Aiming for Globalization of the Entire Company and Hoping to Enter Markets in Europe and India

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

We are a trading company that handles a broad range of merchandise , such as raw materials for paints, raw materials for solar power devices, optical lenses, mechanical devices, and automotive parts. We made a first step into the Singaporean market in 1992 exporting raw materials for paint and solar power devices, then entered the market in China and having expanded our market to ASEAN region, but we are aiming for further expansion and go further into the mechanical device field and other materials in Europe and India. For we have been mainly targeting mechanical devices within Japan, so mechanical device product team has no experience or knowledge of overseas sales. Additionally, because the overseas business department in charge of China and the ASEAN region can't afford to handle new products at that time, we felt it was necessary to globalize all the section of our company. Our requirement for the interns was person who have science background or come from the target region. As a result, Interns were from Eastern Europe and India. We have experience in hiring personnel from China and the ASEAN region before, but we expected to have interns from unknown areas with unknown cultures , so as to accelerate in-company globalization and develop our overseas projects.

Lending a Hand in Many Activities for the Building of Overseas Sales; Enhancing Cultural Exchange with Employees

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

The interns firstly posted at our "Overseas Business Strategy Department", where has plenty of achievement in overseas business, and we began by letting them understand the structure of "Shosha" which is unique business form only exists in Japan ,and understand Japanese corporate culture as well. At the beginning of the internship, the interns were involved in marketing research in Europe and India regarding raw materials for solar power generation. Our company has 20 years of sales experience of raw materials for solar power devices and number of goods variation we handle has been increasing year by year.Followed by this, we need to shift to product mix sales in order to go ahead overseas expansion. We asked the interns to create a catalogue that would be effective ahead of distributing globally . We also asked them to make potential customer lists for the target regions and to support in replying to some inquiries from abroad. On the second month, the interns participated in meetings frequently with suppliers and visited factories where they could learn the products features . Then, We requested them to rearrange brochures and flyer customized for overseas sales by utilizing their scientific background. Additionally, we had a inter-cultural goal "Conquering the 6 Cities of Kansai" which we take them to the famous tourist sites in the surrounding area with our employees, aiming to promote an exchange between different cultures.

Completion of Sales Tools Packed with Ideas Unique to Personnel with a Global Science Background

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

The marketing methods carried out by our interns differed from conventional market surveys we had been doing which brought us new perspective on sales outlets. Additionally, they gave us some fresh ideas to change our merchandise catalogues and flyers.We felt that those ideas could only being brought up from foreign personnel with a scientific background, As a result, we were able to create amazing PR material capable of attracting overseas clients. Furthermore, the interns demonstrated their abilities on designing new exhibition layout held in Tokyo. They cooperated together on making overseas promotional videos which encourage us to exploit new countries. The interns joined our in-house meeting where they earnestly gave their thoughts about our company's future overseas expansion. We spent many hours on holiday excursions such as going to Daibutsu in Nara ,temples and shrines in Kyoto, taking photos with Japanese Kimono, experiencing tea ceremony, viewing the autumn leaves, and having barbeques which would be the most memorable event which deepened the cultural exchange with our employees. Some of our staffs, who usually don't have the opportunity to speak English, take away resistance to English through talking with the interns in office ,sometimes at lunch break. We felt that atmosphere of the office became vibrant and more likely to exchange our opinion actively after we accepted interns.