I want to do everything I can, one thing at a time, carefully. Director Oyabu Hiroyuki is someone you would want to work with again.

This month's MVP award goes to Hiroyuki Oyabu from the Creative Department, who has received repeat orders for several large-scale BtoB corporate website projects.
Usually, once a corporate website in the B2B industry undergoes a major renewal, it is left in place for several years. In this article, we will introduce the results achieved by Oyabu, which boasts by far the highest number of repeat orders, and the work that supports them.

"Oyabu-san, please nominate me!"

The other day, we finished a major project and held a social gathering (at a beer garden) with a client in preparation for the next project.
Here's a comment from a customer there.

"I'd definitely like to hire Mr. Oyabu for my next job! What? Do I need to pay a nomination fee? (laughs)"

I was so happy to receive such words.

In the job of directing, where there is no set "right answer," when a project is finished, the director's mind is filled with thoughts of regret and improvement, such as, "I should have done this," or "I could have done it that way."

That's why, for us who are contracted to do production, it is a joyous and proud moment when a client requests us to do a repeat project. And that too by request! Oyabu must have felt more than anyone else that he received high praise for his direction, an aspect that is difficult to see.

Our goal is to provide work that our customers can be proud of.

"Doing work that makes customers happy"

This is an expression that is often used easily, but putting it into practice at work is not as easy as it sounds.

When you are entrusted with web production as a job, you are bound to have tight deadlines and limited budgets. Sometimes you cannot meet all of the customer's requests. In such cases, you need to distinguish between requests that you cannot afford to miss and those that you must decline or respond with an alternative solution.

You also have to think about the end users, who are your "customers' customers," even if the customer you're in charge of may not be aware of them, and in the case of a B2B corporate website, you need to consider how it will appear to people other than the direct customers, such as PR, HR, sales, development, and manufacturing. Sometimes you have to decide whether to carry out instructions from a customer who is inexperienced in ordering web production as instructed, or to propose something different.
The response of the director at any given time will greatly affect how much we can maximize the customer's "delight" once the project is finally completed and in operation.

Oyabu does not just think about the person in front of him, but also thinks about the various people beyond them.
Sometimes I suggest things from a web perspective that the person in charge has not noticed, and I listen carefully to the customer's opinions to find out the original intentions behind them. By carefully accumulating small things, I do not "face" the customer, but rather "face the same direction" and direct the web production.
Therefore, the results of Oyabu's work are directly linked to the clients' own success, which in turn earns him the trust of his clients.

In this way, Oyabuchi is increasing the number of long-term customers.

The stairs we just climbed and the stairs we will climb from now on

Of course, Oyabu's career as a director didn't always go smoothly from the beginning.
I can laugh when I look back on it now, but there were times when customers would bang on the table and yell at me, there were times when I would get into loud arguments with the production team in the office like children, and at one point, Oyabu himself stormed out of the company, leaving behind a parting shot of "I can't do this anymore!"

I believe that it is entirely due to Oyabu's tireless efforts that he has been able to win the trust of his customers and become a respected presence among production staff and sales representatives both inside and outside the company.

"After I made a big mistake, I decided to do whatever I could."

In his acceptance speech, Oyabu himself spoke about his attitude towards his work. He works later than anyone else and tackles each task carefully. He is especially diligent in preparing for any areas that concern or worry him.

When I encountered a case for the first time as a director in a certain project, I was preparing for a meeting. I had prepared countless possible questions and answers, such as "If the customer says A, answer B, if they say C, answer D...", and created meeting notes that simulated the situation like a flow chart.

Among them were many completely impossible questions and assumptions that seemed off the mark, and I watched from the sidelines and thought, "Why go that far?" But when the meeting actually came, one question out of the dozens that had been prepared came up! Oyabu answered smoothly and confidently, as if he had known the content he had desperately researched the night before from the beginning.
I will never forget the moment the customer's expression changed to one of trust, as if to say, "I can leave it to this person."

He thoroughly prepares for any areas where he feels he still lacks skills or experience. He does everything he can. Each of Oyabu's everyday invisible efforts was conveyed to the customer, leading to his receiving the MVP award.

Oyabu's acceptance speech ended with words that seemed both reassuring and annoying.

"Right now I'm thinking about how to win the next MVP award."

The MVP award was announced just after the kickoff meeting for a new challenge that involved a bit of stretching for Oyabu.
That day, Oyabuchi seemed to be already looking ahead to his next stage.