2518: Before You Submit That Entry Sheet—Do You Really Understand the Industry Hierarchy?

 

Through my shisha business in Kyoto, I’ve had the opportunity to meet many college students—future members of the workforce. As I’ve gotten to know them, one recurring topic has come up: how to choose the right company after graduation.

Some of them have even asked me for advice during their job-hunting journey. Interviews are happening. Offers are being considered. And a question I hear over and over again is:
“Does my choice make sense?”

What I’ve observed is that most of them are focused on short-term benefits—monthly income, allowances, and employee perks. Honestly, that’s natural. Many of us made our own first career decisions the same way. Few of us thought seriously about our long-term careers when we were 22. But what I want to highlight today is not about salary or benefits.

What Most Candidates Miss: Understanding the Industry Hierarchy

Here’s what’s been bothering me:
Very few students seem to understand where their potential employer stands in the industry structure.

When I ask them, “Do you know your future company’s buyers and sellers?” or “What position does this company occupy within the value chain?”—I usually get blank stares.

Let me give you a simple example.
In the car industry, it’s easy to imagine the hierarchy: manufacturers, parts suppliers, dealerships, service companies, raw material providers, etc. But if you take a company name in another industry, students often don’t have the framework to evaluate where it sits in the ecosystem.

This matters. A company’s role in the supply chain gives you clues about your potential responsibilities, career growth, and the kind of impact you’ll have.

Even within publicly listed companies, there’s a wide gap between being at the core of innovation and being a bulk commodity supplier. I’m not saying one is better than the other—every role is important. But students should know what they’re signing up for. The problem is, most don’t. Instead, they focus on brand recognition, number of employees, or surface-level corporate image.

Just check out any recent ranking of popular companies among graduates—you’ll see what I mean.

If you’re navigating the job-hunting season—or watching your child do so—I’d love to support you. Don’t just dance with the crowd. Let’s take a step back and think seriously about what kind of career you’re really building.

Career Fit Consulting??

I welcome your asking to help students (and their parents) find companies that truly align with their interests, strengths, and long-term goals.

2517 Losing Sight of the Goal: A Lesson from My Shisha Business

We often miss our goals when outcomes deviate from expectations. In those moments, it's tempting to reach for quick fixes—like patching a deep wound with a band-aid. But these stopgap measures rarely work. They fail because they don’t address the root causes, and more often than not, they lack a foundation in fact-based analysis.

Take my own experience with our shisha business. We’ve been hovering at the break-even point, so I asked our store manager, Kenji, for ideas on how to pivot toward stable profitability. Kenji, aware that our current status doesn’t inspire confidence among stakeholders, proposed a couple of ideas.

One was to partner with local companies and offer shisha sessions as part of their employee benefits—essentially a B2B approach to build a stable income base. The other was to provide consulting services for café operators.

Honestly, both suggestions made me uncomfortable. While creative, they felt misaligned with our original goal: to grow a high-quality shisha and café business. Especially the consulting idea—it’s simply too early. We’re still refining our own operations; it’s premature to advise others. He had a few other proposals as well, but none were grounded in the core objective we set for this fiscal year.

I shared my concerns with Kenji and reminded him of the balanced scorecard we created last month. I didn’t have to say much—Kenji is a sharp and capable team member. He immediately realized his proposals had strayed from the KPIs and strategic direction we had agreed upon. This is precisely why setting clear KPIs and aligning them with our mission, vision, and values (MVV) is so important. They serve as our compass.

I also encouraged him to revisit the business books I had previously recommended. He agreed, even saying he would purchase and read them. That small act reflects the kind of shared learning culture we’re trying to build.

This episode illustrates how easy it is to drift from your original purpose—to fall into what I call “the cliff.” We forget our golden rules, lose our direction, and end up reacting instead of acting. But having a well-defined MVV, clear goals, and measurable KPIs keeps us anchored.

I’m now reflecting on how to truly turn our business around, not through detours, but by returning to the fundamentals we committed to at the beginning of this fiscal year.