"I think Monosus can do interesting things" - Director Matsunaga Satoru, 10 years on

Hello, I'm Sugimoto, a writer living in Kyoto.
Autumn was so short that I can hear the footsteps of winter approaching, and my fingertips are getting cold.

The person I interviewed this time was director Satoru Matsunaga. Whenever I go to the Yoyogi office, I can see him quietly staring at the screen and operating the keyboard on the first floor of the North building, and I've always wanted to talk to him about it. I once again introduced Mr. Matsunaga's history, and we talked about his work and his thoughts about Monosus.

For more information on Matsunaga-san, please read the member introduction article written by Kakurai-san . It's full of love.

A student life filled with music

Sugimoto : I heard you are from Okayama.

Matsunaga Okayama City and Kurashiki City were both about 15 minutes away by public transport in this commuter town. When I was a child, there were rice fields, so I would go to the irrigation channels to catch crayfish and play the Famicom. When I was in kindergarten, I begged my parents to buy me the first Super Mario Brothers.

When I entered Sugimoto University, I left Kurashiki and moved to Shikoku.

Matsunaga: I studied chemistry at the Faculty of Science at Ehime University. When I was a student, I played the bassoon, a woodwind instrument, in the orchestra. It's an instrument that's been around since the time of Bach, and is still used in modern music.

Sugimoto :Why did you choose the bassoon?

Matsunaga : Because it was rare (laughs). In wind orchestras, the bassoon is only found in large orchestras, but in a symphony orchestra, the bassoon is an almost essential instrument. I wanted to get better, so I practiced every day. It was also fun to organize our own concerts. We set up a budget, bought the tickets ourselves, rented a hall in the civic center, and held a concert once every six months. We had friends and it was fun to go out drinking, so I kind of got hooked.

Sugimoto: Are you still playing the bassoon?

Matsunaga : After I started working, I once joined a musical band, but I couldn't create an environment where I could continue playing music, so I gave up. If you don't play every day, your playing will get worse and worse, and there isn't enough time to practice.

The other day, a friend from junior high school, who still plays music, took me to a concert at a music store. The staff and customers were all musicians. They said, "If you can play an instrument, I'll lend you one," so I borrowed a bassoon and played it for the first time in over a decade. It was just as fun as I'd hoped. However, it's still difficult to create an environment to play music, so I'm hesitant to go.

From quality control to the apparel and shipping industries

Sugimoto : What did you do after you graduated from university?

I was employed by a dispatch company that provides contracted engineers specializing in Matsunaga Chemical Industry and was assigned to Tokyo. However, I was told that there were no jobs in the field of chemistry at the moment, so I ended up working in quality control at an electrical and electronics company that develops digital televisions. It was my first time working with programming when I was typing commands on Linux to carry out testing work.

I thought I would continue for three years, but I felt like I couldn't continue like this because it was routine work and I didn't talk to people at all during work. I wanted to go out and do anything, and since I liked clothes at the time, I joined Banana Republic, which is part of the GAP chain.

Sugimoto: The range from quality control to apparel is huge. What was it like working at a clothing store?

Matsunaga: I was happy when I could look at the customers and decide, "Oh, this person needs to be spoken to," and lend a hand. Personally, I really enjoyed figuring out how to accommodate people who were in trouble, like, "I don't have many clothes to wear" or "We don't have my size."

Marketing was also solid. In addition to inventory management, they analyzed data on customer traffic, average customer spending, and conversions. They compiled hourly sales data reported by staff via intercom and gave instructions like "This product is selling well, so let's sell it," or changed the display to say, "Pants were selling well this time last year, so let's put pants out this morning." I thought the operations were amazing.

I started at Banana Republic as a part-timer, so at one point I was working three jobs at once. I was dispatching testers, which I took over from my previous job, and I also opened my own e-commerce site to sell glow sticks.

Sugimoto : Aren't glow sticks like those glow sticks that fans wave at idol concerts?

Matsunaga : Yes. At the time, I was living in a share house with the son of a toy shop owner. I said to him, "Maybe you could sell it in small lots to individuals," and that's how I ended up creating an e-commerce site. After that, I became a contract employee at Banana Republic and started working full-time, and there I met my wife and got married. When my child was born, I thought, "It's a bit tough to continue like this," so I looked for a company where I could earn a decent salary and moved to the shipping industry.

What I really wanted to do when I was 32

From Sugimoto Apparel to shipping! Another rare development.

During his time as a shipboard transport operator in Seoul.

As an operator for Matsunaga Marine Transport, I mainly coordinated schedules between chemical tankers and the agencies and shippers at the ports where they would dock. I had no experience as a businessman, so I struggled at first to keep up with current topics. My boss told me to read the entire Nikkei newspaper every day, so I did. But it was really interesting. I could see the connection between the articles in the newspaper and the movement of raw materials being transported by ship. However, there were a lot of drinking parties, and I couldn't keep up because I'm not a big drinker.

Sugimoto: The salary is good and the work is interesting, but I can't drink alcohol and it makes me feel tired.

Matsunaga : Yes. That was the first time I thought, "What do I really want to do?" I enjoyed delivering products to where there was a need, and I was originally good at science and mathematics, so I enjoyed creating EC sites. When I was attending a vocational training school for web designers, I was introduced to Monosus. I received a job offer while I was still a student, so for a while I worked only half days and went to school in the evenings. That was in 2014, when I was 32 years old.

Actually, when I was working at a temp agency, I was interested in how fashion magazines work, so I went to a fashion PR vocational school once a week. I wasn't very good at writing press releases, but I was interested in the media. My current job at Monosus is to help with PR. Also, I was in marketing at Banana Republic, so I was familiar with terms used in web access analysis, such as "traffic" and "conversion." I joined Monosus with a vague idea that my previous work experience would be useful.

Sugimoto Matsunaga-san has an interest in communication work and wants to take on that role.

Matsunaga: I want people who don't know about it to know about it, and I want to let them know that there are great things out there. Even now, in my daily work, I try to think together with the people in charge about what we can do to convey what our customers want to say.

I have hopes that we can do something interesting.

Sugimoto: It's been 10 years since you joined Monosus, making this your longest tenure with the company. What's the reason for your longevity?

Matsunaga : The most important thing is that I have to earn money to take care of my family. But it's also great that I can do what I want to do. For example, when my second child was born in my fourth year after joining the company, I was surprised that Monosus recognized my male parental leave, which was a first for Monosus, and I was also happy that they thought about it together with me, saying, "So, what should we do about the current project?"

Monosus seems to be very flexible when it comes to "thinking and acting." If you say "I want to do this," they basically think in the direction that will allow you to do it. Maybe they feel that "this company might be able to do something."

Matsunaga, who is on parental leave, plays with her daughter after she returns from kindergarten.

Sugimoto: What do you want to do in your work from now on?

Matsunaga : I find them all interesting. I'm more interested in all of them than just one. I think that WOOD STOCK YARD run by Hayashi-san is interesting, as are Shashokuken's school lunches (Note: Kamiyama Marugoto Kosen "Marugoto Shokudo"), FarmMart & Friends , and Harazawa-san's "Hiker's Gin". I like them all, and it's a problem that I can't find "this", but on the other hand, maybe I can enjoy working on anything. However, if I do the same job for a long time, I want a change, so recently I've been thinking about bringing in a new wind.

Basically, I'm an optimistic person. In the short term, there may be times when I feel really bad and troubled, but in the long term, I don't really feel that way. I forget about it. I think I've been living a happy life (laughs).

Sugimoto : Ah, I wanted to ask you this. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic and full flextime was introduced, you still came to work, right? Do you live near the company?

Matsunaga : No, no, it's quite far away and the commute is stressful. Originally, I had work that could only be done on the terminals in the company. As for why I still go to the office, it's just because I feel like "I might as well come once in a while."

The members of my unit are in the East building, but I'm the only one in the North building. The reason is that there was a time when no one came to the North building during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sometimes when I came to use the conference room for a meeting, it felt like the building was dying because it was always closed. I thought it would be better to come once a week, turn on the air conditioners in all the rooms, open the windows and let in the breeze, so I moved to the North building where there was no one.

Sugimoto: It's like a secret conversation between Mr. Matsunaga and the building that no one knows about.

Matsunaga : I like this building. It feels like something we built ourselves, and it feels like a hideaway. It's old, but not really outdated, and I think it has a certain charm that's hard to describe.

After talking to him, I thought he lived up to his reputation of being "friendly and gentle," "trusted by people inside and outside the company," and "a father who protects his family." He makes you feel like you can let your guard down (in a good way) and that you can rely on him at the same time, which is what's so great about him. If Mr. Matsunaga was at the clothing store, I'd probably ask for advice. I'm sure I'll feel relieved and at ease if I see Mr. Matsunaga at the Yoyogi office from now on. If I have the chance to interview him again, I'd like to hear about Mr. Matsunaga as a professional.