I still remember how deeply impressed I was the first time I met Shiono, our CEO, by his many-sided understanding of business and by a perspective set higher than any I had encountered before. That became a major turning point for me. When I received the offer, ABCD did not even have its name yet, and I had no idea what kind of business the company would run. Strangely, though, I thought that this might be a company worth betting my life on, and I trusted that instinct and decided to join.

At the time I had only worked in management accounting, so when Shiono said he wanted me to take on ABCD's administrative operations, I did feel anxious and wondered whether I could really do it. But since he had placed his expectations in me, I felt strongly that I wanted to live up to that trust.

Since joining I have handled every back-office function apart from recruiting: accounting, labor, legal, and even subsidy applications, running shareholder meetings, and debt and equity financing. All of it was work I had never done before, but researching each piece myself and giving it shape widened my range all at once, and I feel I have grown a great deal. Right now I am focused on standardizing our operations and moving them into systems.

There are still many areas at ABCD where the processes are not fully in place, which also means this is a phase with enormous room to build things from zero with your own hands. As the organization grows from here, a great deal remains to be put in order and taken on.

Because I am lazy by nature, I am always thinking about how to make the tasks I find tedious easier. Turn every annoyance into a defined process, and automate the whole back office. I find the particular interest and enjoyment of this job in the process of building that foundation myself.