Q. Please tell us about your background.
After seven years of experience in planning and sales at a toy manufacturer, I joined Izawa Towel in 2011. Since then, I have been in planning and sales positions.
Q. Why did you choose Izawa Towels?
I wanted to work for a manufacturer of daily necessities with stable demand, and I chose Izawa Towel because I was attracted to their style of doing business by developing original products that meet customer needs, rather than just selling towels that they developed in-house to retailers.
Q. Please tell us about your job duties and challenges.
My job is to provide "sellable products" to our retail clients. To do this, I work backwards from my planned schedule, gathering information, researching trends, and coming up with new plans, all while using my head and my feet to keep moving. Although our clients are retailers, I always keep the end consumer in mind when planning products. We also have members in the technology development and design departments, and we are a company with great planning and product capabilities, so my challenge is to further improve my own proposal skills so that our customers can fully understand this.
Q. Please tell us what kind of team you work in.
The Planning Sales Group consists of field salespeople and in-house salespeople. Field salespeople mainly negotiate with customers, while in-house salespeople do other things, but both are salespeople who work to achieve sales. They share information quickly and work together to fill in each other's gaps. In-house salespeople are also proactive in negotiating business negotiations and developing new business partners.
Q. What is the best part and rewarding part of your job?
I feel the most rewarded when the towels I proposed and planned are lined up in the store shelves and I can see the results in numbers. Depending on the product, planning begins more than a year before the release date, so results aren't immediate, but sometimes I go out and see the products I planned for sale, which makes me happy, and I also check out the customers' reactions in the stores.
Q. Please tell us about any new skills or experiences you have gained at Izawa Towel.
In addition to the manufacturing knowledge I gained in my previous job, I have acquired strong negotiation skills. I am sincerely working on my job with a strong determination to create better products.
Q. Please tell us what kind of growth environment is available.
If you raise your hand and say you don't understand something, the senior employees will hold a study session for you. They helped me a lot when I first joined the company, so I try to teach my juniors carefully. I have regular interviews with my boss and senior employees, and we think about future goals together, such as one year from now, three years from now, and five years from now. In addition, even if you don't have knowledge about towels when you join the company, you can learn more if you are interested in the factory tours and the testing institutes.
Q. Please tell us about your ambitions for the future.
I want to create a hit product that is unprecedented in the towel industry and that everyone will know about, like a global standard for towels. Since I joined the company, we have more employees and our company name and products have become more well-known. I also want to evolve flexibly.