On October 2nd, 2023, VisasQ announced the appointment of Masayuki Ogata as Head of Americas. CEO Eiko Hashiba, who entrusted the baton of Head of Americas to, interviewed Ogata about his encounter with VisasQ, why he decided to join the company “now”, and what his future visions as Head of Americas are.

Career to date:

Masayuki: I started my career in the Ministry of Internal Affairs & Communications as a new graduate, and worked as a government worker for 11 years, including the Cabinet Office, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. While witnessing the growth of the IT industry at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, I wanted to see this industry from a different perspective than the government side, and moved to Accenture.  After about three and a half years of working on various projects in Japan and abroad, I joined freee in 2016, where a friend from university was a board member.
When I joined the company, I was in a business development position and was responsible for organizing partnerships, but as the company grew, I shifted to a role of growing existing businesses. In addition, before and after the company went public, I was also given the responsibility for the overall business and product strategy, and left the company in July 2022.

During my time as a government worker and at Accenture, I had the opportunity to experience working globally, through being transferred overseas and working with foreign members on projects. On the other, at freee, I was able to experience the management of a domestic business for 7 years. I left freee without deciding where to go next in order to make time for myself, feeling the need to take on some new challenges.

Why did you join VisasQ?

Eiko: Actually, Masayuki and I first met in university, and were in the same tennis club. The COO Hide was in it as well, so we all have a very long relationship. When Masayuki moved to Accenture, I was in the process of preparing to start my own company, and we had many conversations since then. Around the time he moved to freee, I was actually asking him if he was interested in joining VisasQ. 

Masayuki: As the company was often featured in the media since its foundation, and as I had used VisasQ in my previous job at freee, I understood the significance of the service. After that, through media articles and Eiko’s social media, I had been paying attention to VisasQ’s proactive manner of expanding the business globally, opening a Singapore office right after they had gone public, and acquiring Coleman Research Group the following year. After leaving freee, I had the chance to play golf with Eiko, and heard about VisasQ’s recent situations.

Eiko: I actually didn’t know that he left freee until we played golf. Although I was wondering if he would be interested in joining VisasQ when we were playing golf, I thought it would be strange to strongly recommend it while playing it, so I sent him a message the day after. But the reply from Masayuki was quite distant and I remember being a bit disappointed. 

Masayuki: Of course, I had been paying attention to the company, and I was always looking for a job that would expand globally for my next career, so the message I received remained in the corner of my mind.

After some time, at the beginning of 2023 I saw a discussion session video of Eiko in the media PIVOT, and contacted her. Later on, I talked with Hide, my senior at university, as well as other management members such as Co-Head of Japan Takeshi and Yu, and through communications with Eiko, the image and missions gradually solidified, and I decided to join VisasQ.

What was attractive in VisasQ?

Masayuki: Above all, it is how they are seriously trying to expand globally. Since its founding, VisasQ has upheld the value of “Think Big, Think Global”, and while it has expanded its number of international experts on its own, it has accelerated its global expansion through the acquisition in 2021. 
It is rare to see a venture company in Japan take on global challenges boldly, and since they are taking on challenges like a vertical start-up, they must be facing a lot of difficulties. With these current situations, I strongly felt that I wanted to contribute to the growth of the U.S. business at VisasQ, and become a bridge that connects Japan and the rest of the world. 

The other thing which inspired me was when I met the board members. I was often told by Eiko that there are many good people in the company, which was true. Since I would be moving to the U.S. as the Head of Ameicas, I made the final decision after consulting with my family.

Eiko: After several years of asking him to join, he finally became a member of our group!

Our Strengths

Masayuki: As a CEO, Eiko is very charming and has the ability to attract people. She is extremely positive, and believes from the bottom of her heart that things will definitely work out, and will do anything necessary to achieve this. I think she is a person with a competitive mentality.
I believe I have different strengths, so I hope we can build a good complementary relationship.

Eiko: Masayuki is extremely stoic! And he is trustworthy. I think he is truly an “Open Our Minds” person. As he went to Accenture and freee invited by his juniors, I think it’s wonderful that he jumps into an environment where he can challenge himself without any ego or strange pride.
From my heart, I really wanted Masayuki, who I can trust and has an “Open Our Minds”, to become our member.

Impressions after joining the company

Masayuki: There are many talented people! For my onboarding, the business managers and engineers give me clear and easy to understand explanations. This is actually an amazing thing. They are always able to answer my questions very quickly. I strongly feel that the power of the organization and business to attract such talented members is amazing.
Also, it is a good thing that the customer perspectives are easy to permeate the company, as VisasQ is an expert matching service, and in the end, the people are involved in providing value.

When I went to the U.S, even though it had been some time since the acquisition, I felt that there were still many excellent managers who had been with the company for a long time, understanding the business well. Their knowledge and expertise are helping me a lot, and I am very grateful for it. 
On the other hand, compared to Japan, the industry is more competitive, and seeing the fact that the ENS industry has a high turnover of employees with short experience in the company, I recognized the need to find ways to create a new image of our company and services to accelerate further growth.

Missions as Head of Americas

Eiko: As the Head of a major P/L location along with Japan, I hope he expands the business in the U.S. Although it is a challenging mission, as tough situations have been continuing in the macro environment, this is why I wanted to entrust the baton of Head of Americas, which I received from Kevin, the founder of Coleman, to Masayuki, whom I can trust. While putting our business on track for further growth, I am looking forward to seeing him take on challenges in new fields, like the recently announced launch of the “life science team”.
We already have Masayuki visit our U.S. office to start communication such as meetings and gathering for all local members.

Masayuki: I strongly believe that we must at least try to grow our business in the local market. In addition, while VisasQ’s business is seen as advanced and start-up-like in Japan, in the U.S., ENS ( Expert Network Service) is a more mature industry than in Japan. Therefore, I recognise that it is also my mission to return the knowledge and experience I have gained in the U.S. to Japanese business, and conversely, to bring Japan’s startup-like momentum to the U.S. for it to thrive even more.

The first thing I need to do is to get to know the U.S. business,  members, and clients. After that, I will build and execute a strategy to get the business on track. At the same time, I would like to establish a system that enables us to take on new challenges, and instill in our company the consciousness that we can take on new challenges, such as the establishment of the “ life science team” that Eiko mentioned earlier.

Message from CEO Hashiba

Eiko: Now that I have entrusted the baton of the Head of Americas to my reassuring colleague, I will return to my job as CEO, and think carefully about what VisasQ will look like in 3 to 5 years time, working together with the leaders of each location to achieve that vision.
The few months I spent in the U.S. as Head of Americas, discussing many topics with local members, made me even more attached to and passionate about the U.S.
Now that I have a strong successor for Head of Americas, I myself would like to focus on the company’s long-term global growth, and strengthening the organization and its culture, by applying my experience and senses I gained working with the U.S. members to the growth of APAC, EMEA, and of course Japan.