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Mountaineering and Leadership: Similarities Between Running a Startup Company and Climbing a Mountain

  • Media
2025.09.29

At D-POPS GROUP, we understand a “Venture Ecosystem” to be a dynamic platform that enhances the growth and sustainability of a community of enterprises. United by a shared identity and philosophy, these companies continuously innovate to address critical social challenges through groundbreaking business models. We are committed to making this ideal a reality through daily strategic efforts and unwavering dedication.

*Please check out this page for more details: Venture Ecosystem: A Platform for Growth and Sustainability

In this article, we’ll look at the parallels between managing a startup company and mountaineering. Specifically, the mindset required, the importance of accumulating steady steps, and how to deal with risk.

1. Similarities Between Mountaineering and Business Management

When you stand at the foot of a large mountain you’re about to climb, you instinctively hold their breath. The sheer height of the summit, the distance to it, and the ruggedness of the terrain stir the heart. It’s an indescribable feeling—a mix of anticipation, anxiety, excitement, and fear. The Japanese term musha-burui (a warrior’s trembling before the start of a battle) perfectly captures this sensation.

However, once you start walking, the summit quickly disappears from view. What you see instead are the rocks at your feet, wet tree roots, diverging paths, and steep slopes. You adjust your pace to avoid exhaustion, focus on your breathing, and accumulate one careful step after another. Simultaneously, you remain on the lookout for sudden weather changes or sounds from the bushes.

Mountaineering is a progressive series of unassuming, unspectacular endeavors, while also being accompanied by significant danger.

This is very similar to founding a company or working at a startup company. While pursuing a grand vision to solve a societal issue, the day-to-day work is often unglamorous, unpredictable, and complicated, and carries the weight of staking your whole life on a venture that may or may not survive.

These six examples illustrate the similarities between mountaineering and management.

(1) Mountaineering: Preparation → Management: Vision Setting

Mountaineering is not possible to do without preparation. You decide which mountain to ascend, study maps, determine the route, and procure the equipment and physical strength necessary for the climb. In management terms, this equates to setting a vision, collecting capital and information, and assembling the development team and sales structure for your product.

(2) Mountaineering: Party → Management: Team Formation

The presence of companions is also crucial in mountaineering. Ideally, you climb together with people who have similar stamina and share your mountaineering style and goals. This closely mirrors the team building essential in startups and new businesses, so they say deciding “who to put on the bus first” is critical.

(3) Mountaineering: Understanding the Surrounding Environment → Management: Responding to Market Changes

While climbing, you must constantly monitor your surroundings for sudden shifts in the weather, unstable rocky paths, or turns that are easy to miss. In business operations, these correspond to “environmental variables” such as market fluctuations, competitor movements, and easily overlooked product defects or customer feedback.

(4) Mountaineering: Knowing Your Current Position → Management: Tracking KPIs

During the execution phase, knowing your current position is also critical. You need to accurately determine your current location and altitude using a GPS, and check your heart rate, perspiration levels, and sometimes even your blood oxygen saturation. In management, this is equivalent to checking KPIs and financial data and monitoring the well-being of your team members.

(5) Mountaineering: Courageous Retreat → Management: Business Withdrawal or Pivot

If you determine that continuing to climb is no longer feasible due to changes in the external environment, limits to your physical stamina, or sustaining an injury, one option is to turn back down the mountain. In management, this looks like a business withdrawal, downsizing, or a pivot. When leaders choose one of these options, it can protect lives, shareholders, and team members, and even sometimes lead to greater success later on.

(6) Tenacious Spirit

Finally, the boldness to challenge oneself, an unyielding spirit, and perseverance are essential in both mountaineering and startup company management. Although this may seem contradictory to the “courageous retreat” or “business withdrawal” mentioned in the previous point, there are many situations where the failure or success of your business entirely depends on whether you think to yourself “I can’t go on” or “Just one more step”. This mindset is a vital component of operating a startup company.
 

Mountaineering Business Management
Vision-Setting and Preparation Phase
Decide which mountain to summit Set the company’s vision and goals
Train up the necessary physical fitness Acquire fundamental work skills
Prepare the necessary gear for the climb Prepare management resources and capital
Form a climbing party Gather partners with the same philosophies
Execution Phase
Accumulation of steps, one by one Accumulation of routine daily efforts
Pay attention to the weather and terrain Pay attention to environmental variables
Track your current location with a compass Track business KPIs
Judge when it’s time to turn back Judge when it’s time to pivot or withdraw
Overcome the difficult trail to reach the top Overcome difficulties to achieve your goals
Safely descend the mountain Properly reflect and review performance
Growth Phase
Aim for an even taller mountain Take on the next business challenge

2. The Big Difference Between Theory and Practice

Today, we are constantly being bombarded with information. Countless texts are being published, including autobiographies and “how-to” guides from business leaders, marketing books, and MBA-related textbooks. Learning about and discussing these intense experiences can sometimes create the illusion that we ourselves took part in them somehow. It’s certainly not useless to gain business operation knowledge from books. However, reading these concepts and stories is only the equivalent of reading information about a mountain or looking at a tall mountain from our mountaineering analogy.

So, what constitutes “the experience of climbing”?

It’s simply climbing—even a familiar mountain like Mount Takao—one step at a time with your own feet, breaking a sweat, losing your breath, and taking in the view from the summit with your own eyes until your very skin can feel it. It’s getting caught in the rain, getting lost, enduring pain in your feet, and still moving forward. It’s in these moments that you develop the strength to push yourself with just a little more effort and the guts to say, “This is as far as we go today” and turn back. These emotions and decision-making skills can never be gained just by reading a book.

This very experience is what we compare to starting with the small things on the job.

The accumulation of practical, small-scale tasks—like customer acquisition, sales channel development, new business launches, and hiring—is like continuing to go on small climbs, until eventually you build up the muscle and judgment needed to summit a major mountain.

The information in your head and the feelings you internalize through your body are completely different things. We can never become true business leaders with knowledge alone. However, by continually climbing small mountains in our daily work, we eventually gain the strength to tackle the mountain of a major business venture, and our unceasing efforts eventually lead us to success.

Even the most monumental achievement begins with a single, tiny step, and it is only through the accumulation of these steps that it is ever realized.

3. How to Train Your Mountaineering Feet and Business Skills

There is a saying among mountaineers: “Mountain feet can only be trained on the mountain.” The same is true in business operations. Professional ability can never be enhanced through desk-based learning alone.

(1) The Difference Between Gym Training and Mountain Training

You cannot get authentic mountaineering feet by walking flat roads for dozens of kilometers, running on a treadmill at the gym, or lifting weights.

A mountain trail isn’t just a flat path. You might slip on tree roots or fine gravel and injure your hand, sprain your ankle on a loose rock, or sometimes even fall and suffer a major injury. The act of continuously ascending a steep slope for hundreds of meters or scrambling up and down a rocky peak puts a unique strain on the body that you cannot get from repeating squats in a gym or climbing flights of stairs in a city building.

It is through the repeated experience of climbing various mountains under diverse conditions that your core strength and cardiovascular function gradually adapt and are trained for the mountain. Only then will you truly have the mountaineering feet that no amount of gym training can provide.

(2) Job Skills Can Only Be Enhanced on the Job

The same principle applies to business capability.

A consultant can draw a beautiful and perfect business strategy plan using management theory, SWOT analysis, and market research. If you attend business school, you might learn many theories and success stories, and perhaps even participate in negotiation role-playing exercises.

However, this is merely the gym training mentioned in our climbing analogy.

The despair when a client contract negotiation falls apart at the last minute, contrasted with the joy of successfully concluding a deal by having foreseen and avoided the exact cause of the previous failure. The anguish of being forced to decide on a withdrawal because a new startup failed to secure funding. The exhilaration of resolving a conflict of opinion with a team member through persistent dialogue.

These are all experiences that can never be fully captured in a textbook or a role-play—they can only be gained on the “practical mountain” of business.

Unlike a textbook, no real-life situation proceeds exactly as planned. Unlike role-playing, the people you deal with in business are sincere, flesh-and-blood individuals. The market environment is constantly changing. There is a time gap of several years or even decades between when the finished theories written in textbooks were developed and the present day.

It is all of you readers who are currently creating the case studies and business theories relevant to today’s social, technological, and competitive environment.

And as we repeatedly climb various work “mountains”, we acquire authentic business operation skills. We intuitively find the shortest path to success through repeated failures. We empathize with a customer to figure out their unspoken true needs. We sense potential obstacles to a project by reading a team member’s slight change in expression.

These abilities are the intuition and judgment that can never be learned in a classroom; they can only be forged through the act of working itself.

4. The Importance of Reserves

(1) Financial Reserves

In mountaineering, the weight of your pack is a constant concern. A lighter pack conserves energy and makes long days easier. However, if you don’t pack certain supplies in the pursuit of lightening your load, it could be fatal.

Sufficient water for the temperature and duration of your trip. Food according to your meal planning. Quick-energy snacks. Rain gear and a first-aid kit for emergencies. These are essential supplies for any climb. Having spare water, emergency food, and contingency gear drastically changes your actions and decisions when an emergency strikes. And above all, having such peace of mind makes a world of difference.

This is exactly the same in the business world. It’s important to run a company lean and efficiently, but cutting buffers too deeply leaves you unable to withstand a crisis when it hits.

What if, one day, a product defect is discovered and you have to issue a complete recall?

Or what if, like during the COVID-19 pandemic, socio-economic activity grinds to a halt for months at a time?

Having enough working capital on hand to survive for six months even if revenue drops to near zero—this is the “minimum baseline” cited by most management textbooks and business practitioners.

A cash buffer provides that peace of mind, allowing you to act calmly in a crisis. It reduces the chance of making poor decisions due to cash flow pressure. Furthermore, this cushion allows you to take an offensive step and launch a challenge when the overall social environment is unstable.

(2) Human Resource Reserves

Financial reserves aren’t the only buffer needed; human resources are just as critical. Organizations operating on razor-thin staffing have no room for people to take time off, leading to an accumulation of physical and mental fatigue.

As people approach their physical and mental limits, their judgment and creativity inevitably decline, and the risk of turnover increases. Once in this negative spiral, the entire organization becomes exhausted.

In contrast, teams with staff and time buffers operate differently. They can respond flexibly to sudden trouble or new challenges and have time for improvement activities and learning. That peace of mind for individual members leads to the overall stability of the organization.

(3) Buffers Are a Critical Investment

In mountaineering, you don’t decide, “I’ll skip the emergency water, food, and first-aid kit because they add extra weight.” These items aren’t unnecessary burdens, they are the minimum preparation required to survive and return home safely.

The cash reserves, spare personnel, and time buffers in business are the same. They may seem wasteful in peaceful times, but in an emergency, they become your only lifeline. Moreover, that very surplus is the driving force for taking the next strategic step and the energy for tackling new domains.

The true measure of capability in both mountaineering and management is how you balance a lower carry-weight with having more reserves. Maintaining a buffer enables the peace of mind to reach the goal and return safely. In business operations, investing in both your working capital and the mental wellbeing of your team members is a certain strategy for success.

5. Both Mountaineering and Leadership Are a Series of Decisions

Mountaineering constantly demands on-the-spot judgment. You must personally decide on your climbing pace, when to take a break, and when to replenish water or energy based on your physical condition and current location. Ultimately, making the call to call off the entire climb depending on the weather is also up to you.

The sport of triathlon is popular among business executives. However, a triathlon is a race competing for rank, conducted within set rules, and fought in a venue where safety is perfectly secured. The decision to cancel due to bad weather is made by the organizers. In a company context, you might say this decision is made by the board of directors. Contests that involve competing within established rules are arguably better suited for directors of large corporations or hired professional managers.

In contrast, mountaineering is a challenge where you attempt to defy nature, adapt to environmental changes, come face to face with danger at all times, and proceed based on your own judgment alone.

Entrepreneurs or business professionals working at newly established startups and venturing into completely uncharted territory have the same attitude and mindset. They encounter a continuous stream of difficult decisions daily, constantly confronting risk while pursuing relentless effort to tackle major societal issues.

In this way, mountaineering and managing a startup company truly go hand in hand.

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This analogy comparing the mindset of startup company leadership to mountaineering was written as a reference for the activities undertaken by D-POPS GROUP in promoting a Venture Ecosystem.

We hope you enjoy this article and look forward to working with you sometime in future.

D-POPS GROUP Advisor

Genta Sugihara

Appendix

Advisor Sugihara, who supports the members of our Venture Ecosystem, is undertaking the challenge of conquering the “100 Famous Japanese Mountains” while wearing our company’s signature unicorn T-shirt, to illustrate the spirit of a startup company.

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Even if they cannot speak for the overall management strategy, they can talk about their own job-related pains. Then, you can think together about solving those problems and search for where your company’s value proposition could belong. Soon enough, these exchanges will lead up to a dialogue with the decision-maker. If you’re still at the stage where the other party hasn’t shared their issues, then it’s meaningless to present a feature list or a price table. You should only begin discussing specific service details after the client has fully understood which of their problems your solution addresses and to what extent. Simply by getting this sequence right, you can drastically change the way that business negotiations progress. By narrowing your explanation down to only the features that the client is interested in, you can reduce your presentation time and allocate the remaining time to constructive, collaborative consideration. Also, effective case studies are not always limited to the same industry; there is no small number of cases when examples from other industries that solved similar problems resonated even more strongly. Ultimately, everything comes back to a proper listening stance. If you enter the mindset of putting yourself in other people’s shoes and listening seriously to what they have to say, the right questions will arise naturally. This is precisely why good listeners are preferred over good talkers in sales. 3. The Courage to Say ‘No’ and the Courage to Withdraw Many believe the ideal B2B salesperson is one who can win every single deal. In reality, that is not necessarily the mark of an excellent salesperson. A salesperson who protects the company and its systems in the long term is one who can identify deals that should not be taken and has the judgment to refuse if necessary. In the sales field, there will be moments when you say to yourself, “I want this deal, but I feel I shouldn’t close it for strategic reasons.” Customers who take excessive customization for granted; those who insistently make one-sided demands; those with a widespread corporate culture of arrogance; supervisors who chase price without understanding value: making deals with clients like these tends to increase indirect costs and mental exhaustion resulting from the necessary development, support, and management. Eventually, the contract becomes a burden on the company. Sales requires patience, but it’s not necessary to carry all of the stress yourself. Unreasonable demands; business discussions that are at an impasse; attending to completely disrespectful people; or negotiations intended solely for price comparison: if you choose to force these impossible deals through, it will lead to a loss for your entire organization. Halting an unhealthy deal before it gets any further is also a sales skill. “Since this does not align with our company’s policies, we will have to decline.” Such a statement is not rude or hostile; it is an expression of sincerity that shows your boundaries. In the long run, a company that clearly shows what it can and cannot do will earn more trust than one that accepts anything. Making the decision to withdraw is also the duty of a leader. I once made a management decision, in agreement with headquarters executives, to intentionally drop out of a large project where price competition had overheated and no profit could be expected. This was not admitting defeat, but a business judgment to withdraw from a fight where we would suffer heavy losses even if we won in the end. This concept is not limited to new prospective clients; there are also existing customers from whose partnership you should withdraw. Clients who take up too much time with low profitability; clients who make no effort to implement agreed-upon terms; clients who lack the will to revive their failing businesses; those who always start from a place of negativity: holding onto these relationships just because “the customer is king” is a choice that erodes the company’s future. A decision not to renew a contract can also be necessary for healthy management. Interestingly, companies that have the courage to say ‘no’ will ultimately attract better customers. Relationships with clients who align with your corporate culture, maintain mutual respect, understand your worth, and continue making efforts to grow become trust-based partnerships that go beyond mere business transactions. Rather than your prices, these customers choose you based on your merit, and become long-term fans. While sales is a job that involves being chosen, it’s a job that involves choosing your associates. Far from being cruel or heartless, the courage to say ‘no’ or to withdraw enables responsible decisions that protect the company, its employees, and its future. Concentrating resources on the relationships that are truly valuable is precisely what generates the next stage of growth. Is that not the very essence of “management-minded sales”? Conclusion: Sales Skills are Part of Management Skills In this article, we introduced three skills: A listening stance and the courage not to sell Questioning ability found in locating the root of the issue The courage to say ‘no’ and the courage to withdraw None of these are merely sales techniques. They represent a management mindset that allows both executives and sales leaders to correctly allocate limited management resources while earnestly facing the market. No matter how great your product is, it will not reach the market without a discussion plan that is equally great. Standing on the forefront of business growth, sales is a necessary part of business management itself. D-POPS GROUP has the vision of “realizing a Venture Ecosystem”※. To this end, we are committed to building systems that allow the members of our Ecosystem to grow sustainably and providing hands-on support through our team of advisors. ※Read “Venture Ecosystem: A Platform for Growth and Sustainability” for more details. We will continue to offer our support so that the companies within our Ecosystem can put this “Management-Minded Sales” into practice. I hope that this article will serve as a practical aid to startup founders and executives alike. D-POPS GROUP Advisor Genta Sugihara
  • Media
2026.02.05
Sales per Tsubo
D-POPS GROUP is a collective of companies that integrates actual businesses and technology together, a concept that we denote as “Real Business x Technology x Group Synergy”, aiming to realize a Venture Ecosystem that will continue to be indispensable to society even 100 years from now. Measuring the efficiency and profitability of a store location is indispensable for managing physical stores, which is at the heart of “Real Business”. In this article, we will explore sales per tsubo※, which is a critical metric used in Japan for this very purpose. ※The Japanese unit of measurement tsubo is defined as an area approximately equal to 3.3 square meters. The principle of ‘sales per tsubo’ can be considered as directly equivalent to sales density (in either sales/m2 or sales/ft2) with a simple conversion factor. Sales per tsubo refers to the amount of sales generated per tsubo, which will vary by industry. For example, supermarkets with high foot traffic and department stores or electronics retailers dealing in more expensive items will usually generate higher sales per tsubo. In explaining how this metric functions in practice, we will focus on the consumer electronics industry, for the sake of consistency in comparison with our previous articles on Inventory Turnover and Revenue per Employee. 1. One of the Three Key Elements of Store Management We previously looked at examples of inventory turnover (which affects cash flow and, in turn, a company’s balance sheet) as well as revenue per employee (which mainly relates to personnel expenses, and thus impacts P&L). Sales per tsubo primarily relates to rent and, like personnel expenses, is a vital indicator for P&L. Together, inventory, personnel expenses, and rent form the three essential elements of physical store management. If you haven’t read the previous installments on inventory turnover or revenue per employee, I encourage you to do so to see the full picture. 2. Calculating Sales per Tsubo Simply put, sales per tsubo is an indicator of a store’s productivity. The higher the figure, the better. It is generally calculated by dividing annual sales by the total sales floor area (in tsubo). For example: ・A store with ¥50 billion in annual proceeds and a sales floor of 4,000 tsubo earns ¥12.5 million per tsubo. ・A store with ¥1.5 billion in annual proceeds and a sales floor of 1,000 tsubo earns ¥1.5 million per tsubo. ・A store with ¥400 million in annual proceeds and a sales floor of 80 tsubo earns ¥5.0 million per tsubo. ・A store with ¥400 million in annual proceeds and a sales floor of 80 tsubo earns ¥4.0 million per tsubo. Averages vary widely according to areas and types of business. In the suburbs, an electronics store might earn around ¥1.5 million and a hardware store only ¥500,000, while a convenience store and a drug store could reach ¥5 million and ¥4 million, respectively. Factors include how frequently a product gets purchased, unit prices, the size of the products sold, and whether the location is urban or suburban. Notably, while suburban stores may have lower efficiency, their rent is also significantly lower. Therefore, one cannot simply compare sales per tsubo in isolation, but rather view it in the context of local real estate costs. 3. Why is Sales per Tsubo Important? To explain why sales density is critical, let’s look at the following example. As explained above, comparing companies in different locations (urban vs. suburban) or with different product categories is not an effective comparison because rent and unit prices differ too greatly. Therefore, just as we did in the previous article regarding sales per employee, we will use two rival electronics retailers as examples. They sell the same products and are both located in urban areas. (These model companies are fictional but based on the numbers from actual businesses.) Metric Company B Company C Store Count 24 45 Sales Floor Area 75,000 tsubo 74,000 tsubo Sales Per Tsubo ¥10.09 million ¥6.00 million Total Sales ¥750 billion ¥440 billion Ordinary Profit ¥50 billion (6.7% margin) ¥4 billion (0.9% margin) The Company B featured here is the same one from our previous discussion on sales per employee. Company C is a group-managed company with many franchises; for this example, we have extracted only the data for their urban store brands. The figures have been aligned with the fiscal year of the sales per tsubo data, and the floor area has been reverse-calculated from the sales and efficiency figures. These two are known competitors, both operating in urban centers and often opening stores adjacent to one another in major hubs like Shinjuku. Here, I want to draw attention to floor area versus the sales per tsubo. Company B uses 75,000 tsubo to generate approximately ¥750 billion in sales, whereas Company C uses 74,000 tsubo to generate approximately ¥440 billion. When converted to sales per tsubo, Company B stands at ¥10.093 million and Company C at ¥6.002 million. While both companies boast very high efficiency, their total floor areas are nearly identical (around 75,000 tsubo). If you take the difference in their sales per tsubo (¥4.091 million) and multiply it by that 75,000 tsubo of sales floor, you see a difference of over ¥300 billion in total sales. This gap represents the difference in revenue. If we calculate the gross profit for both companies using the industry average of 30%, the gap in gross profit alone is nearly ¥90 billion. It would be quite complicated to calculate their exact costs of rent, so we won’t do that here. However, both are urban retailers in similar locations, so if we assume their rent is roughly the same, this difference in gross profit translates directly into a difference in bottom-line profit. There is a ¥46 billion gap in ordinary profit and a 5.8% difference in profit margin between Company B and Company C, and it should be clear that sales per tsubo is one major factor driving this disparity. As mentioned in the previous article, even with minor differences, the gross profit margin in the electronics retail industry—regardless of the company—generally hovers around 30%. Whether in this industry or any other, when companies handle the same products at a similar scale, there will seldom be any large discrepancies in gross profit margin. In this comparison, as stated, a ¥90 billion gap arises from sales per tsubo. When competing companies sell the same products, in similar locations, using similar floor space, I believe that inventory turnover and sales per employee are the only other metrics that could account for such a massive difference in management efficiency. This is not unique to our model case. In restaurants, apparel stores, supermarkets, or any brick-and-mortar locations, there is no escaping sales per tsubo. Achieving a sales per tsubo that significantly outperforms competitors in similar locations leads directly to a major advantage in the unavoidable competition of business. 4. Key Strategies to Increase Efficiency By now, I suppose you recognize the importance of sales per tsubo, but the next question is how to increase it. There are several key strategies, and I would like to highlight the most representative examples below. ① Focus on purchase frequency or unit price Even if unit prices are low, like groceries or daily necessities, high purchase frequency makes it easier to drive up sales per tsubo. Conversely, for high-unit-price items like luxury brands, the high price per transaction compensates for lower frequency, allowing for high efficiency. From this perspective, it is perfectly logical for community-based drugstores to carry food and daily goods that are bought more frequently than medicine. Similarly, it is a sound strategy for electronics retailers to expand their lineup to include a mix of high-purchase-frequency consumables and high-unit-price hardware. ② Optimize product size and eliminate wasted space In short, this means displaying small products without leaving any gaps. This is plainly visible if you look at Don Quijote, convenience stores, drugstores, or urban electronics retailers. While some stores carry large items, the focus is on smaller goods packed tightly together all the way to the ceiling. From the perspective of sales per tsubo, this is a highly rational display strategy. Take electronics retailers as an example: urban stores are often branded as “　　　 Camera”, like Yodobashi Camera, while suburban stores are “　　　 Denki” (i.e., electronics), like Yamada Denki. There is a reason for this. In the past, urban stores were so small that if they stocked refrigerators and washing machines, they would have no room for anything else. Consequently, urban stores focused on cameras, watches, portable devices, beauty appliances, and small office equipment. Suburban stores, benefiting from lower rent, could afford the lower efficiency of large appliances. This specialization was an inevitable result of optimizing for sales per tsubo. Historically, there used to be a number of urban stores that did focus on large appliances. Just by looking at Akihabara today, one can see that these have mostly been consolidated into the most powerful stores, and only a few of those remain. This, too, was an inescapable outcome driven by sales per tsubo. ③ Master cross-selling and up-selling Cross-selling and up-selling can lead to significant improvement through store-wide effort. When you go to buy a suit, most stores will suggest a matching shirt or tie (i.e., cross-selling). When you look at PCs, many stores will suggest one with a high-performance i-series core processor rather than a cheaper model (i.e., up-selling). Up-selling changes the unit price per item, and as the price goes up, so does sales per tsubo. Cross-selling increases the number of items purchased per customer, which raises the total transaction value per person and, by extension, the sales per tsubo. The examples above are the primary ways to increase efficiency. While there are other factors, the ultimate key—as with inventory turnover and sales per employee—is ensuring employees are educated on the importance of this metric. Success comes from management with a human touch, where the company and staff constantly innovate in procurement, product display, and customer service to boost efficiency, supported by technology that can visualize inventory and sales data. Ultimately, the leap in management efficiency through improving sales per tsubo is also built upon the intersection of “People × Technology × Management Strategy”. 5. Conclusion In this article, we discussed sales per tsubo. In the industry of physical stores, there is no business that does not occupy space. Optimization of space is quantified in Japan as sales per tsubo, which leads to the maximization of operating profit and provides a major competitive advantage over rivals in similar locations. Sales per tsubo is strongly affected by product characteristics (price, size, sale frequency), product assortment and display techniques (filling gaps), and customer service techniques (cross-selling/up-selling). In other words, the catalyst for increasing efficiency lies in the constant ingenuity of both the company that defines the product concept, and the employees who actually perform the procurement, display, and service mentioned above. With this discussion of sales per tsubo, we have now covered the three essential elements of store management: inventory, personnel expenses, and rent. By reading this series—including the previous articles “Inventory Turnover” and “Sales per Employee”—the key points of store management should become much clearer. What we at D-POPS GROUP want to convey through this three-part series is that business is built by people. The customers who purchase products are people, and those who devise strategies and utilize technology are also people. While it is impossible to win in competition without mastering technologies like AI, technological skills alone cannot ensure survival. We believe that business success is not just about good technology or a good strategy; it is about the intersection of “People × Technology × Management Strategy”. Based on this philosophy, D-POPS GROUP aims to realize a Venture Ecosystem by supporting startup companies in order to solve societal problems. We hope that you enjoyed this article and look forward to working with you in the future. D-POPS GROUP Managing Executive Officer Tetsuya Watanabe
  • Media
2026.01.15
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