株式会社パソナ 南部靖之社長インタビュー
Cultivating the sources of wealth
Temp staff mogul bucks set concepts of employment
By KEISUKE OKADA
Staff writer
It was mid-February in 1976, just one month before graduation from a private university in Osaka, when Yasuyuki Nambu founded a new venture called Temporary Center Inc. Nambu was 24 years old.
The company was to "provide opportunities for female university students and housewives wanting to enter or re-enter the workforce and find satisfying and rewarding jobs using proven talents and skills," Nambu, now 54, explains.
|
| Pasona President Yasuyuki Nambu speaks to youths who attend a class at the company-operated Shigoto Daigaku "Jobs University," a vocational training institute designed to help "freeters," or young permanent part-timers, and "NEETs," who are not in employment, education or training, find jobs. |
The venture certainly took off like a dream and has now become Japan's leading temporary staffing agency, Pasona Inc., with 35 subsidiaries, eight affiliates, and consolidated sales of 180 billion yen.
"When I launched this business, I didn't foresee such a huge leap in this new market. Today in Japan, there are some 7,000 companies in the human resources-related business with the scale of the market reaching 2.8 trillion yen," Nambu says. Indirectly, he jests, "I helped create 7,000 CEOs or company presidents."
What Pasona has most assuredly created are businesses serving clients with special human resources and outsourcing needs in almost every sector of the economy. For 30 years, the company has continued to buck stereotypes and established concepts of employment.
"For more than a century, Japan has pursued the modernization of its economy and industry, or national growth rather successfully on the strength of its manufacturing prowess," Nambu says.
The dominant source of national wealth was at first manufactured goods, then financial ventures, then information. Human resources, Nambu stresses, are Japan's next treasure chest.
Employment patterns, the relationships of employees with their employers, have changed. This is clearly seen by the de facto collapse of the life-long employment system. Employment forms are now diverse, ranging from full-time workers and contract-based ones to part-timers and temporary staff.
There is a problem, however, when the needs of employers and individuals are "mismatched," when parties are at odds and remain deadlocked, Nambu warns.
For instance, there is a growing and prominent number of "freeters," young people who drift from one part-time job to another, and "NEETs," short for "not in education, employment or training."
According to government statistics, the number of freeters exceeds 4 million, while that of NEETs amounts to 640,000.
These young people are seen to constitute a serious social problem and are worrying politicians, policy makers and business leaders.
Nambu, however, does not see them as a problem, but rather as a good sign, and even as a solution. "Remember who put an end to the isolationist Edo Period and put (Japan) on a path of modernization through the Meiji Restoration. It was the outsiders and social rebels," Nambu points out.
"We should regard today's freeters and neets as today's reformers and revolutionaries. Out of them will appear national heroes and next-generation leaders."
Such talk is likely to be scoffed at by today's political and business leaders. But Nambu is serious.
He foresees the arrival of the day, maybe in 15 to 20 years, when "kaisha" (company) and "koyo" (employment) will be defined quite differently. "Everyone will be independent, everyone an entrepreneur. People will get together to work on a particular project. When the job is done, the team will disband and everyone will seek a new project. People can work anywhere and anytime they please. Internet technology and its network will make it possible."
Nambu looks at today's social problems and, instead of placing the blame on freeters and neets, places it on politicians, career bureaucrats, business executives and other "elitists" who see a diploma from a prestigious university and entry into a blue-chip company or bureaucracy as one's best career move.
Nambu referred to the evolving corporate scandal involving Livedoor Co. and its founder Takafumi Horie, 33, who now faces a slew of charges, including covering up losses, giving out false information about subsidiaries, and manipulating stock trades.
Nambu admits he praises Horie for his reformist ambitions and desire to go against the status quo. "But something was amiss. Horie boasted that money was everything, that it could buy anything. It's true that money can bring a decent social standing, but it can't bring happiness," Nambu says. "In many cases, money drives people to distraction."
What he finds more alarming is that Horie's message has won the support of not only youth, but also of Japanese in their 30s and 40s, especially those in middle-management positions.
"This may be because (Horie) mirrored the deep-rooted frustration and discontent of these people. They may have seen his words and deeds as signs of an emerging new Japan, one that would allow people to pursue their dreams more readily. In my view, it's not about dreams, but merely material wants," Nambu says.
"I may sound anachronistic. But I stick to the old workhorse ethic. If we don't, Japanese society will degenerate into a savage society," the temp agency mogul warns, a society characterized by social injustices and crime, corporate and otherwise.
Nambu says he has firmly held the view from his company's founding that, since all individuals are social animals, any business establishment is an assembly of social animals.
"A business firm exists for the sake of everyone -- stockholders, employees and society at large, and not just for its shareholders."
Nambu says he plans to, in marking Pasona's 30th anniversary, "return to basics," get "back to the original reason for founding his company, and stick to the corporate philosophy" -- providing solutions to society's problems by establishing and developing an employment infrastructure that caters to all job seekers.
"We may be just a temporary staff agency but I want to remain true to my vision of being a groundbreaker and a creator of dreams."
