[Insight & Opinion] The Secret to Masayoshi Son's Success: Meticulous Analysis and Swift Decision-Making

Swift Response in Times of Crisis
Strengths in Analytical and Intuitive Abilities

Masayoshi Son, chairman of SoftBank, expressed his deep sorrow over the quarterly loss amounting to 30 trillion won and the worst stock price decline during the first quarter earnings announcement. To implicitly convey his feelings, he reportedly displayed a portrait of Tokugawa Ieyasu. This painting is said to have been created by Tokugawa Ieyasu himself after suffering a major defeat against Takeda Shingen’s forces, barely escaping with his life, and reflecting on his miserable state as a form of self-reflection.

Chairman Son is known to admire Sakamoto Ryoma. He regards Ryoma as a role model for his ability to read the major currents of the world centered on profit rather than ideology and to turn public opinion to his side. He has long revered Ryoma as a progressive revolutionary figure. A portrait of Ryoma is usually hung in his office. However, reflecting on his recent failures, he is now recalling the image of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Companies invested in by the SoftBank Vision Fund are posting large deficits, resulting in stock price drops of over 30%. The global stock market decline synchronized with the weakening of the yen has dealt a heavy blow to SoftBank.

From my personal experience having met and held several meetings with Chairman Son, he is a very meticulous yet intuitively quick person. In the early 2000s, when SoftBank began showing interest in the mobile communications business, I attended a discussion where he had lunch with a dosirak (lunchbox) while debating with executives. It was a meeting where they introduced the technology of the company I was working for and discussed their plans. During the hour-long discussion, Son said nothing and only listened, but at the end, he stood up and instructed the executives to sign contracts for ten thousand buildings in the Tokyo area to install base station antennas to test new mobile communication technology within a month, then left. He instinctively grasped what was needed for the next step and acted on it.

The plan to establish a mobile communication company with new technology was scrapped, and later SoftBank acquired Vodafone K.K., the third-largest company, and changed the corporate name to SoftBank. Ten years later, in 2011, a few days after the Fukushima earthquake, I received a message in the evening asking if a few people, including the chairman, could come to his office the next day. Although I thought it was rude and absurd, I accepted, wondering how urgent the proposal could be, and visited the next day.

The proposal was to urgently build a data center (IDC) in Korea to be used as a backup data center for Japanese companies, anticipating Japan’s power shortage after the earthquake. After reaching an agreement, the data center was built in Gimhae within a few months. Although the business did not proceed as planned, I was amazed at the swift decision-making in response to an emergency.

After several meetings and hearing his experiences, I was again impressed by his meticulousness as a businessman. This was about the acquisition of Vodafone. He explained the process of turning around a perennial loss-making company, Vodafone’s Japanese local subsidiary, into a successful business. To devise a market response strategy, he personally analyzed past call data records (CDR) for three months. This was essentially big data analysis done by himself. The result was the unlimited voice call offering and a 1+1 policy: buy one phone and get another free. Although they would not receive usage fees for one phone, the increase in connection fees from other carriers meant it was not a loss. This decision was based on that analysis. In this way, he possesses the tendency and ability to conduct meticulous analysis himself when necessary. He demonstrates the qualities of a successful entrepreneur.

Kim Hong-jin, CEO of Work Innovation Lab

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.