2004年度（2004.4～2005.3）　ワークショップ講演

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Entrepreneurship Workshop II
(December 9, 2004)

Theme: The Entrepreneur’s Passport to Venture Success - Creating a New Business, although a Challenging Endeavor, is an Invitation to Adventure.
Guest Speaker: Mr. Nobuyoshi Hosokawa, Representative Director, Angel Securities Co., Ltd.

1. Personal profile
Mr. Nobuyoshi Hosokawa was born in March 1941, the eldest son of a public bath operator. Despite his father’s disdain for education, he graduated in Science and Engineering from Waseda University. He succeeded his father in the family business at first, but later joined the auditing firm of Tomatsu & Co. He also studied economics at Kobe University, and passed the CPA exam at the age of 38. Afterwards, he set up an accounting office, a systems development company, and an auditing firm, one after the other. In 1997 he established Angel Securities Co., Ltd., a venture incubation enterprise, where he is representative director. Mr. Hosokawa has been extending support to aspiring venture entrepreneurs, with a stake in 60 companies. He not only provides funds but also takes a great deal of pleasure in working closely with them to grow together. He has written many books, including M&A, Utilization of MBO and Reorganization of Ventures, regarded as a bible among entrepreneurs.

2. Summary of Mr. Hosokawa’s Speech
(1) What makes a successful entrepreneur?
First, successful entrepreneurs are steady in their efforts; second, they are surrounded by a large support group; third, they spend money very wisely. There are times when everybody has to concentrate on work. The entrepreneur needs a disciplined personality and a willingness to take risks. The entrepreneur also needs to be able to move people to help when there’s trouble (need supporters), be skillful in getting the most value from money. It seems part of the nature of this kind of personality, in fact, to be able to do the right thing, show people careful consideration, and move others deeply.

(2) Investment policies
If we’re going to invest at all, naturally it is better to invest in profitable companies. However, Mr. Hosokawa emphasized 2 points other than the advantages and technical strengths of a business. One is that the entrepreneurs themselves need to be committed and determined to create companies that contribute to society. The other, a recent addition, is that the management resources of Mr. Hosokawa and Angel Securities can be fully utilized. So far, Mr. Hosokawa has provided funds to ventures to support their endeavors countless times, but the foundation of a venture is fragile. In some ventures the partnership broke down at a critical moment, or the business didn’t go as planned and funds ran short. These collapsed eventually. The goal of Angel Securities is to offset these weaknesses and unfold the real potential of a venture. In this manner Mr. Hosokawa hopes he can achieve his primary aim, “creating” ventures. The first successful example of this was PIM, an internal venture that operates a service system for Internet-ready mobile phones. Yahoo was fascinated with the capabilities of PIM and decided to consolidate it in 2000. It is Mr. Hosokawa’s dream to produce and raise a second and third venture like PIM.

(3) Advisable fund-raising of ventures
A venture starts with a strong aspiration. For this reason, it needs money of “good quality.” The middle-class salaried workers that support the Japanese economy are sympathetic to the aims of ventures and invest in them both financially and through intellectual contributions. A venture uses the funds for its business, makes a profit and returns it to the investors (or contributors). The venture is incubated and investors feel happy with it. It also sparks an economic cycle that will eventually benefit Japan. This type of mechanism for circulating capital would be perfect. Therefore, Mr. Hosokawa believes that venture entrepreneurs should think seriously about the money they put into their businesses.

3. Comments from minutes taker
One is never too old to learn. On the other hand, an armchair theorist crammed with too much knowledge is of no use. A great or competent person in the true sense is humble, frank, loved by people and works single-mindedly for humankind. Never be arrogant. Nothing is more difficult than doing what we ought to as a matter of course. However, if we want to be big, we need to just do it.

The above are the warm, unsparing, thoughtful messages to both successful and aspiring venture entrepreneurs in the speech from Mr. Hosokawa. The messages faithfully reflect his personality, whose motto is “true culture is what remains after everything has been cleaned out.” We were deeply impressed.

Reported by: Yoshichika Furuta/Hiroe Mizukami
Graduate students in charge of minutes

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