Thank you, HDE GIP. You will be missed.
Effective February 1 st 2019, HDE Global Internship Program (HDE GIP) will now be known as HENNGE Global Internship Program (HENNGE GIP).
HENNGE, pronounced “hen-geh” or 「へんげ」- which stands for “change” — is how we want to be addressed going forward…
The HENNGE Global Internship Program (GIP) allows final-year students, fresh grads, and mid-career talents [from all around the globe] to experience working in Japan’s foremost IT firm [headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan] for 6–8 weeks.
The company covers all cost to successful interns in form of subsidy: Flight tickets, accommodation fees, meals, insurance — as well as provide them with a smartphone and a laptop during their internship. Interns experience practical application development skill using ‘Python’ and ‘Go’; opportunities to develop applications using Amazon Web Services/Google App Engine; plus, a host of other embedded benefits.
What informed the name change from HDE to HENNGE? Or better, how did the whole change story play out?
According to the company’s CEO, Kazuhiro Richie Ogura, “HENNGE means [to change] or [metamorphism] in Japanese. At the end of 2017, our founders agreed on changing our name into HENNGE, a name which inclines a meaning to show our adherence to changing.” This wasn’t love-at-first-sight for CEO Ogura-san. In fact, “It took a long time until I accepted the strange spelling. We liked the letters, and it indeed could be read as “hen-geh” to Japanese people, but when we asked the question “How would you pronounce this word?” to people from various countries, everyone had the same answer, “henj”.
Understandably, Ogura-san was worried people would pronounce the name wrong and miss the whole essence of the name change. But he eventually put on a ‘so-what?’ attitude using the following clever analogy…
“If any of you have never called Adobe as ah-doh-bee, NIKE as naih-
kee, or Karate as kah-rah-tee, then go ahead and throw the first stone at HENNGE”.
So, come February 1st 2019, HDE GIP will now be called HENNGE GIP to bring to mind the main corporate philosophy that has helped weather many storms within a 22-year lifecycle. Even though our name and brand identity would be wearing a new look, our overall vision to be the platform for top talent to unlock their true potentials — remains the same.
This is part of a grand plan to engrave change [which HENNGE stands for] in our corporate culture, ensuring you receive the right tools to Unlock Your Potential and take the world by storm.
Ogura-san says, “To change, we need to fail. To find the solution, let’s fail 100 times.”
Coming from the top executive of a company that has managed to overcome several bankruptcies, beating an enviable path to local market dominance and global relevance — these are wise words indeed.
“For the following decades, whether I’m CEO or not, we won’t stop praising failures, praising changes, praising learnings — because lots of learning from lots of failures isthe only way leading to success. Let’s make this our name. That is HENNGE…
We are HENNGE. We change. We deliver flexibility to your workplace.
We are HENNGE. We aim at the liberation of technology.
We are HENNGE. We are pleased to make your acquaintance.
HENNGE is one of the pioneer IT ventures based in Tokyo, Japan.
Controlling 73% market share in the whole of Japan, HDE is the #1 Cloud-based security provider. The company’s business language was changed to English, and 20% of its workforce are sourced internationally, reflecting a truly global corporate culture and positioning.
Please click here to check our new website. To apply for the Global Internship Program, go here.
