Rather than lamenting Japan’s “lost thirty years,” there is a company burning with the passion to make Japan better with their own hands. That company is Intelligent Force Inc., led by Taisuke Suzuki — a man who has experienced two extremes: a major general trading company and a strategy consulting firm.
What the company is aiming to become is not merely a consulting firm, but a next-generation “general trading company.” Suzuki is emphatic: “What clients really want is not a consultant — it’s a highly capable right-hand person, an ace employee.” Why, in today’s world, does he believe that qualities like “likability” and “getting your hands dirty” matter alongside consulting? We asked about his unique career philosophy for climbing from zero experience to top business professional, and the grand vision he has mapped out beyond that.
Taisuke Suzuki
At Mitsui & Co., gained experience in management control and, through a secondment to a venture company, in corporate planning. After working on business strategy formulation and other projects at Arthur D. Little Japan, founded Intelligent Force. Graduated from the Faculty of Law, Kyoto University.
Is a “Consultant” Unnecessary? Focusing on Support Through the “Ace Employee” That Clients Truly Need
— I understand you operate across a wide range of areas beyond consulting. Could you tell us about Intelligent Force’s business?
Within our consulting business, we operate on three main axes: “Strategy & IT,” “AI Solutions,” and “Creative.” In terms of revenue breakdown, Strategy & IT and AI Solutions often move together and account for about 70% of the total; the remaining approximately 30% is Creative.
We currently have 40 employees — 20 in Strategy & IT and AI Solutions combined, 10 in Creative, and the rest in the Corporate division, which includes myself.
— Could you tell us how projects are run?
The basic approach is a team of two to five people consisting of a manager and a few associates. We sometimes enter from upstream; other times we enter from a specific domain.
In Strategy & IT consulting, for example, after formulating a business strategy or IT strategy, we advance to implementation of the business strategy and development and rollout of IT systems. We engage from the resolution of highly abstract challenges and translate them into concrete initiatives such as operational process improvement and new technology adoption.
— Thank you. What kind of consulting do you provide in the Creative domain?
In the Creative business, we are involved in artist branding and may also handle everything from marketing initiative planning through to execution support. Unlike systems consulting, many of our engagements involve thinking about what kind of videos, photos, artwork, and music should be created, and how they should be used.
What applies across all our businesses is that what we provide is not limited to conventional “teacher-style” consulting — and that is what I consider our greatest strength above all else.
— So it’s not about instructing people from the outside.
In the extreme, clients probably don’t actually want to “hire a consultant.” What they truly want is not an outsider, but a “highly capable right-hand person” or “ace employee” who deeply understands their company and will roll up their sleeves alongside them. Yet Japanese companies today are increasingly losing both the capacity and the motivation among young staff to develop that kind of talent internally from scratch. That is precisely why Intelligent Force sees itself as stepping in to fulfill that function.
— The image is deploying not “consultants” but “irreplaceable ace employees.”
Exactly. The “etiquette of big organizations” that was drilled into me during my time at a trading company and a consulting firm — things like appropriate consensus-building behind the scenes, setting up meetings properly, and conducting oneself with the right manners: skills that seem pedestrian but are indispensable for moving an organization. I believe people who have these skills, combined with the logical thinking of consulting, should be the ones tackling projects. Rather than advising as a “teacher,” the image is standing side by side, sweating it out together. That is the value Intelligent Force provides — and a strength I believe no other firm has.
— That resonates strongly. A “right-hand person” who can get their hands dirty in the field is invaluable.
Thank you. I believe our members — who can bridge exactly that gap between “field reality” and “logic” — are what is most in demand right now.
Looking for “Sharp Thinking” and “Likability.” Aiming to Become a Business Owner in Five Years from Zero Experience
— Could you tell us about the kind of person who thrives at your company? Is consulting experience or high-level skills necessary?
No. What we prioritize over experience is “sharp thinking” and “likability.” Sharp thinking does not mean high academic scores. I mean the ability to have logical conversations and to grasp things in numbers — in other words, proficiency in “verbal reasoning and numeracy.” Beyond that, “likability” is equally important. Highly capable business people generally have many fans and supporters. No matter how talented someone is, they cannot achieve great things without the support of those around them. People who have the personal magnetism to win the client’s affection, earn their trust, and deliver results — those are the people who will thrive here.
— Are there age or other restrictions on hiring?
For candidates in their twenties, we hire for potential even without experience. For those thirty and over, however, we expect immediate contribution, and we believe it’s difficult without practical consulting experience. That said, it’s impossible to fully evaluate someone through interviews alone — no one can learn everything about a person from a handful of meetings. For that reason, we are thorough in our policy of evaluating and promoting people based on the actual capabilities and results they demonstrate after joining.
— What kind of career path can someone joining without experience follow?
The fundamental aim is “reaching the level of a business owner in five years.” In the first three years, people build a thorough physical foundation for business — in the consulting and technology field. During this time, the “form” of a top business professional is drilled in thoroughly. In the following two years, people take on challenges like leading a team to deliver results, or running a small-scale business. And by the five-year mark, I want people to be operating as full “business owners” in their own right — with budget authority and HR responsibility as an internal business head, launching new businesses, or taking on management roles at M&A targets.
— Are there examples of people who joined without experience and are thriving?
For example, we have a member who joined in their first year as a working adult. There were times early on when the gap between their ideals and reality was painful, and they came close to leaving. But they held on and kept working hard, and the transformation since then has been remarkable — they are contributing enormously in the field today. In today’s environment, young people at large corporations spend years in “foundational training” and rarely get to do work that has a tangible feel to it. Conversely, at venture companies, the fundamentals of business can be neglected. Our company is an environment where you can get “the best of both worlds.” I’m confident it is the optimal setting for people who want both the “etiquette” of a large corporation and the “speed and autonomy” of a venture company.
The “Winnable Domain” Discovered After a General Trading Company and Strategy Consulting — and the Passion That Led to Founding the Company
— Could you tell us about your career background and what led to founding the company? You graduated from Kyoto University and joined Mitsui & Co. as a new graduate.
The reason I founded the company traces back to a vague but genuine desire to “make Japan as a country a little better — a little more positive.” On top of that, my father’s family were spirited entrepreneurs running Chinese restaurants and similar businesses, while my mother’s family was a more strict lineage that produced doctors and Toyota executives. Growing up surrounded by the atmosphere of two completely different worlds, I had a vague aspiration to “achieve something.” And in a university lecture, I heard a talk about how “society doesn’t change because of one charismatic figure — it changes when small leaders emerge in every domain, like many warlords.” Wanting to be one of those people was the starting point.
— So your roots and your student-era learning connected. Could you tell us why you went to Kyoto University?
The starting point was simply wanting to live alone (laughs). At the same time, many of my high school classmates were aiming for the University of Tokyo, and I wanted to aim for a university at a similar level — which led me to set my sights on Kyoto. As for choosing Mitsui & Co. in job hunting — I instinctively felt it was a fit for me, and believed it offered an environment where I could become a business owner.
— How did things go after joining Mitsui & Co.?
Not smoothly at first. Having been free-spirited through my student years, adapting to the organizational framework and the “etiquette of big organizations” — like building consensus with all relevant parties and agreeing on things behind the scenes — was a real struggle. Even so, I stayed for four and a half years, getting exposure to automotive-related business in Mexico and a secondment to a venture company, and had the fundamentals of business thoroughly drilled into me.
— Why then did you move to Arthur D. Little (ADL)?
Through my trading company experience, “founding a company” had become something I could see as a real possibility — but I felt I still lacked the weapons I needed. I decided to place myself in the demanding environment of a “foreign strategy consulting firm” to develop an overwhelming set of skills. At ADL, I worked from morning to night, pushing myself to the absolute limit. It was working in that kind of environment that helped me realize I could found a company and make it work. In fact, the confidence I had when I founded the company was entirely groundless — just “if I can work this hard, I’ll figure it out somehow.” Even if winning with a service line identical to ADL’s would be difficult, I had a hypothesis that if I shifted the service line slightly, I could win as a freelancer or small consulting firm even at my current level. The result — somewhat embarrassingly — was that I left the firm after about six months and founded Intelligent Force in 2022.
— An extremely fast and strategic decision. What meaning does the company name “Intelligent Force” carry?
At its base is an admiration for the kind of elite special operations unit that appears in a film like “Inception.” I deliberately combined “Intelligent” — a word at the opposite end of the spectrum from “Force (power, military)” — with Force itself. When the company was founded it was just me, but university classmates whom I had been convincing in advance to “come and join once things get off the ground” came together very quickly. Not a fight won by brute strength, but a special unit that uses intelligence as its weapon to solve client challenges. That is the kind of group I wanted us to be.
Aiming to Be the “Reiwa Era General Trading Company” — Into Industries That Touch Life and Death
— Finally, what is your vision for the future? What kind of company are you aiming to build?
What we are aiming to become is a “new kind of general trading company.” Ultimately, I am genuinely serious about building a company of the scale of Mitsui & Co. — one that supports Japan’s industries.
I have always believed that “there are appropriate businesses for each age and phase of life.” When you’re young, it makes sense to build experience at speed in domains where failure is tolerated — like web services or consulting. But as you get older and take on greater responsibilities, I believe you should be shouldering the heavy, large-scale industries where mistakes are not forgiven — those related to “life and death” and “social infrastructure.” A 20-year-old can’t be put in charge of a factory and expect it to run smoothly.
— So the business domains will expand in step with maturity. What specific steps do you have in mind?
First, I want to grow as an “AI-native consulting firm,” develop and produce talented business owner-caliber people, and accumulate the capital resources to do so. By AI-native consulting firm, I mean a consulting company designed from the ground up with AI as a given. Having come through a general trading company and a foreign strategy consulting firm, I had concluded that most of the work done by generalists would be replaced by AI. For that reason, Intelligent Force was designed from its founding with a business process that focuses on human-unique value creation, deliberately allocating minimal resources to things that AI can replace. Our company is an environment where people can develop into business professionals capable of creating value even in the AI era.
The next step is to venture into businesses that combine AI with labor-intensive operations in the telecommunications, energy, and entertainment industries — domains where we are accumulating knowledge through our consulting work. Beyond that, we will also enter capital-intensive businesses such as AI data centers, power generation, sports, and arena operation IP businesses. We want to take on not just labor-intensive businesses but capital-intensive ones — the heavy, large-scale businesses with strong physical dimensions.
— It really is the modern-day general trading company. An incredibly exciting vision.
Thank you. I want to pass on the prosperity we have benefited from to the next generation. To do that, Japan needs to improve at the level of its industries. Rather than people who want to “become a consultant,” I would love to work with people who have the spirit of wanting to “energize Japan through business” and to “grow in an extraordinary way.”
【Post-Interview Note】
I had the pleasure of speaking with Intelligent Force Representative Director Suzuki. The grand vision he laid out — having come through a major trading company, a venture company, and a strategy consulting firm before founding his own, and now setting his sights on a “New General Trading Company” that will extend into heavy, large-scale industries — was truly overwhelming. The combination of the rational thinking of “winning where you can win” and the genuine passion of “wanting to make Japan even a little better” is enormously compelling.
What stayed with me most was the approach to talent development: prioritizing “sharp thinking and likability,” and producing the “top business people” that modern large corporations are increasingly unable to develop themselves. I am convinced this is the finest growth environment for young professionals, and that these people will become a formidable force for the companies they support. I look forward with great anticipation to watching this company’s business expand going forward.
ConsulNext Senior Consultant
Masahito Tsukada
Intelligent Force Inc. — Company Information
| Address | Toranomon 37 Mori Building 10F, 3-5-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo |
| Founded | April 2022 |
| Representative | Representative Director: Taisuke Suzuki |
| Capital | ¥20,900,000 |
| Business Activities | Consulting business (Strategy & IT, AI Solutions, Creative) |
