With the goal of creating a globally recognized brand from a developing country, Motherhouse began manufacturing bags in Bangladesh in 2006. As of 2023, the company has factories and workshops for bags, jewelry, and apparel in six countries, and operates 6 of its own stores in three countries around the world.

The person who built Motherhouse together with the company's representative, Eriko Yamaguchi, was the vice president, Daisuke Yamazaki. However, when they co-founded Motherhouse, Yamazaki was still an employee of Goldman Sachs.

Why did he choose to give up a career that everyone would envy and work at Motherhouse? How did he create a company together with Yamaguchi, who he describes as "a different type of person"? Furthermore, how did he realize his dream of "creating a globally recognized brand from a developing country"? We asked Yamazaki, who also runs a seminar to train idealistic managers, for some hints on how to put your dreams into shape.

Vice President, Motherhouse Co., Ltd.
Daisuke Yamazaki

Born in Tokyo in 1980. After graduating from the Faculty of Policy Management at Keio University, he joined Goldman Sachs Securities as an economist. He decided to get involved in the management of Motherhouse Co., Ltd., which he had been involved with since before the company was founded, and was appointed Executive Vice President in 07, and Representative Executive Vice President in 19. He travels abroad, mainly to developing countries, and is involved in both marketing and production. He presides over the management seminar "Warm Heart, Cool Head," which aims to "give shape to ideas." He also serves as an outside director of Que Co., Ltd. and an external director of the Japan Blind Football Association.

During my student days, we discussed the absurdity of capitalism

--What are your thoughts behind why you founded Motherhouse and are still taking on new challenges today?

My origins lie in my past, when I grew up in a single-parent household. Since my student days, I had been working part-time to earn a living, and it was a very difficult time. I was fortunate to be able to go to college on a scholarship, but I felt the absurdity of society.

I started to seriously study society and the economy after I entered university. It all started when I was shooting a documentary about street children in Vietnam. I was planning to do something for people suffering from poverty and inequality, but I saw something unexpected.

Even though they lived in poverty, the children of Vietnam were cheerful and positive, and spoke of their dreams."What is poverty and what is true wealth?"It made me think.

Then, searching for the true nature of wealth, I came across economics and joined an economics seminar at university. Yamaguchi (Motherhouse founder Eriko Yamaguchi) was a year younger than me in that seminar. From our university days, we talked about social issues such as how people are left behind by capitalism and how to eliminate poverty.

--After graduation, you both took different paths.

That's right. I decided to get to know the heart of financial capitalism and started working as an economist at Goldman Sachs, while Yamaguchi went on to graduate school in Bangladesh, which was the poorest country in Asia at the time, to experience the situation on the ground in a developing country.

It was at this time that she created the first Motherhouse bag.

It all started when he was doing an internship at a trading company while attending graduate school and visited a local apparel factory. He saw local craftsmen being forced to make cheap clothes for less than a dollar a piece by Western companies. Yamaguchi was skeptical of the structure that forced them to work for low wages for the profits of large corporations and prevented them from escaping poverty, and wanted to provide them with a place where they could work in a good environment, so he started manufacturing bags using local jute, a type of hemp.

-- At this time, you were still working as an economist. How did you end up founding Motherhouse?

A few years later, after graduating from graduate school, she came to me and said, "Yamazaki-san, I made a bag, please buy it!" The bag she had was of such high quality that it was hard to believe it was made in a developing country. I was so inspired by her initiative that I decided to help her with her activities.

We decided that if we were to do this seriously, we should have a company, so we pooled our capital and founded Motherhouse. However, I am still an ordinary company employee. At the time, I was involved in a pro bono way, and I never thought I would be working as fully committed as I am now.

Learning the possibilities, challenges, and joys of business and becoming a vice president

--Why did you decide to seriously change jobs to Motherhouse?

There were three main triggers.

The first was an encounter with a certain business owner. We happened to be having a meal together, and when I asked him, "What business are you paying attention to right now?" he answered, "Euglena." He went on to say enthusiastically, "If we can cultivate it in pure culture and encapsulate it, we may be able to solve nutritional deficiencies in people in developing countries."

Seeing him talk about the mission of his business, rather than how to make money, sparked my interest in business. If you pursue something that you find interesting, and it solves the problems that many people face, it can become a big business.Business is an efficient way to have some kind of impact on society.I found out that it was.

The second opportunity came soon after Motherhouse was founded. I had the experience of selling bags at a department store event. I was in the store from 2am to 10pm, trying to attract customers, but only managed to sell one bag.The difficulty of "selling a 15,000 yen bag"I understand.

As an economist, I saw billions and billions of yen flowing through the economy.I don't understand anything about economicsI decided to quit my job because I didn't want to be the kind of person who talks about the economy in a condescending way without knowing anything about it.

——So you learned about the possibilities and difficulties of business. What was the third trigger?

The 3 one isI saw Yamaguchi take ownership of his business and grow it at an incredible speed..

At the time, there was no social media and the bags didn't sell at all, so I gathered friends of my generation who worked at trading companies and consulting firms at my house and held sales meetings every night. We really struggled to sell, but through that trial and error, she was greedily absorbing all kinds of things.

On the other hand, I was somehow not interested in the work at the company and only thought of it as a good training opportunity. I was no match for her, who had a strong sense of ownership and commitment. At the same time, I enjoyed the time we spent frantically discussing things with our colleagues.

Realize the possibilities of business, understand the difficulties of business, and discover the meaning and joy of working on business with a sense of ownership.I learned this and before I knew it, I had become the vice president of Motherhouse.

--Was it Mr. Yamaguchi's presence that was the deciding factor?

That's right. She has something I don't have. She can act before she thinks. At the time, I was the type of person who only thought and didn't act enough. Although our personalities were completely different, I thought I could do something interesting with her.

When creating something together with others, "altruism" is essential

--And then, as president and vice president, what kind of division of roles did you have in running the business?

When we first started the company, we didn't think about it at all. We may have had vague areas of expertise, but we did everything together. I'm still conscious of that stance. We discuss products and designs together, and although we may be thought of as creators, Yamaguchi is involved in all aspects of management.

The reason we have been able to continue together is because we have tried not to divide up roles as much as possibleThe more overlapping our roles are, the more we inevitably clash, but I think that's exactly why we were able to understand each other.

--What kind of person do you think you could work with, even if you were different types?

First,Having a common missionEven if the way of climbing is different, the mountain we are aiming for is the same.

Moreover"Altruism"I think it's important to be altruistic. Altruism is about thinking about others beyond your own interests. If both of you can trust that "this person is not doing this for themselves," you can overcome conflicts.

It seems to me that companies and projects that fall apart midway often lack "altruism."

-- Is altruism something we're born with, or can it be cultivated?

I think it's something that can be cultivated. Not everyone has an altruistic heart from the beginning. The motivation for starting to climb a mountain is different for each person.

The other day, I was speaking at a conference where many business leaders gathered, and I heard an interesting story. They were all business leaders of companies with a scale of 100 to 200 billion yen, but the origins of their ambitions were all different. Some had inherited the company, some had been invited by someone like me, some were motivated by a painful experience, and some just wanted to get revenge on someone.

But in the end,As I continued to climb the mountain, I developed an altruistic mindsetThat's what I say.

—— That's an interesting story.

What everyone said was the same: when you're climbing to reach the summit, it gets so hard that you can't even think about the mission. It's so hard that you just have to keep climbing.

At times like that, you can't keep climbing if you are only interested in yourself, such as "I want to be rich" or "I want to be appreciated." If you put yourself first, it's easier to sell your business along the way.

To keep climbing, you need something more than just personal success; you need to want to help someone.I think that as they continue, many people develop a more altruistic spirit.

Refine your methods to deliver the value you want to deliver

--What were the difficulties and hardships you faced in running the Motherhouse business?

It was difficult to get everyone to recognize the "value of developing countries." When we first started, no one thought that "you can make good things in developing countries," and no one appreciated it. Forty years ago, we might have been criticized for "reducing jobs for Japanese craftsmen."

So Motherhouse has focused on "fashion." Rather than directly conveying the "values ​​of developing countries,"We have refined and communicated the value of the HOW of fashionable products.Hm.

- How should you think about the approach?

The way to approach"Left-brained or right-brained" x "plus or minus"There are four types of matrix. The left brain is an approach that explains things theoretically, and the right brain is an approach that appeals to the senses. Plus is a positive approach, and minus is a negative approach. You need to combine these according to the "value" you want to convey.

Also, when considering how to approach something, it is important to consider "who you are delivering to." If Motherhouse had tried to deliver value only to "people who want to solve poverty in developing countries," I think they would have taken a different approach.

We wanted to broaden our reach even further, to reach people who are not interested in developing countries but are aware of poverty, or who simply want a nice bag. That's why we chose the HOW of the product, which is its fashionability.Clarifying who you want to reach and how you want to reach them, and refining your HOWI think it's important.

—— I think it's not just about delivering value to customers, but also to internal members. Motherhouse has 900 members, including part-time workers. How do you approach this?

In the same way, we have been conveying value through our products. Products are always touched by everyone involved in manufacturing, distribution, and sales. We have been trying to inject value into them.

Even now, when a new product is completed, Yamaguchi himself carefully explains the background of the product. He sometimes even invites the craftsmen to appear and sets up an event-like space.

This is not only possible for tangible products, but also for intangible services. It is important to talk about what value your product, service, or project provides to whom.

It is important to have big stories like your vision, mission, and values, but at the same time, it is important to convey small stories about whose lives have been changed and how.However, I believe it is important to remain an organization that continues to believe in its values.

Talk about what you want to do, not who you are

-- Since 2018, you have been running the "Management Seminar for Turning Ideas into Reality," which has produced many people who are trying to give shape to their ideas and values. Why did you start this type of activity?

The "Management Seminar for Turning Your Ideas into Reality" has two programs: one that aims to create a business scale of 1 million yen, and one that aims to create a business scale of 10 billion yen. I am particularly interested inThe world would be a richer place if there were hundreds of thousands of interesting, sustainable companies on the 1 million yen scale.I think.

This is because it can be said to be a society where diverse values ​​are recognized. We train managers who can express values ​​that have been overlooked in the financial capitalist world of "scale is good" as businesses with scales of 1 million yen.

-- Is this a value that has been overlooked in the world of financial capitalism?

Basically, it is platform providers that can become the unicorn companies that financial capitalism demands. However, what makes a platform attractive is the variety of interesting content it offers. A travel search platform has value because it offers a wide variety of tours.

Nevertheless,The current economic system lacks respect for content creatorsI think so. The structure is such that platform providers extract profits. As a result, the number of people who want to become platform providers is increasing, and the number of people who simply create content is decreasing.

That's why I want to increase the number of people who create businesses and content worth 1 million yen.If various values ​​were accepted by society, society would become more diverse and prosperous..

-- A society in which each individual can create and deliver "value," even if it's small, is a rich one. For those who want to give shape to their own value, where should they start?

Talking to a lot of people about what you want to do or what you think is a problemThat's right. I didn't take the first step myself. It was because I had talked with Yamaguchi during my university days that she brought me the bag.

I don't think there are many people who can start from scratch on their own. People like Yamaguchi are outliers. Not everyone needs to be like that, but we can increase the chances of meeting people like that, being needed, and being approached by them.

When expressing your thoughts, it is important to"What do you want to do, not who you are?"The Japanese place great importance on "who you are," so I think it's difficult unless you're conscious of it.A place where you are questioned as a personPlease go and check it out.

For example, I think it's a good idea to get involved in an activity that you want to support even if there is no financial return. If you feel that the act of being involved is itself a return, it will naturally bring out the human side of you.

By continuing to speak about your pure feelings, you will gain more friends and your feelings will become clearer. If you want to give shape to your own values, please give it a try.

[Interview and text] Fumiaki Sato　
[photograph]Daisuke Koike
[Planning and editing] Yuko Kawabata (XICA)