New Business Acceleration​

[We need practical advice, not theory]

LiB: The first electric motorcycle (GFR-01) was released in 2017. After that, in the process of increasing the number of sales and distributors, your company decided to choose LiB from October 2020. Please tell us the background that led to the choosing of LiB consulting.
Narumi CEO: Marketing proposals were received from several companies. However, I didn’t know what points I could trust, and I had no intention of working with a company I had no relationship with. In that respect, LiB has a track record of supporting us in building our personnel evaluation system. The main reason is that we had a reliable track record and the timing was right when we wanted to work on digital marketing.

LiB: So you needed support to put it into practice at the business site, rather than textbook theory.
CEO Narumi: Yes. In that respect, I feel that it is similar to sports. Understanding how to move your body as a theory is different from actually moving your body. Marketing is also different from learning from textbooks and reflecting marketing in sales and public relations. When I was thinking about such a thing, LiB called out to me at the right time.

LiB: How did you feel when you actually worked with us?
Narumi, CEO: First of all, I felt that the field of marketing is wider than I thought. Many people think of marketing as promotion, such as how to put out effective advertisements, but it actually has a broader definition. I thought that few companies, including our company at the time, had a correct understanding of marketing. Also, even if you understand what marketing is, you will face the next problem of “what to do” and “how to do it”. Management is not something you learn at school, so you can’t spend an unlimited amount of time on it, and there is a limit to how much you can learn while making mistakes. To overcome this challenge, you need specific help from someone who really understands marketing. In that respect, I think that outsourcing consultants and the request to LiB was an important decision for our company.

[Matching with on-site members is the key to success]

LiB: Please tell us your evaluation of the support from LiB.
Narumi: The purpose of using consulting varies from company to company, such as buying time, buying wisdom, and buying resources. Our focus was buying certainty. I feel great value in LiB’s support in terms of ensuring that what I have learned is reflected in my work and that I am building a marketing mindset within the company.
Also, as a difference from other consulting firms, I felt that LiB really works side by side with us. I was able to get into the field and move hands and feet together with our members, and I could clearly see that they were providing support according to the level of each member.

LiB: Do you mean that you felt the LiB’s value of working on-site along with you?
CEO Narumi: Yes. I think it’s perfect. As a support policy of consulting companies, some companies only make plans and others support until execution. I recognize that LiB’s strength is that they put a lot of effort into applying it to the field, and I can sense the seriousness of the consultants. I think that it has also become a necessary human resource education in order to create an organization.

LiB: How has the company changed through LiB’s support?
Narumi, CEO: We achieved 1.3 times the number of contracts as quantitative results after we got support from LiB consulting. It was really amazing that we could achieve that number during COVID-19. Still, what I particularly really appreciate was qualitative result. The members were very motivated while working together with the consultant. As a result, my motivation also improved, I became motivated to study, and I understood how to study. I feel that the switch has definitely been turned on, and I personally think that this is the best effect of using consulting.

LiB: Lastly, please give a word to companies that are considering using consulting.
Narumi, CEO: Actually, when we received the proposal from LiB, we had already started talking to another consulting company. Different consulting companies have different ideas and policies regarding support, so I think it is important to identify the consulting company in terms of what they want to achieve and what kind of support they need to achieve that.

Also, even if we understand the explanation of the support content from consulting firms, at the start of the support, you do not know whether the company will really help you. Our company focused on marketing, but at the time of receiving the proposal, we had no choice but to believe that LiB’s consultant would tell us exactly what we wanted to know until we started. In that respect, I felt that LiB’s enthusiasm is worth believing.

From that point on, whether or not you want to learn from these people depends more on whether the on-site members and consultants are a good match, rather than whether the management and consultants are a good match. I think that choosing a consulting company that members want to work with and learn from is an important point in producing results in the introduction of consulting.