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Marubeni

Home / Posts Tagged "Marubeni"

Tag: Marubeni

Size matters when choosing a Japanese company

Whether you’re looking to work for or supply to a Japanese company, size matters.  The most obvious reason being, as bank robber Willie Sutton apparently never said, “that’s where the money is”.  That’s why we started our Top 30 Japanese Employers rankings  – we’ve found them useful in understanding our customer base and the likely concerns of participants in our seminars.

We use the number of employees as a proxy for size rather than turnover or profit, and although there is a degree of correlation between employee numbers globally and in Europe and overall profit, there are some exceptions.

Toyo Keizai have recently listed up the companies* who made the biggest cumulative profit in the past 10 years and it’s absolutely no surprise that Toyota, one of the biggest companies in Japan and #9 amongst Japanese companies in Europe, made a whopping Y11 trillion ($99bn) cumulative profit from 2007 to 2017, far outstripping NTT and NTT Docomo at #2 and #3 who made less than half that amount.  NTT and NTT Docomo are not in our Top 30 Japanese companies in Europe, although another group company, NTT Data, is.

However NTT and NTT Docomo never made a loss, whereas Toyota did go into the red – with a loss of $.8.6bn in 2008/9.  Honda, who has had a tough time in Europe (and is #23 in our rankings), has also never made a loss, and accumulated a $36bn profit over the decade.  Nissan, who made a loss but was famously turned round by Carlos Ghosn, is 10th largest in Europe in our rankings and has the 6th largest cumulative profit.

I was surprised to see my old employer Mitsubishi Corporation at #5, as they too had some rough patches particularly with losses in the commodity side, but clearly overall the Japanese trading companies have been very profitable, despite their death being heralded every decade – Mitsui is at #9, Itochu at #11, Sumitomo Corp at #14 and Marubeni at #21.

Unsurprisingly, almost none of the Japanese electronics companies feature in the top 30, apart from Canon at #10 and Mitsubishi Electric at #25.  Other industries in the top 50 most profitable are automotive (Denso, Bridgestone) and pharmaceutical (Takeda, Astellas) related, and also heavily domestic businesses such as telecommunications (KDDI, SoftBank as well as NTT mentioned above), rail and retail (7&I, Fast Retailing).

Two of the largest Japanese companies in Europe – Fujitsu and Hitachi – are at #69 and #70 – Hitachi’s cumulative profit was heavily dented by the historic loss of $8bn in 2008/9.  The largest company in the Europe and Africa region – Sumitomo Electric Industries (due to its labour intensive automotive manufacturing operations) is at #38, with a $6bn cumulative profit.

*Excludes banks, insurance and other financial services companies

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What Japanese banks, trading companies look for in graduate hiring

The graduate hiring process in Japan reaches a peak towards the end of the year, as the naitei (informal offers) from the big firms have mostly been issued, and the smaller firms and the unlucky graduates desperately try to find solace in each others’ arms.  The process is meant to start in April, when students put on identical suits and attend countless company presentations and interviews, thereby pretty much wiping the final year out in terms of getting any studying done.  Japan’s universities mostly function on the American credit system, so there is not the pressure of ‘finals’ as you get in British universities, however Japan’s academics regularly complain about the damage done to the educational experience by the system.   There have been attempts to move the start date to August, so that students can do some studying in the first term, but unfortunately, with a shortage of skilled labour, it’s too tempting for most firms not to try to buck the system.

The Nikkei Business magazine ran a series in December to guide students through the process, explaining what financial services companies and trading companies are looking for and offering.  I thought I would share it, as it gives a flavour of the corporate culture of these elite employers who are active outside Japan.  I was interested to see how much better paid on average the trading companies’ recruits are than the financial services companies, and that a global mindset is mentioned regularly amongst the financial services, but not by the trading companies – presumably a global outlook is taken for granted.

In terms of overseas experience, the Nikkei says that some of the bigger banks send out several hundred people a year to overseas postings, and this is not just to support Japanese companies overseas, but increasingly to build business with local companies too.  English ability is not compulsory, but likely to be offered as training after entry.

The image of trading company employees is that they have to be able to speak English, are strong drinkers and sporty.  The trading companies themselves say English ability is not compulsory and there are even some naitei offers to people who don’t have a passport.  However all trading companies point out that they usually expect one of the three rotations in the first 10 or so years to be overseas.  The trading companies say it is not necessary to drink, but obviously it’s a bit awkward if your counterpart is a brewery.  Sportiness is not actively sought, but it’s true that on campus recruitment by employees may well focus on students who were in the same club as them.

Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ

Offers naitei to 1300 graduates, starting salary is Y205,000 (around £1200) a month. Average salary of all employees is Y7.91m (around £46K). They are looking for healthy curiousity, and eagerness to take up challenges

Mizuho Financial Group

Offers naitei to 1920 graduates.  Starting salary the same as BTMU. Average salary of all employees is Y7.38m (around £43K).  They are looking for intellectual curiousity, a global mindset and dynamism.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking

Offers naitei to 1800 graduates.  Starting salary the same as BTMU and Mizuho. Average salary of all employees is Y8.79m (£51K).  They are looking for people who are good at building relationships and have a global awareness.

Nomura

Offers naitei to 600 graduates.  Starting salary is Y232,300 a month (£1350).  Average salary of all employees is Y11.93m (£69K).  They are looking for people with ambition, honesty and flexibility.

Daiwa

Offers naitei to around 690 graduates. Starting salary is Y240,000 a month (£1395). Average salary of all employees is Y10.02m (£58K). They are also looking for honesty but also a strong spirit of enquiry

Sompo Japan Nipponkoa

Offers naitei to around 750 graduates.  Starting salary is Y237,860 a month (£1383).  Average salary of all employees is Y6.6m  (£38K).  SJNK is looking for “ability to stand on your own feet”

 

Trading companies:

Itochu

Offers naitei to around 142 graduates (out of 7000 applications). Starting salary is Y240,000 (£1395). Average salary of all employees is Y13.95m (£81K).  They are looking for honesty and optimism

Mitsubishi Corporation

Offers naitei to around 160 graduates (out of 6000 applications).  Starting salary is the same as the other trading companies.  Average salary of all employees is Y13.75m (£80K). They are looking for trustworthiness, strength and intellectual ability.

Mitsui

Offer naitei to around 120-150 graduates (out of 6000 applications). Same starting salary as the other trading companies.  Average salary of all employees is Y13.61m (£79K).  They are looking for intellectual curiosity, ambition, ability to develop yourself

Sumitomo Corporation

Offer naitei to around 130 graduates (out of 7000 applications).  Same starting salary as the others.  Average salary of all employees is Y13m (£76K).  They are looking for ability to innovate, execute and collaborate

Marubeni

Offer naitei to around 122 graduates (out of 7700 applications).  Same starting salary as the others.  Average salary of all employees is Y13.06m (£76K).  They are looking for people who stand up for themselves and don’t run away (!)

For more content like this, subscribe to the free Rudlin Consulting Newsletter. 最新の在欧日系企業の状況については無料の月刊Rudlin Consulting ニューズレターにご登録ください。

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Most popular companies with Japanese graduates

I alway find the rankings published each year by various organisations in Japan of which companies are most favoured by university graduates fascinating reading, giving insights into how the economy and societal trends have impacted the reputation of Japan’s blue chips.

The Nikkei Business magazine has focused on the rankings produced by Rakuten’s social networking site for graduates, the biggest of its type in Japan, this year.

Travel companies seem to have done particularly well this year overall – All Nippon Airways is top of the rankings (up from #2) Japan Travel Bureau at #3 (up from 8) and JAL resurgent after its successful restructuring in at #4 from no rank last year.  Maybe this is due to the high profile activities of these companies in trying to get more tourists to Japan, especially in light of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Advertising agencies are also back in favour – Number 2 is Dentsu, the mammoth advertising agency (up from #3), Hakuhodo is at #6 up from #14 and ADK has risen from 112 to 78.

Banks have lost ground –  Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ has dropped to #5 from #1, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp slipped from #6 to #9 and Mizuho is down to #13 from #9 but insurance companies seem to be popular again – Sompo Japan is up to #65 from 128 and Sumitomo Life also rising from 151 to 68.

Other big fallers are Ajinomoto (down to #23 from #11), Mitsubishi Corporation (down to #26 from #13), P&G Japan (down from 10 to #39, whereas domestic rival Kao has improved from #23 to #11) and Canon (down at 94 from 54, presumably following some disappointing financial results in 2013), Lotte (down to 89 from 56), NTT Docomo (86 down from 52).

Graduates from the top ten universities heavily favoured trading companies (Mitsui, Mitsubishi Corp, Itochu, Marubeni and Sumitomo Corp all in their top 10) and advertising agencies (Dentsu and Hakuhodo)

Reasons for favouring certain companies:

I could become President, have authority to make decisions – trading companies ranked highest

I can become a specialist in a certain field and lead projects – Toyota, Kawasaki Heavy Industries

My seniors recommended it – Tokio Marine Insurance, Yokohama Bank, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ

My parents/teachers recommended it – All Nippon Airways, Japan Rail, Mitsubishi Corp, Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ

 

 

 

For more content like this, subscribe to the free Rudlin Consulting Newsletter. 最新の在欧日系企業の状況については無料の月刊Rudlin Consulting ニューズレターにご登録ください。

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Last updated by Pernille Rudlin at 2021-10-13.

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