By Takuya Yamada, CEO, Idera

Mr. Guo Guangchang called me an atypical global partner at Fosun’s annual conference earlier this year to correct others’ misperception about Japanese working in a global company.  For my personal experience, because I worked for two different US company before I joined Fosun, I didn’t even experience any culture shock while I was on board. The way business handled in Fosun is similar to other US company or other global company, and I believe that’s why I have survived and thrived in the journey.

Yes, my background is kind of different from typical Japanese. I spent quite a long time in Australia, in New York, the US and I’m a more straightforward speaking person compared to other Japanese. So, when I have a meeting, I try to be very clear about what I’m trying to do.

I mostly appreciate that Fosun provides a GloCal (Global + Local) platform strategy to make sure we clearly understand the local market and how to find investment opportunities while we implement a consistent global strategy in business operation. These days, the Japanese market shares similarity with the other markets, but it’s also becoming very complex.

Under the circumstances, we have an internal meeting every Monday, so we share any market information and also talk about potential deal with other Fosun portfolio companies in Asia or Britain and other European or US family members.

My very first time when I met with Mr. Guo was December 30, 2014. It was couple of days before the New Year Day. In Japan, it’s was a big day for me especially.

Given its importance and uniqueness, I remembered the day so clearly and more interestingly, my previous interview meeting with Alex Gong was actually on December 25, Christmas Day. And it started at 9 p.m.

I knew Fosun was not a traditional company, but a company following the local strategy in different market - aggressive and change things quickly with a strong commitment. That’s why all my job interviews were very productive and we exchanged a lot of general information.

Within Fosun, once we committed, even from the bottom to the top, we are trying to do our best to achieve the goal, even though sometimes the goal is very high and difficult to achieve.

I think IDERA used to be a somewhat more like a very Japanese company, so it’s not an international company. When people in IDERA joined the Fosun family, they maybe have some culture shocks because of culture differences, and how the business will be handled. But now IDERA staff have all adapted to Fosun style. We are trying to apply the good part from Fosun and mix with the good part from IDERA, to make our company IDERA more international and more Fosun style.

Commitment and agility of moving fast are the good part we learned from Fosun. If there is anything we need to move or something we need to discuss, we will have meeting or telephone conference calls immediately. No one will wait until weekly meeting to bring things up because we need to get together quickly and try to have some action plan as soon as the market requires. This Fosun gene is something I’m trying to adapt to of IDERA’s culture.

Starting earlier this year, I’m very honored to become one of the Fosun Global Partners. I know it’s a very important mission and role. As for Fosun’s growth, I think we need to have more global partners for each region, and for each division. My understanding of my role as a global partner is to present Fosun in Japan and in the Asia Pacific, and a brand ambassador to introduce our company to the local market. As a global partner, I’m trying to spread the prosperity outside the real estate market. So, try to find more opportunities for Fosun, including pharmaceutical and entertainment and etc.

I think my goal for 2018 is IDERA needs to find a digital strategy to build all the Fosun businesses in Japan with a digital ecosystem. 

In the past couple of years, we invested asset with not much link between each other. But I think what important is nowadays when we try to find a business opportunities, we think about how that particular investment benefits Fosun global business. For example, I know Fosun emphasizes on happiness, health and wealth sector. Thus we need to think about how we can collect and categorize each investment into the area and to build the ecosystem in Japan. I think Japan and China has so much business interactions. Not only within Japan from China, not only within China to Japan neither. We have to think about how we can help companies to develop the e- merchant business.

My very first time visiting China was maybe 25 years ago, to Shanghai and Qingdao, which was a private trip. Even 20 years ago, I knew that China is a big country, and people are very busy. I knew that China would become a very important business partner of Japan and a very important country in the world.

After working for one Japanese company and two different US companies, I have more intention to join an overseas company because I knew what they are. For me I need some challenges. Working for a growing Chinese company such as Fosun, it’s very challenging but also very interesting. I am very interested to know how Chinese company looks and how they work.

As I said, these days, we are all up to find out digital solutions in health, happiness and wealth sectors, but to be honest, I’m not a digital person. I don’t know much about advanced technology or technics compared with other younger generations. But I know now it is the turning point that our businessmen who need to take many changes of digital technology to adapt to the new world. Not only IT staff, but also all our people in IDERA are very keen to learn about the changes in the digital market and adapt to those changing very quickly. So, we can be the forerunner in digital competitive market.

I think we are trying to think creative, very smartly and keep up the momentum.

Considering what we have done in the past, particularly last year and this year, we will have more and more hotels and we have more and more real estate assets. Just having invested asset, we have to think about how we can add value to them by having extra services, such as some medical services, or some entertainment facilities.