社長メッセージ

シグマの春井です。設立10期目を迎えHPを一新するとの事なのでシグマの経緯や自分の考え方を書きます。

私自身、入社一年で2,000人以上の営業会社でトップセールスとなり自信満々に関連会社に移籍し20代で海外自動車部部長になりました。そんな中、リーマンショックになり債務超過を経験しました。債務超過とは、会社の物を全て売却しても借金しか残らない状態の事で一般的には銀行などの金融機関から融資を受けられなくなることを言います。あの時に感じたのは「最終的には会社は助けてくれない」「自分の力が全てなんだ」との想いです。とて貴重な経験をさせてもらったと感じています。

それから暫くバタバタしたのちに会社を始めました。それが今のシグマインターナショナルです。会社は助けてくれませんでしたが一生懸命に仕事はやっとくもんでその姿を見ていた上司や取引先など色々な方がのちに助けてくれました。有難い限りです。

仲間と気持ちひとつでシグマを始めたものの、暫くは安い居酒屋に行く金銭的な余裕もなかった事を強く覚えています。また同時に本気でやってもどうにもならない事に苛立ちさえありました。やってもやっても全体としてはマイナスが続いた結果、シグマ設立一年目の決算は再度債務超過になりました。短期間で二回の債務超過を経験しました。今だから分かるんですが当時はコスト管理がめちゃくちゃでした。まあ成るべくしてそうなった感じです。

ここまで経験するとまあ吹っ切れるもので、冷静に会社の皆と向き合って何度も話をしました。強い想いを持って取り組んでると自然と方向性が違う人は辞めていきました。会社にぶら下がろうとする人も同様です。人が自然に整理して行きました。ほとんど辞めましたが、残ったメンバーにやっと無駄が無くなりましたね。と笑いながら言われた時は救われました。正直ここまで減って大丈夫かと不安だったんで。

コストを再度見直し、人への甘えも無くし、自分と同じ想いで残ったメンバーは必死に取り組みました。なんせ生活がかかってます。
とにかく必死です。

そんな当時、自分にも子供が生まれましたが、会えたのは生まれた生後3日後位だった記憶があります。自分だけでなく皆が休みなく働いてました。

基本全部やらないといけないんで毎晩夜中になっていました。面倒だったのは銀行振り込みです。毎日朝からお客さんのアポがあるのに銀行振り込みはセキュリティー上振り込み夜に対応できず、朝、移動中にインターネットにつないで多くの振り込みを処理するのにすごく時間がかかり手間でした。まとまった月末払いとかは特に大変でした。場所によっては繋がらないし。

仲間の社員も同様です。平日は営業、土日は看板の作業などで働き続けました。
営業、査定、見積、商談、雑務を溜まらないようにやるのに夜中の2時3時までに日次の仕事を終わらせてでちょと寝て7時からみたいな感じだった記憶です。皆で必死を継続し続け、二年経過した位だったでしょうか、どうにか賞与が出せる事になりました。とても嬉しかったので良く覚えています。自分の給料に関しては上げませんでした。当時上げるのがコストアップになり怖かったのもありますが、必死に皆が頑張る中で報酬に関してはまず人を優先し最後に自分であるべきとの考えがあります。又、その方が最終的には自分に大きく戻って来るとの考えでもあります。

人材育成に関しての話をします。リーマンショックで会社は助けてくれないと感じたんで、自分はどこにいっても通用する営業マンを育てるのを軸に接しています。会社が万が一の場合に、どの業界でも必要とされ食っていける能力、人間性の高い営業マンを育てるのが自分や会社の責任です。
ですので弊社は人を増やし売り上げを追うとの考えはありません。会社を大きくすると言う軸は無くプロフェッショナルの集団をどう育ててどう会社の利害関係者であるステークホルダーに貢献するかとの視点で動いています。

会社の予算の話をします。一般的に会社は年度の予算を決め各支店や営業に数字を振り分けます。その数字を営業が追っていく感じかと思います。今年の売り上げはいくらで利益はいくら。みたいな感じです。この形は、まあ会社なら当然といえば当然だとは思います。

ただ自分はこれがよく分からなかったし、あまり好きではなかったんです。根拠のない会社から与えられた予算に自分自身おかしいと思っていました。なぜこの数字なの？なぜこの利益？根拠もあるようでないような？よく分かってませんでした。

よって我々の会社の予算は自己申告制です。現状の能力、勤務年数、顧客層を考慮しどれくらいできるかを皆の前で発表してもらいます。自分ならこれぐらいできて当然だろうと言う数字を全員で足していきます。それらを合計した数字が予算になり目標になります。会社からの数字でなく自分からの申告なので責任もありますね。同時に意味をなさない数字を発表する人はいません。

理念の話もさせてください。 理念とは会社の存在意義で不変的な考え方の事です。キーワードは「感動」と「豊かさ」です。

お客様に我々のサービスを通して満足を超えた感動を感じて頂く。その上で利益を頂き中長期の信用を構築し継続していくことです。

サービスを通して感動を感じて頂き、我々は利益を頂くんです。それが我々の給料になります。多くの感動が我々の生活を向上させ豊かな選択できる生活を送らせてくれるのです。

上記で必死になってやったといいましたが必死なだけでうまく行ったらそんな簡単な事はありません。我々の必死を理解し支えてくれた仕入先の運送会社、国内外の販売先各所、修理工場、解体屋、陸送会社など皆の応援や協力があり会社は運営できてきました。

どこでも通用する営業を育てる。
会社の仲間を公平に評価する。
少数精鋭。
理念のもと行動する。
感謝を忘れずに謙虚な姿勢。

どんな経済状況でも活躍できる営業マンを育てるのが会社の使命。営業はサービスを通してお客様に感動を与える事と、自身が素晴らしい人生を送るのが使命。

こんな想いの会社です。
是非ともよろしくお願いします。

This is Harui from Sigma. As we are celebrating our 10th anniversary and are renewing our website, I would like to write about the history of Sigma and my thoughts.

I myself became the top salesperson at a sales company with over 2,000 employees within one year of joining the company, and confidently transferred to an affiliated company and became the head of the overseas automobile department in my 20s. During that time, the Lehman Shock occurred and we experienced insolvency. Insolvency is a state in which the company is left with only debt even after selling everything it owns, and generally means that the company is no longer able to obtain loans from financial institutions such as banks. What I felt at that time was that “in the end, the company won’t help me” and “it’s all about my own strength.” I feel that I was able to have a very valuable experience.

After a period of turmoil, I started my own company. That is now Sigma International. The company didn’t help me, but I worked hard at my job, and many people, including my superiors and clients, saw me and helped me later. I am very grateful.

I started Sigma with my friends and feelings, but I remember very clearly that for a while we didn’t have the financial means to go to a cheap izakaya. At the same time, I was frustrated that even if I tried seriously, I couldn’t do anything. As a result, the overall result was negative no matter how much I tried, and in the first year after Sigma was established, we were in debt again. We experienced insolvency twice in a short period of time. I understand now that our cost management was a mess at the time. Well, it felt like it was bound to happen.

After experiencing this much, it’s easy to get over it, so I calmly faced everyone in the company and talked to them many times. If you work with strong feelings, people who don’t have the same direction will naturally quit. The same goes for people who try to hang on to the company. People naturally sorted themselves out. Almost everyone quit, but I was relieved when the remaining members said to me with a laugh, “There’s finally no waste anymore.” To be honest, I was worried about whether it was okay to reduce so much.

We reviewed our costs again, stopped relying on others, and the remaining members who felt the same way as me worked hard. After all, our livelihood depends on it.
We were desperate.

At that time, I also had a child, but I remember that I didn’t meet him until about three days after he was born. Not only me, but everyone else worked without a break.

Basically, we had to do everything, so it was late at night every night. What was troublesome was bank transfers. Even though we had appointments with clients every morning, bank transfers could not be made at night for security reasons, so it took a lot of time and effort to connect to the Internet while on the move in the morning and process many transfers. It was especially difficult to make large monthly payments. Depending on the location, the Internet didn’t work.

The same goes for my fellow employees. I continued to work on sales during the week and on signs on weekends.
I remember that I would finish my daily work by 2 or 3 in the morning, take a quick nap, and start work at 7 in the morning, trying to avoid sales, appraisals, estimates, negotiations, and miscellaneous tasks. We all continued to work hard, and after about two years, we were finally able to give out bonuses. I remember it well because I was very happy. I didn’t raise my salary. At the time, I was afraid of raising it because it would increase costs, but I believe that when it comes to compensation, people should come first and myself last, even though everyone is working hard. I also believe that this will ultimately pay off in a big way.

Let me talk about human resource development. After the Lehman Shock, I felt that the company would not help me, so I focus on developing salespeople who can work anywhere. In the event of an emergency for the company, it is my responsibility and the company’s responsibility to develop salespeople with the ability to be needed in any industry and have high human qualities.

So our company does not think about increasing the number of people and chasing sales. We do not have an axis of making the company bigger, but rather move from the perspective of how to develop a group of professionals and how to contribute to the company’s stakeholders.

Let me talk about the company’s budget. Generally, a company decides on a budget for the fiscal year and allocates numbers to each branch and sales. I think the sales department follows those numbers. How much is the sales this year and how much is the profit? Something like that. I think this format is natural for a company.

However, I did not really understand this and did not like it very much. I thought it was strange that the company gave me a budget without any basis. Why these numbers? Why this profit? It seems like there is a basis, but not? I didn’t really understand.

Therefore, our company’s budget is self-reported. We have everyone report how much they can do, taking into account their current abilities, years of service, and customer demographics. Everyone adds up the numbers that they think they can do. The total number becomes the budget and the goal. Since it is not a number from the company but a self-report, there is also a sense of responsibility. At the same time, no one would announce a number that does not make sense.

Let me also talk about our philosophy. A philosophy is the reason for the company’s existence and an unchanging way of thinking. The keywords are “emotion” and “richness.”

We want our customers to feel emotion beyond satisfaction through our service. On top of that, we receive profits and build and continue to build mid- to long-term trust.

We receive profits from our customers who feel emotion through our service. That becomes our salary. Many emotions improve our lives and allow us to live a life of rich choices.

I said above that we tried our best, but it’s not that easy if it works just by trying hard. The company has been able to operate thanks to the support and cooperation of everyone, including our supplier transportation companies, various domestic and international sales outlets, repair shops, dismantling yards, transport companies, and others who understood and supported our desperation.

-Develop salespeople who can work anywhere.
-Evaluate company colleagues fairly.
-A small but elite team.
-Act based on our principles.
-Always be grateful and maintain a humble attitude.

Our company’s mission is to develop salespeople who can thrive in any economic situation. The mission of salespeople is to impress customers through service and to live wonderful lives themselves.

These are the thoughts of this company.
We hope you will join us.