Rakuten Today: Mickey's Voice

Why Rakuten's partnership with Tokyo Fashion Week, which will rebrand the event as Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo, makes sense for Japan's designers, shoppers and more.

October 16, 2019 2 min read

Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo: Empowering Fashion

This summer we announced a partnership with Tokyo Fashion Week that will rebrand the biannual showcase of Japanese style as Rakuten Fashion Week Tokyo. We’re proud and honored to partner with one of the world’s premier fashion events. The reasons for this partnership are many and just one of those is about a special connection that takes us back to our roots. Rakuten was conceived and launch…

Speed is important, not just because it gets you out in front early, but also because it generates momentum for your project.

September 30, 2019 3 min read

How to navigate the business world at speed

In the early days of the internet, success was all about first-mover advantage — and speed was a part of that thinking. In fact, that need for speed was the genesis of one of our five guiding principles at Rakuten: Speed!! Speed!! Speed!! But over the years, the quest for speed has led us to new understandings. Speed is important, not just because it gets you out in front early, but also because i…

Although our partnership with KonMari Media is new, we have been in sync with her philosophical outlook since the inception of Rakuten.

September 18, 2019 3 min read

Why we’re partnering with Marie Kondo

A global company like Rakuten has many partnerships — from sports to tech and beyond — but few are more personally resonant to me than the one we recently announced with Marie Kondo. Marie Kondo, also known by her nickname “Konmari,” is an international phenomenon. She successfully grew her “tidying up” business from a startup when she was a 19-year-old university student in Tokyo to the media sen…

A successful company is one that has shikumi, or strong strong frameworks for execution that can be applied to all manner of initiatives.

August 30, 2019 2 min read

Shikumi: The power of frameworks

The best companies are not powered by their products and services alone. A successful company is one that has strong frameworks ⁠— structures and consistent processes for execution that can be applied to all manner of initiatives. When an industry evolves ⁠— or as is more frequent these days ⁠— is upended through new technology, being able to draw from a base of sturdy, common frameworks allows a…

I believe in the potential of technology to boost economic growth and improve our lives in real, tangible ways. Forget fear. Embrace optimism.

July 30, 2019 3 min read

Why choose optimism

These days, there is much discussion about the rise of AI and machine learning, the use of data and the influence of technology on our daily lives. Like any tool, technology can be misused. I won’t downplay that reality. That said, I’m ultimately optimistic about the potential of technology to boost economic growth and improve our lives in real, tangible ways. I’m also optimistic that, alongside o…

Despite the many important choices any CEO makes each day, it’s rare that they spend the time to actually reflect on the way they make decisions.

July 11, 2019 2 min read

How to make decisions like a CEO

I like to think of myself as a founder and entrepreneur. But my job is also to be the CEO of Rakuten. And perhaps my greatest responsibility as CEO is to make decisions that will positively impact the company, our employees and society. Recently, during a Q&A session at the company-wide morning meeting that we call Asakai, an employee asked me how I go about making decisions. It was simple que…

How do you take a collection of disparate parts & form them into a robust ecosystem that supports your customers' needs? Here are some essential ingredients

June 21, 2019 2 min read

Building a consumer-focused ecosystem

Global conglomerates are everywhere; large companies that offer a wide range of products and services, seeking out efficiencies of scale and new synergies. At Rakuten, we’ve taken the concept a step further. We, like many global companies, have many divisions under one brand. We offer e-commerce, entertainment, financial services, logistics and mobile messaging, just to name a few; all operating u…

A simple concept may work well for a time, but it may act as a hurdle to future innovation and evolution. Unchecked, simplicity can become a trap.

May 22, 2019 2 min read

Simplicity: It’s Complicated

Many experts argue the case for business simplicity. A simple product or service is appealing to customers, popular with investors and can be cost effective to deliver. It’s no surprise then that simplicity has become such a buzzword in corporate circles. But while simplicity has its merits, it can also have downsides. Companies that over-index on simplicity risk long-term health. A simple concept…

The cashless future is coming and it will be a boon to both businesses and customers

April 26, 2019 2 min read

The cashless future is coming: why businesses should embrace it

Someday soon, money as we know it — the bills and coins we count and carry with us — will be as quaint and collectible as vinyl records. Consumers are already comfortable with credit and debit cards, and mobile payment apps like Rakuten Pay, the QR code payment platform most frequently used by Japan smartphone users, are quickly growing in popularity around the world. Now the next evolution is upo…

Rakuten CEO Mikitani makes a point of speaking directly to employees around the world, answering their questions and explaining the reasons behind major company decisions, a practice critical to generating – and maintaining – buy-in.

April 10, 2019 3 min read

Getting your team on board

After the publication of her book on the language of global success, Harvard Business School professor Tsedal Neeley came to visit us at Rakuten Crimson House in Tokyo and share her thoughts on helping to chart the early success of our Englishnization Project. At our all-hands meeting, she highlighted several reasons for our success in the process of adopting English as our corporate language. One…