Done! Section 1.1. Opening + Section 1.2. Introduction「経営者たちのストーリー」③ 株式会社資生堂 魚谷雅彦

Done! Section 1.1. Opening + Section 1.2. Introduction「経営者たちのストーリー」③　株式会社資生堂　魚谷雅彦

Start: 15-05-2026

Finish:

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Source: 

https://www.matas.dk/shiseido-advanced-cream-enriched?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23173245316&gbraid=0AAAAADyGi0ctdlF1s_wQFtNTAXFY2j1-p&gclid=CjwKCAjwq6DQBhBVEiwA4ZD5XDToHxhxKdlZhiWjglxtTkW1I7P83EZrq75ob1wOLJip7luKsQUZnhoComUQAvD_BwE

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The conversation from the video, the first 8 mins in the Opening:

It was because that company had an overseas study program.

So, I started my career thinking about that constantly, day and night.

Why did your desire to study abroad come to an end?

This is very interesting, considering your middle school, high school, and university years.

It was because I met influential English teachers.

I wasn't particularly fond of English originally, but I encountered many teachers in various ways—teachers with very unique and effective teaching methods who motivated me.

I wanted to study English more, to be able to use it.

I also wanted to see the world.

I had a strong desire to study in America.

I see, so you decided to study in the MBA program at Columbia University. Was your motivation for studying in America more about the desire to study there than a desire to study business?

Yes, that was the case from the beginning.

It was after I joined Lion Corporation.

I was working in sales, and at the time, Lion was known as a company with excellent marketing and many strong brands in Japan.

After starting work, I became very interested in marketing, not just sales, so I wanted to go to America.

I wanted to see how people lived there and study marketing. By the time I decided to study abroad, that feeling had become quite strong.

This was for two years.

How was it in reality?

In a word, my experience studying in America was enjoyable.

What makes it enjoyable is the connections I made with people.

Since I was in New York, I had very stimulating meetings with people in the business world, received a lot of inspiration, and even went to parks.

At the same time, I can say it was enjoyable, but there were also quite a few challenging situations. There was a lot of homework every night, and at those times, I really had to seclude myself in the library to do it.

They deliberately put me in an extremely difficult situation, both in terms of time and mentally.

I think this was probably intended to simulate the realities of the business world, but it was quite tough.

My sleep time decreased, but I managed to overcome it.

The sense of accomplishment and fulfillment I felt at that time was immense.

I think the word "enjoyable" would be the right word.

I would never have learned this if I hadn't gone there.

I think I gained a lot, things I would never have known, but to conclude, I think there are two main points.

One is that in those classes, you take case studies and lectures under a lot of pressure.

You really have to be the one to communicate.

In Japanese culture, education, and corporate society, there's generally a hierarchy, isn't there?

When you go into that kind of world, as long as you're there, your value lies in expressing your opinion, and having a strong sense of self is the most important thing.

The second most important thing was friends.

Among my classmates, there were people from other regions in America, right?

Around Christmas, Mr. Oda...

They would say, "You're here alone, why don't you come along?" and take me to the countryside, and I became very close to their families.

I still have many friends from that time, don't I?

I think that's something very valuable and hard to come by in life.

After obtaining your MBA, you returned to Japan and became the youngest product manager at LION at the age of 30.

In the end, you worked at LION for 11 years, and then for approximately 19 years at foreign companies, including Coca-Cola Japan.

We'll hear more about your time at Coca-Cola later, and then there's your time at Shiseido.

You were appointed as Marketing Advisor, and that's where you are today, correct?

So, before you became president, you were involved as Marketing Advisor, but I heard that you were once offered the position of president by the previous president, Mr. Maeda, and that you declined. Is that correct?

To be precise, let me think about it for a moment.

I couldn't answer immediately.

As for accepting the offer...

That was something I hadn't expected at all.

The reason I was a Marketing Advisor was that after I finished my term as chairman of Coca-Cola, I was running a marketing consulting company with my colleagues.

In a sense, Shiseido was a client of our company, Brand Vision.

So, I never imagined they would be looking for a successor, especially an outside company like Shiseido.

I never expected to be approached by someone like me from the outside, so I guess it must have been quite an internal matter, since I was involved in various things internally.

I had one thing that I didn't realize was happening.

Secondly, it was about having our own dreams and creating them together with our colleagues.

I was working on a project with various companies, including Shiseido, with business leaders, focusing on how to strengthen the company through marketing.

So, I immediately understood this job because it involved colleagues and employees.

Also, there's the question of what will happen next.

I see, and to add a little more, my wife.

She was the president of Coca-Cola in the past, so she understands how difficult it is. Being the top executive of a global company is demanding, both in terms of time and mentally.

It's very demanding, both in terms of time and mentally, so I hesitated a bit about returning to that kind of environment. I needed to think it over carefully.

That was my first answer at the time.

Mr. Uotani's name often comes up these days in the context of professional managers and executives, but I didn't know this until now.

So, after Coca-Cola, you intended to continue working at your own marketing company?

That's right.

I see.

As I mentioned earlier, the purpose of creating this company was to see Japanese companies become more globally active. Generally speaking, Japanese companies have incredible technology.

They have excellent development capabilities and technological prowess.

However, they seem to lack the marketing skills necessary to build brands overseas. I think this is related to the impact on Japanese culture as well.

In that sense, I learned a lot in my career, especially at a global company like Coca-Cola, and I had a lot of experience with that. So, in that sense,

I wanted to contribute to Japanese companies.

Ultimately, our desire was to contribute to Japan.

And to realize that in that way, well, the most typical example of that is a company that represents Japan.

The question of whether I would fulfill that dream at Shiseido is something we've actually been working on together.

When I discussed it with the employees, they were initially hesitant, but then I said, "Well, Mr. Otani..."

And then they encouraged me to go ahead with it.

That's because, as I mentioned earlier, our fundamental way of thinking is the same, isn't it?

In that sense, I decided to put in the effort to implement a system to achieve that.

Yes, yes.

We've briefly traced Mr. Otani's career so far, but we'll hear more about his time at Coca-Cola later in the turning point segment.

Now, let's move on to the second story.