For the purpose of further expanding sales in overseas markets and developing new sales channels

Q.Why did your company decide to take on interns? What did you aim to achieve?

Our main product is hydrogen water using 100% natural water from Kikuchi City which is rich in nature. As a pioneer manufacturer of hydrogen water, we have been engaged in manufacturing and sales. In Japan there was a boom in hydrogen water with recognition becoming high, however the boom has now faded, and the domestic market is shrinking. Under this backdrop, we looked for overseas sales channels, and commenced exports to Taiwan and Hong Kong from 2015, and to Singapore from 2017. Although we just started exports to Singapore, the local reaction has been good, and we felt potential there. We learned about this program just as we were thinking about making genuine concerted efforts relative to Southeast Asian markets including Singapore. We applied for the purpose of obtaining real local information in order raise sales in overseas markets and develop overseas sales channels. We also wanted to do something about diminishing the sense of apprehension and reluctance among many employees relative to overseas.

Frequent communication with the interns was the key to success

Q.What kind of internship did you run? What difficulties did you face and how did you resolve them?

Before coming to Japan, we provided a full range of information to the interns regarding their mission, workplace environment and living environment. In addition, we invited them to join our existing LINE group, and employees and interns introduced themselves. By having thorough communications before the internships started, things proceeded smoothly when they came to Japan.
After the internships began, we had the interns perform work in line with the mission conveyed in advance. We had the interns do market research on three topics for Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore in order to obtain local information related to overseas development. First we had them research actual conditions of each country in order to identify target customers and set the appropriate price. Next, we had them do market research on beauty jelly and supplements for new product development. Next, we had them do market research on water and soft drinks in order to formulate sales strategy. Based on the results, together we discussed sales strategy and new product development, and received valuable opinions. Also, it is our corporate culture to have frequent discussions rather than formal meetings, and we had many exchanges of opinions with the interns.

The Japanese way is of no use.
Obtained detailed information for sales strategy suitable for the local market.

Q.Comparing before and after the internship, what effects did it have on you, your employees, or your organization?

One of the accomplishments was obtaining information necessary for developing overseas sales channels. Based on the research of the 2 interns, we were able to clarify differences between each country and Japan, and from conditions for each country, we were able to understand preferences, constraints on ingredients, appropriate prices, purchasing routes, delivery methods etc. Clearly recognizing that trying to use Japanese sales methods would not work, it was a major accomplishment that we were able to do product development. A second success was being able to deepen our understanding of Muslim culture through working together with the Muslim interns. This will be quite useful going forward for overseas sales. The third success was diminishing the apprehension and reluctance of employees regarding overseas. There were some barriers initially, as few employees would try to communicate by themselves, however as people became accustomed to working in an environment together with foreigners, gradually they became more proactive in starting up communications. Activities were planned involving all departments, and holding exchange events providing an opportunity to build relationships with employees proved to be a success. The environment became such that if you had one conversation, the distance shrank, and even if they couldn’t speak English, they would still try to communicate.