Intelligence and Simple Honesty,
ZYX Wins “Company of the Year”

From May through August UNI-SQUARE introduces the outstanding company and individuals recognized at UNIVA AWARDS 2022. In this, the May issue, our winner is the Company of the Year ZYX Inc.

In the spring of 2020, when, thanks to the Tokyo Olympics, ZYX anticipated the highest profit in the company’s history, spirits were running high. Then, COVID changed everything. ZYX, whose main line of business is sales promotion, lost almost all the work it had expected, losing more than a billion Japanese yen. What followed was a very hard time for ZYX. How was it, then, as is clearly visible in the company’s financial reports for 2022, ZYX was, in only two years, able increase earnings 4.8 times, reaching a staggering total of 2.5 billion yen? These numbers were important, but so were the strong teamwork in the face of adversity and the courage to embrace new challenges, in making ZYX our 2022 Company of the Year. We asked ZYX CEO Fumiaki Nakaya and Chief Producer Koji Karakida to describe the path by which ZYX rose from the depths of COVID to the glory recognized by this award.

“It’s OK! You Won’t Die!” Surviving the COVID Pandemic

Since ZYX’s founding in 1986, its primary business was sales promotion, building on strength in producing events. As we all know, COVID stopped events large and small. Nakaya says that the crisis ZYX faced in April 2020 was the biggest in the company’s history.

“Before COVID we were shaken by the collapse of the economic bubble and the Lehman Shock. Our sales also took a hit from the Great Hanshin Earthquake and the Great Northeast Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. But COVID was an even greater danger. The worst thing about COVID was not knowing when it would end. In the end, it lasted three years” (laughs).

Behind ZYX’s ability to survive this apparently endless suffering was a secret mantra:

“It’s OK! You Won’t Die!”
* For details see the MESSAGE in our May issue.

These words had often comforted Nakaya during the panic attacks from which he sometimes suffered. During the COVID pandemic, they encouraged everyone at ZYX.

Karakida says, “We couldn’t have used these words unless our employees all trusted each other. They are proof of trust and connection. We are proud of our NAKAMA, who have, in fact, repeatedly stood up and charged ahead into the future.”

During the pandemic, sales continued to decline, and no new orders came in; but ZYX sold 15 million masks and also sold antigen kits and thermal facial recognition cameras. 2020 was a year of trying any and every thing to increase sales. Everyone at the company gritted their teeth and refused to give up. Then, as one appointment followed another, they stumbled upon Alt Inc.’s AI GIJIROKU software. AI GIJIROKU automates the conversion of meeting recordings into text. Many of our NAKAMA may already use this program. In May 2021, ZYX formalized an alliance with Alt Inc. and became an AI GIJIROKU sales partner.

“There is no denying that this business was outside our usual domain. It would be lying to say that we weren’t at sea or were never confused; but we had to succeed. we had no other choice.”

Karakida recalls those times. Full use was made of the sales know-how, partner company network, advertising methods and sales power cultivated during ZYX’s 35-year existence. As a result, the ZYX team was by far more successful than other distributors.

I asked about the strategy that produced those amazing numbers.

Was AI GIJIROKU an unexpected windfall?

Nakaya explains,“We used every ZYX asset to the full. While our own sales force drove sales, we partnered with other companies in the sales promotion industry that also became agents. That was also a major contributor to those numbers.”

More than 20 companies became agents! ZYX was thus able to grow sales by working in lockstep with advertising agencies, newspapers, and other companies with strong sales capability. In addition, ZYX set up its own in-house support desk to collect user comments and pass them on to Alt Inc. developers, contributing to major improvements in usability.

Karakida says, “From requests to complaints, we transmitted everything to Alt Inc., quickly and precisely. There are many aspects of the service that still need improvement, but minimizing the number of users who stopped their subscriptions was a major contribution.” Then, however, Nakaya breaks in with an unexpected comment.

“AI GIJIROKU was, indeed, a lucky break. At our moment of greatest danger, we were blessed with unimaginable good fortune. Since, however, even lucky breaks turn sour, we absolutely cannot depend on this one. We have to grow the AI GIJIROKU business while also expanding the scope of our sales promotion business. We have to maximize the use of our existing assets and continue to strive to win new business.”

Demonstrating this commitment, ZYX’s relationship with Alt is not simply that of a sales partner. ZYX constantly collects user opinions with an eye to improving the service, working with the development team to add new features, aiming to take full advantage of ZYX’s own strengths and further expand the scope of its business.

COY2 Manifesto?! The future of ZYX

While gathering material on ZYX, I discovered the strength of this company’s teamwork. The proof was the fact that during the greatest crisis in ZYX history, not a single employee left the company. During the pandemic, when clients kept saying, “Maybe, when COVID subsides,” and the situation seemed to drag on forever, everyone―with no exceptions― was expected to lend a hand in totally unfamiliar types of business, selling masks and thermal cameras. So why had not even one chosen to find work elsewhere. With this question in mind, I opened the ZYX homepage. There I found the following hint:

“Intelligence” and “simple honesty.”

I asked Nakaya if these were the secrets of ZYX’s strength.

“Hmmm, could be” (laughs). “Our business is communication. People’s values and the tools and technologies we use to exchange information change with dizzying speed. Intelligence is necessary to keep up. That is the context in which we have accumulated 35 years of know-how and experience. But when asking for work, we can’t act like we are our clients’ teacher. It is in that sense that ‘simple honesty’ is another policy.”

Whatever the task, it must be taken seriously. Common knowledge is not enough.

That is why, when employees return exhausted from their tasks, the company must be a safe place in which they can relax. Nakaya and Karakida agree on this point.

Starting with advertising and other collateral communication, ZYX has expanded its business beyond sales promotion and its strength in event production. I asked about future goals and aims.

Karakida says, “We need to expand our sales promotion business beyond our current food and beverage and cosmetics clients.”

Nakaya says, “The market is starting to pick up again, so we can no longer use COVID as an excuse (laughs) and get back to our ‘simple honest’ sales. Our sales target for this fiscal year is three billion yen. That’s 120% of last year. If we make it, can we win Company of the Year (COY) again?”
A manifesto declaring determination to win a second COY crown!!! NAKAMA, you mustn’t give up!!

I intended our last question to be how it felt to have ZYX, the company that every year organizes our Group Annual General Meeting, be named Company of the Year. However much we wanted to keep this result a secret from ZYX, but I was told we couldn’t hide it from Karakida, the event’s producer. Had he let the cat out of the bag?

“No, I was fooled by everyone,” said Karakida, laughing.

“I thought there was something strange, something peculiar,” said Nakaya, also laughing.

Then, I asked him again how he felt about the award.

He said, “What I realized by winning the award is that it wasn’t the result of business performance or numbers, though both were important. The real cause for celebration was the way everyone at ZYX stuck together, never wavering during that three-year period. I can’t thank them enough.”