Welcoming a new decade

＊This article was originally written in Japanese by our CEO, Yoshihide Arai.

On the first business day in 2020, I mentioned the projection on the business environment of this year to all Atrae members

2019 was a great year for us.
Our existing business grew steadily, and new businesses grew rapidly. Besides, we got high evaluations from the capital market not only in Japan but abroad.

Yet at the same time, I’ve been quite aware that not all the successes we had in 2019 were the things we made. Of course, it was a lot thanks to our business model that fits well today’s Japanese market, and we’ve made countless trial and errors for improving the user experience of our business, and thankfully many of them led to good results.
But it was also true that there was a great economic situation and we could sail with the wind.

However, although it is just my intuition at this point, I think there will be many structural changes that we’ve got to adapt to in 2020. I believe now is the time that we make a resolution to face up to them and take necessary actions.

It is quite important to recognize downside risks especially when the situation seems good.
In that sense, today’s capital market seems buoyant, but it’s never been more important to consider business risks that could happen in the future and I think we have to be prepared for it.

That said, we don’t have to be so pessimistic about it. Rather it can be a great opportunity for Atrae members to have valuable business experiences. I believe it is the best timing for them to play a big role and make a difference and to have a strong feeling of ownership of this company.

I am so looking forward to the future in which all the members say “that was the moment our company got much better“.

Recently I’ve been thinking that we are facing the time to rethink about how a business should be like. In the past efficiency and scale of business means a lot.
However nowadays, although sales and profits are still quite important, what companies do as a business and why they do it is getting much more attention than before.
As I said in previous posts, I believe a company is just a social system to make all the involved people happy. Atrae will always be a company that all the stakeholders can feel happy by what we Atrae do and recommend to their friends, family, and their children.

2020 will be a big cornerstone for us to make bigger challenges in the future.
There are two main challenges this year. One of them is globalization. We will expand our business internationally and this year is going to be a big moment for us as a first step. The other is multilateral business management. We’ve been depending on one business as a source of sales and profits, but we will change the situation this year.
Our business investment will not be limited to the HR industry. If necessary we even will revamp the organizational structure for it.

We are so excited about the upcoming challenges.