carrier transfers can seem complicated and difficult, which makes it necessary to offer thorough guidance. Furthermore, continuous support is required not just for securing new contracts but also for increasing customer satisfaction. ③ Challenges Related to Human Resources Customer service operations in our mobile shops require complex product knowledge and customer service skills, so securing and training personnel is an urgent matter. Moreover, due to regular staff transfers, information relating to contracted customers is also hard to manage accurately, which has occasionally led to disputes arising from multiple personnel telling the same customer different things. ④ Analog Shop Operations While online procedures and support are increasing across mobile carriers, D-POPS has operated its “Smartphone Consultation Desk TOP1” (page in Japanese only) shops using analog methods. For example, the only ways to make a shop reservation were by phone or by walking in, and there was no digital system for recording customer inquiries, which were instead handwritten on paper. ⑤ Customer Information Belonging to Mobile Carriers When a mobile phone retail agency processes a customer contract with a mobile carrier, the customer’s information is handled using dedicated equipment provided by that carrier. Consequently, customer information belongs to the mobile carrier, requiring retail agencies to prepare their own systems, i.e., CRM (customer relationship management), to offer unique services. In response to these challenges, mobile phone retail agencies have had to shift their role from simple sales outlets to local service hubs and specialized inquiry counters.   A wall of devices offered through contracts with various mobile carriers, inside a Smartphone Consultation Desk TOP1 shop. 2. The Need to Utilize CRM to Turn Customers into Supporters Based on the challenges above, we hypothesized that operating physical mobile phone retail shops would require the following: ① Combining CRM and “Empathetic Customer Service” to Turn Customers into Supporters Our motto for customer service is “Empathetic Customer Service”. We recognize how crucial it is to build a genuine connection with our customers beyond just hearing their needs. Through a solid grasp of each customer’s interactions, preferences, and product usage history, we utilize CRM to ensure they become lifelong fans of Smartphone Consultation Desk TOP1. ② Optimization through DX (Digital Transformation) from Analog As DX progresses in the world, it also becomes necessary for our company to adopt digitalization and seamless integration for processes like registering visit appointments and managing customer information in order to better align with our users’ needs. ③ Easy-to-Understand Explanations of Fees and Services Only Possible at a Physical Shop Smartphone Consultation Desk TOP1 is a real location where a customer can receive neutral and fair guidance regarding multiple mobile carriers. Therefore, we need to compare the carriers and propose the plans and services that are perfect for that customer. ④ Differentiation from Specialty Stores through “Smartphone Usage Support” “Smartphone Usage Support”, a unique service provided by D-POPS, offers guidance for smartphone operations, settings, etc., regardless of the mobile carrier, device, or type of service. Although each mobile carrier offers similar services, they usually only offer them to their own customers. Since we handle multiple carriers, it is essential to utilize our unique service to differentiate ourselves from those carriers’ individual specialty stores. Despite forming these hypotheses and having an IT department established in August 2020 with members who had system development experience in other industries, at first D-POPS members did not have very high technological literacy, and we lacked real know-how regarding system development and CRM. 3. CRM System Development and Utilization of Customer Information To move forward with the above hypotheses, we developed a strategy that utilized our Venture Ecosystem. To develop a CRM system and allow us to utilize our customer information in-house, we sought cooperation from other companies within our group and formulated the following tactics: ① Effectively Manage Customer Information through CRM System Development Develop a CRM system that supports all carriers that can be contracted at Smartphone Consultation Desk TOP1. This system would not only manage customer information but also centralize appointment booking data, instructions, documentation, and paper trails, providing an environment that enables smooth customer service. ② Systematize Mobile Carrier Comparison through Sales Manual Setup Introduce a digital sales manual that allows comparison of rate plans and services of each mobile carrier. This is essential to flexibly respond to changes, such as rate plan revisions and service additions by carriers, and to help customers arrive at the optimal plan for them. ③ Improve Customer Engagement through CRM Data Utilization Identify customers whose fees may increase after a certain period due to the discounted rate plans they received upon contract, or those who should review their plans soon because of expected fee revisions. Furthermore, continuous support must be provided to ensure customers always have the optimal plan—not just at the time of contract—creating an environment where they always want to visit our shops to enjoy those services. Based on the above strategies, we proceeded with the development of a CRM system in cooperation with our fellow group companies Techbeans inc. and @SOLUTION (pages in Japanese only). 4. From Appointment Booking Development to CRM Development and Sales Manual Operation Based on the challenges, hypotheses, and strategies outlined above, we advanced the following development and operations over the course of four years or so. ① Development of the Appointment Booking System (Released August 2021) First, we began the development of our appointment booking system in cooperation with Techbeans, and in August 2021, we released the CRM system “DAMO” and the “Appointment Booking Management” feature. Until then, reservations were only possible in-store or by phone, but by posting on our corporate website and GBP (Google Business Profile), we created an environment that encourages online reservations. ② Sales Manual Implementation and Operation (Released March 2023) Next, we introduced our digital sales manual, which serves as an explanatory tool for guiding customers to the optimal mobile carrier and rate plan. First, through discussions with shop members and managers, we identified the flow of customer guidance and created a base flow that is easy for customers to understand. Then, we created a comparison-based explanation tool by including price lists and images within each section, allowing customers to compare and choose. We continue to refine this sales manual daily to make it more intuitive and easier for even new staff to use. ③ CRM System Development (Released October 2023) Following the appointment booking system, we released the “Interview Sheet (Usage Status)”, “Customer Record (Carrier Contract Status)”, “Negotiation Notes (Correspondence History)”, and “Outbound Call Record” functions in October 2023, in cooperation with Techbeans. Furthermore, we released the “Negotiation Result (Contract Information)” function in March 2024, in cooperation with @SOLUTION. These products have consolidated information about what services that customers have used, their contract status with each mobile carrier, and the content of their contracts and correspondence with our shops. ④ Systematization of CRM Data Entry and Data Utilization The above releases enabled the centralization of customer usage status, contract status with each mobile carrier, and the contracts and correspondence with our shops. However, it became a challenge for our employees to adopt these new operational methods and input procedures. So, we created an operations manual summarizing this new flow, and we continue to aggregate and distribute data every week to find the optimal solution for customer guidance and communicate it to our employees.   A page from the digital sales manual developed for D-POPS customer service personnel 5. Over 50,000 Customers Served: Seamless Integration from Appointment Booking to In-Shop Service Since the release of our appointment booking function in August 2021, the number of our customers officially surpassed 50,000 as of the end of May 2025. Furthermore, we seamlessly integrated the entire experience from appointment booking to in-store guidance, allowing us to form a document trail automatically, by means of accurately recording customer requests and usage status. Now, within the utilization of the CRM system, new challenges have emerged. ① Adoption of CRM Objectives and Operations While a convenient system has been released, there have been some difficulties in breaking away from old methods. Also, variations in operational flow among different staff members mean that educating on the purpose of CRM management and standardizing operational procedures has become our next important issue to address. ② Application of Customer Information Another significant future assignment for us is how to take full advantage of the customer information that we have gathered in order to guide customers to the best solutions for them. 6. Summary: Possibilities through Utilizing the Venture Ecosystem This article summarized how we tackled CRM development and creating shops that are more attuned to customer needs through leveraging the Venture Ecosystem. This initiative led to a path for solving problems that D-POPS had long recognized but found difficult to solve due to a lack of internal resources. The members of D-POPS GROUP’s Venture Ecosystem enabled some of these developments to progress in only a few months, reaffirming the innate strength of the Venture Ecosystem. Furthermore, we realized the benefit of an environment that emphasizes collaboration with group companies and the need for continuous improvement both at the start of cooperation and during day-to-day operations. D-POPS Corp. will continue to utilize the infinite possibilities of the Venture Ecosystem to create shops that embody empathetic customer service and an environment where customers become enthusiastic fans of Smartphone Consultation Desk TOP1. D-POPS Corp. Sales Division, Sales Planning Dept./Media Sales Dept. Manager Kana Ishii D-POPS Corp. Company President and CEO: Shoto Masuda Address: Shibuya Hikarie Bldg. 32F, 2-21-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Established: February 1998 Website: https://d-pops.co.jp/

A New Challenge After 10 Years! Making an Enterprise That Can Help Improve Digital Literacy D-POPS GROUP has 24 group companies that we call partners (at the time of publication). For this article, we interviewed Yuta Hirai, the president and CEO of PlusPass, which was established as a part of D-POPS GROUP in March 2024. This is the latter part of the interview. To read the first part, click the link below. https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/pluspass-interview-first-part/ ◆Initiatives Since the Establishment of PlusPass Sugihara: About one year has passed since you took over Smappy (page in Japanese only). Could you tell us about any unique ideas you came up with or changes you implemented after the business was transferred to you? Have you collaborated with other group companies? Hirai: D-POPS seems to be focused more on real-world business, where we interact face-to-face with our customers who come to our shops in person and, in a sense, support the improvement of their IT literacy while they are consulting with us. However, on the inside, I believe D-POPS is a human resource development company. I’ve also been thinking about the future of Smappy recently, and what I currently believe is that we want to become a company that can provide support by uniting people and digital technology. Since Smappy is close to the digital domain, I want us to properly execute this idea within the telecommunications industry. To consider societal issues, there is the problem of labor shortages, but I believe the reality is that there are plenty of people, but—to be quite frank—most of them just aren’t the kind of person that companies are looking to employ or recruit, so many of those people are failing to get jobs. The important thing to recognize is that when skills or knowledge are lacking or whatever, this can be solved through education. So, I ultimately want PlusPass to become a company that can support people in becoming more digitally literate. As far as collaboration with group companies, PlusPass owes a lot to President Nishikawa of @Solution. He has helped us, not only with the business itself but also with infrastructure migration, so much that I feel like I need to find a way to repay him. We are starting collaborations with various other group companies as well, and we have various projects planned that will be launched soon. Sugihara: Earlier, you mentioned that the “ultimate goal of Smappy is to enable users to choose the mobile plan that is perfect for them.” It’s great that your goal is for people to be able to learn about new areas themselves so they can become the kind of digital talent that society needs. To achieve this, I imagine you will need more content and mechanisms for people to be able to learn and gain knowledge. What sort of initiatives do you have for that? Hirai: Actually, we are gradually scouting out the territory of AI. The range for implementing AI in the Smappy business is wide, and if people become capable of using it, their individual productivity will increase significantly, so I want us to be able to provide education in the AI field as well. We have also started increasing our article content. We are filling out our content by both creating new articles and progressing with the rewriting of existing ones. ◆Growth Strategy Sugihara: Can you share PlusPass’s long-term growth strategy? Hirai: It is similar to what I mentioned before, but I consider Smappy to be merely the catalyst for launching the company. That is not to say that the business we acquired is flawed; rather, I believe it is a business that can be further refined, so I want to build it up properly and create a structure that is suitable for the current era. Essentially, I want to create a high-productivity company. As for future developments, as I also stated, I want to realize a company that contributes to the improvement of Japanese digital literacy by connecting people with digital technology. I have lived more in the real-world side of business, so I want to create an organizational structure that can effectively contribute to clients while maintaining a real-world business strategy. Sugihara: What kind of organization do you want to build, and with what kind of people? Hirai: It’s still a bit abstract, but one thing I want to have is a place for people to venture into new territories and grow, and I want to support that growth. So, first of all, I want to recruit people who have an eagerness to grow. Also, I want people who have been helped out by our services and products to be able to give back to the next generation and beyond, so I want to hire people who believe their personal growth contributes to society and others. In terms of skills, I prefer people who have an open mind toward new things. I want to actively work with people who can approach things with a positive attitude and simply say, “We’re going to use AI now” or “We’re going to try using a new tool”. Ultimately, I want to create an environment similar to D-POPS. Even if complete amateurs with no experience join PlusPass, they will quickly acquire skills and become capable of admirable performance. ◆Adventures and Mountain Climbing Sugihara: Thank you for those answers. Changing the subject, I heard that you climb mountains as a hobby. In fact, I also enjoy mountain climbing! Now, can you tell us more about your hobbies? Hirai: I’m so glad you asked, because I also wanted to talk about mountain climbing with you, ha ha! I got really into climbing as a university student. Since I was in the Kansai region at the time, I climbed mountains like Mt. Ibuki in Shiga Prefecture and Odaigahara on the border of Nara and Mie Prefectures. Then, looking up to Mt. Fuji, I started looking for and climbing mountains that were also around 3,000 meters high. My memory of mountain climbing is connected to the story that I mentioned earlier, about cycling the length of Japan with a close friend of mine. In the middle of that journey, I got scheduled for a training session for new hires, so I suddenly had to get from Wakkanai in Hokkaido to Tokyo in two weeks. So, I started at Cape Soya, took a boat from Hakodate to Oma, and since the Great East Japan Earthquake had occurred one year prior, I detoured around Minamisanriku and went from Sendai to Tokyo. I somehow managed to arrive in time for the new hire training, which turned out to be a climb of Mt. Fuji! I was really looking forward to the climb, but it was suddenly canceled that day due to a typhoon. I was incredibly disappointed. I had been cycling across Japan with the firm intention of climbing the country’s highest mountain, so after the new hire training, I rode my bicycle straight to Yamanashi. People usually take a bus or car to the 5th station of Mt. Fuji and climb from there, but since we weren’t supposed to get into any vehicles during our cross-Japan bike ride, we had to park our bicycles at the bottom of the mountain and climb up. We climbed the mountain, stayed at the 8th station, and then reached the summit. That was my first serious climb over 3,000 meters. After that, I got hooked on high mountains. I’ve probably climbed Mt. Fuji about three times, and then I climbed the Japanese Alps in Nagano. After that, I went a little crazy and started going for more thrilling mountains, ha ha. Since joining D-POPS, I’ve taken many of my junior colleagues with me. The first time I decided to go climbing with my junior colleagues in the business division was because I noticed some of them were mentally struggling, and I thought about what I could do to give a push to the ones who had the potential to grow. One thing was to create learning opportunities by visiting new commercial properties together on my days off, which President Goto often did for me. The other was to take a mental break through mountain climbing. After teaching them various things while climbing together, many of them started to gain a clearer perspective. Going back to the trip across Japan, we did manage to complete the journey from Wakkanai to Okinawa. We mostly slept outdoors; the only times we slept indoors were at each other’s parents’ or grandparents’ houses a few times along the way. Sugihara: Both the mountain climbing and the cross-Japan journey sound incredibly active, ha ha. Have you been riding your bike for a while? Hirai: Originally, in high school, I usually rode my bike about 30 minutes between home and school. For soccer practice matches, we went to a lot of places, and the high school gave us the option of taking the bus or meeting at the venue. Since junior high, as part of my training, I had always cycled for up to one and a half hours to reach some match venues, so I also rode my bike to high school practice matches. I would even cycle two to three hours to reach those places. The reason I wanted to cycle the length of Japan was my study abroad experience. When I joined a homestay study abroad program in Canada, I realized I didn’t understand the island of Japan at all. I usually traveled to different regions by train or plane, but I wondered what it would look like if I saw it properly, and that was what got me started. ◆“Realizing a Venture Ecosystem” Sugihara: People who enjoy adventurous travel and climbing hard mountains are definitely well-suited for working at startups. Now, D-POPS GROUP aims to “realize a Venture Ecosystem”. What parts of this goal resonate with you? Do you have any activities that reflect your commitment to building this Venture Ecosystem? Hirai: If you’re asking me whether I’m confident that I can contribute to the Venture Ecosystem right now, I would have to say I still have a long way to go. However, President Goto has had a great influence on me, and as someone who wants to take up his philosophy, I’m always thinking about how to make PlusPass—as well as D-POPS—a company that can truly contribute to the Venture Ecosystem. Also, of course President Goto teaches us about business, but the core of his teaching is about people. So, I feel I must always strive to improve my character and contribute to the people of the world. Therefore, what I can do now is—for example—connect agencies or PlusPass’s clients to the resources available in the Venture Ecosystem, or conversely, introduce the members of the Venture Ecosystem to beneficial projects. In every business negotiation, and whenever I meet a new client, I always keep the following question in mind: “What will benefit this person?” At that time, I build a relationship with the client while having a comprehensive understanding of not only D-POPS and PlusPass but also all the products and services inside of D-POPS GROUP. After I attended an investment company briefing as a member of the Venture Ecosystem, I strongly felt that I needed to learn more about our group companies and investment companies, so that has become a personal challenge to myself. So, I want to proactively study our partners in the Venture Ecosystem and become able to contribute more. ◆5-Year Vision Sugihara: What is your 5-year vision for yourself and for PlusPass? Hirai: I want to fully promote the Smappy business and complete the plans I have for it right now. The other thing I need to increase the resolution on is the policy I mentioned earlier—contributing to society by bringing together people and digital technology—which will mean creating new aspects of our business. To advance this new kind of business, I want to hire people, form the structure, and then drive the business forward. Sugihara: What challenges do you face in achieving that? Hirai: There are two main challenges: solidifying the resolution of our strategy and firmly increasing the investable profit based on the existing business. I believe we cannot move forward without achieving these two points, so I will focus on them first. ◆Message to Readers Visiting Our Website Sugihara: Finally, could you offer a closing message to the readers visiting our website? Hirai: To new graduates and anyone interested in our Venture Ecosystem: D-POPS GROUP, led by President Goto, is truly trying to create a business entity unlike any other, and it is completely different from the parent companies of typical conglomerates. I think the organization is incredibly unique. I think you’ll come to understand this if you join D-POPS GROUP, but there is a significant emphasis on individual discretion here, so I feel there are virtually no disadvantages to coming under our umbrella. If there is anyone who wants to join D-POPS GROUP in the spirit of taking on a challenge, I would like to contribute to the growth of our Venture Ecosystem with you, and in fact, I hope to learn a great deal from you. To new graduates, I truly feel that my 10 years here have been worthwhile. Many people might judge a company over a short period, like three years, but the experience of receiving strict guidance for an entire decade has truly become a part of me. I believe you will definitely experience first-hand how worthwhile it is to be part of a company for more than the typical three to five years, so I hope people who are willing to put in that amount of effort will join us.   Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara.   PlusPass President & CEO: Yuta Hirai Address: 32F Shibuya Hikarie, 2-21-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Established: March 1, 2024 Website: https://plus-pass.com/

A New Challenge After 10 Years! Making an Enterprise That Can Help Improve Digital Literacy D-POPS GROUP has 24 group companies that we call partners (at the time of publication). For this article, we interviewed Yuta Hirai, the president and CEO of PlusPass, which was established as a part of D-POPS GROUP in March 2024. ◆The Story of Joining D-POPS Sugihara: Today, we have the pleasure of interviewing PlusPass’s President and CEO Yuta Hirai. Thank you for taking the time to speak with us! President Hirai, you joined D-POPS (page only in Japanese) as a new graduate in April 2014. Could you tell us about your job-hunting situation at the time and what motivated you to join D-POPS? Hirai: I graduated from Kyoto Sangyo University, but originally I was aiming to become a professional soccer player. In junior high school, I was part of the youth organization of the J.League club team Consadole Sapporo, and in high school, I was admitted to Hokkaido’s Hokkai High School via a sports referral. In university, I wasn’t able to get a recommendation because of an injury I sustained in high school and because the team didn't reach the national tournament, so I had to take an entrance exam for the first time. I couldn’t join the official university team, so I started my own separate soccer team and we made it all the way to the Japanese national tournament. After that, I tried out for soccer one last time in Italy, and when I failed, I gave up on soccer. Then, I decided it was time to get a job, and I happened to encounter D-POPS. At the time, I had already decided that I would ride the length of Japan on a bicycle starting in May of my senior year at university, so I limited my job hunting to just three months, starting in February of my junior year. I was working part-time at a privately owned restaurant tucked away in an alley in Kyoto, and while I was there, it transitioned from a limited-liability company into an incorporated company. This experience gave me the desire to become a business owner myself someday. As I was job hunting, I happened to come across D-POPS. I was looking for a company where I figured I could train to become a business owner, so when I met their founder, President Goto, I felt an immediate, strong connection. I bet anyone who has interviewed with President Goto will tell you this, but when I first met him, I would say one thing and he had over a hundred things to say in response. I was astonished and thought to myself, “Wow, there are people like this in the world?!” I couldn’t keep up with the depth of his conversation at the time, and I knew that if I worked underneath this man, I would definitely grow a lot. I also interviewed with some large companies, but the questions asked and the content discussed during the executive interviews were quite shallow. Their HR people were passionate enough, but when it came to the executive interviews, the temperature would suddenly drop. D-POPS was the only company where the enthusiasm grew tenfold, even a hundredfold, with each interview. I didn’t find any other company like that, and I noticed that every single person at D-POPS was serious about their jobs, so I knew I wanted to join. Sugihara: So, you interviewed at major companies too. Did you hesitate at all? Hirai: I hesitated for only a moment, but in the end, I made a firm decision and never looked back! At the time, I had been scheduled for a final interview at a large corporation. But on my way from Kyoto to Tokyo for the interview in the capitol, I wasn’t really feeling motivated for it. I realized at that time that no matter what happened, I wanted to join D-POPS. So, I took my letter of acceptance from them and went to meet President Goto to tell him, “Thank you so much for this chance to work with you.” Sugihara: You already had an entrepreneurial mindset as a student. You did mention that your part-time job experience led you to want to start a business; could you tell us more about that experience? Hirai: The place where I was working part-time was an izakaya kappo (Japanese-style pub with high-quality traditional cooking). The workers from great Japanese companies like GS Yuasa and Kyocera, whose headquarters are in Kyoto, would go there for business dinners. The owner of the restaurant entrusted me with everything, so even though I was just a part-timer, I handled payroll, created shifts, and for some reason, even conducted interviews for full-time employees, ha ha. I was involved in coordinating the reception for new store openings and even accompanied the owner to business meetings, which gave me the thought, “This is what it’s like to be a CEO.” Thanks to the owner letting me experience so many things during my university student days, I was also looked upon kindly by other restaurant owners in the area, who would encourage me and give me inspiration. It was this exposure to the work of a company president that made me want to start my own business. ◆Turning Points Sugihara: It has been 11 years since you joined. How do you look back on these 11 years? Did it feel long, or did it pass by quickly? Hirai: It passed like the blink of an eye. I feel like each year goes by faster as I get older, and I’m glad that I’ve been able to continue for over 10 years. These 11 years since I joined D-POPS have absolutely not been smooth sailing or a completely stable increase the whole time. However, I believe that little by little, we rode the waves and achieved slow, steady growth. There were various turning points, but the biggest one was being entrusted with launching our Rakuten Mobile shops in my third year at the company. When D-POPS came to the point of launching shops for Rakuten Mobile, I was approached by Mr. Iwama, who was the General Manager of Sales at D-POPS at the time and is now the President of a group company—that was the turning point. I was very cocky back then, but I told Mr. Iwama over a bowl of ramen, “D-POPS doesn't have a number one store in Japan, does it? I want to make one.” Mr. Iwama said, “Let’s do it,” and that year, he opened five Rakuten Mobile shops. Since D-POPS also deals with other mobile carrier companies, it must have been difficult for Mr. Iwama to manage relationships with them while also negotiating with Rakuten at the same time. I was appointed as the launch manager for Rakuten Mobile, and at this point, we have won the title of number one Rakuten Mobile shop in Japan many times over. The second turning point was the V-shaped recovery of our KDDI business division. In my sixth year at D-POPS, the KDDI division had eight au shops and three UQ Spots, and a number of those stores were running significant monthly deficits. The company was struggling with business as a whole, as well, and things were looking pretty bleak for everyone in the organization. But after I was appointed as the business division manager, we ultimately achieved our highest profit yet in my final three years there. At that time, it was less about building a system and more about figuring out how to turn a negative into a positive, so the experience of redesigning the system was huge for me. After that, I returned to the combined sales store department where I was originally assigned when I joined. Around that time, I began to earnestly receive one-on-one guidance from D-POPS GROUP’s Senior Managing Director Watanabe (former Executive Officer and Business Division General Manager at Yodobashi Camera), who is also the Vice Chairman of D-POPS. I honestly feel that I am who I am today because of my training with Director Watanabe. At the time, I couldn’t maintain Director Watanabe’s pace at all. During D-POPS’s transition phase, when it was being organized by now-president Masuda and Director Watanabe, there was a period when I personally felt, “I really can’t keep up with D-POPS anymore.” But I also recognized that running away wouldn’t solve anything, so I decided to visit Director Watanabe’s office every weekend and continued to do so for about two to three years. Being able to talk to him and gradually understand his conversations became my third turning point. Back then, I was also struggling with how to conduct myself. I knew I needed to perform well as the second-in-command, but I lacked the ability to bring things together. So, that was how I decided to meet Director Watanabe face-to-face the first time. ◆The Establishment of PlusPass Sugihara: That’s wonderful. I’ve also experienced this, but it’s not just a relic of the Showa era, but in any era, there will always be strict superiors or demanding seniors. And precisely because they are strict, you’ll manage to achieve results. If you simply run away from strict supervisors, I suppose you’d never be able to stop retreating. By coming to grips with the challenge, you can get closer to reaching their level. I can see that you, President Hirai, have that kind of willpower. Then, last March, at the start of your 11th year at D-POPS, you took on the additional role of PlusPass’s CEO. Could you tell us about the circumstances of this appointment? Hirai: The opportunity to establish the company was given to me by President Goto. In December of the year before last, President Goto said to me, “I’m moving forward with a business transfer and plan to set up a new company to take it over. Would you like to do it?” I was very grateful for his offer. However, he also said that the company establishment and business transfer would be completed by February of the following year, so I would only have about three months to prepare, and he asked if I was ready for that challenge. I immediately replied, “Yes, I’ll do it!” I was always telling President Goto that I wanted to start a business someday and perform as a company president. I think he was kind enough to remember that. Regarding the business, there were many things I didn’t understand, as I would be taking on work I had never done before and taking part in due diligence for the first time. Still, I knew I wouldn’t move forward without making a decision, so with President Goto’s encouragement, I decided to take it on. Sugihara: That was a major decision. By the way, aren’t you managing PlusPass while concurrently working at D-POPS? How do you balance the two? Hirai: At the moment, I’m more involved with D-POPS, comparatively speaking. However, D-POPS is a telecommunications business that can negotiate directly with carriers, while PlusPass is an advertising agency business that can negotiate with advertising agencies. I feel that being part of both companies increases the scope of what I can achieve. ◆Business Overview Sugihara: You definitely have to capitalize on such a position! And with that, could you please introduce us to PlusPass’s business? Hirai: We operate a website for comparing low-cost SIM cards called “Smappy” (page in Japanese only). The ultimate goal of Smappy is to enable users to choose the mobile plan that is perfect for them. The reality in the telecommunications industry is that around 80% of users are not on a plan that suits them, and I believe a major factor in this is the difficulty of choosing a plan themselves. So, we want to operate a website that empowers users to select their own plans. We also disseminate information on YouTube. Sugihara: Does Smappy plan to continue operating exclusively as a smartphone-focused website in the future? Hirai: For now, that is the plan. However, we are currently increasing our product offerings, so there is potential for expansion in the future. We want to increase user choice regarding products related to telecommunications, so we’re thinking about putting together things like credit cards, securities accounts, banks, customer points, and payment systems. While the smartphone will remain central, I envision our website becoming a consultation service for the use of mobile and internet services in general. Sugihara: I look forward to seeing where you go from here! Now, could you tell us about Smappy’s features and its competitive advantages over similar products from other companies? Hirai: The business model is relatively simple, and we have a very high sales volume compared to other comparison websites. The reason for this is primarily our operational approach. We focus heavily on listing ads, and there are very few comparison sites that operate primarily with listing ads, which I believe is our greatest competitive advantage. However, if our service stays the way it is for too long, it’ll be relatively easy to imitate, so we need to construct a more complex business model.   (To be continued) Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara.   PlusPass President & CEO: Yuta Hirai Address: 32F Shibuya Hikarie, 2-21-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Established: March 1, 2024 Website: https://plus-pass.com/   Next, in the latter part of the interview, we discuss: ・Initiatives since the establishment of PlusPass ・Growth strategy ・“Realizing a Venture Ecosystem” ・5-year vision ・And other topics Be sure to check it out here: https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/pluspass-interview-latter-part/

Tackling the Development of the Next Generation to Further Invigorate Japan’s IT Sector D-POPS GROUP has 23 group companies that we call partners (at the time of publication). For this article, we interviewed Co-president & COO Akio Nishikawa and Co-president & CFO Yorito Matsutani of @Solution, which joined D-POPS GROUP in 2021. (This interview was conducted in April 2025.) This is the latter part of the interview. To read the first part, click the link below. https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/atmarksol-interview-first-part/ ◆Greatest Strengths and Features Sugihara: The role of the engineer is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Coding itself may no longer be necessary, but what is important is the ability to determine the required program structure, the ideal interface, and the specifications of the final product, and finally coordinate all of those together. In that regard, what is @Solution’s greatest strength or distinguishing feature? Nishikawa: This goes back to our two businesses we described at the start of this interview, but our strength lies in our ability to build and propose solutions not just for surface-level applications, but also for their underlying infrastructure. Ultimately, all systems and services rest on an infrastructural foundation, so our capability to offer total solutions starting from the base infrastructure is our key advantage. Furthermore, we have members who specialize in direction and project management. This ensures we can fully engage with what the client wants and effectively communicate that to our engineers. @Solution is broadly seen as a System Integrator (SIer), and people often have the impression that it’s difficult to communicate with SIers, since they are mostly staffed by engineering-type people. However, in our case, people say “It’s easy to consult with @Solution because they have project managers.” So, this is definitely another of our strengths. Sugihara: That kind of service is definitely high in demand. No matter how widespread AI becomes, it will always be essential to display warmth and kindness, be able to read the room, and other things that only humans can do. The realm of communicating from person to person is where AI should be differentiated from humans. Nishikawa: I agree. In foreign companies, especially those overseas, engineers are considered almost god-like professionals who only need to write code well. They never attend project briefings, but that’s acceptable as long as their productivity is high. However, we prioritize communication and want our clients to know that we value it. That is why some of our members are dedicated to direction and project management. Sugihara: What scale are your typical client companies? Matsutani: We don’t have a size limit either way, so we handle projects for both large corporations and start-ups that have recently launched their own services. By industry, most of our contract development supports BtoC-oriented services. Our SES business has usually seen larger-scale projects since the beginning. Sugihara: What are the main reasons companies come to @Solution with projects? For example, is it because they’re looking to outsource coding, or because they have a lack of manpower? Nishikawa: It’s typically the latter. Clients often seek us out due to a lack of manpower, and they also find us through networking. We are increasingly involved in projects where we partner with companies that simply do not have engineers in-house. For instance, many clients who operate their own services have internal teams for promotion and marketing but not a single development engineer on payroll. They might have had a specific app running for about ten years, and because they lack engineers, they were relying on various vendors. We are now seeing an increase in cases where we are taking over and managing these projects. ◆Recruitment Sugihara: Speaking of which, the general consensus is that Japan is facing an engineer shortage. How is @Solution approaching recruitment in light of this? Matsutani: In engineer recruitment, the biggest salary bubble was around two years ago, when engineers were jumping into the companies that offered the highest salaries. Then, with the emergence of AI and the conversation about whether engineers will be needed in the future, things calmed down somewhat. However, there is still a persistent shortage of engineers, so salaries remain relatively high compared to other industries. After 20 years of trying various methods at @Solution, we’ve found that new graduates are the best fit for our hiring patterns. The cycle of bringing in new grads and providing proper training works well for us, so we are focused on this area. Last year, we ran an internship program. These were not short-term, but year-round long-term internships, totaling about 20 people. They would work on projects, sometimes for a few hours a week and sometimes full-time. We would love for these excellent students to join us, but recently, so many of them are talented enough that they go on to work for companies like CyberAgent, DMM, and IBM. Sugihara: How did such talented students come to apply for an internship at @Solution? Matsutani: After receiving their feedback, we found that last year, there was an overall trend among engineers toward using the more “packaged” technologies like Flutter for mobile. However, students with some experience wanted to work on in-house projects through a lab-based or contract development model like ours, where they could really get their hands dirty writing native code. The more ambitious students had a strong desire to personally experience writing code from scratch, which is why they applied for our internship. During the initial orientation, we tell them this: “Since our management philosophy is ‘Developing the Next Generation’, we want you to gain extensive experience here and become a successful professional.” We believe that Japan’s IT sector still has plenty of room to grow compared to other countries, so an increase in highly skilled IT talent benefits the whole country. We look forward to connecting with them as future partners. Sugihara: Ah, so this is where your management philosophy truly comes to life. It would be fantastic to see cases where students who interned at @Solution thrive as skilled IT professionals and later rejoin the company a few years down the line. What are your future recruitment strategies? Nishikawa: We currently have about 35 engineers, but we plan to increase that number. Our maximum goal is to reach around 200 members within the next 10 years. Sugihara: That’s a great target! Will you be hiring mid-career professionals as well as new graduates? Matsutani: Yes. More specifically, we intend to focus on hiring inexperienced individuals. We are looking for young people, especially in their 20s, who are studying at coding schools or even those who are self-taught. Since becoming an engineer requires interest, curiosity, and passion, we want to hire those who are motivated and studying on their own initiative. ◆“Realizing a Venture Ecosystem” Sugihara: D-POPS GROUP’s vision is to increase the number of growing startup companies that bring about societal transformation. In short, we aim to “realize a Venture Ecosystem”. What are your thoughts on this Venture Ecosystem? Nishikawa: First and foremost, I feel incredibly fortunate to be part of this community every day. Particularly on the financial side of things, D-POPS GROUP provides us with an extremely encouraging and reassuring environment. While managing finances is originally a huge part of running a company, the assistance we receive as a part of the group allows us to concentrate entirely on our core business, so we are truly grateful. Without this environment, we wouldn’t even be able to discuss recruitment plans or consider strategic investments. We feel incredibly supported. Matsutani: I have essentially the same impression as Co-president Nishikawa. I believe this is a truly unique and interesting environment and structure. The individual members of the Venture Ecosystem are relentless challengers, yet they are incredibly kind, gentle, and cooperative. It feels like we are comrades, but at the same time we also have a healthy competition, and it’s rare to find both of those deeply rooted in a single culture. Here, we can pursue many challenges, and the structure for taking on those challenges is already in place. For example, having advisors readily available for consultation is a huge benefit. I am deeply thankful to be in this environment. Sugihara: That’s very true. D-POPS GROUP emphasizes two things regarding challenges. First, to increase the probability of success for those who take them on. We strive to create mechanisms and environments that—even if they aren’t perfect—are just what people need. Second, if an endeavor doesn’t succeed, they can try again within the Ecosystem. We have many examples of successful re-attempts. Matsutani: Exactly. There is internal competition, mutual assistance, and abundant opportunities to generate group synergy, which is a great benefit. When most people hear M&A, they picture strict supervision from the head office, but there is virtually none of that in D-POPS GROUP. We have meaningful support systems without suffering from someone breathing down our necks. ◆Group Synergy (Collaboration among the 3 IT Companies) Sugihara: I believe President Goto prioritizes respecting the will of each company’s managers, working with them to build up those companies, because he can understand those business leaders’ feelings better than anyone. Speaking of the Venture Ecosystem, I heard that @Solution recently started a business collaboration with Techbeans and Idealump. How did this three-way partnership come about, and what is its current status? Matsutani: Originally, the companies in our group who had IT engineers were only @Solution and Techbeans, and we were already collaborating, with us joining projects accepted by Techbeans, and vice-versa. When Idealump joined the group last year, there was one more IT engineering company, allowing us to formalize the collaboration further. So, we currently have various forms of partnership: all three companies are involved in certain projects; we hold joint proposals; sometimes two out of the three collaborate between each other. We are also planning to create opportunities for members to get to know each other and host joint study sessions for all three companies. We plan to accelerate these efforts going forward. Sugihara: Speaking of study sessions, there was a business presentation and Q&A session recently held by BLUEISH, one of D-POPS GROUP’s investment companies. I remember BLUEISH’s President Tameto having a very engaging discussion with Co-president Nishikawa at the social gathering afterward. Are there any insights you’ve gained from members of the Venture Ecosystem like that? Nishikawa: It was a very lively discussion! President Tameto had quite a big impact on me. His presentation style was memorable, but the actual business content was a shock: he explained how they originally did contract work but pivoted to AI based on industry trends, specifically focusing on AI Agents. AI utilization, or AI-driven development as it’s often called now, was an area where I honestly felt my knowledge was lacking. While I could understand some of what President Tameto was saying, I had a strong realization that I needed to do more research. From that point on, I began to change the focus of my own input. I feel that the BLUEISH study session directly led to my idea of wanting to offer consultation services that utilize AI. It was an extremely valuable learning experience. ◆5-Year Goals and How to Get There Sugihara: I’m glad the session was beneficial. We will continue to create opportunities for collaboration within the Venture Ecosystem. Could each of you share where you think @Solution will ideally be in five years and the challenges you face in reaching it? Nishikawa: First of all, from a financial standpoint, I believe sales are important. @Solution is currently a ¥300 million company, and I want that number to become ¥3 billion. To achieve that, all members, including myself, must level up our skills. We will focus on applying AI and lab-based development, and continue to work on improving our skills while acting as project partners for our clients. The most important thing, and I feel this strongly, is for the two of us to grow as leaders. The reason I feel this way stems from attending the all-hands meeting for Findstar GROUP about two years ago, after being invited by President Goto. At that meeting, Findstar GROUP’s President Naito—who is also the Non-Executive Director of D-POPS GROUP—said, “The growth of a company, or how far it can take a leap, is truly limited by its top leader.” That message really stuck with me. We tend to focus on employee growth, but I feel that unless we, the leaders, raise our own ceiling first, the company’s ceiling will not rise. Therefore, our initial focus is on our own growth. Matsutani: I want us to become the hub for digital talent within D-POPS GROUP. I strongly want our company, as well as Idealump and Techbeans, to become the go-to place that everyone consults when they want to pursue anything digital. The prerequisite to achieving this is to continuously learn and absorb knowledge, as this ecosystem offers many learning opportunities—especially for business leaders—and then to produce more output as a result. For me personally, I want to create a greater sense of community, so I will need to act on that premise as much as possible. ◆Message to Readers Visiting Our Website Sugihara: Finally, could you each offer a closing message to the readers visiting our website? Nishikawa: Thank you for reading our interview. We are a team of system and IT experts, so if you need anything IT-related, please think of us first. And let’s go out for a drink sometime, ha ha! Matsutani: D-POPS GROUP is a truly fascinating group of people, so if you are interested, please feel free to visit us in Shibuya Hikarie!   Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara.   @SOLUTION Co-president & CEO: Katsuto Masuda Co-president & COO: Akio Nishikawa Co-president & CFO: Yorito Matsutani Address: 32F Shibuya Hikarie, 2-21-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Established: July 2005 Website: https://atmarksol.jp/

Tackling the Development of the Next Generation to Further Invigorate Japan’s IT Sector D-POPS GROUP has 23 group companies that we call partners (at the time of publication). For this article, we interviewed Co-president & COO Akio Nishikawa and Co-president & CFO Yorito Matsutani of @Solution, which joined D-POPS GROUP in 2021. (This interview was conducted in April 2025.) ◆Business Overview Sugihara: Today, we have the pleasure of interviewing @Solution’s Co-president and COO Akio Nishikawa, and Co-president and CFO Yorito Matsutani. Thank you for your time. To start, could you please give us an overview of @Solution’s business? Nishikawa: We are a system development company. Our two main businesses are arranging development contracts and running a System Engineering Service (SES). To explain in more detail, we offer services such as mobile application development, web system development, and infrastructure platform construction. Sugihara: Next, could you each describe your respective roles? Nishikawa: My primary focus is on overall sales. I mainly concentrate on smoothly running both of our core existing businesses: contract development and SES. Sugihara: And what is your role, Co-president Matsutani? Matsutani: I am fundamentally in charge of overall back-office operations. My main areas are management, administration, and recruitment. I also handle new business development, strategy, and the management of key business metrics. Sugihara: Ahh, I see! A perfect balance of offense and defense. Could you tell us about the circumstances behind each of you joining the company? Nishikawa: Certainly. I joined the company in 2006. Since joining, I have always been involved in writing code. @Solution was established in July 2005, so I joined shortly after its founding. Matsutani: I joined in February 2022, so this is my fourth year here. Sugihara: Incidentally, when did @Solution join D-POPS GROUP? Matsutani: In June 2021. Sugihara: So, Co-president Matsutani, you joined quite soon after the company became part of D-POPS GROUP. You and Co-president Nishikawa assumed the roles of COO and CFO in September 2023. Could you describe how things have changed since @Solution joined D-POPS GROUP and since the two of you assumed your current positions? Nishikawa: First, I honestly feel surprised that it’s already been four years since we joined the D-POPS GROUP. In these four years, we’ve faced various issues from outside and inside of our company, including project-related problems. It feels as if a full decade has passed because of all the experiences we’ve gained—it’s been incredibly eventful. Matsutani: For me, it went by in a flash. I can’t believe four years have already passed. I was a cram school teacher for three years at the company I joined out of university, then I moved to Recruit before joining @Solution. This is the longest I have ever stayed at a company, but these four years have truly flown by. ◆The Company’s Early Days Sugihara: Co-president Nishikawa, you’ve been with @Solution for nearly 20 years. What was the company like originally? Nishikawa: I don’t believe it’s changed much from what it was before. The company was originally founded by just three people: President Masuda, Director Taniguchi, and an employee named Kusunoki. Because there was such a small number of people, they started out by focusing on SES and recruited workers on a project-by-project basis. Sugihara: So, it seems the founding members are still with the company and continue to provide strong support. Currently, you both serve as co-president alongside President Masuda, the founder and CEO. Beyond the trust you have clearly built with President Masuda, there seems to be a strong mutual trust between the two of you, Co-president Nishikawa and Co-president Matsutani. What philosophy guides you in managing the company under this system of multiple representative directors? Do you have specific role divisions? Nishikawa: I think our role division comes down to our strengths and weaknesses. I strongly feel that each of us possesses what the other lacks. In addition to that, even without putting things into words, our ideas are usually very close, which I feel is a significant advantage. Especially for me, despite being an engineer, I am terrible with numbers, ha ha. Co-president Matsutani is quite good with numbers, so I put a lot of faith in him. Matsutani: Since I joined later, I have a strong commitment to strengthening the existing structure, knowing that it was built by President Masuda and the members who joined him. Given that Co-president Nishikawa has supported the company since joining right out of university, I believe the company will naturally evolve under his leadership. Mine is more of a supportive role, to ensure that direction is successfully implemented and scaled up. So, while I do contribute ideas, I have made it a personal rule that any major strategic change in company direction must be decided by Co-president Nishikawa. I also do things like controlling our sales, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses. Sugihara: Then your roles are very well-defined. By the way, Co-president Nishikawa, are you naturally a strong type of leader? Nishikawa: Ha, I wouldn’t say so. I am more of a people person, the kind who enjoys communicating over drinks. I’ve been fortunate to forge many connections in that sort of setting, and those connections often seem to become business opportunities, which makes me feel truly grateful to those around me. One such connection that has continued since those early days, particularly with agencies, resulted in the long-term contracts we’ve received from Hakuhodo Group. Matsutani: But that’s just one example. In fact, the majority of our in-house project contracts are the result of an introduction from Co-president Nishikawa. To put it in pure sales terms, approximately 40% of our sales come from his connections and referrals. ◆“Developing the Next Generation” Sugihara: No matter how advanced the technology, in the end, it’s essential to have people on your side. Now, I’d like to ask a little about your business. Could you explain your management philosophy, “Developing the Next Generation”? Nishikawa: This concept was originally devised by President Masuda. When the company was founded in July 2005, the IT industry had just finished weathering the bubble of the early 2000s. It was the dawn of what was called Web 2.0, a time when services and people were beginning to connect around the world. As much as the job of a programmer can be seen as cool or popular now, the prevailing image back then was much more “geeky”. At the time, President Masuda felt strongly that the age of IT was coming soon, and that it would be necessary to learn technical skills. The ultimate goal was to foster talent so that even if they moved on from @Solution to another company, they would be globally employable because they had a solid foundation in basic IT skills. This desire to educate and nurture talent is the core idea behind our management philosophy, “Developing the Next Generation”. ◆Current Business Focus Sugihara: So, your management philosophy is about fostering the next generation of professionals. Which business area are you currently focusing on the most? Nishikawa: We are currently in a period of transition. We are strongly committed to leading the way in AI utilization, creating new AI-related businesses, and providing support services. Our focus is shifting from simply accepting contracts or outsourcing personnel through SES to concentrating on how we can utilize AI to create new systems and structures. Matsutani: I’d say the same thing, but I’d add that our current main focus is on finding contracts for dedicated development teams (DDT). We concentrate on providing smooth operation, maintenance, and development by having customers who already have an app or service switch to us from their original development provider. We’ve been focusing on this since last year. Moving forward from there, with the growing trend of AI utilization, our goal is to first use AI internally to boost efficiency and understand the underlying mechanisms. Then, we can proactively propose to our clients how to best implement AI within their applications or even how AI can be used to optimize the overall efficiency of their entire company, not just the users of their apps. We want to continuously increase the value we provide in this way. Sugihara: As generative AI becomes increasingly sophisticated, some people are saying that the engineering profession will become obsolete. What are your thoughts on this? Nishikawa: When ChatGPT was released, it was about two and a half years ago, right? Honestly, at that time, I was pretty depressed. Thinking that the industry—and my own job—might eventually disappear made me feel extremely pessimistic. However, my perspective has recently shifted. Now, I’m focused on figuring out how to use such tools effectively from an engineering standpoint, since they already exist. No matter which generative AI you use, you have to get used to such technology in order to utilize it well. We believe that we are the ones who can come alongside and support those who are unfamiliar with it, so we are going to continue devising methods of doing that. (To be continued) Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara. @SOLUTION Co-president & CEO: Katsuto Masuda Co-president & COO: Akio Nishikawa Co-president & CFO: Yorito Matsutani Address: 32F Shibuya Hikarie, 2-21-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Established: July 2005 Website: https://atmarksol.jp/ Next, in the latter part of the interview, we discuss: ・Greatest strengths and features ・Recruitment ・“Realizing a Venture Ecosystem” ・5-year vision and challenges associated with that ・And other topics Be sure to check it out here: https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/atmarksol-interview-latter-part/

“Serve people and cultivate talent” Aim for further growth through developing human resources and systematization! D-POPS GROUP has 23 group companies that we call partners (at the time of publication). For this article, we interviewed Shoto Masuda, the current CEO of D-POPS Corp., the founding business of D-POPS GROUP. (This interview was conducted in March 2025.) This is the latter part of the interview. To read the first part, click here. ◆The Market Environment Sugihara: It seems that the business model of selling smartphones in physical stores is facing headwinds, given the increase in direct sales by carriers and manufacturers via e-commerce, as well as the growing market in different industries for buying and selling used devices. Could you share some aspects of your strategy in this market situation? Masuda: For about the past year, we’ve been heavily discussing our future strategy. We have many excellent existing businesses. Because they are directly connected to people’s daily lives, the products and services we handle are very attractive, I believe. However, on the other hand, when you’re in the position of an agency, control and management become incredibly difficult, so I really feel that balancing these aspects is extremely challenging. Regarding our strategy moving forward, it’s still fundamentally about telecommunications. While it’s quite broad to say telecommunications as a whole, there are many more products that we should really be selling. We will expand our product lineup to include items developed in-house and procured externally. Selling core products and cross-sellable products will be one of our first courses of action. Another plan is user life design. In essence, we are focusing our discussions on what people need for their daily lives and what problems need solving. This applies to our stores, and we’re also currently exploring if there's anything we can get involved in even without a physical store presence. Sugihara: Speaking of which, how is the “Smartphone Consultation Counter” business doing? Masuda: It’s growing steadily. It took a long time for feature phones and smartphones to penetrate into the Japanese market, but they have been fully received now. However, going forward, the products that come out, such as 5G and certainly 6G, and now even AI-equipped smartphones, are becoming so complex that many people don't know how to use them. For instance, people might not know how to use LINE, or how to link their My Number card, or how to connect IoT products to their home appliances. While devices have become widespread, many people don’t know how to use them, so we really want to address these customer needs, both in person and online. Sugihara: More and more people who are not tech-savvy, especially seniors, are finding themselves with no one to consult. Such individuals can run to a TOP1 store to address their concerns. So it seems there really are people who want to receive advice, even if they have to pay a fee. Masuda: That’s right. We used to do it on a volunteer basis, but we need to distinguish our business, and as we improve the skills of our staff, their wages also need to increase. So, we believe it’s better to charge a fee so that we can serve customers as professionals. We are also developing that service and are focused on continuously improving its quality. The third and final point is education. When I think back to what we most wanted to do since our founding, and what our strength still is today, it’s educating our human resources. The original vision of President Goto, the founder of D-POPS, was to create opportunities for young people. Although I’ve taken over as CEO, we’re still holding onto that vision, so at our core, we’re ultimately about educating people. In the end, we've committed to “cultivating talent”, so I believe that embedded in our company’s DNA is the idea of raising up “leaders equipped with both integrity and skill”, which also continues to be our human resource development policy as our business grows and evolves. In 2024, I had the opportunity to go abroad with Dr. Semmoto, the Chairman of D-POPS GROUP’s Board of Directors, and I realized that while some other countries have growing populations, the quality of Japan as a nation in various aspects is remarkably high. For example, I believe we can convey the high value of Japanese education, culture, and customer-focused service. Recently, as we’ve been brainstorming various ideas, we’ve gone back to our roots, asking: “What kind of company is D-POPS?” The answer is, “We are a company that develops human resources.” To make people genuinely excited and want to join D-POPS or work for us, I felt it was necessary to grow our business domains and to help individuals grow, making them believe that joining will lead to their personal development. ◆TOP1’s Policies for Sales and Proactivity Sugihara: Personally, when I picture mobile phone agencies in the past, I think, “Purely commission-based meritocracy!” What kind of sales and customer service policies does D-POPS’s own brand shop, TOP1, have? Masuda: Whether to compete purely on meritocracy or to prioritize meticulous sales and customer service—this is indeed the most challenging aspect. The truth is, when you chase sheer numbers, quality inevitably declines. That's why the industry as a whole has seen many compliance violations. However, no matter how good your intentions, if you don’t achieve results, you won’t get support, will you? Therefore, I believe it’s crucial to combine building a strong sales organization with education of the mind, which necessitates instilling our philosophy and vision. We believe that we are a company that properly educates its people and contributes meaningfully to those important individuals with whom we have connections, so we must continuously improve our quality. Essentially, it’s about whether we can establish a foundation of trust in human relationships and then build specialized skills and a favorable business environment upon that. There were many companies in the past that lacked this foundation. Those companies sold enormous volumes. They had high transient revenues and contributed more in terms of numbers than we did, but they no longer exist today. However, we need to increase both customer numbers and sales while simultaneously improving quality. So, we are working to strengthen this across the entire organization and aim for growth. ◆New Product “OTHEBES” Sugihara: So that’s why your philosophy-driven management and training truly come to life. It’s not just about the sales method; it’s because the staff, having gone through that philosophy training, are providing a service which enables them to support customers’ lives, lifestyle, and life design. I heard that as a future strategy, you’re launching a brand called “OTHEBES” to strengthen your customer base. Could you tell us more specifically about OTHEBES? Masuda: “OTHEBES” was launched in March. Led by Mr. Sakamaki, our Executive Officer and General Manager of Sales who is also in charge of product and business development, the first phase involves Wi-Fi rental and sales. OTHEBES is a portmanteau of “others” and “best”. While we have existing stores and products, there are still gaps where current products don't quite resonate with or contribute to end-users, and OTHEBES is designed to fill those gaps. Currently, for the first phase, we’re handling Wi-Fi. In the future, for example, some people only use their phone for calls, so we want to create our own brand of call-only mobile phones, plus develop combinations that pick the best aspects of different services. Recently, a slogan has emerged among us: “Create something new out of what already exists!” So, we are now analyzing the demands from both the field and customers, considering combinations that we believe will work. Sugihara: Both in terms of planning and on the ground, with the increasing number of products, carriers, hardware, and brands you handle, and your company’s own services appearing, there’s a risk that sales staff who lack initiative might not know what to propose to customers. Are you concerned about that? Masuda: That’s why we prioritize foundational education. In fact, D-POPS didn't have many established systems until now. So, from here on, our theme for this year is to create proper systems, and based on the premise that people forget, we aim to create systems that can convey information more simply, rather than just forcing memorization. It’s all about human resource development and systematization. If a company can just put the right people in the right places and clearly divide roles, there’s no way they can fail, ha ha. ◆Soccer Activities Sugihara: Nice! I love that kind of attitude! Changing the subject completely, I hear you are quite skilled at soccer! And that you’re active in the company’s futsal club. Could you tell us about these activities? Masuda: I’ve played soccer continuously since my school days, and I’ve kept it up as a hobby even after entering the working world. Initially, it was just an in-house club activity at D-POPS. We play about once a month internally, and since I have various connections, I also play with external members. I probably belong to about three or four main groups. When we focused only on in-house members, we were always just barely scraping by with enough players. We wanted to play but couldn’t. At that time, it suddenly occurred to me: what if we brought in people from both inside and outside the company? So, we started doing that. We organize the games, inviting our employees and other members of D-POPS GROUP to join, plus my acquaintances, some of whom are former professional players. We also forged a connection with BLUEISH Inc. through soccer, a company in which D-POPS GROUP later made a corporate investment. This made me realize that sports can create such networking opportunities. *See the full press release here: D-POPS GROUP Invests in BLUEISH Inc., Operator of Industry-Specific AI Workflow “Omni Workspace” Until now, my life has been pretty much full of those kinds of connections. I attended the Semmoto Management School run by Dr. Semmoto, and there I met another company’s board director who also played soccer. That director turned out to be a high school classmate of a former manager of mine from Germany, who had really helped me out during my time living in Beijing. I really hit it off with that director, started attending the soccer practices he participated in, and that's where I met the people from BLUEISH. But I also think this involves luck and timing. If this had happened five years earlier, I don’t think the discussion about investment would have occurred. I myself have had various experiences up to now, and being in a management position allows me to engage in various conversations, which enabled me to bring this opportunity to D-POPS GROUP. I mentioned playing with external people earlier; there are also skilled individuals among my acquaintances who are business owners, or even executives and younger employees within their companies. And typically, those people also excel at work. It’s like things just connect. That’s incredibly valuable, isn’t it? When people have good character, shared interests that foster friendship, and different expertise, skills, and networks, it leads to a wide range of connections. ◆Recruiting Students Sugihara: It’s the time of year when job hunting for students graduating next year has begun. What type of student would you like to see join D-POPS? And what aspects of D-POPS do you think are attractive points for new graduates? Masuda: Our company, first and foremost, has genuinely good people. They have high self-esteem and are very proactive. They also tend to reach out to others and have a strong sense of contribution. Furthermore, in D-POPS and D-POPS GROUP currently, we offer an environment where you can leverage support and coaching for experience, skills, and networking. I truly believe there’s no better environment than this. So, for those who want to challenge themselves quickly, gain not just knowledge but also practical skills, and refine their human qualities, ultimately, we’d like them to take on management roles. We don’t really prioritize academic background. However, it’s absolutely crucial to have high self-esteem. I think it would be difficult for both of us if an employee is consistently negative. If you think to yourself, “I can’t do this”, then you won’t be able to achieve anything. ◆“Realizing a Venture Ecosystem” Sugihara: D-POPS GROUP has the motto of “Realizing a Venture Ecosystem”. What aspects of this goal do you resonate with? Are there any activities you’re undertaking with the creation of a Venture Ecosystem in mind? Masuda: I believe this ecosystem is essential for living. The truth is, people cannot live alone, and their lives definitely change depending on who they spend time with and the differences in insights they gain. Moreover, the sooner this happens, the better. I think things can change even if it’s late, but realizing things as early as possible leads to making the right choices. Therefore, I personally feel that a Venture Ecosystem is indispensable. Within the D-POPS GROUP community, there are many people whom I’d want to meet even if it meant spending my own time and money. So, I think getting to join a Venture Ecosystem like this—and even getting paid to do it through working for the group—is quite an extraordinary opportunity. I want people to clearly recognize that it isn’t enough to simply show up. How you choose to act is up to you. It would be great if a group could form where people don’t just exist within the community, but actively initiate things themselves—whether it’s asking for guidance or contributing their own expertise. ◆Ideal Vision for D-POPS in 5 Years Sugihara: That’s wonderful! Now, could you tell us your ideal vision for D-POPS as a company and for yourself five years from now? Masuda: First and foremost, the company will have grown significantly. And I believe we will certainly have established a stage where we can better support customers’ life designs and employees’ self-realization within five years. We aim to expand this both domestically and internationally. I view this as a personal mission or message for myself: I want to ask myself, from a larger, global perspective, what do I need to do? I’m currently having various discussions while considering that. I believe the execution phase for that will be this year and next, so the company will likely undergo a significant transformation. Sugihara: That sounds promising. Now, are there any challenges you face in moving toward that future? Masuda: For Japan, it’ll definitely be the severe labor shortage. I have three children now, but when they grow up, in 20 or 30 years, the population will have decreased considerably, won’t it? When the population potentially drops to around 80 million, the question will become to what extent Japan’s culture and values, cultivated until now, can be transmitted and passed down. So, I think it’s about whether we can continue to impart education, not just to Japanese citizens, but also to foreigners. Another challenge, though it’s currently unclear, is nature itself. Among the challenges I’m currently taking on, I see existing businesses, information, and telecommunications as one aspect, then personal development for individuals as another, and finally, environmental conservation. What exactly we can do is not yet clear, but I am gathering information on it. ◆Message to Readers Visiting Our Website Sugihara: Finally, in closing, could you share a message for our online readers? Masuda: I believe our Venture Ecosystem is not just an ecosystem of startup companies, but an ecosystem containing groups of professionals driven by an intense spirit of altruism. I think there’s already something you can see and feel by simply looking at it. If you find something appealing or interesting after checking it out, I sincerely hope you’ll take the next step. We look forward to meeting you directly, and we would be delighted if you could contact us.   Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara.   D-POPS Corp. Company President and CEO: Shoto Masuda Address: Shibuya Hikarie Bldg. 32F, 2-21-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Established: February 1998 Website: https://d-pops.co.jp/

“Serve people and cultivate talent” Aim for further growth through developing human resources and systematization! D-POPS GROUP has 23 group companies that we call partners (at the time of publication). For this article, we interviewed Shoto Masuda, the current CEO of D-POPS Corp., the founding business of D-POPS GROUP. (This interview was conducted in March 2025.) ◆Background of Initial Employment Sugihara: President Masuda, thank you for agreeing to this interview. You joined D-POPS right after graduating in April 2012, correct? Could you tell us how you came to join the company? Masuda: During my university days, I went to Beijing to study abroad for four and a half years. I didn't really know how job hunting worked. So, during the summer break after the first semester of my senior year, July and August, I used those two months to start my job search. I think I actually interviewed with about five companies. I tried for major trading companies and such, but it didn’t work out. In the end, the companies that offered me a job were D-POPS and a large company listed in the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. I received that large company’s offer first, but my feelings changed as I went through the interviews with D-POPS. When I interviewed at D-POPS, the company atmosphere seemed bright. I could really envision its future development. Also, after speaking directly with Mr. Goto, I had a strong intuition that joining this company would change my life, or that I’d encounter a huge positive opportunity for my life. So, midway through the process, my mindset shifted to “I want to join this company”, and I was hoping they wouldn't reject me, ha ha. By the way, my final interview with Mr. Goto lasted about three hours. Sugihara: How big was D-POPS at that time? Masuda: I think the company was probably around its 15th fiscal year. Sales hadn't reached 10 billion yen yet…I think they were around 7 to 8 billion yen. At that time, the strong rallying cry throughout the company was something like, "Let's reach 10 billion yen in sales!" ◆Getting Appointed as CEO Sugihara: D-POPS is the founding business established in 1998 by President Goto, founder and CEO of D-POPS GROUP. However, you became president of D-POPS in March 2024, even though you’re only in your mid-30s. I hear you were promoted at an exceptional pace over these 12 years, becoming a general manager, executive officer, and so on. Looking back, what are your thoughts? Masuda: Well, I certainly think “luck and timing” played a role. In addition, the fact that the company was on the verge of a major transformation was a significant external factor, I believe. You see, about a year after I joined, D-POPS and Good Crew had already reached 10 billion yen in sales. From there, when President Goto envisioned further growth strategies, he shifted from D-POPS growing alone to gradually developing a group structure. At that time, President Fujita, who was my superior, left to establish Advancer, and then President Hosaka left to establish STAR CAREER. When my superiors became independent, or “graduated” in a sense—and I think this involves both external and internal factors—there was a period when the company’s performance declined, and the organization underwent a major change. I was in my third year then, still only a store manager, but at that point, what was originally a large pyramidal organization was flattened, and almost everyone became approximately the same level, directly under the president. A manager in their third year is considered young, right? Even at that level, we were given a lot of discretion. Meetings that were previously only attended by the top management became intense morning discussions involving about 20 selected individuals, which provided a great learning opportunity. It became a chance for members in their third year, like myself, to seize opportunities. We took on challenges one after another. Rather than feeling like assignments were given to us from above, it felt more like “We’re going to seize these ourselves.” It was lucky that we were presented with equal opportunities, but I believe the proactiveness to seize those chances was also incredibly important. Sugihara: As you seized opportunities and moved up the ranks, what was the area where you put in the most significant effort? Masuda: I worked the hardest at constantly reaching out to my superiors. It was also around the time Dr. Semmoto joined, and I made sure to sit next to and learn from President Goto and other surrounding business leaders and advisors—people who were significantly above me—whenever there were opportunities for dinners or study sessions. Not many people want to do that. But I knew that if I dove fully into it, there would always be something to gain. And in terms of work, from the company’s perspective, they usually ask people to take charge of areas with poor performance, right? I proactively took on such positions, driven by the desire for those areas to improve as quickly as possible. Thus, when performance picked up in those areas, I gained attention. And since they were challenging positions to begin with, even if results didn’t come immediately, I’d get words of encouragement like, “You’re doing great!” No matter what kind of challenge came my way, I made a conscious effort to tackle it head-on. Sugihara: How did President Goto approach you about becoming CEO of his company? And how did you feel at that time? Masuda: This part is a bit ambiguous. It wasn’t like President Goto called me in and said, “Okay, you’re the new boss now.” The truth is, although President Goto was still the CEO of D-POPS structurally, he had already been giving his undivided attention to managing D-POPS GROUP for several years prior to this point, and the management of D-POPS itself was basically delegated to the other top leaders. Within that context, the performance and organization of D-POPS progressively worsened. There was a very uncertain period. At that time, I was mainly in charge as the General Manager of Sales, and as I became an executive officer, and then a managing director and senior managing director, the company just wasn’t improving. I felt it was rapidly deteriorating, and I was struggling with the inability to see a clear path to recovery. President Goto and I had dinner opportunities about twice a year, just the two of us, and it was during one of those times that I asked him bluntly, “Please let me be president.” I had already decided within myself that we had no choice but to change. At that point, if President Goto were to return to operating D-POPS, it wouldn’t have been effective for all of D-POPS GROUP. So, I braced myself and thought, “I just have to do it.” Sugihara: From your perspective, were there multiple candidates for CEO at the time, or did you believe you were the only one? Masuda: The latter. I believed I was the only one. Perhaps there were others who thought differently, but I considered myself the only real possible successor. Sugihara: How many years ago did you start working with the awareness that you would be the president’s successor? Masuda: I’d say it was around when I turned 30 years old. At that time, I had become an executive officer, but I was only overseeing the Sales Division, so I wasn’t really looking at the company as a whole. However, given that President Goto was focusing on managing D-POPS GROUP, I definitely started to feel that I needed to take responsibility. From there, I started learning various things. These included encounters arranged by Dr. Semmoto, meeting people through President Goto, and even joining communities of business executives in my late 20s. The encouragement and stimulation from those around me was significant. At first, I wasn’t taken seriously at all because I lacked sufficient skill, but I somehow managed to hang in there. Over the past few years, I’ve gradually expanded my network, and I feel like I’m finally starting to see the fruits of all of my hard work and effort. ◆Business Overview Sugihara: Considering your long period of getting to where you are now, you’ve become quite the veteran. It’s been a year since you officially became the CEO of D-POPS. Could you give us a brief overview of D-POPS as a company and its current business operations? Masuda: D-POPS is now in its 27th fiscal year, and the telecommunications agent business, which was pioneered by our founder, remains our main focus today. We carry out our multi-brand store business via two lines. First, we operate under our own independent brand name, “Smartphone Consultation Desk TOP1”. These are telecommunications stores that carry all the major products and services from various manufacturers and Japanese mobile carriers, in addition to our own branded products, such as security services and insurance. Along with all of these offerings, we provide comprehensive consulting, retail sales, and after-sales support to our end-users. We currently operate over 30 stores, primarily in the Kanto region. The second line of store business is through specialty stores. As a telecommunications agency, we operate shops for the following major Japanese carriers: NTT’s docomo, KDDI’s au and UQ, and Rakuten Mobile. Furthermore, we’re involved in media operations, developing our own specialized telecommunications media called “PhonCierge”. And in PlusPass, a child company headed by President Hirai, who helped lead D-POPS alongside me, we operate a web media called “Smappy” which specializes in low-cost SIMs and smartphones. So, overall, we operate a telecommunications-focused platform that combines both real-world and online services, along with service businesses that support users. Sugihara: I believe there have been a lot of changes within telecommunications recently, especially in shop operations. What are these current industry trends? Masuda: There are various changes every year. Not just because of telecom carriers, but also because of Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and other reasons. I think the biggest factor is the continuous alteration of various laws. However, D-POPS has been able to survive for over 20 years amidst all this because we’ve always really adapted to these changes. ◆What I Changed and Didn’t Change Upon Becoming President Sugihara: These past 20 years have been hectic, haven’t they? It’s been a year since you officially became CEO, in both name and reality. Can you tell us what significant changes you’ve made and what you’ve kept the same during this period? Masuda: This past year has truly been hectic and has flown by. Even before it was decided whether I’d become CEO, I had already made one firm decision. What’s truly great about D-POPS is how deeply our philosophy, vision, and human resource development were instilled as the company’s foundation by our founder, President Goto. I myself was educated through this, and it’s precisely why we’ve been able to survive. I felt that our approach to customers, employees, staff, and ultimately, society, has an excellent foundation, and all we needed to do is further refine it. Additionally, for several years, when President Goto resolved to focus solely on group management, the company was essentially without a commander. This led to a negative cycle where the upper management was adrift, mid-level employees kept leaving, and young recruits would join and then quickly depart. So, I knew we had to thoroughly rebuild from the ground up. Instead of just aiming to reduce the turnover rate in the short term, my first change was to create an environment where work is fulfilling and where both individuals and the organization can grow. To achieve this, I decided to gather all employees in person once a month for a dialogue. Partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but more so because our company has over 50 locations, opportunities for everyone to gather in person were limited to just a few times a year. While we do a lot of online communication now, I felt a strong sense of unease that it had become the primary mode of interaction. D-POPS has so many great qualities that I felt it was essential to convey them properly. Also, I wasn’t confident that I was adequately educating our people myself. So, I made this decision for myself around October 2023 (my appointment to the CEO position was in March 2024): to gather all our employees in person once a month. Sugihara: That’s quite an undertaking, isn’t it? Masuda: Yes, it is. Once a month, we’ll spend the entire day together, talking about our philosophy and vision at least—and even if that’s all we talk about for the day, that’s fine. I made that decision around October, prepared extensively, and then gradually rolled it out starting around February 2024. This led to our monthly all-employee group training sessions. The purpose of these sessions is, first, for employees to have proper in-person dialogue. Then, based on the theme of the day, such as how to integrate one’s personal philosophy with the company’s, we deepen our discussions. After all, work is a part of life. If it’s not engaging, or if it deviates too much from one’s personal values, there’s no reason to remain a part of the community. So, through in-person dialogue, we design an exciting future together. And since the timing for this coincided with my appointment as CEO, I decided to deliver these messages myself, rather than entrusting them to an external lecturer. Before starting these training sessions, I had been running “Masuda School” for about three years. That was for volunteers, not all employees, but it was in person, so I stopped that and shifted to involving all employees. In addition to those changes, we also renewed our company logo and website. Sugihara: That’s wonderful. It takes courage to halt a full day’s operations to make something like that happen. Is there anything you chose not to change? Masuda: I didn’t change D-POPS’s historic “Creed”. While I’ve changed many things since taking office, those guidelines teach us what’s important as human beings, so for now, I intend to keep them as they are. The aforementioned “Creed” is displayed on this wall at D-POPS GROUP’s office in the Shibuya Hikarie Building. ◆Thoughts Behind the Updated Logo Sugihara: Could you tell us about the thoughts behind the revamped website and the new logo? Masuda: The idea behind the new logo design is our aspiration to be number one in whatever we do. Our corporate vision includes contributing to our customers, providing employees with a platform for self-realization where they can control their own lives, generating profit, and continuously contributing to society. With that in mind, there’s a strong desire to be “number one” in our chosen business, even if it’s a niche market. So, when you look at the logo, you’ll see a part that looks like the numeral 1 to represent “number one,” and another part that forms the letter D for D-POPS. Our corporate colors are predominantly blue, including shades like sky blue. Blue often evokes feelings of brightness and freshness, doesn’t it? But it’s not just that; the logo also incorporates the idea of the passionate heart and composure of a blue flame into our corporate colors. That blue 1 is actually supported by a smaller gray part. This signifies that in both life and organizations, it’s not just those on the front lines who achieve results; there are also those who are on the sidelines backing them up. Therefore, we aim to create an environment of mutual support. We, as a company, are committed to providing strong support, continuously expanding our capacity to do so. Within that framework, we strive to be number one, believing in the path we’ve chosen and the mission we must accomplish. That’s the vision we poured into creating the new logo. D-POPS Corp.’s logo   Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara.   D-POPS Corp. Company President and CEO: Shoto Masuda Address: Shibuya Hikarie Bldg. 32F, 2-21-1 Shibuya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Established: February 1998 Website: https://d-pops.co.jp/   Next, in the latter part of the interview, we discuss: ・Strategies in the current market conditions ・TOP1’s sales and proactive policies ・About the new product, “OTHEBES” ・Our soccer-related activities ・“Realizing a Venture Ecosystem” ・And other topics Be sure to check it out here: https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/dpops-interview-latter-part/

Using Ideas to Solve Challenges with the Strengths of Both Systems and Creativity D-POPS GROUP has 23 group companies that we call partners (at the time of publication). For this article, we interviewed Hidefumi Miyahara, the CEO of idealump Co., Ltd, which joined D-POPS GROUP in December 2023. (This interview was conducted in December 2024.) This is the latter part of the interview. To read the first part, click the link below. https://d-pops-group.co.jp/en/column/idealump-interview-first-part/ ◆Flat-Rate Web Management Service “Web-tan-san” Sugihara: That’s wonderful. By the way, in April 2024, you released a flat-rate web management service called “Web-tan-san” (webpage in Japanese only). Could you tell us about the purpose behind this service and how it has been doing since its release? Miyahara: “Web-tan-san” was truly born from our clients’ needs and challenges. Right now, it’s a difficult time for any company in Japan to hire. This makes it especially hard for small and medium-sized businesses to hire a dedicated digital specialist. Let’s say, for example, a talented young person joins the company. They’re paid ¥300,000 a month, but then after three years, they say they’ve gained experience and quit. After the same thing happens three times in a row, of course these companies get tired of it. Everyone thinks this is deplorable, and I’ve seen many persons in charge, etc., getting desperate. This led me to think, Do these digital specialists really need to be in-house? Instead of paying ¥300,000 a month to hire someone, isn’t it good enough to simply spend ¥50,000 or ¥100,000 a month on an external service? That’s where it all started. Sugihara: That makes sense. For a startup that isn’t a large corporation, for example, it’s not practical to hire a full-time legal expert. Instead, they’ll contract an external law firm. From the perspective of a small- or medium-sized company, it’s difficult to hire a full-time person for a job that only requires 20% of a full-time worker’s hours. Miyahara: Exactly. On top of that, there are constantly new technologies and services coming out that you have to keep up with. Then, you realize you’ve forgotten a password or an ID, and you have to ask, “Who knows this? Who’s in charge?” Or, if a company with 5,000 employees has high turnover, subscription fees for accounts can add up quickly if they don’t manage them properly. There are so many people handling these kinds of “digital chores” on the side, in addition to their main job. My goal is to eliminate these chores. Sugihara: It seems like there’s been a huge need for this service, but why didn’t something like it exist before? Or did it? Miyahara: I’m sure similar services existed, but with the abundance of SaaS and other services available today, there weren’t really any people whose job was to manage all of it. Even if a person was in charge of these chores, they were also handling their main work, so it would take up a lot of their time. In that kind of case, we believe our Web-tan-san service is perfect! Sugihara: It seems like there’s a broad need for this service, not just among small- and medium-sized businesses. What kind of feedback have you gotten, and how has it been received since its release? Miyahara: The response has been very positive. It hasn’t been that long since we launched, but we’re steadily gaining new clients, which we’re grateful for. The interesting thing is, we thought it would only appeal to small- and medium-sized businesses, but large corporations have been reaching out to us, too. This usually happens when they’re reorganizing a department or restructuring their business. Also, things like endlessly registering products for e-commerce can be a bit like an administrative chore—it doesn’t necessarily require an IT professional. Tasks like those are better suited for BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) services, so Web-tan-san is definitely a great fit for those situations. ◆Company Culture Sugihara: Well, then we can certainly have high hopes for “Web-tan-san”! Also, we worked closely with you to create D-POPS GROUP’s website. Every member of Idealump whom I’ve met until now has impressed me with how well they performed their job. Is that rooted in your corporate culture? Miyahara: Thank you very much! But actually, I don’t think that comes from our culture; our culture is actually quite chaotic, ha ha. Our members come from different countries, religions, ages, genders, and even have different customs. So our culture, in a good way, is about embracing this diversity and chaos. To properly utilize each individual’s unique qualities within that chaos, we’ve focused on “systematizing” our baseline. We have created a format for “doing things right”, so that anyone can do a good job if they just follow the format to a certain extent. Sugihara: That sounds just like you, President Miyahara. Miyahara: I started creating these formats about three years ago. Before that, we were all very free-spirited, and each person just did their best in their own way. But I eventually felt we’d reached our limit. It’s kind of you to compliment us as you did, but what we say to ourselves is, “Let’s systematize things to the same extent that McDonald’s does.” Sugihara: That’s a great idea. When we were working on the website, I added an unreasonable request for a T-shirt design, and your company ended up creating something wonderful. Could you tell us about the thoughts you put into the T-shirt design and a little bit about the behind-the-scenes process? Miyahara: Of course. When I first pitched the idea to the creative team, it went through the typical channels, but at first, because they were all very busy, the request got passed around like a hot potato, ha ha. Then, one of the female members of our creative team took the initiative, organized a group, and saw the project through to the end. Sugihara: I’m so grateful for that. The finished T-shirts have been very well received, and we’ve been swamped with requests for them from our group companies and the rest of our Ecosystem members. Thank you so much for creating such a wonderful T-shirt! ◆Impression of D-POPS GROUP Sugihara: You’ve worked on websites for various companies, and in the past year, you’ve collaborated with members of D-POPS GROUP. What is your overall impression of D-POPS GROUP? Miyahara: I find it incredibly more interesting now than before we joined. In fact, I’ve even thought that they should do a better job of promoting their attractiveness, ha ha. I’d always wanted to study business management, so I am very grateful for the numerous opportunities I’ve had to do so. I’m also thankful for the mutual support and the incredible opportunities I receive every day. Furthermore, I am inspired and stimulated by every single word and deed that I witness from the members of this group. ◆“Realizing a Venture Ecosystem” Sugihara: As stated in the tagline of the website you helped us create, D-POPS GROUP aims to realize a Venture Ecosystem. What would you like to do to help achieve this? Miyahara: There are many things, and they all relate to utilizing the digital domain. First, I want to create a portal site to activate communication within D-POPS GROUP. I feel that it’s a huge waste when the words of President Goto and the advisory team just get lost. I want to create a place where we can archive messages and go back to them whenever we need a reference. I’d also like a space where secondary communication and discussions can emerge from those archives. Sugihara: That would be very helpful. We often hear about shifting from a flow business to a stock business, but valuable internal information and comments still tend to “flow” away. Miyahara: Yes, that’s exactly it. A lot of valuable information just gets washed away, and I think that’s a waste. It’s definitely valuable to D-POPS GROUP, and it will be incredibly valuable to the next generation of entrepreneurs, too, so that’s my first goal. Another thing also relates to communication. Since each group company operates freely with its own unique identity, there’s an enormous number of communication tools being used (email, LINE, Slack, etc.). I think it’s fine for each company to use the tools they prefer, but I’d like to create a communication system that can serve as a central hub and connect to various devices. This is a very interesting problem because other large corporations, manufacturers, and companies with various supply chains also face this issue. It’s a problem everyone is struggling with. Sugihara: A key feature of D-POPS GROUP’s Venture Ecosystem is that each company can operate freely and independently, right? There’s no forced system unification after a company joins the group, and they can continue to run their business their own way. At the same time, if we could create a system where information can move quickly even while using different tools, that would be even better. Miyahara: This is exactly the same problem as the one that Web-tan-san addresses. There are too many tools, too many SaaS, and too many means of communication. When you get to a point where one person is using who knows how many different tools, a significant information divide occurs. There are some good aspects to this, but I think to realize a Venture Ecosystem, we need a platform that can streamline necessary communication. Sugihara: That’s a great point. There’s still so much room for development. ◆10-Year Vision Sugihara: Now, could you tell us your ideal vision for Idealump 10 years in the future? Miyahara: To be honest, it’s not easy to predict the future, especially these days, and it’s hard to decide on a fixed vision for 10 years from now. However, as Chairman Semmoto mentioned the other day, we know that semiconductors and AI are the next big thing, and I believe some answers about what’s coming next are already out there. So, for us, it will be about leveraging AI and bridging the gap between the physical and digital worlds. There are many other things, of course, but our role will be to become a key digital player in those areas. When we reach a time when everyone uses AI as a matter of course, I believe that Idealump’s strengths in digital solutions and service development will be crucial. Sugihara: That’s a great vision. What are the challenges you face in achieving it? Miyahara: There is nothing but challenges, ha ha! In the immediate future, I’m planning to rebrand our company website. Idealump's current homepage was built eight years ago and is quite outdated. The company’s internal structure has also changed a lot since then, so I want to strengthen our branding over the next year or two and rebuild our educational systems. ◆Message to Readers Visiting Our Website Sugihara: Finally, could you share a message for our online readers? Miyahara: “Let’s work together and do our best!” I think there are many people within D-POPS GROUP who love to create things. The fun of being a startup company is creating the next thing that will add a lot of value, so I want to keep collaborating with everyone to create what will become our future culture, values, systems, services—anything, really. Interview conducted by D-POPS GROUP’s advisor Genta Sugihara. ◆Afterword: Group Company CEOs’ Retreat This past weekend, a retreat was held for the CEOs of D-POPS GROUP’s group companies, hosted by D-POPS GROUP’s President and CEO Kazuhiro Goto. The goal of the retreat, which took place in a beautiful location with an ocean view, was to enable the participants to clearly define their business strategies and to achieve personal growth as leaders. President Miyahara’s Insights: Thank you very much for this invaluable learning opportunity in a superb location, with delicious food and guidance from battle-tested professionals, led by President Goto. The fundamental knowledge I gained while basking in the great energy of such a wonderful environment was a precious experience that you can’t get from the internet or books. It’s something that I will cherish for my entire life. I was particularly struck by President Goto’s teachings on: 1. the importance of a CEO’s personal and professional growth, and 2. the need to be able to clearly define business strategies. Out of those, I was deeply impacted by his insights on the “three pillars”, and the three-stage framework of strategy, tactics, and combat. I was filled with a sense of both frustration and a strong desire to grow. For a while after I returned home, I couldn’t stop thinking about our business model, working on it day and night. I want to use what I learned as fuel to propel myself and my company to the next stage. I feel that using our digital capabilities to help realize the Venture Ecosystem will be a crucial turning point for both me and Idealump, so I plan to keep pushing forward with everything I’ve got.   idealump Co., Ltd Company President and CEO: Hidefumi Miyahara Address: 4F Jingumae Asama Bldg., 6-18-13 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Established: August 1, 2008 Website: https://idealump.com/ Free Site Diagnosis Service: https://idealump.com/webshindan/ Flat-Rate Web Operations Service: https://web-tantou.com/