This is Hamamoto from TIMEWELL
This is Hamamoto from TIMEWELL.
A Second-Generation President Who Never Planned to Take Over Found the Company's True Value in the Storm
Ace Co., Ltd. — Ota Ward
Ace Co., Ltd. has been a manufacturing company in Ota Ward for 50 years. President Osamu Nishimura is its second-generation leader. He never intended to take over the family business — so what changed his mind? And how did he navigate the Lehman shock, the Great East Japan Earthquake, and the rough years in between? We sat down with President Nishimura to find out.
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A Single Phrase That Changed the Life of a Salesman Who Had No Plans to Take Over
I genuinely had no intention of taking over the family business at first. I went through the normal job-hunting process and joined a Mitsubishi Group company that manufactured and sold trucks and buses right out of university. I spent eight years there in sales, from the day I joined until I turned 30. I wasn't planning to come back at 30 to take over the family business either — a client had reached out to recruit me, and I was thinking of taking that offer and making a move.
The company I was going to move to was an established old firm in Asakusa. The president was something like the fifth or sixth generation. Maybe because it was such a storied company, during the interview he asked, "What does your father do?" I answered honestly: "He runs a small factory in Ota Ward." His response was immediate: "Don't come here. Go back to your family business."
I was genuinely surprised, but when I asked why, he said, "You only live once — if you can become the president, you should." He had a point. More than 20 years ago, IT hadn't developed the way it has now, and starting your own company and becoming a president was simply not something most people could do.
I Had Already Handed in My Resignation, and the Company I Was Going to Turned Me Down
I had already handed in my resignation, and the company I'd been planning to join ultimately turned me down. With nowhere to go, I joined Ace — for what I have to admit was a pretty passive reason.
It was a rough start. I had no experience in manufacturing. I didn't even know at first what kind of business my family's company was. For about a year, the existing employees barely spoke to me. I had a stomachache every day — but I'd already quit a big company, I had a family to support, and I just kept pushing through with a sense of "there's no other option."
What saved me, at least, was that I had a background in sales. I kept visiting clients every day — making small talk, getting assignments, asking factories in Ota Ward to help me, putting together quotes, sometimes getting chewed out — and through that repetition I slowly built up my knowledge of the work.
Even so, at that point I still had no clear vision. I was just chasing work, with no real sense of where I wanted to take the company. Then my parents retired, and the business became mine.
The Partner Companies Who Got Through the Lehman Shock with Us
The year I took over, the Lehman shock hit. Work dried up, and we ran through our reserves.
What Got Us Through That Crisis Was Our National Network of Partner Companies
What got us through that crisis was our national network of partner companies — the same companies that remain a vital pillar of Ace today. At the time, small factories all over Japan had no work. For about a year or two, we pushed ourselves as hard as we could to bring in work, shut down our own factory floor when necessary, and made sure to pass jobs to our partners instead.
As a result, it seems some of those companies were able to survive because of us. The bond that formed from that experience is strong. No matter how much those companies have grown since, or how busy they've become, they still take our work. Looking back, the Lehman shock years were brutal — but the steady, unglamorous work we did then is what made us what we are today.
Discovering Ace's Strengths Through a Collaborative Ota Ward Project
No sooner had we survived the Lehman shock than the Great East Japan Earthquake hit, and work dried up again. I was at a loss — and that's when I encountered the Shitamachi Bobsled project. It was an initiative to build a bobsled using the combined technical skills of Ota Ward's small factories. I joined partly as a form of escapism, but it ended up being a great opportunity to understand my own company's strengths.
I served as the project's manufacturing coordinator until 2018, bringing together about 100 small factories from across Ota Ward. I got to know factories beyond our usual partners, and had far more opportunities to visit their floors.
What I came to realize from seeing all these other small factories was: "There are companies with extraordinary technical skill that I could never hope to match." And also: "There are companies with almost no sales function, and companies that know nothing outside their own product line."
Ace Had Never Specialized in One Thing and Been Dominant at It
Ace had never specialized in one thing and been dominant at it, and for a long time I was embarrassed that we could "do anything." But actually, companies that truly "understand everything" and "can handle anything" are rarer than you'd think. I had been running the company without a clear vision — but for the first time, I felt like our reason to exist had come into focus.
From that point on, no matter what anyone said, I developed a strong conviction: we were going to double down on sales. It was after the earthquake that we started positioning "manufacturing sales" as the defining phrase for our company's strength.
The previous generation had always been strong at sales, but my predecessor seemed resistant to being thought of as a trading company. I've come to feel, though, that if we can confidently own that identity — push it further than anyone else — that's actually a good thing.
Today, we actively promote "manufacturing sales" as Ace's distinctive identity. We're developing our internal sales team, mentoring successors at small factories across Japan, and participating in numerous Ota Ward initiatives.
The "Ota Precision Vise" — Made Possible Through Collaboration with Ota Ward Factories
I took over a company I originally had no intention of running, for what were pretty passive reasons, with no real vision. But today I can see clearly where this company is going. Because I can't make things with my own hands, I have an even stronger conviction that we must never let the people who can disappear. Holding onto that feeling, Ace will continue to walk this path together with many partner companies.
If You're Interested in Ace, Please Feel Free to Reach Out
If you're interested in Ace, please feel free to reach out!
This interview article was produced by TIMEWELL, an online professional services firm.
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