2004年度（2004.4～2005.3）　ワークショップ講演

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Entrepreneurship Workshop I May 27, 2004

“My Experience as an Entrepreneur ― From In-House Venture within Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. to IPO”

Guest speaker:
Mr. Toru Takasuka
CEO of Cybozu, Inc.

1. Profile of Mr. Toru Takasuka
In 1990, Mr. Toru Takasuka joined Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. He was engaged in developing in-house information systems in the Information Systems Department. In 1996, he participated in the establishment of Vi Internet Operations, making use of the in-house venture-capital company system, and assumed the post of vice-president (director). After leaving that company, in 1997 he established Cybozu, Inc. as CEO. In March 2002, Cybozu was listed on the second section of Tokyo Stock Exchange.

2. Summary of the Speech
(1) The Cybozu Business Model
The Mr. Takasuka’s company devised a scheme whereby they sold high-quality groupware they had developed via download from their website. Appreciating that for the short term the company needed to put priority on acquiring public recognition of their software, he considered addressing the cost of advertising to be his main issue.

(2) On Establishing Cybozu Inc.
Mr. Takasuka had only raised about 50% of the funds he needed when he decided to launch the company, although he did receive some financial assistance from his relatives. This meant that he could not spare any money for advertising. He went as far as seeking venture capital financing, but could not procure the amount he needed. He could not help recognizing the cold reality of the great gap in the difficulty of procuring funds between large corporations and venture companies. In order to make the most effective use of the funds he had struggled to raise and manage to afford the expense of advertising, he decided to establish his headquarters in Matsuyama, Shikoku, removed from large urban centers. After a period of working without a salary, he gradually began to make sales. Mr. Takasuka looks back fondly on those days as the most exciting period, saying, “doing what you like most gives you incredible strength.” For 3 to 4 years after the launch, he earmarked about 50% of total sales for advertising.

(3) On Management Policy, etc.
Mr. Takasuka holds as a basic managerial concept the contribution through information services to the realization of an affluent world society, and offers his 5 Driving Principles of Cybozu as action guidelines. While he was working for Matsushita Electric Works, he made a proposal for reducing costs, and his supervisor told him that he still needed to decide what he wanted to do with the savings that would result from the lower costs. This reconfirmed in him the notion that the basic mission of a business is to create value.

(4) On the Organization and the Individual
It is commonly recognized that any increase in overall organizational performance is in inverse relation to an increase in an individual’s performance. We have to give priority to either one or the other in accord with the specific stages of corporate growth. Mr. Takasuka said that from a managerial point of view, what counts most is maintaining a balance between them.

3. Closing Comments
We were aware of great sincerity in his personality throughout his speech. He is a man of excellent balance in a wide range of business activities from personal networking (especially when he founded his company), through financing, customer satisfaction, emphasis on sales and advertising and human resource management to devising a corporate philosophy. We have felt that what he learned while working for a large company was fully reflected on his efforts to turn his fledgling enterprise into a publicly traded company. Further, we could see from several things he said that the business sense nurtured in him during his time with a large company led him to forego moving toward expansion for greater sales and profits in favor of high-quality profit, and to pursue higher-quality benefits and continue asking himself why he started his business and remains CEO.

Kanayasu Nagai
Kentaro Yano
Graduate students in charge of minutes

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