As the saying goes, "A company is made up of its people," human resources are an important aspect of scaling a business. Especially in startups, there are many top managers who are irritated by the gap between the ideal and the reality because the concept and issues of recruitment strategy and organizational design differ depending on the business phase.
JAFCO has continued to provide "HR support" to address such startup issues.
This time, we will talk to Mr. Minoru Doke and Mr. Kazuki Tsuboi of the BD team about JAFCO's efforts to support HR, and talk about the realities of support for investees, such as their functions and approach.
【Profile】
Minoru Doke, Business Development Division, JAFCO Group Co., Ltd.
Joined the company in 1994 and worked in the Investment Division until 2014. As a first-time investor/manager, he brought 14 companies to IPO. Since 2014, he has been in charge of sales support for investees and liquidation through M&A. For three years from 2017, he was in charge of HR at an investee, hiring about 90 personnel, mainly engineers, and building a goal management and evaluation system. Since 2000, he has been in charge of HR support for investees.
Kazuki Tsuboi, Business Development Division, JAFCO Group Co., Ltd. After working at an organizational personnel consulting firm and an IT start-up company, he practiced strategic personnel with a focus on organizational development and human resource development as an HRBP. He supported organization building until the business expanded threefolds from 100 employees and sales of 10 billion yen. After joining DeNA in 2018, he was in charge of HRBP centering on the game business in the entertainment domain, and was also very active making external communication about HRBP. Many lectures, including 2 years in a row at the HR Japan Summit. At JAFCO, he in the HR support team, taking charge of multiple companies as an HRBP that contributes to the business of the investees.
The perspective of both people and organization is important for improving corporate value
─First, please give us an overview of the support provided by the HR support team.
Tsuboi The cotent of support varies depending on the stage of an investee, but HR support provides support for both people and organization. Specifically, there are three stages: "organizational design and recruitment" in the seed and early stages, "organizational development and human resource development" in the middle and later stages, and "executive coaching" that is common to all stages.
Doke The HR Support Team was launched in 2018 and initially started with recruitment support. So far, we have provided recruitment support to more than 50 investee companies, and have a track record of hiring about 230 people. Last year, we focused on recruiting CXOs and executives. CXOs account for 1/3 of our track record and the other mainly consisting of executives who have an impact on improving corporate value, such as Administration Division managers and general managers.
─Please tell us about the background of JAFCO's involvement in HR support and the characteristics of the support.
Doke We originally started offering marketing and sales support. However, even if we provide a lead, it will not lead to formal orders. As I analyzed the causes, I began to pay more attention to the problems of people and organization. Startups tend to be highly dependent on their top managers. I thought that HR support would be effective in creating a system that allows top managers to concentrate on their own work.
Tsuboi I feel that JAFCO's HR support is unique in that we can provide HR support from the standpoint of a VC rather than a consultant or an investee's HR division. Because we invest as a VC, we support the company's medium- to long-term growth and continue to accompany them toward the realization of their vision.
In addition, we are a team of four people, three of whom are originally investment professionals. Because we have faced many startups and entrepreneurs, we aim to be a team that can provide more essential HR support with an eye on the future of the investees we support.
Supporting Entrepreneurs on People- and Organization-related Issues
For the seed and early stages, we provide HR support to "speed up business growth"
─First of all, please tell us about the support you provide during the seed and early stages.
Tsuboi First of all, in the seed and early stages, we provide HR support to increase the speed of business growth under the theme of "organizational design and recruitment." In recruiment, we support "CXO / executive recruitment" and for organizational design we support "organization / personnel planning".
Doke In these phases, there are few employees, and HR is not a full-time position but a concurrent position. Also, since the name recognition is still low at these stages, recruitment of human resources will be an all-out battle including the entrepreneurs themselves and executives. In such a situation, entrepreneurs have a lot to do, so they can't concentrate on their core business, or there are few people who can develop their business together.
For this reason, JAFCO's HR support will conduct recruitment activities with the image of creating a system that allows entrepreneurs and executives to concentrate on their more important and specialty work. In addition, in actual recruitment activities, it is important to have entrepreneurs commit to hiring, but we try to involve top management by having them focus as much as possible on things that only they can do, such as attracting candidates for recruitment.
Tsuboi Before we provide "how-to" support for recruiting activities, we sometimes discuss the image of an organization that the investee company is aiming for. Since the required human resources are different for each business phase, we serve as a soundboard for the management team to bounce their ideas off and discuss about the organizational design according to their business plan.
Specifically, we will reflect on what the organization should be like in two to three years based on the business plan, and get the clearer images of the organizational capabilities and human resources necessary to achieve the business plan. In some cases, we ultimately create a situation in which personnel planning can be monitored according to the conditions of the business and organization, and provide support to the extent that the PDCA cycle can be implemented.
For the middle and later stages, we provide HR support to contribute to the "growth" of organization and people
─Next, please tell us about the content of the support you provide during the middle and later stages.
Tsuboi In the middle and later stages, which are the expansion period of the company, we will support the growth of the organization and people under the theme of "organizational development / human resource development." Specifically, for organization, we mainly support "MVV (Mission, Vision, Values)/ culture cultivation" and "personnel system construction", and for people, we mainly support "systemization to strengthen management."
In these phases, the PMF (product market fit) of the business is demonstrated, the number of employees expands from 50 to 100 or more, and the organizational structure changes significantly. Therefore, it is necessary to address issues, such as "building an organization that can withstand growth" and "developing human resources," that have never existed before.
JAFCO believes that the growth of the company can be leveraged by approaching these issues from the intangible aspect of the corporate culture and the tangible aspect of the personnel system. In order to face challenges different from those in the previous phases and overcome the barrier of 50 or 100 personnel, we will provide support to change the company's strength from the strength of an "individual" to the strength of a "team."
─There are aspects of MVV and corporate culture that are difficult to evaluate quantitatively. Are there any approaches that JAFCO emphasizes in providing HR support?
Tsuboi For example, JAFCO has adopted a "diagnostic organizational development approach." We collect opinions and data from employees using surveys and questionnaires, visualize the current situation and identify issues, and then engage in dialogue with management. As the number of employees increases, so does the number of things that cannot be seen. Prioritizing issues based on an objective, holistic view will also improve the quality of problem solving.
Coaching managers for further growth of the organization and people
─ "Executive coaching" is a form of support common to all stages, but what kind of support is actually provided?
Tsuboi Executive coaching is support for coaching executives, including business owners. In the period of six months to one year, we will set goals that the person wants to achieve, such as clarifying the vision and implementing the strategy. In order to achieve this goal, coaches use their coaching skills in communication in order to create new changes in thinking and behavior.
Doke Having met various top management so far, I feel that one of the most important characteristics of the top manager of a growing company is a "person who can change."
"What must be changed ⇔ What must not be changed" and "Have an ear to listen ⇔ Strong conviction" may seem like conflicting concepts at first glance, but in reality, behind the scenes, top managers put up their anntennas high to collect information, and if they find something better, they will make a change without hesitation, and if they find nothing better, they will continue with the existing practice.
I myself am very much looking forward to seeing what kind of effects Mr. Tsuboi's coaching will produce in terms of further activating this "awareness."
Tsuboi As a coach myself, I feel that the strength of "challenging spirit" and "improvement" of the entrepreneur is proportional to the growth of the company. To me, attractive leaders are those who ask themselves questions, and continue to think, "What kind of vision do we have for the future of this business?" and "What impact is it important to have on the organization and its employees?" etc.
The reason why JAFCO's HR support provides "executive coaching" is because we believe that the growth of the managers themselves is a form of support that provide leverage for both the organization and people.
I would like to support the growth of entrepreneurs through executive coaching as an initiative to support the strong will and attractive challenges of top managers.
What kind of "organization" and "people" will be required in the future?
─ I think that the way people work and the way organizations operate have changed significantly over the past few years. How do you perceive this change from the perspective of your HR support team?
Tsuboi Especially in recent years, I think it has become more difficult for a single charismatic manager to grow a company or business like it used to. The specialization of each occupation is increasing, and the composition of the organization is not limited to full-time employees, but the number of outsourced workers and freelancers is increasing. I believe that what is required is not only strength as an "individual" manager, but also strength as a management "team," for example, whether an organization can work as one to realize its vision.
Doke I've been in the venture capital industry since 1994, and we're seeing an unprecedented amount of money coming in and the mobility of human resources increasing. Kazuo Inamori once said, ``Is my motive virtuous or selfish?" We live in an era when good issues and themes attract talented people and funds. To take advantage of this opportunity, I would like to address the issues of people and organization together with entrepreneurs.
─ Finally, based on the history of HR support, please tell us about the future of HR support.
Doke I think it will be important from now on to utilize human resources from all over the world. For example, there is a shortage of about 300,000 software engineers in Japan, and there is no prospect of filling this gap, including the development of the educational system. On the other hand, looking overseas, countries such as India and Vietnam produce a large number of engineers every year. The method of working with asynchronous communication is also evolving rapidly. In order to be able to work together with talented people from around the world to strengthen the development structure, we would like to take on the challenge together with entrepreneurs, starting with establishment of the development structure.
Tsuboi The HR support team provides support to investees by placing importance on the concepts of "contributing to the improvement of corporate value" and "supporting solving issues of people and organization." While continuing to strengthen support for recruiting human resources that will have an impact on business growth, I would like to work with investee companies on "practice of human capital management" over medium to long term. I believe that the concept of management, which treats "human resources" as capital and maximizes the value of human resources to improve corporate value, is an important concept for startups. Therefore, I would like to see it as my mission to achieve things through people, and contribute to improving the corporate value of investees from an HR perspective.
