Mr. Ishikawa Akira has almost 20 years of experience in the technology field and has successfully completed many large-scale projects. He is an expert in offshore development. He has a wide range of professional knowledge, a wealth of work experience, and a professional attitude. He has earned the trust of all his colleagues and was appointed as the Director of NCJ (a company that provides high-value Upstream services).

Never give up, no matter how hard it is

To achieve his current success, he had to overcome many challenges and work in different positions.

Right after graduation, Mr. Ishikawa started working at an information system integration company. He recalled that most of his work required him to work independently, do his own research and problem-solving. However, the internet was not widely available then, so he had to learn more about the industry and his job by visiting libraries and bookstores and reading books from basic to advanced levels.

In 2004, he joined a subsidiary of Japan's Softbank Group to pursue his passion for technology. This was where he developed his interest in programming and also where he connected with NTQ later.

He believes that one cannot succeed without dedicating all his time and attention to his goals. Moreover, programming is not like playing a sport or cooking a dish, where you can see the results quickly. To create a software or a website with many features, one needs to be patient and learn from the basics.

Therefore, he spent his evenings, weekends, and sometimes until 2 or 3 a.m. learning more about programming while working. He kept doing this for many years. It was tough, but every time he discovered something new, wrote a line of code, or ran a program, he felt a sense of joy.

Mr. Ishikawa does not see programming as a boring job, where he sits in front of a computer and does the same tasks. He finds happiness from the things he creates with his computer. It is a process that demands creativity, logic, exploration, and analysis.

His perspective is influenced by the famous Monozukuri philosophy in Japan, which means 'making things'. Monozukuri is not just about producing products, but also about the process, the skills, the spirit, and the passion involved in making high-quality products.

The number one priority is NTQ Consulting Japan

Mr. Ishikawa vividly remembers his first collaboration with NTQ Solution as a customer in 2017. He was anxious and nervous because he had never worked with an offshore company before. He did not know their capabilities, their coordination, or their work style. But to his surprise, NTQ gave him a completely different experience from what he expected. NTQ's professionalism, technical expertise, Japanese communication skills, and proactive proposals made the project a success, meeting all the criteria of cost, time, and quality.

That was also a strong motivation for Mr. Ishikawa to partner with NTQ again and establish NTQ Consulting Japan to deliver similar experiences to other customers.

Of course, every new venture has its challenges. At first, he wondered how to win over offshore customers because some previous failures in onshore projects had created a barrier for him. "If working with Japanese people, who share the same language and culture, has failed, then how hard is it to switch to offshore?", he thought.

The more he thought about it, the more he understood. "If working onshore, one piece of information can be conveyed once, then to be successful in offshore work, one piece of information must be conveyed two or three times more." And so he applied it, gradually building trust with customers and making everything run more smoothly, ensuring project quality.

Not only devoted and accountable to customers, NCJ's "big brother" is also loved by everyone for his dedication and willingness to support his team members. For him, the development of an organization depends on the development of the individuals in it. He always wants to create an environment where people can grow and improve continuously. "Only when you see your own development in parallel with the development of the organization, will you have the motivation to stay together for a long time and go further together," Mr. Ishikawa said.

His only goal at this time is to focus entirely on his "child" NCJ, which is to expand the staff size to 25 members, and at the same time develop NCJ's own new service offering, separate from NTQ Solution.

At the end of the conversation, Mr. Ishikawa shared more about the potential for offshore development in Japan by Vietnamese companies. He said that it is still very large, because Japan's population is decreasing, the number of system engineers is still relatively small, and at the same time, many Japanese businesses are looking to move away from China. Vietnam will be the "perfect choice" when it comes to quality and human resources.

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*This article is part of the series: "NTQ Rubik - series about NTQ people across the globe." 

As a Global IT Service Provider, NTQ Solution aims to create a working environment that brings together diverse technological talents with a shared passion, ambition, and unity to innovate and propagate numerous values. At NTQ Solution, we empower our employees to "shine" by providing them with a diverse, free, and flexible space to hone their skills and conquer the global market.