[Interview with Kenichi Sakagoshi, President and CEO of elDesign Co., Ltd.] Aiming to Provide New Value and Lifestyles Through Flexible Thinking

elDesign Inc. operates consulting and incubation businesses in the energy sector. Working in concert with four group companies, the firm highlights its strength in providing support that spans from upstream strategy formulation all the way through to the execution phase.

In the increasingly competitive new energy sector, what kind of advantages does elDesign Representative Director & President Kenichi Sakagoshi propose to clients? And how does he want to grow his company going forward? We asked about his passion for clients and the business.

Business Support in New Energy Domains Including EVs and Carbon Neutrality

— Could you tell us about elDesign’s business?

We operate both consulting and incubation in the energy sector. On the consulting side, we primarily support the launch of new energy retail businesses and improvements in business profitability. On the incubation side, we work closely with our group companies to take an active role in creating businesses for our clients.

Our client base is split roughly fifty-fifty between local governments and public agencies on one side, and private-sector companies on the other. In recent years, we have seen a growing number of consultations related to carbon neutrality and EV businesses, and the number of these converting into active engagements is also on the rise.

— Could you tell us more specifically about the kind of support you provide?

Many clients have ideas for new businesses but are unable to turn them into reality. We therefore provide total support — not just for launching new businesses, but covering everything from business plan formulation and execution all the way through to monetization and business growth.

More specifically, we get involved at the upstream stage of business concept development. We analyze target personas, competitors, and markets, and help map out the business — including selecting the optimal technology with an eye on expansion several years down the line, and identifying the people and organizational structure that will be needed. We also support clients in building partnerships with investors and research institutions to secure adequate funding. Many clients launching new businesses have concerns about financing, so we put significant effort into support that allows them to move into the next phase with confidence.

— I understand that demand in areas like EVs and carbon neutrality is growing.

The number of consultations we receive from clients is indeed increasing. With this recent situation and the trends shaping the industry in mind, we focus on deriving the optimal answer for each individual client. We continue to propose the most appropriate approach to whatever phase a client is in — whether business development or business revival.

We Want to Bring a Wide Range of Knowledge and Experience In-House — Not Constrained by the Framework of “Employees”

— What kind of people are you looking for?

We are looking for people who can think logically and from a zero-based perspective, and who have a spirit of challenge. More specifically, we want people who can gather information independently from scratch even in unfamiliar domains and translate it into actionable work, and those who approach work proactively rather than reactively.

Consultants need the ability to find the most appropriate approach to a problem and to identify what the real challenges are. We don’t rule out hiring people with no consulting experience, but we are actively looking to bring on people who have the natural disposition to think about things logically and from a zero-based perspective, regardless of what kind of work they have done.

— Given that your work frequently involves new domains like new energy retail, are skills like flexible thinking also required?

Yes. People whose thinking has become rigid as a result of extensive experience and knowledge would find it difficult to participate as full-time employees. In some cases, however, such individuals do join us as outsourced contributors to supplement areas of specialist knowledge that we are lacking.

— You appear to be at a stage of significant business growth. Could you tell us about your hiring plans?

We are not thinking about forcing organizational expansion. To put it plainly, I believe the ideal is to build a structure where we outsource talent suited to the relevant industry and skills for each engagement, rather than simply growing headcount to expand the business.

This was actually part of the founding concept when I established elDesign — my ideal support structure is one where we outsource the right resources in the right places: for a project requiring AI knowledge, we bring in someone with AI expertise; if finance knowledge is needed, we bring in a finance specialist. In practice, however, I also feel that outsourcing alone is not sufficient, since there are many engagements that require full-time employees.

The reason I arrived at this thinking is that I believe gathering people across organizational boundaries produces better outcomes. In a fast-changing market like new energy retail, it is difficult to complete projects using only in-house resources. Being able to bring in professional expertise as the situation demands gives projects a flexible capacity to adapt. Clients who gain this flexibility are able to achieve success and results even in an uncertain environment.

Building an Environment Where Employees’ Dreams and Aspirations Can Come True

— Could you tell us about your career background, President Sakagoshi?

After studying applied energy chemistry in graduate school, I joined a major heavy industry manufacturer. I was involved in domestic and international projects for about seven years. The reason I made a move into consulting was that I wanted to learn management. I came to feel that working at a manufacturer offered limited opportunities to engage with management, and started to think concretely about making a change.

I then spent more than ten years building my career as a consultant, developing a network of contacts through work in Japan and abroad. Driven by a desire — one I had held since my manufacturer days — to “do what I want to do and what I believe is right,” I chose the path of business ownership and founded elDesign in 2014.

— Was there a particular trigger that led you to start your own company?

While working at the manufacturer, I came to realize that if you wanted to achieve anything at the company, the only path was to rise to the top. To do what I wanted to do and what I believed was right, the only two options were either climbing the ladder within a company or becoming a business owner myself. When that realization hit me, I started to think about the path of becoming a business owner — someone with the authority to make decisions on their own terms.

Since I lacked management knowledge at that point, I concluded that I needed to immerse myself in an environment where I could learn it — and that led me to pursue the path of consulting.

— Could you tell us about the origin and meaning behind the company name “elDesign”?

The name comes from the founding mission of “designing new lifestyles from the perspectives of energy, ecology, and economy.” The “e” symbolizes the energy domain (energy / ecology / economy) that we specialize in, and the “l” stands for lifestyle. The name carries the meaning of shaping everything from the energy domain through to people’s lifestyles.

— Could you also tell us about your current headcount, and how long projects typically take and how many people are involved?

elDesign has approximately 20 people, and including the group companies the total is around 40. Adding our outsourced contributors, the overall figure comes to around 50. Within that, elDesign’s consulting division consists of three to four people, with the remainder being employees handling back-office functions and sales.

In terms of project duration, engagements with local government and public-sector clients typically run for a year, while private-sector client engagements tend to range from three months to a year. Since our projects involve building businesses together with clients, contracts are renewed on a three-month basis, but it is not uncommon for the actual engagement to stretch over a period of years.

— Are there any particular points worth noting about how people work here?

We have offices in Tokyo and Nagano, but given that we are a gathering of professionals, we fundamentally don’t place restrictions on where people work. We also have no interest in managing attendance. As long as people can deliver solid output, we believe they should be free to work wherever and however they choose.

In practice, this means we accommodate side jobs, remote work, and reduced hours. Our aim is to create a flexible working environment and become a company where highly capable and productive people naturally gravitate toward us.

— How would you like to grow elDesign going forward?

I don’t have much of an aspiration to scale the organization. If anything, I want to make this a company that gives employees the environment they need to realize what they want to do. If an employee wants to leave the company as they work toward their dreams and aspirations, I won’t try to hold them back — even if they are someone exceptional. Before I started my own company, I moved jobs to acquire skills I felt I was lacking. Similarly, it makes perfect sense for someone to choose to build experience and knowledge at our company with the same intention.

We have actually had cases in the past where employees went independent and became business owners. I have sometimes looked at someone exceptional and thought “if this person stays at our company, their talent might never fully bloom here.” I have no desire to hold such people back to the point where they start to see our company as a shackle. My ideal is to be fully present for our clients’ business challenges while also being fully present for our employees. I want to keep growing every day, with the goal of becoming a company that puts employees’ dreams and aspirations first.

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【Post-Interview Note】

elDesign Inc. — Company Information

Company Name	elDesign Inc.
Business Activities	Consulting business Regional revitalization business
Representative Director	President & Representative Director: Kenichi Sakagoshi
Founded	July 14, 2014
Address	〒108-0072 Shirokanedai Station Building 4F, 1-27-6 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Phone / Fax	Phone: 03-5422-6793 (main) Fax: 03-5422-6703 (main)
Capital	¥10,500,000 (including capital reserve)
Main Banking Partners	MUFG Bank, Toranomon Branch Hachijuni Bank, Fujimi Branch

elDesign Inc. — Job Listings