Interview Vol.6

If you give your all doing
what is in front of you,
the future will naturally open up.

Makoto Arai

Freelancer

PROFILE

After graduating from university, joined ABeam Consulting Co., Ltd. as a new graduate. After working there for five years, became independent as a freelance consultant in 2005. Has been with Sevenzen for the past eight years and has been involved in consulting work entrusted through Sevenzen as a freelancer.

How did you come to work at Sevenzen?
And what do you think are the strengths of Sevenzen?

After retiring from my previous job at a consulting company, I worked as a freelance consultant with many clients until I met Mr. Yokoyama, the CEO of Sevenzen. Just when I happened to be free, Mr. Yokoyama approached me and I decided to work with Sevenzen.

The people of Sevenzen match the project according to my characteristics. Normally, many companies would match me based on my background and skill set, but Sevenzen does it with projects based on my strengths and characteristics. Another good thing about Sevenzen is that they carefully listen to our requests.

Please tell us about your work and what you keep in mind while doing it.

Basically, there are many projects where I enter the business company side, which is the client, and promote the project as a PMO. There are times when I am in charge of multiple projects for one customer, and many projects are long-term.

What I keep in mind when working as a consultant is to conduct a thorough interview with the client before the project starts, and then carefully carry out the tasks requested by the client one by one. Each customer has different needs, but we will take any problem seriously and search for solutions. In a good way, my strength is to proactively make proposals without reading the situation, and I put my mind into building relationships with customers so they fell they can discuss anything.

In addition to work, I also value my private time. I have two children, and I take them to and from nursery school, and on weekends, I enjoy playing soccer, which is my hobby, with my friends. Personally, I want to be greedy in both my private life and work, and I feel that now I am working in an environment that allows me to do so.

Is there anything you’d like to do in the future?

I don’t of the future much while doing my work, so I I don’t really have anything I want to do in the future. Rather, I believe that the future will open up naturally if we give our all doing what is in front of us.

Also, regarding projects entrusted through Sevenzen, I am challenged to work on a wide range of themes that I could not have imagined a few years ago. Sevenzen keeps introducing me to projects that I am interested in, so I would like to continue working with them in the future.

Interview: Autumn 2022