This is a feature article that involves PayPay employees giving their honest opinion on why they joined, and the surprises they encountered after joining. This time, we sat down with Naomichi Honda from Team 3, Partner Sales Department, Partner Sales Division.
Naomichi Honda
Partner Sales Department, Partner Sales Division
I take care of several payment gateway companies and am engaged in sales activities to increase the usage scenarios, transaction amount, and usage frequency of PayPay.
PayPay Inside-Out
What are you in charge of?
Naomichi Honda
I’m in charge of sales activities targeting payment gateway companies, and task force operations. Gateway companies aren’t our customers, but they are our partners who share the common challenges and work together with us to find new merchant leads. This way of working is a new experience for me.
In addition to the sales activities to gateway companies, I’m entrusted by the team with two task force operations. One is exploring new leads for the PayPay Points program as it shifts to a platform where various points get consolidated, and the other is the expansion of PayPay Coupons. To realize these, I’m collaborating with internal and external stakeholders to develop strategies, as well as figuring things out through trial and error. We are particularly focusing on converting PayPay Points into a points consolidation platform. The mission is to expand PayPay Points to a new level through point gateway companies. It’s a valuable experience for me to have weekly meetings with marketing, sales, product, and other related departments to collaborate and work toward the expansion of our business.
PayPay Inside-Out
From where & why did you join PayPay?
Naomichi Honda
I’ve been engaged in sales activities at a printing company for eight and a half years. I mainly pitched product packages to beverage and food manufacturers, but our proposals not only included “things” but also “experiences,” namely, SDGs-friendly package recycling as well as DX programs to streamline customers’ factory and headquarter back office processes.
However, my life changed drastically due to COVID-19, which had a major impact on my career shift. While I was looking for a new job, I saw more and more value in cashless payment and e-commerce, which made me want to further explore experience-based businesses. Realizing the great potential of cashless payment, I decided to join PayPay, the leading code payment company in Japan, to take on new challenges.
PayPay Inside-Out
What surprised you after joining PayPay?
Naomichi Honda
The four points below are the positives for me.
- Inclusion of different cultures
We have a steady stream of mid-career hires coming in on the 1st and 16th of each month, and I think it is the company’s great strength to have a bunch of people from various backgrounds. Introduction of new values inspires new ideas, plus study sessions by people from other industries are also very helpful. - Speed
I now understand why PayPay gained 47 million users in only about three and a half years. Our numerical targets are quite high, but I feel that the sheer volume and speed of daily work to achieve them is something you can’t experience very often. - High sensitivity to information
Daily media coverage and industry trends are shared over Slack, and a lot of us think about all this information. The job requires a high level of information sensitivity, so the daily sharing is a very good initiative. I also think it’s great that you can find articles about PayPay in online news almost every day. - Company loyalty
Although work is tough every day, I feel that the company is strong because everyone is working with a fundamental love for PayPay and a desire to make PayPay grow.
There is a downside too, though.
- No self-motivation, no visibility
New people join every month, and you get assigned to a department on day 1 with relatively little support. If you just wait for instructions, before you know it, you will be overtaken by someone who comes in later. I feel that it is a hard place to work if you don’t have the habit of always asking questions, listening to others, and thinking. On the other hand, I think it’s a great place to be for people who are self-motivated and want to keep moving forward.
PayPay Inside-Out
Are you happy having joined PayPay?
Naomichi Honda
Yes! I’ve been with the company for five months now, and it’s been rather stimulating, working and doing things with a completely different set of values from past workplaces. I also like the phrase “Cash is PayPay’s competitor.” I believe that the stage is ready for us to experience not only the growth of merchants, partners, and our own company, but also the sense of enriching the world through cashless transactions via our own business.
We want to work with people who are looking for a challenge and want to employ their past experiences in new businesses!
Job openings
*The recruitment status is current at the time of the interview.
Thanks to：Naomichi Honda / Edited by：keiko （PayPay Inside-Out Editorial Team）Translation: Language Communication Team / Translation Editor: Justin
*Employees’ affiliations are as of the time of the interview.
