Advanced English proficiency among the employees will be a stepping-stone to the expansion and stabilization of our business in the overseas markets.

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

Since the establishment in 1987, we have been engaged in the manufacture and sales of silicone rubber heaters and other industrial heating equipment. A large portion of sales activities are based on the domestic market, and almost all our clients of a total of about 6,000 are Japanese companies. With a downward trend in the domestic market that began about two years ago, we have formulated a new medium-term business plan to build up a global business structure that is not affected easily by the economic trends in Japan. Since we receive inquiries from overseas customers about our made-in-Japan industrial heaters, the pride of our company, we expect a large demand in the markets abroad. The first step toward expanding into oversea markets would be to maintain the English-oriented environment in order to respond to inquiries and orders from overseas more efficiently. We applied for this intern program to move forward the goal and make it a stepping-stone for our business development in overseas markets.

We aim to build up a support system to handle English speaking customers and move forward with making PR tools and client lists.

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

Since the first priority is to build up the English-oriented environment in the company, we started off our intern program with her by having a morning assembly in English. We did our best in becoming used to the English environment by reporting the daily schedule in English and used Japanese only when it required detailed information sharing over the course of work. We also asked Zere to teach us English on a weekly basis in a class we called “Zere-san’s English class” to improve the overall English skills of the employees. We relied on her translation at first in our morning meeting activities but we got better as we went on-- today, we make speeches ourselves. With a view into the sales expansion in overseas market, we have our product brochures, manuals, and homepage in English today. It was Zere that did all the translation work for us at our request. Then, we had an order from the Philippines. We enclosed the manuals and brochures she translated into English with their ordered item. Also, she supported our global marketing activities by researching the needs and current market trends in areas surrounding her country such as Kazakhstan and Russia. She also made a list of Japanese-affiliated companies and trading companies active in Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia for us.

She contributed largely to; building up the English-oriented environment and foundation for entering into the overseas markets.

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

She contributed largely to building up the English-oriented environment within the company and foundation for entering into the overseas markets. The intern program was an important achievement for us. In particular, it accelerated the English-oriented environment; English has become a mandatory language for internal emails, and we started speaking more English. Furthermore, all our employees took a TOEIC test in January 2020. Going forward, we will continue to make positive efforts to promote the initiative. We have been striving to introduce a new system for handling inquiries and orders from abroad; a large portion of our PR and other materials were translated into English in such a short period of time, and our official English homepage was created. Zere is warm and sincere. She soon started to get along with others in the office and became very popular. This intern experience brought us the desired change and the necessary information. We were also exposed to more English this time than in our previous short-term internship with a partner from abroad. In order to receive orders from abroad, we have started to approaching Japanese-affiliated companies and trading companies based on her research reports. We realized again how great the program is; it invigorated the activated the atmosphere of the company and furthermore, our global business took off successfully.