Story

Before joining Neural Marketing (formerly Net Ten Co., Ltd.), I was running my own website production company in Tokyo. Since it was the dawn of websites at the time, I was making gritty moves: doing sales myself, producing, and delivering.

One day, casually visiting Osaka through an introduction by someone who had helped me, waiting there was the founding owner, then President Ueda. I remember like it was yesterday that on the day we met, I received a very passionate offer over several hours, asking, "When are you coming to us?"

I intended to decline because I was running my own company at the time, but the president said, "There is a limit to the funds an individual can move. It is absolutely more fun to use the resources our company has to give shape to more interesting systems and plans. We will prepare all the environment." Attracted by his overwhelming magnanimity and enthusiasm, I decided to join.

At the time, Neural Marketing had tremendous sales power, but lacked a technical leader to support it. Therefore, utilizing the knowledge and technology of website production I had cultivated, I was first entrusted with supervising the technology department. About a year and a half later, around the age of 28, I was asked to "launch the Tokyo branch," so I returned to the Kanto region and built the base of the organization. Actually, during that launch period, the president's son, Mr. Ueda (currently Executive Managing Director), was also temporarily enrolled as a part-timer, and a long trusting relationship of 20 years has continued since then.

What greatly influenced my own business thinking was two managers I met in my 20s. One was a manager I served during my student days, who was very logical and excelled at systematization. The other was President Ueda, who attracted people with his overwhelming humanity and empathy.

President Ueda was a truly attractive leader, and while possessing a genius charisma to lead the sales organization, he would frankly disclose his weaknesses and rely on his peers, saying, "I can't do computers. You're good at that, so back me up." Because he didn't play perfect, those around him were naturally driven to think, "I want to support this person and the company."

Therefore, the division of roles between the president and myself was clear. I thoroughly solidified the logic and technology, while the president created the culture and pulled with overwhelming sales power. This exquisite balance of multiplying each other's strengths remains unchanged even now after the system has changed through M&A, and is currently firmly succeeded together with Executive Managing Director Ueda.

Being able to see President Ueda's management stance of disclosing his own weaknesses while relying on peers in the right places close up has been a truly great asset in my life, and it leads to my strong desire to make this company even better together with the founding family to whom I owe so much.

When I first heard the decision of M&A from President Ueda, I opposed it more strongly than anyone else. That is because I had a relative who experienced having their company acquired by a major corporation, and I had heard the cold reality that the existing members and organization were dismantled and scattered within a few years. Therefore, I had a very strong caution within myself that M&A is "something where existing organizations and peers are left behind." Out of a sense of responsibility to protect the employment and structure of the members who had shared the front lines for many years, I initially had a strong feeling that I could not easily accept it. That is precisely why I still cannot forget the first words spoken to me when I actually interviewed with the management team of Neural Group.

"Mr. Ishigaki, please do not let a single front-line employee quit. Let's all grow together," they told me.

To be honest, at first, there were parts where I was half-in-doubt, wondering, "Will they really value the front lines that much?" In the first year of actually joining the group, it was not uncommon for voices of confusion to arise from the front lines regarding the strict numerical management and cultural differences unique to a listed group.

In the midst of that, as someone in charge of the front lines, I broke down the long-term vision Neural aims for into front-line terms and continued to convey it patiently. While exploring how to utilize our own company's strengths within the group, I thought that I first had to take the initiative and show my back "moving straight forward."

Running frantically like that, I realized that, true to their first words, Neural had really continued to protect our employment and organization from the very beginning. As one year and then another piled up, the caution towards M&A that I once harbored disappeared, and I became convinced that Neural Group's management policy of respecting each other's individuality was genuine.

Here, please allow me to also talk about the strengths of the business we are deploying. Neural Marketing's greatest weapon is, without a doubt, its overwhelming "sales power." This is the reason we have been able to survive and continue to grow in a rapidly changing market for over 15 years.

The LED vision business is a unique domain that other companies cannot easily imitate, as it requires direct collaboration with overseas factories, large-scale construction technology, and the sales power to sell it out. Also, the condominium signage business targets an extremely niche blue ocean market of media that directly reaches the wealthy class, by deploying signage as an advertising medium specialized in high-priced condominiums.

We have consistently thoroughly implemented a niche industry strategy of "not entering markets crowded with competitors." We constantly challenge new business ventures and maintain an aggressive stance to produce big hits out of them.

This unique business strategy achieved an even more explosive evolution by joining Neural Group. Against the major corporate market that was previously difficult to approach, being able to confidently step on the sales accelerator backed by the creditworthiness of a listed group is a very big change. Also, recently, with the increase of peers such as Pomato Pro, Cactus, and Mahou, our entry into the LED rental business, which we had been conceptualizing for a long time, has accelerated all at once.

It is precisely because there is an environment where companies with unique technologies that other companies cannot imitate gather in the group and can join hands with each other that many synergies are born. Going forward, by firmly multiplying the sales power that Neural Marketing excels at and the technologies of each group company, I want to create the even larger "city where digital blends in" that we envision.

And this year, I was approached to become president at the best timing when the systematization of the organization was completed through management support from Neural. At first, I thought, "Another new representative will come from Neural," so I was truly surprised by this approach, and at the same time, deeply impressed that "It is a group that trusts the front lines and values processes this much."

Generally, after joining a group, I thought that an assignee from the parent company would sit at the top. However, Neural did not do that. They selected a homegrown person like me, who had been honestly doing things on the front lines for 20 years, as the president of a major subsidiary of a listed group.

I am convinced that this fact has become an incomparable "hope" for the more than 200 employees currently working at our company, or for the people of companies that will participate in the group from now on. We were able to show the highest motivation that "if you accumulate achievements in this company and contribute to the organization, anyone can aim for the top."

The level required at Neural Group is very high and professional, but once you clear that and get used to it, I think there is no other organization that "hands discretion to the front lines and lets them take on challenges as they like" to this extent.

Not top-down, but each group company bringing its own unique strengths and cooperating as partners. That is the true appeal of this group. Together with trusted peers, let's step on the accelerator toward a new, unseen future together.