Lin
Graduate of Business
Joined in 2017
Sales
Sales Planning Group
Rakuten Mobile Business Shop Development Section
What are your current responsibilities?
My daily job is to help as many people as possible choose our service at Rakuten Mobile shops. More concretely, I mainly handle two tasks: expanding new Rakuten Mobile shops and managing the performance and sales promotion of existing shops. When opening a new shop, I work together with agents and electronics retailers to select an area where we can anticipate new contract subscriptions, and discuss the shop layout and sales floor setup, which eventually results in the opening of a new shop. Existing shop management and sales promotion activities involve liaising with sales staff across the country to identify issues in the shops and work on improvements, as well as organizing events to promote Rakuten Mobile sales.
Why did you join Rakuten?
Because I see myself growing in the context of a business division that itself is constantly growing. Rakuten Mobile’s business is actively engaged in a variety of initiatives to evolve from a conventional mobile virtual network operator (low-cost smartphone) business into the “the fourth telecommunications carrier in Japan.” I am very happy to be able to improve my skills in a business division that is stimulating both the mobile communications industry and society as a whole. Rakuten provides a variety of services online, but my department has a unique style that allows us to interact directly with customers in the offline environment of a shop. I would like to make the most of this environment and increase the number of customers interested in Rakuten through mobile phones. I think this is exactly the kind of work that is in line with Rakuten’s philosophy of “empowering people and society through innovation.”
What do you keep in mind in terms of your attitude toward daily work?
I highly value two of the components described in Rakuten’s principle for success: “Hypothesize → Practice → Validate → Shikumika” and “Speed!! Speed!! Speed!!” Specifically, in order to achieve the division’s goals, I formulate hypotheses based on numbers to solve problems in each of the shops our members are in charge of, practice and validate the hypotheses and provide numbers-based feedback to achieve results. In terms of speed, meetings that would usually be held once a month in other companies are held as often as once a week in the Mobile Business Department at Rakuten. This sense of speed is the key to our growth. This dynamic flow of the business division can also be incorporated into my personal behavior at work as well.
What does your typical workday look like?
In a single day, I am required to collect and analyze a large amount of information of various types. While collecting and organizing information on the sales performance, sales promotion, and sales status of the markets and shops I am in charge of, I also analyze information for opening new shops. I think the ability to discern and analyze is essential for the smooth success of this sort of work. Since I need to cooperate with many people, including distributors and mass merchandisers, I often need to shift my attention from one place to another in quick succession, but this swift pace also makes my job feel worthwhile.
SCHEDULE
- 08:30
- After arriving at the office, I check I arrive at the office. Then I check my email and organize the day’s tasks.
- 10:00
- I check the progress of the markets I am in charge of, as well as the status of each shop with their representatives.
- 12:00
- Time for me to have a delicious lunch at the company cafeteria.
- 14:00
- Sales meeting. I organize the overall status of the shops and decide on the sales promotion activities for the week.
- 16:00
- Shop meeting. I share the progress of various projects and exchange information with the operations team and others.
- 17:00
- Meeting with the agencies I represent. I propose specific solutions to solve shop issues.
- 19:00
- I leave the office after completing administrative work, such as invoicing and the next day’s business meeting materials. I also have dinner at the company cafeteria before heading home.
*This article is based on information provided at the time of the interview.
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- Technology Management
- Product Management
- Development Support（Q&A, etc.)