Taking on the AI-Anchored Triangle Strategy with the Resolve to "Create the Winner" — Interview with Executive Officer Yamasaki

2025.07.26

After building his career at Nomura Securities, Meta, and Netflix, and running his own company for seven years, Yamasaki recently decided to pursue an M&A with enableX. We asked him about the background and his ambitious vision for the value uplift of listed companies.

From finance to tech companies, then entrepreneurship — a marketing career that spans the globe

— First, please tell us about your career so far.

I joined Nomura Securities as a new graduate and worked in retail sales for about two years. I then wanted to take on a different domain, so I moved to NGI Group (now United). It was there that I got involved in internet advertising for the first time. At United I was fortunately assigned to the overseas business division and gained experience in cold-call sales abroad. Internet advertising at the time was still quite analog, and securing ad inventory was paramount, so I went after overseas ad inventory — doing overseas sales for about a year in places like New York.

However, the overseas business ultimately did not succeed and was shut down. Around that time I got to know someone at Facebook (now Meta), who suggested, "We're about to scale up the Japan subsidiary — would you like to apply?" I interviewed and joined the company.

— What kind of experience did you gain at Meta?

At Meta I spent about two years on ad sales in Japan, covering a broad range of customers from ventures to enterprise companies.

Following a change in our team structure, I was given the opportunity to be based in Singapore. There I primarily supported Japanese ad agencies and worked with overseas advertisers for about two years.

Around that time, a recruiter from my Meta days had moved to Netflix and reached out: "Are you interested in Netflix?" I was debating between starting my own company and changing jobs, but Netflix was at a fascinating phase, so I decided to join as Head of Digital Marketing.

— And then you started your own company.

After about two and a half years of entertainment marketing at Netflix, I founded my own company, "Minato." After running it for about seven years, I came to join enableX.

At Minato I started as a solo founder, handling everything from sales to delivery. At Netflix we placed great importance on quantitative and qualitative research, so I felt "Japanese companies should also pursue this more rigorously." I therefore launched a marketing consulting practice that included driving that kind of research.

As we scaled our marketing consulting, we saw that for e-commerce (EC) companies — against the backdrop of stricter pharmaceuticals and medical device regulations and rising ad CPMs — direct-response customer acquisition was becoming difficult. Sensing the need for multichannel strategy spanning not only owned EC but also marketplace platforms, we launched a business that supports EC marketplace operations.

We also focused on the challenges in influencer marketing and launched and now operate a business that connects companies directly with influencers.

A management philosophy of "Going beyond expectations is love" — contributing to the Japanese economy

— What have you valued most in seven years of management?

Personally, I have a strong wish to energize the Japanese economy. With two children of my own, I feel that "if things continue as they are, Japan faces real headwinds." Precisely because of that, I run my business on the belief that if Japan thrives, we thrive too.

Minato's mission is "Keep taking on challenges in interesting domains." How much we can focus on interesting domains — and whether we can hit the center pin — is what matters most, in my view.

There are three values I place particular weight on.

The first is "Do challenge" — a posture of proactively taking on challenges.

The second is "Do drive" — driving things forward on your own. It is the venture mindset of taking a ball passed to you and moving it forward with energy.

The third is "Do delight" — a posture of bringing joy to and engaging the other side. The conviction packed into this is, "Going beyond expectations is love." Exceeding the other side's expectations is, I believe, the essence of work performed with love, and the key to earning trust.

A decision looking five years out — the evolution of AI and the future of the business

**— Why did you consider M&A as an option, and enableX?**

Actually, I had been considering M&A for about six months. There are three main reasons.

The first is talent acquisition. As we aim for growth, recruiting specialized talent — starting with the marketing domain — is a shared challenge across our industry. Through the M&A with enableX, by becoming an organization that can offer a more attractive environment for growth and more diverse career paths, we want to build a place where excellent people gather and thrive.

The second is the evolution of AI. Given the rapid advance of AI technology, I had the sense that the time had come to further evolve our current business model and to take on the creation of new value powered by technology. By combining the strengths of enableX and Minato, I feel we can produce industry-leading, innovative services.

The third is sales' dependence on individuals. With enableX, I felt we could share the sales know-how we have accumulated with more members and build a robust sales organization capable of sustained growth.

In truth, I was also in discussions with one other company, but when I spoke with enableX's CEO Kemmochi, I found their business model — combining AI solutions to deliver value to clients — exceptionally compelling. In particular, the work that enableX does is in domains I had not touched before, and with no prior strategy or IT consulting experience, AI and IT consulting were entirely new territory for me. Part of choosing the harder path was about leveling myself up as well.

Strategy × IT Solutions × Hands-on Delivery — the AI-anchored triangle strategy

**— enableX — please tell us about your vision going forward.**

enableX is, I believe, aiming to be a firm that integrates the three elements of "strategy formulation," "IT solutions," and "hands-on delivery" with AI, providing clients with comprehensive support.

What is unique about enableX is that we do not stop at strategy consulting — we accompany clients through execution and can combine AI with IT implementation. From that position, co-creation of new businesses and launching our own ventures are also possible.

On a personal ambition: enableX is also designing the launch of a fund, and within that, I want to engage with listed companies that face challenges in business growth and take on their value uplift. enableX is still a small company, but as long as we have the capital, I believe we can engage with parts of the management and finance of listed companies.

For companies grappling with their market capitalization, we provide our insight, AI solutions, and talent, creating synergy and co-creating with them. Realizing value uplift alongside listed companies with which we have capital relationships would, I think, be exceptionally exciting.

**— What synergies do you expect from the M&A?**

Within our existing businesses, if enableX secures upstream engagements and we cross-sell and upsell — including hands-on delivery — that creates significant synergy.

And while Minato's sales strength generates leads, there are also leads going underutilized today. By passing those leads to enableX, I expect mutual referral synergies to emerge.

An organization where the bar for what is taken for granted is high — looking for colleagues to "create the winner" together

**— What is appealing about enableX?**

Put simply, enableX members are genuinely committed to delivering value to clients. And not just value — exceptionally high value.

The level of the output is also high, with discussion papers at the sales stage already showing very deep thinking. Preparation, communication, the actual delivery, project management — across all of these, the bar for what is taken for granted is high.

It applies to the intellectual contribution as well as to intellectual stamina. You can really sense the resolve to face the client head-on and see things through.

Whether you see this as appealing or as a negative depends on the person, but enableX is still an early-stage company. Many things are not yet in place, and everyone is facing those challenges with single-minded, forward-leaning energy, constantly trying to push through walls. That is the major appeal I felt after starting to work with them.

— What kind of person do you want to work with?

What I always emphasize is not "riding the winning horse" but "creating the winning horse." That, I think, is what makes the work compelling — and what matters.

If you are coming to a company at the stage enableX is at, I want you to take on things that could not be done within existing frameworks, or things that are difficult to do inside a large enterprise. Together we create the winner — we set out to build the winning team. I want to work with people who can enjoy the process of creating it. This is the world of business, and unless we set out to win, the value you can grow as an individual will not rise either.

Let's create the winner together at enableX.