Rakuten Today: Mickey's Voice

January 9, 2020 3 min read

Leaders go first

“That will never work. It’s crazy!” I hear it a lot. Even as CEO, there are plenty of times when someone looked at me and told me that the thing I’ve just said — a deadline, a goal, a new idea — is simply nuts. I’m used to it. What’s more, I have a tried-and-true plan to combat it. Whenever I propose an outlandish idea, I volunteer to go first. So when I announced to my Tokyo-based company in 2010…

December 5, 2019 3 min read

The Empowerment Solution

The first moment I truly understood empowerment, I was watching an early Rakuten team member start his day. We were young entrepreneurs and this was the late 90s. I was most likely wearing an oversized shirt of some kind (as was the look at the time). He was at his desk, reading the Wall Street Journal ⁠— not the paper copy he used to have to wait to have delivered from the Tokyo airport, a day af…

November 19, 2019 2 min read

Walk Together: A message for our times

In Japanese, the word “rakuten” means optimism. This outlook is the cornerstone of our brand. For everyone in the Rakuten group, optimism holds a special meaning. It’s a shared understanding that through our work today, we can make the future better ⁠— not just for us, but for everyone. “Everyone” means all people, not limited to company employees, customers or shareholders. As Rakuten…

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…