Successful post-M&A integration (PMI) and the best graduation after 10 years in business. What I want to accomplish in the next 10 years with my will.
Successful post-M&A PMI (integration) and business re-growth
Yebisu Garden Place, the headline image of this article was taken today, September 30, 2022, the morning of my last day at work.
It was a very nice morning, blessed with good weather and pleasant sunshine when I walked to the office.
Let me turn the clock back one year.
Last year, on October 1, 2021, we executed an M&A and started the post-M&A integration (PMI).
At that time, if I were to compare the situation to the weather, it was not a very sunny day, and we started with massive rain clouds.
However, I received many warm comments and messages, which helped me to move forward as well. Thank you so much!
And then we will plunge into post-M&A integration (PMI).
This is our second founding period! With this in mind, we worked together as one team. To be honest, in the beginning, we didn't have a plan that would work, so we had to plan as we went along, weaving in the cultural differences between the two organizations and trying to integrate them.
And now...September 2022, 10 years after Codeal's founding and a successful PMI. As highlighted in our urgent investor relations materials, over the past year we have achieved 200% annual sales growth on a factual basis, as a team, while maintaining a post-acquisition EBITDA surplus 🙌.
Specifically,
(1) Business plan promotion (2) Product strategy (3) Finance
It's not usual that you get a chance to train your business muscles in the three points of (1) business planning, (2) product strategy, and (3) finance, is it?
It was enjoyable for me, and I hope to make the most of this opportunity to train my business muscles in the future.
■Job Description
In collaboration with the M&A team, you will be responsible for
1. target selection and sourcing of acquisition companies
2. formulate pre-acquisition PMI plan and business plan, and conduct business DD (due diligence)
3. agree on business plan (PMI plan) with management
4. building relationships with the target company
5. participation in management and business promotion of the acquired company
■CrowdWorks' Past PMI Achievements
1. man-hour management SaaS "Cloudlog
Achieved 200% annual growth and ARR of 300 million for 2 consecutive years after acquisition
2. IT human resources direct matching "Codeal
Achieved 200% annual growth while maintaining EBITDA surplus after acquisition
■Unique M&A framework
We have accumulated a framework for speedy and reliable PMI from our past management experience.
Productivity policy (including the concept of return on investment of expenses)
Sales Management Policy (KPI management method)
Product development policy (balance between short-term and medium- to long-term initiatives, etc.)
etc.
■Required Skills
Experience in launching and managing a business at an operating company
Experience in developing product strategies and business plans
Strong will for business growth
Those who share CrowdWorks' goal of becoming "Japan's largest employment infrastructure.
■Welcomed skills
Knowledge of finance
The kind of person we are looking for
Stress tolerance (tenacity, sense of responsibility)
Good communication skills and cheerful attitude
Able to communicate well and respond in a cheerful manner.
If anyone is interested, I can introduce you directly to them individually, so please DM me on Twitter!
I would also be happy to discuss the specifics of this area in the book I am writing, "Textbook of M&A for the U40 (Under 40)". If you're interested, I'll try to write about it on my blog, but please buy the book too! As for pre-purchase reservations for the book, please use the form at the end of this blog to sign up.
What is the best environment for me to burn?
With such a great milestone, I am no exception, and people become very comfortable. At those times, I always tend to lose my burn. I burn the most when everyone is spoon-feeding me that this might not work out.
I really enjoy the experience of working as a team to improve in such a situation. Perhaps the current economic and national situation in Japan is unintentionally approaching a state that, in my opinion, is the most exciting.
CrowdWorks is a great company (honestly, I enjoyed it more than when I was running my own business and I have learned a lot in the past year. I learned a lot in one year. Even after graduation, I want to challenge myself so that I can continue to be active on all fronts, unashamed of the fact that I was a CrowdWorks graduate), and I myself wanted to stay here even longer, but I decided to graduate with my hair on the back burner.
As for the future, many people around me have been very grateful and interested, and I have been asked at least a hundred times, "What are you going to do next, Atago-san?". That is one of the reasons I decided to write this blog. Just the fact that people are interested in what we are going to do next is very gratifying.
Although the situation is completely different, in fact, Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, also founded Apple in 1976, and then graduated from Apple Inc. He then launched Next Inc. in 1985. For entrepreneurs, a time frame of about 10 years may easily be a break.
I think there is a factor that it is not by chance, but it is a time frame in which a major next period of change is coming, and it also coincides with the amortization period of venture capital funds.
You are an entrepreneur who is thinking about the next decade. If there is anything I can do for you, I would be very happy to help. Please DM me on Twitter, too!
Crowdworks' Growth Targets and Insanely Great Targets in my life.
The company CrowdWorks has a very nice value called "Growth Target". For me, it was something I could relate to very well. I am inspired by this value, and I want to further pursue "Insanely Great Targets" not alone, but with a team.
How do you set an "Insanely Great Target" in your life, how do you put it into something measurable in terms of facts and figures, and how do you make it happen through the following concrete actions?
I also realized once again that I love that process of improving with everyone and making it happen. This is one of the important things I was able to remember through working with the wonderful members of CrowdWorks.
Insanely Great Targets" that I want to work towards with intention in the next 10 years.
As the title suggests, the following is a summary of what I sincerely intend to work on in the next 10 years (I'm still working on a low resolution, so what do I consider an accomplishment? In what order will we do it? In what form will we do it, and how will we raise the capital to do it? ) I will continue to improve the accuracy of the plan as I work with being agile.
I can't do it alone.I believe that this is a path that can be somehow reached with one team. Let's start with the conclusion.
Insanely Great Target to target in 10 years
Using financial resources as well, we will first create a fund (endowment) that will allow 20 students to study abroad (at Stanford University, Harvard University, etc.) free of charge. We will make the assumption that this can be achieved if the cumulative market capitalization of the unlisted companies in which we invest and support exceeds 100 billion yen.
Three specific things we will work on in the next decade to realize our goals
I will commit to the following three actions.
(1) Commit to English. Don't confine myself within Japan, myself, to overseas MBA.
(2) Invest in startups; work for a VC fund, form a fund and give it a try.
(3) Create M&A and PMI opportunities. As a means, M&A and PMI support.
We will touch on each of these in more detail.
"I want to know more details!"
"I'd love to work with me!"
"What do you have in mind in more detail? I'd like to hear more about what you have in mind in more detail, and I'd like to hear more specific planning directly from you."
Please DM me via my Twitter account! Let's talk. I will introduce them one by one.
(1) Commit to English. Don't confine myself within Japan, myself, to an overseas MBA.
First of all, I will not confine my activities to the domestic market. In parallel with PMI, I committed myself to a TOEFL score target of 100.
To be honest, when I play Youtube videos in my native language Japanese, I basically feel slow even at 2x speed, but when I play Youtube videos in English, I am at such a disadvantage that even 0.75x speed feels a bit fast.
That is why I am excited. I think there is great potential for improvement. There is the possibility of being able to do something that you cannot do now, and the process of actually being able to do it is very enjoyable.
Looking at the facts, as of January 2021, my TOEFL practice test score was 61.
It had been 13 years since I took the English exam at Tokyo University, and this was the first time I had taken an exam that wasn't a serious overnight cramming session. Of course, I am a purely domestic person. I have no experience of studying abroad, nor do I have parents who have been transferred overseas.
When I set my own goals for learning English, and choose the means to achieve them, I also make assumptions that are close to these attributes (which is not easy to find, so I had a very hard time...). I have been using the methods of those who seem to be helpful to me as a reference.
When I honestly disclosed this information, I received a lot of advice from people who have cleared TOEFL 100.
It is very grateful for me as well. The fact that someone actually did it, and how they did it, is a great learning experience, and very valuable in deciding what to do. This fact is very valuable when deciding what to do.
I believe that learning from the people around you and putting it into concrete actions that you take every day is the key to success.
(2) Invest in startups; work for a VC fund, form a fund and do it.
My decision to do this was strongly influenced by my background.
First of all, as a basic premise, I respect and appreciate my father, who graduated from junior high school, but my own family was not very wealthy, and I remember the prefectural housing apartment in Nagasaki where I used to live when I was a newborn. It was the kind of place where you left your bicycle and it was often gone just as you left it.
My father worked at his local Nagasaki office for almost 30 years as a driver of a medical checkup truck and allowed us two brothers to go on to higher education. For that alone, I can only express my gratitude.
However, without the support of the people around me, specifically, a free cram school tuition, a scholarship from Seiun High School, a full tuition waiver from Kawaijuku prep school, and a university scholarship, I would not have been able to go on to higher education after high school, given my family budget at the time.
Furthermore, when I was a high school student in Nagasaki, I was completely unaware that the tuition at Todai is incomparably lower than that at Stanford, Harvard, etc. (about 50 times the difference in tuition. (The difference in tuition is about 50 times greater than that of Stanford, Harvard, etc.).
In the end, it is a game of money that can be spent on cram school, and it may be true, in terms of probability, that those with wealthier parents have an advantage in the entrance examinations. However, I think it is actually a dream come true that anyone can have the possibility to go on to higher education by increasing the deviation value of the tuition. (Although there is another argument that axes other than deviation score are important in education.)
I talk about this when I talk with my good classmates who came from a single-parent family and entered the University of Tokyo.
So I am thankful anyway, not only to my father exactly, but also to the school and to the society. I am able to keep challenging myself because I have always had the support of those around me, and I truly believe that it is not because I am amazing or capable. It is because of my predecessors and the people around me who have been able to provide that kind of support and have created a system to support me.
This was the impetus, and out of curiosity, what kind of people were the people who first created the scholarship system? In the process of researching, I realized that the people who created it were entrepreneurs and business owners.
With this interest at the root, alumni donate to their alma mater. This will be managed as a fund and lead to a movement that can invest in startups of college graduates as well. This is an image like the funds (endowments) at Yale, Stanford, and Harvard University. This system structurally supports the abundant investment in startups and in basic research in the academic field in the United States.
In my personal opinion, it is not enough to simply boost startups in Japan, but it is necessary to have a cyclical structure in which education, economy, and politics develop structurally, and I would like to contribute to that, even if only a little.
As part of activities connected to this, I started an organization called "Todai Dream Net". (now I understand the significance of this organization, but at that time, what was the actual meaning of it? I don't really know.)
From there, the experience of being directly involved in the activities of donating and supporting juniors has been an invaluable asset.
Because of such original experience, I have a strong will to "invest in startups; work in a VC fund, form a fund and give it a try.
(3) M&A and PMI opportunity creation. Means: M&A and PMI support
What exactly do you do as an action? I believe that the key to enjoying and living life is to choose what you like, what you are good at, and what is required of you. As I mentioned earlier about the roles I have played, M&A and PMI are things that I have done because I was asked to do them by the people around me, and I am able to do them.
In fact, I have been consulted by hundreds of business owners around me, so I have a strong will to do this. In the course of consulting directly with so many business owners, I realized that I had already told the same story so many times, so I'm writing a book. I would like to introduce it.
Talks about publishing a book titled "Textbook of M&A for the U40 (Under 40)."
I am currently writing a book titled "The U40 (Under 40) M&A Textbook" ( temporary title), as I was able to gain hands-on experience in M&A and company integration (PMI) over the past year.
I have a strong desire to summarize and share the process that can deliver results as a repeatable process.
サポート頂いたお金は、Youtube/記事の発信など、日米を横断した情報発信のために使わせていただきます。