Effectry Inc. was founded in May 2023 as a consulting company specializing in the HR domain. Representative Director Mizuki Yomoya leverages knowledge of strategy, operations, and systems cultivated through a consistent career in the HR domain, and consulting experience at system vendors and consulting firms, to develop HR DX consulting, advisory, and business coaching businesses.
What President Yomoya values is the desire to “run alongside clients and aim for achievement together.” The company name embodies the determination to “commit to client goal achievement and strategy realization as a consulting company” and “challenge new things and matters still invisible.” This time we asked President Yomoya about his career leading to entrepreneurship, his thoughts on deciding to start a business, and the company’s business.
Mizuki Yomoya
After graduating from Ritsumeikan University’s College of International Relations, after a personnel-related venture, joined Works Applications Inc. (HR-related business succeeded by current Works Human Intelligence Inc.). As an HR system implementation consultant, supported clients’ system implementations. In 2014, with the company’s overseas expansion, was assigned to Singapore and led the launch of the Global Consulting Division. He then joined Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting LLC, leading numerous projects as PM on themes such as HR strategy formulation, business design/organization, HR system selection, and system implementation/maintenance as an HR consultant. He also engaged in service development and organizational operation as an executive officer assistant in the company’s SAP SuccessFactors business. He founded Effectry Inc. in May 2023 and became Representative Director. He has handled many projects centered on the HR DX area and achieved profitability in the first year.
Aspiring to work running alongside clients to achieve goals together, he accumulated experience at system vendors and consulting firms
——President Yomoya, were you originally thinking about starting a business?
Yes, I was thinking about it from my university days. At that time, companies like Drecom and CyberAgent were gaining fame, and with vague desires to have impact on society, I was helping entrepreneurs. However, through trial and error then, I felt I needed to first join a company and gain experience and abilities to win trust from clients and business partners. So I honed business fundamental skills as a salesperson and consultant, gained client trust, and pursued a career supporting clients’ goal achievement.
——During your time at Works Applications, you were assigned to Singapore for about 3 years and took on launching the local consulting business.
Actually, I had a strong aversion to English at first and couldn’t speak it. However, in a project I was managing for a certain foreign brand company, when we had meetings with the overseas client headquarters, I couldn’t be useful in the meetings at all because I couldn’t speak English. I keenly realized that “not being able to speak English narrows my work scope.”
Just then, the policy to launch a global consulting business in Singapore was announced, and to gain business experience in an English-speaking environment, I volunteered. After my assignment, building a business from scratch with no manuals or implementation methods—from local hiring to system development and implementation—had many challenges and difficulties, but was very fulfilling and I could feel growth.
——You then went through consultant experience at Deloitte Tohmatsu Consulting (hereinafter “Deloitte”) and went independent in May 2023, founding your company. Could you tell us how you decided to start a business?
Having learned the system vendor’s work at Works, I joined Deloitte to support the HR domain broadly, not just systems. Work at the consulting firm, in addition to the fulfillment of supporting clients toward goal achievement, gave me the feeling of being more useful to clients by acquiring skills essential for client lead, like logical thinking and hypothesis thinking.
However, major consulting firms’ clients are mainly major companies—the top few percent of Japanese companies by number. As I worked as a consultant, I came to think that consultants should rather support growth and improvement for companies that major consulting firms don’t reach. Combined with my original entrepreneurial aspirations, I decided to go independent.
Business pillars are HR consulting/advisory and business coaching. Our strength is pursuing “truly good things and what should be done” and providing them to clients
——Please tell us about your business.
Our main businesses are HR DX consulting/advisory and business coaching. For the former, we provide project-based support such as HR strategy formulation, HR operation efficiency, and system selection/implementation/improvement as clients’ partners, as well as advisory services to HR system vendors and HR service providers. The HR advisory service supports system vendors and service providers as advisors based on our accumulated knowledge, because when building new functions or services, there are many situations of lack of business knowledge, inability to grasp user needs, or need for story building and logical thinking that consultants excel at, to build marketing and sales stories.
——Are most HR DX consulting business clients SMEs?
No, as a result, we support a wide range of clients from large corporations to venture companies. Our characteristic is identifying project key points and efficiently advancing projects so we can support SME clients, but this efficient approach is welcomed not only by SMEs but also by large corporations. So we receive inquiries from a wide range—from SME and venture company clients who have never used consulting firms before, to large corporate clients that frequently use major consulting firms.
What’s common to many clients is the situation of “wanting to strengthen the HR department through strategic HR or employee engagement improvement, but not having a high budget and not knowing how to proceed.” Our role is to support such people.
——What about the business coaching business?
We provide coaching for those wanting to transfer from operating companies to consulting firms or those who have hit walls after joining consulting firms.
The characteristic is that in addition to typical coaching approaches, we also provide advice on consulting-firm-specific ways of thinking and how to overcome walls. In consulting firms, you yourself are a “product,” and if that “product” doesn’t sell within the firm, you can’t acquire work. I myself struggled when transferring from a system vendor to a consulting firm because work styles were completely different. So we advise on how to sell yourself as a “product” and what mindset to have.
——Could you tell us about your company’s strengths?
We don’t have products, and we have no ties with system vendors or specific companies. So we can pursue clients’ challenge resolution and goal achievement, and propose what’s truly for clients’ benefit. When clients consult with us, we propose narrowing the contract scope if unnecessary parts exist, and for systems to implement, we propose ones truly suiting clients, not systems that generate our profit.
Additionally, in strategy, operations, and systems, we don’t make deliverable creation or system release itself the goal—we support looking ahead to where clients can execute and utilize. We often hear concerns at various companies like “we created a strategy but it’s a pie in the sky” or “the new system isn’t utilized.” Such problems occur when proceeding with knowledge biased toward only one of strategy, operations, or systems. We have integrated knowledge of strategy, operations, and systems, so we can support strategy formulation that can be translated into measures, business design that can be systematized, and system implementation that streamlines operations.
While this is primarily for clients, at the same time, system vendors often tell us, “Please propose what’s truly good for clients.” Rather than being selected by saying “please favor us,” system vendors find it works in a good direction for both sides when an entity like us proposes and compares from a neutral position, having clients select systems truly effective for them.
Also, when system vendors sell to companies but need to first do strategy formulation or business organization on the company side, system vendors introduce us, and we help with that process. Building good trust relationships with diverse companies, not just clients, in such areas is appreciated.
Looking for partners to build the founding period. We seek talent with challenge spirit and growth motivation
——How many employees do you have now?
4 including business contractors, but we have alliances with multiple consulting companies and SES companies, so we can assign external consultants according to skills needed per case.
——Why are you considering hiring full-time employees this time?
Even now we can support clients in cooperation with alliance companies, but by employing and developing full-time employees in-house, we want to create a structure to support clients with a clearer expression of our thinking and style. Also, by increasing personnel, what we can do increases—not just projects but systematization and new service/business development. To further pursue work valuable to clients, we want to increase employees and grow our organization.
——Please tell us about the kind of person you seek for hiring.
A year has passed since founding, but we’re still building various things and systems. In this founding period, we’re recruiting people who can grow with the company, promote business expansion together, and enjoy it. First, we seek those with challenge spirit and growth motivation. We want those willing to challenge new areas and grow the business together from scratch.
Considering our business aptitude, the element of interest in the HR domain or systems is also necessary. Systems are inseparable in modern business, so you don’t need to be deeply familiar with systems, but those interested in and wanting to learn would fit.
As mentioned, our company has just started, so those with a certain level of work experience are preferable. Specifically, several years of corporate experience to work smoothly with diverse customers, plus experience in either HR or systems. Those who handled HR strategy or system design, or those who used HR systems, would find it easier to enter the work.
——If they join your company, they’ll work with President Yomoya. From the perspective of forming a consulting team, what type of person do you think makes work easier?
I’m a balancer type as a consultant, respecting team members’ wills. Rather than one-sidedly instructing team members “do this,” my style is to confirm members’ intentions, will, and thoughts, and proceed with projects taking balance while respecting them as much as possible.
In that sense, I think it’s easy to team up with a wide range of types. However, being able to listen honestly to others’ opinions and state your own opinion is necessary. To build business and organization together going forward, those who can mutually respect each other are good.
Various work possible depending on interest and will. Want to commit to realization and effect, and continue challenging new things
——Could you tell us points about “what’s interesting about working at your company”?
Our company is still very small, but we have relatively many alliance partners. We have partnerships with multiple system vendors, and there are companies we’ve contracted operations to. Even those just joining, if interested, can be involved in such alliances and business development together.
At major consulting firms, if not senior manager or manager, you tend to have many supplementary tasks outside projects, but at our scale, you can challenge various areas as a main actor.
After joining, you’ll often work with me for the time being. Clients are diverse, and the people you interact with range widely from major company executives and HR department heads to venture company presidents. Through witnessing that process, there’s much you can absorb.
——Finally, please tell us your future outlook.
Our current company is centered on consulting services, but going forward, we want to deploy HR domain BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) services.
Through consulting services for business organization and improvement, additional work clients should do and work they don’t need to do in-house become clear, but due to declining birthrate and aging population, every company is short of personnel and can’t keep up. Just by business efficiency, resources can’t be allocated to work like strategic HR, planning, and talent management that they should focus on.
So an effective option is to outsource operations appropriately and have company personnel focus on work for management plan realization, like management strategy and HR strategy formulation.
At that stage, of course, separately comparing and selecting BPO vendors is possible, but since at that stage we’ve already organized client operations, we understand the client’s strategy, systems, operations, and systems most. If we can take over the operations as outsourcing, we can smoothly respond without increasing work like vendor selection.
The advantage of this BPO service is creating room for customers to focus on work they should focus on. This will be further contribution toward customers’ goal achievement. There are many companies providing only BPO services, but realizing the series of starting from consulting, organizing operations, and taking on outsourcing as is, is unique to us.
The company name “Effectry” is a coined word, embedding two thoughts: “committing to client goal achievement realization and effect as a consulting company” and “challenging new things and matters still invisible.” We await encounters with people who commit to client goal achievement and challenge new things with me.
[Interview Postscript]
The stance President Yomoya talks about, “committing to client goal achievement,” symbolizes true professionalism looking ahead to execution and utilization. The flexible structure that can handle everything from strategy to system implementation to BPO in the HR DX area is the result of continuing to stay close to customers from a tie-free position. Because of the small organization, you have the privilege of being directly involved in alliances and business development alongside the CEO, and the leadership respecting members’ wills is reassuring.
Through the interview, I felt the momentum of achieving first-year profitability and the heat of building the founding period with one’s own hands. For motivated people who want to “challenge still-invisible new value and deliver certain effects,” this is the best place to be founding members. For those who want to understand all directions of strategy, operations, and systems and pursue truly client-beneficial solutions, definitely.
ConsulNext / Senior Consultant
Masahito Tsukada
Effectry Inc. Company Information
| Company Name | Effectry Inc. |
|---|---|
| Business | – HR DX Consulting – HR-related Advisory – Business Coaching |
| Address | 182-0006, 1-38-33 Nishi-Tsutsujigaoka, Chofu City, Tokyo |
| Representative | Mizuki Yomoya |
| Capital | 4 million yen |
