Process, quality, and cost:
I'd give them all five stars.
Signpost Corporation Business Overview
With IT at its core, the company shows the way forward on clients' management issues and executes solutions through three businesses: consulting, solutions, and innovation.
In the consulting business, it provides consulting mainly to financial institutions as a member of clients' IT departments; in the solutions business, it provides solutions devised and optimized for each client's business characteristics, solving clients' management and operational issues; and in the innovation business, it develops products and services from scratch, contributing to the resolution of management issues.
After listing on the Mothers market in November 2017, it was listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in May 2019. It is a company attracting a great deal of attention in the IT field.
We interviewed Mr. Yasushi Kambara, President and CEO of Signpost Corporation, about his relationship with Strategic Partners and his evaluation of our company.
Interview
About the relationship with Strategic Partners
I met Mr. Ashida, CEO of Strategic Partners, at an executive seminar hosted by a publisher.
At that time, I consulted Mr. Ashida about our recruitment methods. After that, we had them handle everything from renewing our corporate website to creating a recruitment site, various videos, and brochures, and we also commissioned introductory videos for the AI cash register “Wonder Register” and the walk-through unmanned store system “Super Wonder.”
They stay close to what we want to convey and think through the best output
Strategic Partners is a company that handles everything consistently from strategy to products and solutions, but at our company the strategy part is handled by me as president and by each department, so we were not looking for strategy design. However, we needed a partner company that understood this and could design and produce the tools we needed.
When we talked with Strategic Partners, rather than trying to create superficial designs, they took the time to deeply understand who we are, what businesses and initiatives we are currently pursuing, what issues we need to face, and what we want to do going forward. They then gave us various proposals such as, “If that's the case, let's go with this kind of design,” and “Let's use this tool to approach users and other stakeholders in this way.”
Since we are amateurs when it comes to creative work, rather than discussing fine details of design, they responded to our words, “This is what we want to convey,” with a variety of proposals, so we were able to proceed with a sense of conviction.
Evaluation of Strategic Partners
We haven't commissioned many different companies, but I think they have so far embodied the thoughts we wanted to convey and achieved solid results. So I'd say five stars for process, quality, and cost alike.
The first thing we commissioned was a recruitment video and brochure; until they were made, I, as president, was deeply involved in recruitment activities myself.
The recruitment video they made deliberately conveys the tough aspects of the work, and uses drama and other techniques to show that this work brings joy to clients and also brings personal growth and inspiration, leading into messages from me as president and from employees who lead each business division.
We also make our own efforts in recruitment, so I can't say this categorically, but even now that I as president have stepped back from recruitment, I feel that the students I meet in interviews properly understand what Signpost values.
What We Expect from Strategic Partners
We intend to run our business as a means of building a Japan that remains prosperous through our grandchildren's generation. Business means adding value to society and making customers happy, and we intend to maximize that. So it's not something that ends once we reach a certain point.
In addition, the image recognition technology of the AI (SPAI) used in Wonder Register and Super Wonder Register can be applied to many industries, so our goal is to raise productivity, endlessly broaden the range of industries, technologies, and regions where it is used, and thus the scope of our business, and make the world a better place.
What I expect from Strategic Partners, and this applies to our company as well, is that even if you have the ability to do good work, I think it means nothing unless you spread it to the world.
Times are changing, so I hope they will become a company that responds to the concerns of companies facing all kinds of problems.
Company Profile
Signpost Corporation
[Head Office]
103-0023
PMO Nihonbashi Honcho 6F, 4-12-20 Nihonbashi Honcho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
TEL. 03-5652-6031
[Kansai Branch]
540-0026
Office Port Uchihonmachi 11F, 2-4-16 Uchihonmachi, Chuo-ku, Osaka
TEL. 06-6945-8110
[Okinawa Branch]
900-0012
T&C Tomari Building 6F, 2-1-18 Tomari, Naha City, Okinawa Prefecture
TEL. 098-943-1527