As Housing Japan turns 25 this year, we talked to founders Mitsuo Hashimoto and Joe Rigby about the good times, the tough times and where they see the company in 25 years’ time.
From our interview…
Good partnerships are about people. How do each of you think that you’ve grown personally over the past 25 years? And how do your roles within the company differ now than at the beginning?
Mitsuo Hashimoto: When we started Housing Japan, I was 27, and Joe-san was 29. So, very young. And we started it with just the two of us. So we were taking care of everything. Now the organization has grown and we’re more focused on the things that we each want to do. We’ve each found our niche in the business now as well as maintaining an overview of the whole company and its direction.
Joe Rigby: When we started, it was a very small business. So, as Hashimoto-san said, we were doing everything: talking to clients, doing deals, taking care of every aspect of the business. Now we’ve grown, we have great team members to take care of all the different sub-businesses inside of Housing Japan.
There’s problem-solving to do, of course and as you grow a business, you realize a lot of your time is recruiting and retaining good people. We’ve both spent quite a lot of time on that. And that’s been two-sided. It was very hard to hire people when we were a small business. But now we’re a bigger business. It’s easier to hire. But at the same time, we want to hire better and better people. and that’s challenging in its own way. I think that’s the way my role has evolved in particular. As you grow a business, you spend a lot more time trying to find good people to operate it.
Click here to read the full article at the online edition of LUXE.