Seishinjuku New York Member Interview No. 1: Member Takefusa of Beta & Sigma, Inc.

Starting with this post, we will introduce members of Seishinjuku New York (formerly Seiwajuku NY) in interview form. Our first interviewee is member Takefusa, who runs Beta & Sigma, Inc.

Company name: Beta & Sigma, Inc
CEO & President
Hiroki Takefusa

Business overview:
- Operating share houses in New York
- Operating vacation rentals in Hawaii
- Real estate investment in the United States

1. Please tell us about how you founded your company.

I came to New York in 2006, and at the time jobs were hard to find worldwide because of the effects of the Lehman shock. The US economy was not doing well either, but the outlook was not bad, so rather than return to Japan I decided to stay in the United States, where things looked brighter. In 2010 I founded my first company, and in 2019 I founded my current company.

2. Please tell us about your company motto or company policy.

We aim to be a company where all employees can work together like brothers and sisters.
Here in the United States, I feel there are many more opportunities for people to change where they work and live: from the countryside to big cities, from big cities to the countryside, from west to east and from east to west. Especially in big cities, finding a first place to stay as a foothold seems difficult, and through our business we want to be a company that serves as that foothold for people who come from all over the world to take on challenges in a new place.

3. When did you join the former Seiwajuku?

I joined in January 2011, and 2022 marks my 12th year.

4. What led you to join?

The business I had started on my own was beginning to grow, and I had started hiring employees. While I was thinking about and struggling with what management should be, a friend told me about a Seiwajuku lecture on management, and I went. That was how it began.
At the time I was 22 and did not meet the membership requirement of being 30, but thanks to the organizers, I started as a trial member.

5. What has made you happy in running your business?

That the number of people I can share joy with has grown.
In addition to wonderful employees I can trust to have my back, my own younger brother came over from Japan and started working with us. These days I work alongside them while thinking about the path ahead.

6. What has been hard in running your business?

That one of the people who had worked hard with me left, for various reasons. As long as you run a business, you face all kinds of difficulties, financial, procedural and so on, and with effort you can somehow get through that kind of hardship. But losing a connection with a person was emotionally hard.

7. What did you learn at the former Seiwajuku NY (Seishinjuku New York)?

Back then I was an inexperienced young man in my twenties, but I was honored to receive a great deal of guidance from Kazuo Inamori, the Chairman of Seiwajuku, as well as from other members and directors. Meeting people who earnestly put into practice Chairman Inamori's spirit of "Elevate your mind, elevate your management" helped me keep myself in check at a time when I had become a bit full of myself.
I have also come to feel that the 12 Management Principles, so often cited as Chairman Inamori's teaching, are equally the best teaching whether your business is in Japan or in the United States.

8. Which of the 12 Management Principles taught you the most?

Senior members told me again and again that if you put the 12 Management Principles into practice one by one, in order, starting from the first, your business results are sure to improve. For me, Principle 4, "Make efforts second to none," is the fundamental premise above all. When the business is not going well or is not making a profit, I think it is because I am not making "efforts second to none."
Before starting my business I worked for a Japanese hospitality company and had no knowledge at all of real estate, which my current work is built on. I feel that I have been able to come this far since starting my business thanks to the guidance of senior members and the accumulation of steady effort.

9. What would you like to say to people joining Seishinjuku New York in the future?

I myself am not yet able to put the 12 Management Principles fully into practice, but the examples of Kyocera and JAL prove that if you follow Chairman Inamori's teachings faithfully and earnestly, your business will go well. His teachings are very simple, and I am doing my best here in New York while feeling how difficult it is to practice them every day.

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What is Seishinjuku New York?
Seishinjuku New York is an organization formed under a new name from Seiwajuku NY, a nonprofit organization that was dissolved at the end of 2019.
It traces its origins to Seiwajuku, a member-led study group that began in 1983 when young business owners in Kyoto gathered to learn from Kazuo Inamori, Chairman Emeritus of Kyocera Corporation, how to live as a human being [philosophy of life] and how to think as a business owner [management philosophy]. Learn more about Seishinjuku New York here

As our regular study meeting, we hold the monthly study meeting on the third Thursday of every month.
If you would like to join Seishinjuku New York, please contact us through our contact form.