With the evolution of technology, there are more and more businesses that can be established without the need for a large amount of capital such as D2C brands. Shopify, our platform for e-commerce sites specializing in consulting and development support, is truly a technology that makes it possible to create various business forms.

As we enter this era, what is the most important element in our business—we think it’s “personality” and “creativity.

Among our customers, there are a number of companies that have been successful for the first time since they established their identities with an eye to the fundamentals of who we are. They are just a few members and make hundreds of millions of yen in sales. It has become uncommon for such companies to exist.

What we have in common with these businesses is that, rather than carefully analyzing external factors such as market needs and creating a business accordingly, we will only value our own will, meet by chance and “spin” the business.

So this time, we welcomed Kenichi Sugawara (commonly known as "Sugaken-san") to our guest and asked him about the theme of "boosting business from his own personality".

What hampers business growth? Revisiting the way we do business

Sato: and recently, for example, Shopify Appify There are a number of businesses out there that couldn’t be done without services like Shopify (a platform for making mobile apps), and it is very easy to use systems that were previously only available in large companies.

Sugawara: That's right. In the past, it was obvious that it would cost tens of millions of yen to get all the e-commerce systems up and running.

However, now we have access to small and unique shops in rural areas via the Internet, so that we can buy products wherever we are, and I think it has become an age where you can live your own way.

Sato: Today, I really wanted to do something about it. When asked by a manager "How can you grow 10 times?" Sugaken said before, “There is already a potential for every company to grow 10 times, and there are only factors that interfere with this,” which left me very impressed.

Sugawara: I think companies are basically the same as humans, and while they’re basically shrug-fed even if you don’t have to grow up, growing adults — i. e. when a market is saturated or sickness occurs on your own -- can stop growth.

But if it’s not a multi-billion-dollar business, then the real market isn’t going to be saturated, so in most cases there should be factors that can hinder growth inside your company.

Sato: The first step is to find the inhibitor and get rid of it.

Sugawara: Besides finding problems, it’s also good to focus on and specialise in the best parts of our company; if you get out of your hands with anything to be accepted into the market, there will never be a “likeness”.

There are a lot of companies working on e-commerce, but if you try to get into the keywords that will be widely searched, you can increase your product type. But when you do so, your personality will gradually become irrelevant. Instead, it is easier to focus on some products and refine them more and more.

Sato: Harley Finkelstein, Shopify’s COO, said the same thing:We now hear that many of the brands that make a lot of money at Shopify are selling more than 75 percent on products below five points.

Sugawara: There are many cases where lowering prices or increasing other products can impede growth. Instead, we compete in terms of how much better our products can be; the effort to add value and raise price; or the effort to make them a good product that is worth the price; I think both are important.

Redefining how products are sold, not bend their individuality

Sato: I feel that “personality” and “creativity” are becoming more important than ever in spinning business.

We work with a variety of clients, but lately we feel that the answer we want is not necessarily on the market side; rather, I think that many clients have "goodness" originally.

How can you draw that out and develop your business?Please tell us more specifically about how Mr. Sugaken is practicing it.

Sugawara: There is a brand called “Laluce” that manufactures and sells leather products in Fukuoka. A man in his early 20's said, "Because the leather changes over time so he will love you," but when I first heard about it, I was impressed by what he wanted to make and who bought it from.

But the bag he made as a classic product was very unique and iconic, and in addition to that young people now have the value of valuing what they bought once instead of mass production or mass consumption.

So I advised them to look at the market a bit more broadly rather than changing products, and switch to a way for women to get their hands on it; as a result they have grown steadily year by year and are still working hard.

Sato: I see. Instead of changing the original product, you have redefined what it is like to be a product; after looking at things that are already expressing your identity and the individuality, who would buy them?

Sugawara: There was something I wanted to make, and it actually made a unique product, but I didn't know just how to sell it. Or I couldn't find someone to buy one for me. I helped him with only a little bit of that, so perhaps he could get closer to his most desirable condition.

When we reconsider the environment surrounding products, new possibilities come to be seen.

Sato: At Nonsta, we recently said to design growth that takes advantage of the “goodness” that our clients have. Effectiveness (*) We are trying to incorporate the concept of “smart” into our consulting.

There are several principles in effection, one of which is “Bird in Hand,” and we see it as the idea to spin up a business by combining their identity, surrounding environment, and existing internal resources rather than doing things backwards from external factors.

* “Effection”: A theory proposed by Saras D. Sarasvathy, an Indian business scientist, which is built from a common term extracted from the thought process of a good entrepreneur.

Sugawara: I see. That's a very similar idea to the leather brand I talked about earlier, and many people tend to think of markets that sell their products in a limited way when they run business.

For example, if the product you want to sell is a rose flower, we will try to gain market share in "the rose market" or "the flower market", but markets are not categorized by things such as roses and flowers.

For example, there are many parts of people’s emotions such as “the gift market to give to a loved one” and “the market for enriching their lives,” so we can broaden our potential to grow by honing our originality extremely well and looking back at what kind of emotional person it should be.

the most important thing is, what do we really want to build?

Sato: Will Sugaken continue his activities to support the challengers in the future?

Sugawara: Yes, I would like to continue to support the people who do manufacturing through “Appify” etc.

I think that business is not really so difficult if you keep the basics firmly, and if you start by sharpening your product carefully and getting impressed with one customer at first, it will spread gradually to the surrounding area.

It's very basic, but it is the most important thing.

However, even though we have launched a D2C brand that takes advantage of its uniqueness, we often hear cases where advertising expenses become more expensive when we try to sell more, and the money is lost in the end ... Just because it’s easy, you can be misled by small-handed measures such as online advertising and social media marketing.

I would like you all to continue to ask yourself, “What do we really want to make?” and think about how it can be delivered to the right people.

video of an event

"nonsta folks" means

In Denmark, there’s a lifelong learning facility called “Forke Heiskole” where anyone who is 18 years old or older can attend and gather with people from diverse backgrounds such as age and gender to talk together in small groups, sometimes sitting around the table together and learning what they want to learn freely.

and we were so excited about this forkheiskole nonsta (not comparable) We have regularly held a study session called “Study Group” which was temporarily suspended after the coronavirus outbreak, but as our first attempt this time we delivered online from the gallery room operated by our company.