[Interview with Toshinari Yamaoka, CEO of Plus Synergy Co., Ltd.] Connecting “Workers” and “Companies,” Aiming for a Future That Generates Powerful Synergy

Plus Synergy Inc. operates not only a consulting business but also a service for managing consultants’ professional profiles and a community service for consultants. The company has a complementary identity as a provider of comprehensive support for the way consultants work, helping each individual consultant increase their market value. Behind Plus Synergy’s distinctive business model lies a desire to connect workers with companies.

We spoke with Plus Synergy’s Representative Director, Kazunari Yamaoka, about how the company came to be founded, the passion behind its business, and the vision for the future.

A Business Model That Goes Beyond Consulting

— Could you tell us about Plus Synergy’s business?

With consulting as the core, we also operate two IT businesses: a service for managing consultants’ professional histories and a community service for consultants. We channel the knowledge gained from the IT businesses back into the consulting business, enabling us to provide the most appropriate support for clients.

Among Japanese companies for whom advancing DX is an urgent priority, there are many that are unable to progress on DX using only their own in-house staff, experience, and know-how. As a result, many of these companies seek the expertise of professional talent with deep knowledge in specific domains. At the same time, it is true that many business owners are anxious about the prospect of hiring professional talent outright or commissioning freelancers whose track record is opaque.

To address this, we assemble specialized teams that include the freelance consultants who are members of our community, enabling us to handle consulting engagements with teams that align with each client’s needs. The ability to generate synergy effects across both the consulting business and the IT businesses is the advantage of operating the two together.

— Are there particular areas where your consulting stands out?

Rather than specializing in any one domain, we handle everything — from business strategy and new business development through to operational DX. Every consultant on our team has a different area of strength. The strengths, experience, and skills of the members in our community vary just as widely. Being able to assemble the team best suited to each client’s specific challenges and requirements from this diverse pool of people means we can contribute to solving virtually any kind of problem. For this reason, when we hire consultants, we don’t specify a required area of expertise.

— Could you tell us about the IT businesses — what they involve and what makes them distinctive?

The service for managing consultants’ professional histories is designed to enable users to build high-quality personal brands. By building that brand, users can raise their own market value. In a consultant’s professional profile, it is important to describe concisely what projects were worked on and what specific results were achieved. Each project a consultant has worked on becomes an asset. Our service uses AI to summarize the content and outcomes of projects concisely, making it easy to polish a professional profile and enabling effective personal branding in a short period of time.

The consultant community service, meanwhile, is designed primarily for freelance consultants. Users can deepen their knowledge through interaction with one another, and can also use the platform as a space to share know-how. We are not currently looking to monetize this service, but we are investing in it based on the judgment that it will generate returns over the long term.

Playing the Role of Connector — Matching Freelancers with Clients Appropriately

— Could you tell us about your current headcount and how people work?

We have six employees: five consultants including myself, and one in sales. Because we operate as a lean team, there are many situations where we engage one-on-one with clients. At the same time, it is also common for us to assign external consultants and provide support as a team unit.

Other than a weekly meeting, remote work is the default. To make sure communication among staff doesn’t become too sparse, we make a point of creating opportunities for people to see each other in person — for example, by holding a meal together after meetings.

— What level of seniority do your client contacts tend to be at?

It varies depending on the client’s size and the nature of the consulting, but for business strategy consulting, we tend to work primarily with executive and department-head level counterparts. For consulting in areas closer to actual operations — such as IT and DX — we tend to work with people at the operational level.

— Are there things you are particularly mindful of when assigning freelancers?

One thing we are always conscious of is that it is our role — as the company connecting freelancers with clients — to keep a hand on the tiller of the project. For example, support that worked well for Company A often doesn’t work when applied to Company B. In cases like this, the reason for the lack of success isn’t necessarily down to the consultant’s ability. Minor unraveling — misunderstandings caused by sparse communication, small misreadings, or incompatibilities between the parties — is often the culprit. At Plus Synergy, we pay close attention to these seemingly small things and work hard to notice them early. We see it as our duty to read the signs of something being off — from everyday conversation, tone, and the body language of the person we’re working with — and take some kind of action before things deteriorate.

Growing Alongside Diverse Members, Weaving Together Different Perspectives

— Could you tell us about the kind of people Plus Synergy is currently looking for?

We are actively hiring consultants with knowledge in business and IT domains. Regardless of company size, someone who has worked as a consultant at a consulting firm for around three years, or someone who can manage a project autonomously to a reasonable degree on their own, would be able to contribute as an immediate asset at our company.

We are looking to strengthen our AI capabilities and are seeking people with knowledge in generative AI and large language models. By expanding AI-centered services, we aim to contribute more effectively to solving clients’ challenges.

— What is the age breakdown of Plus Synergy’s current team?

Our members range from their twenties to their late thirties — a relatively young profile compared with other companies. That said, we welcome applications from a wide range of age groups. I am 31 myself, and I would love to draw on the knowledge of people older than me as well. There are things that only people with accumulated career experience can do or see. I hope that by bringing those perspectives into Plus Synergy and having a mix of different generations, we can maximize the synergy effect within the organization.

— “Synergy” is part of the company name. Could you tell us about its origin?

The name was inspired by the Latin phrase “Plus Ultra,” which means “further beyond.” In recent years, as side jobs became permitted and the freelance working model grew, I found myself thinking about the relationship between companies and workers — and hoping that the two could build a relationship that generates even greater synergy. That reflection gave rise to the name.

Creating Even Better Outcomes — for Workers and Companies Alike

— Was the liberalization of side jobs in Japan the backdrop that prompted you to start the business?

Yes. I had been thinking about starting a business since my student days, and I wanted to launch not just a consulting business as a single pillar but also new ventures that would benefit society at the same time. That led me to look at the side-job and freelance business market. The catalyst was an attempt to build a freelance matching platform during the period when side-job liberalization was generating a lot of excitement.

That service ultimately didn’t work out, but the experience became the foundation for going independent, which brings me to where I am today.

— Could you tell us about your career, including the path to founding the company?

I joined a consulting firm as a new graduate in 2016, and four years later, in 2020, I founded Plus Synergy.

At the consulting firm I joined out of university, I frequently found myself asking “is what I’m doing really benefiting clients?” I also often found myself worn down by the entanglements of organizational life. Looking back now, though, working on new business development and other projects at that firm helped me discover the joy of creating businesses from scratch, and I believe it allowed me to sketch the outline of what Plus Synergy would be — a company that pursues not only consulting but new business ventures as well.

— Finally, could you share your vision for the future?

We are still a small company, but our goal is to generate ¥1 billion in profit from the consulting business that serves as our main driver. To achieve that, our estimate is that we first need to grow our headcount to around 50. We want to keep scaling while growing our team and maintaining the high quality of consulting we provide today.

We are also looking at monetizing the consultant community we operate. Once that is running smoothly, we intend to branch out into operating a range of other community services as well.

At the same time, we have no intention of abandoning our foundational approach of using consulting and various services to create close connections between “workers” and “companies.” We do, however, want to keep offering the means that are most appropriate for the times as they evolve. We will continue to keep pace with the ever-changing needs of businesses. Holding to this mindset, I believe, is what forms the foundation for generating the “synergy” that our company name stands for.

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【Post-Interview Note】

Plus Synergy Inc. — Company Information

Company Name	Plus Synergy Inc.
Address	〒108-0072 Apollo Hall Luna House 201, 3-7-18 Shirokanedai, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Founded	August 2020
Representative Director	Kazunari Yamaoka
Business Activities	General / strategy consulting Operation of resume management tool “Value file” Operation of community service “Chamber”
Banking Partners	MUFG Bank, Kyobashi Branch Chiba Bank, Soga Branch GMO Aozora Net Bank

Plus Synergy Inc. — Job Listings