Interviews
Breaking down the barriers of race, sex, and language to work together globally
- Yoko Tanaka
- 2nd Sales Div, Director
- (Joined in January 2000)
Tell us about your current line of work.
I act as sales manager and oversee all of our sales departments. I take leadership for the trajectory the company decides on and ensure that personnel are moving in the same direction.
Is there anything challenging about overseeing all of sales?
There are about 20 members in sales. I find it very satisfying to get everyone calibrated on the same page, but ensuring each person is aligned can be challenging. Also, sales has close relationships with other units like R&D, technology, materials procurement, et cetera, so we can’t simply be content to do things alone – we have to work together. Ensuring proper collaboration with other departments is essential to achieving better results.
What parts of the job do you find most fulfilling?
One of the things I like about this work is that we go beyond ethnicity, age, sex, language, and other barriers and get to engage with people all around the world from different walks of life. We get to partner with people responsible for the strategy of global brands, something we wouldn't elsewhere. Meeting face-to-face and having various discussions gives us new inspiration and expands our outlook. Different cultures and customs means one person's common sense may seem unusual to another. Getting feedback from others lets you reflect on whether you are too complacent in your current thinking.
What are some attractive aspects of working at Naigai?
At Naigai, we have the privilege of working with famous brands and sports apparel manufacturers known by everyone.
One of the greatest appeals of working at a company like Naigai is being able to sit across the table from these firms and helping to develop some of their most important products. This requires enhancing your knowledge and sharpening your skills.
Here’s an anecdote from when I joined the company and was assigned to handle a golf equipment manufacturer from overseas: I went on my first visit to their offices abroad, and I had some relative confidence in my English abilities. However, I painfully remember now how I had virtually no idea of what the client was saying. This meant I had to go back to the drawing board and brush up not only on my knowledge of gloves, but of the English language.
Also, recent global trends towards corporate compliance and greater restrictions on hazardous materials standards means you have to continuously study each day to keep up.
What are some challenges you’d like to take on in the future?
I’d like to draw on my own experiences and lessons learned from senior colleagues to train the next generation.
What sort of people do you think are suited to working at Naigai?
Through working with clients overseas and our overseas factories, I have many opportunities to travel abroad. This may sound like quite the luxury, but the day-to-day work we do involves lots of hard work and doing seemingly small tasks to build them into a bigger whole. Naigai is a place for people who can faithfully work in that kind of environment and persevere, always proactively taking on new opportunities even when they involve the unknown.
