This Professionals series showcases talented experts who support PayPay Group’s operations. In this issue, we interview three members of the Corporate Planning Group. We discuss with them about the Group’s mission, and what each one of them values in their work.
Wataru Kagechika
Corporate Officer, CFO / Group Head of the Corporate Planning Group, Division Head of Corporate Planning Division
After graduating from university in 1998, he worked at the Fukuoka Branch and Tokyo Sales Department of the current day Mizuho Bank, before working as an M&A advisor at Mizuho Securities, where he oversaw the telecommunications media industry, amongst others. Following a period studying in the US, he assumed responsibility for capital expansion at a holdings company from 2010 before working in business promotion at Mizhuho Bank’s Americas Business Operations Department in 2016. After returning from a secondment working on an IPO project at SoftBank Corp. in 2018, he joined Mizuho Financial Group’s Financial Planning Department as Deputy General Manager before joining PayPay in January 2022.
Yusuke Uemura
Senior Manager of the Management Planning Department, Corporate Planning Division
He joined SoftBank Mobile (now SoftBank as it’s currently known) after graduating university, where he spent eight years working in management planning. Afterwards, he has been involved in company-wide performance management and strategic planning at startup companies and Yahoo! JAPAN. He finally joined PayPay in August 2022.
Kenji Matsuoka
Senior Manager of the Corporate Planning Department, Corporate Planning Division
After graduating from university, he joined IBM Japan where he worked in FP&A. He later gained experience in business management at DeNA, Amazon Japan, and PwC Consulting before joining PayPay in June 2020.
Everything needed to continue this growth is part of our job
Please tell us about the areas you oversee
Kagechika:
I have been given the title of CFO as the Group Head of the Corporate Planning Group. Instead of your typical Japanese CFO who only concentrates on financial matters, my style is more like an American CFO who looks at both corporate planning and financial matters as part of my role overseeing the Corporate Planning Division and Finance Division.
Matsuoka:
In the Corporate Planning Department, my responsibilities include formulating policies for corporate planning, analyzing, and tracking KPIs and making them visible in addition to promoting the digitization of managerial information, all to facilitate smoother decision-making. I am also in charge of measuring the cost-effectiveness of investments in initiatives carried out by each department.
Uemura:
I belong to the Management Planning Department, which is responsible for managing budgets and business plans. In other words, FP&A. We consolidate business plans that have been created based on our corporate strategy and monitor daily to see whether those actions are being carried out or not. If we find something is not going according to the business plan, our role is to bridge that gap and make improvements. Currently we are putting together the budget for the next fiscal year and even the fiscal year after that.
Tell us about the mission of the Corporate Planning Group
Kagechika:
As our group covers so many business areas it is difficult to explain in just a few words, but essentially, we try to be the eyes, ears, voice, and driving-force of the CEO and senior management. I tell our members that our primary goal is to make the CEO’s job as easy as possible. When you are working closely with the CEO, you get to know what he is thinking and what he wants to do, and so we can proactively get those things done without being told.
It is one thing to convey business, financial data, and any other necessary information so that management can properly understand it, but we also have to formulate hypotheses and create strategies based on that information, and execute those plans, and furthermore, monitor their progress to try and connect it to the next action. It is our job to keep the PDCA cycle running so we do not inhibit growth.
To do this, we must be able to continue the controls we currently have in place, while at the same time sowing the seeds for future growth and identifying and removing any risks. Our mission encompasses all of this.
Are there any initiatives that have been particularly challenging?
Kagechika:
The establishment of an Indian base.
Originally, we were having issues hiring enough engineers, and from this it was suggested that we establish an overseas base. Then we started talking about where to have it, and finally we decided on India.
Except, no one had experience in setting up an overseas office. I asked Matsuoka-san and even other members who had not been at the company so long “Why not give it a try?” but their responses were basically “I have never done something like this before.” But as it turned out, the ones with the most motivation lead the project. Despite only having six months to prepare, they managed to do it.
But along the way some of them thought we were not going to make it and asked for us to push back the opening of the center, to which I replied, “Don’t give up!” and maybe imparted some other stern words, but they did not become disheartened and delivered right until the end.
An environment that allows you to team up with professional peers and inspire each other
Communication is important in this department, so how do you approach that?
Uemura:
We have regular opportunities to get together and communicate internally, and the Corporate Planning Group also recommends that we meet up a couple of days a month so we can talk face-to-face and go out for drinks in the evening. It’s voluntary, but we still see around half our members turn up.
Kagechika-san also sets time aside beforehand for us to discuss topics with him, which makes communication much smoother as he is making time for us.
Matsuoka:
Every three months we hold an All Hands Meeting, an event in which all members of the Corporate Planning Group can participate. To strengthen horizontal cooperation within the Group, we divide people up into teams and hold study sessions and presentations, so we can deepen our understanding about each other’s work.
Kagechika:
About half of the members joined in the past year or so, which is why this horizontal cooperation is very important in our line of work. Without relationships, there can be no collaboration, so we place great importance on building relationships as smoothly as we can.
Who are the people working in the Corporate Planning Group
Kagechika:
In terms of age, many of them are in their 30s to early 40s and are already professionally established. Everyone is extremely talented. It’s an environment that fuels growth through mutual inspiration.
Matsuoka:
PayPay is an app that is used daily and for this reason I think many of our members feel an attachment to PayPay products. When we discuss products at the round table, there are so many ideas flowing that we run out of time!
Seeing that you’re all extremely busy, how do you relax?
Uemura:
Once my kids had grown up, I took up karate again, as I did it in my youth. Now when I have a break, it’s all I do. Karate, karate, karate – some muscle training in there, and then more karate (laughs). I also recently got my first dan black belt during this time.
Matsuoka:
In my case, I refresh myself by exercising at a sports club, by listening to music, or watching movies and dramas. I am particularly interested in background music that is played in movies and dramas and will sometimes pick out what to watch based on whoever the composer was. I also listen to music on the weekdays to help me switch off.
Kagechika:
I have many hobbies, such as learning golf and working out at the gym, so I don’t become too sedentary working from home. And I have dogs. I used to be allergic, but my wife and daughter went ahead and bought a poodle anyway. But after getting the dog, the strange thing is I seem to have overcome my allergy. I like keeping active so in the winter I also like to go skiing. But my daughter doesn’t like going so I don’t get the opportunity to go so much.
The road to becoming a global FinTech company
In a previous interview, you mentioned that “the mountain we are trying to climb is high.” How have you made progress since then?
Kagechika:
Our goal is still far away. However, fixating on distant goals will bring everyone’s motivation down which is why we set short and mid-term goals. When you are working a little bit at a time on something and then stop to look back, sometimes you really feel “Wow, I have come this far already.” In this sense, we just need to keep at it for the time being.
In terms of changes in the last year, we have our talented workforce and when we want to do something, we have the experts here. What I would have considered impossible not so long ago is surprisingly achievable. It’s going to be even more exciting moving forward.
Finally, what are your respective visions for the future?
Uemura:
To continue to be a company that innovates. It is a common pattern for a company to grow rapidly at first and then gradually slow down, but we want to be a company that can sustain this growth. To do this, we will need a management structure that strikes a balance between investment in new business areas and improvements to existing areas. This is what I must make happen.
Matsuoka:
I would like for us to become a company that is recognized overseas as a global tech company from Japan. There are many tech companies in Japan, but it is rare to find one with this much potential. We will not nip this potential in the bud but will nurture it until it grows into a big tree.
Kagechika:
First, we will make PayPay a platform in Japan where all money-related matters can be managed. Ultimately, our goal would be to become a global tech company like one of the GAFAM companies. Every day that comes and goes, I rack my brains trying to figure out how to get there, how to make PayPay an indispensable service in this world.
I am looking for more and more comrades to join me in climbing this big mountain. The most important thing is passion. We are not looking to achieve some half-baked goal attainable without even breaking into a sweat.
Current job openings
*The recruitment status is current at the time of the interview.
Special Thanks: Wataru, Yusuke, Kenji / Editor：Danata (PayPay Inside-Out Editorial Team) / Photographer：Tak
*Employees’ affiliations are as of the time of the interview.
