Ajinomoto Group companies overseas manufacture and sell amino acids used in food products, medicines, and fertilizers. My work is related to exportation and sales of machinery, raw materials, and packing for production at primarily Ajinomoto factories around the world, including Brazil, Peru, and the Philippines.

My workflow is usually: receive an order from a customer, prepare an estimate, procure the ordered goods from suppliers, and export them overseas.
In essence, our job is to provide backup for quality improvement at factories around the world. By supporting those activities, we indirectly support medicines and food products for people around the world. Perhaps that's a bit of an exaggeration? (laughs)

Ever since I was a student, I always dreamed of going abroad, so I wanted to join a trading company. I joined this company because I thought a smaller company would give me the chance to perform a broad range of functions, including doing business with customers, as opposed to a very large company where the work is highly segmented.

When I joined the company, we had about 60 employees and now we have 83 people.
(as of June 1, 2009)

After seven years at headquarters, I worked at our Thailand subsidiary for five years.
In Thailand, I had direct reports so I gave directions, improved motivation, and learned how to be a middle manager standing between senior managers and my subordinates.
Since the subsidiary had just 13 employees, the range of responsibilities for each individual was very broad, including negotiations with external parties, and legal and financial matters. I feel very fortunate to have been given the opportunity to experience a wide range of responsibilities − just as I had imagined when I joined the company.

Now that I'm back in Japan, I feel I can understand what the president and department heads are trying to do in moving the company toward a team orientation and what they expect from teams.
Because I experienced such a wide range of positions within a small organization in Thailand, I learned to appreciate the power of the organization, something I couldn't fully grasp prior to that experience.
Going forward, I now want to strengthen relationships horizontally within and outside the company, between departments and with our affiliated companies.

I think it's about giving "awareness" to the other party. To do that, you have to have "awareness" yourself. From a process perspective, you analyze past data (items, prices, timing, volume, etc.) and identify trends, create a hypothesis, and create a proposal for the customer's validation. You resubmit the proposal reflecting the customer's views. I think that "OYAKUDACHI (Valuable and useful service)" are the result of a continuous cycle of Action -> Revalidation -> Improvement.
By repeating this cycle − thinking about the customer and working on their behalf − you also find even greater self-motivation.

The Thai people have a word, "sabaai," which is similar to "happy." Literally translated, it means "comfort and contentment in heart and mind." For the Thai people, "sabaai" is the most important consideration. I was captivated by the spirit of "sabaai" − the idea that money isn't everything in life, that contentment in the heart is more important that anything. In my case, all I can do is try my best and look toward a future filled with "sabaai" (laughs).

I would like a position that is more involved with management, even if it's on a small scale.
I want to acquire the skills needed to manage a company on my own.