The reason why I really want to make it a cheerful IT company like Italian

Original Language: Japanese | 日本語はこちら
*This article was originally posted on 2017–06–11

From 2005 to 2007, I worked for ITOCHU Corporation’s Milan branch, where I was engaged in the business of creating new apparel brands that had yet to be established in Japan.

The work was fulfilling, but above all, the relaxed lifestyle of the Latinos was wonderful, and after that, my outlook on life changed a lot.

In a sense, it’s a great way to force all companies to take three weeks off on a summer vacation.

It’s heaven for employees.

This is weird, Japanese

From a Latin American citizen as cheerful as Italy, it seems quite strange that a country like Japan should be super serious and work too hard to take care of itself.

The amount of work done by employees is not necessarily directly proportional to the company’s earnings.

Worst of all, companies where employees are working hard and not making money.

Best of all, I think it’s a very profitable company where employees work fairly well.

I think the difference between the two is the completeness of the company’s systematization.

A well-structured company is making money even if its employees don’t work hard.

In other words, as a company designer and president, it is my responsibility as a company president to ensure that I can achieve a full work-life balance, just like in Italy.

I want to make a company with energetic members

I think what we should learn from Italians is “not build up stress”

In our company, too, if there is a problem with the behavior of a boss, I want to create a culture in which even subordinates can freely express their dissent.

Make your work sharp.

I want to make it an organization where I can take a break and play, work intensively in a short period of time, and produce results.

As you can see from looking at the individual skills of Italian soccer teams, their national character is quite individualistic, and their concentration when they are doing what they are good at is amazing.

There is a part that is completely opposite to the long working hours of Japanese people, and I think we can learn from them to some extent.

The Latin sense of nostalgia is wonderful

I learned a shocking fact when I was learning Italian in Milan.

The word “Nekura (“gloomy” in English)” doesn’t exist in that country.

The reason is that all the people are “Neaka (literally, “bright” in English)”, so there was no need to use it and it disappeared, my teacher said.

It’s a pretty funny fact, but even if you can’t shake it off this much, I think it’s okay for the Japanese to become more cheerful.

Even if we quarrel or have a negative thing, if we have a defiance where we forget quickly and tell jokes or enjoy drinking, I think our country will become more energetic.

Italian people who only think about today and tomorrow may be brain-dead from the viewpoint of serious Japanese people rather than Noh weather.
But I often hear Japanese news and talk seriously about the increasing debt of Japan.

Will it really have a bad effect on my personal life right away?

Italy is financially bankrupt and has a high unemployment rate, but everyone enjoys eating delicious pasta and drinking wine.

I think this kind of optimistic openness should be done to some extent.

We value work-life balance and promote free working styles

Our company wants to go under the slogan of “WORK SMART, NOT HARD”

As I mentioned at the beginning, if the system of the company is excellent and works after repeated improvement, I think the work style without overtime will produce enough results.

In addition to supporting working styles for women with children, I would like to actively introduce remote work, and if I commit myself to the results, I would like to create a workplace where I can work in various ways.

To be a Latin and profitable company

In addition to pasta, fashion, luxury imported cars and soccer, I think there are many things to learn from Italy.

Japanese should be more Latin.

And I am seriously thinking about making our company members who aim to be Latin happy with a relaxed lifestyle just like Italians.