SoftBank

"The president used this straw to barter for something of higher value, because his target at that time was the landline communication operator, Japan Telecom. I think that if SoftBank hadn’t entered the ADSL market back then, no matter how much the president wanted to acquire Japan Telecom, the other party might not have paid any attention to SoftBank, and financial institutions might not have sponsored the acquisition."

"During my time at SoftBank, I learned a lot from the president. One aspect can be said to have changed my life. That is, I learned the method and ability to bridge the gap between “the current self” and “the ideal self” in the shortest time possible."

"Tracing back, both Vodafone Japan and Japan Telecom belonged to the “J-Phone” company. When the president acquired Japan Telecom, he likely already had the idea of acquiring Vodafone Japan. SoftBank not only acquired Japan Telecom but also gained the technology, talents, and customer base that came with it."

"SoftBank has reached today’s heights is due to the following three strategies: (1) Straw Strategy (2) Champion Strategy (3) Lottery Box Strategy The speed of achieving goals depends on whether you understand these three strategies."

"I worked at SoftBank for about eight years. During this time, I witnessed firsthand how SoftBank, starting as an ordinary venture capital firm, emerged in the telecommunications industry through involvement in ADSL services and eventually grew into a well-known large enterprise. As a SoftBank employee, I feel honored to have personally experienced these significant transformations."

"“If your company partners with us, we can offer services like free calls between our IP phone users and Japan Telecom landline users, which will invisibly create a lot of new added value. The merger of the two companies will definitely bring us better cooperative results.” It was because Japan Telecom saw the value of the straw in President Son’s hands that they agreed to the acquisition by SoftBank. At that time, Japan Telecom also had 5 million users, so SoftBank’s acquisition instantly doubled its user base to 10 million."

"Moreover, through acquiring Japan Telecom, SoftBank also absorbed excellent talents and management methods in the communication industry and easily acquired the brand image unique to landline communication operators, which made customers trust and feel secure. The effect was equivalent to exchanging a straw for an orange. No, it felt like exchanging it for high-quality fabric and horses! The president had already foreseen However, he didn’t stop there. Because his ultimate goal was the mobile communication field."

"President Masayoshi Son gained worldwide fame in 1995. That year, the president purchased COMDEX, the world’s largest computer fair, for $800 million (80 billion yen at that time). At that time, SoftBank was just a company with an annual turnover of 200 billion yen. Even within Japan, it was merely a not-so-well-known venture capital company. Therefore, acquiring COMDEX seemed a bit overreaching for SoftBank back then. However, the president believed that no matter what, he had to acquire COMDEX because he was convinced that acquiring COMDEX was the stepping stone that could make him famous worldwide."

"Ultimately, SoftBank successfully acquired Vodafone Japan for 1.75 trillion yen, setting a record for the highest acquisition price in the history of Japanese corporate acquisitions. For a company that had just entered the telecommunications industry, without any achievements or reputation, this price was undoubtedly an enormous sum that was almost unattainable at the time."

"This directly led to the establishment of Yahoo! JAPAN through a joint venture with U.S. Yahoo! the next year, which was an important step in the leapfrog development of SoftBank today."

"Acquiring COMDEX was undoubtedly a proclamation to the world—“SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son is here!”"

"SoftBank leaps from one stepping stone to another, quickly stepping forward before one foot sinks, successfully traversing the water’s surface."

"For example, in 1995, he invested $2 million in America’s Yahoo! (then 200 million yen). The following year, a joint venture was established with Yahoo! JAPAN. Note that Yahoo! America formally established the company and started its business in March 1995, and SoftBank decided to invest in the company in November of the same year. That is to say, shortly after Yahoo!’s inception, the president saw its value and made a decisive investment decision. As everyone knows, Yahoo! has become one of the world’s largest search engines, and Yahoo! JAPAN has an overwhelming advantage as a portal site in Japan. Today, as the leading shareholder of Yahoo! JAPAN, SoftBank has an off-balance sheet profit of 1.2 trillion yen. The 200 million yen initially invested in Yahoo! is just a tiny fraction of today’s return on profits."

"Recently, everyone knows about SoftBank’s investment in China’s e-commerce Alibaba. SoftBank invested 2 billion yen in Alibaba’s second year of startup. Subsequently, Alibaba grew rapidly. In 2014, Alibaba was successfully listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and as one of the shareholders, SoftBank gained 8 trillion yen in profits. Fourteen years after the investment, the profit expanded by 4000 times."

"SoftBank’s CEO and founder was drawn irresistibly to historical analogies. He often compared himself to the nineteenth-century samurai warrior and reformer Ryoma Sakamoto, whose rebellion swept away the old feudal order in Japan, paving the way for the restoration of the Emperor’s authority in 1868. In the decades that followed, Japan rapidly modernized, spawning thousands of new businesses and spurring its ascent as the leading economic power in Asia. Masa’s internet evangelism was, however, more than about making Japan great again; it was a bid to revive animal spirits in a Japanese economy still semi-comatose after the collapse of the real-estate bubble."

"It was a humiliating reverse – one that for most people would be crushing. For Masa it was simply one more twist in the roller-coaster pattern of failure and success that has characterized his tumultuous life. In the decades after the dot-com crash the diminutive SoftBank boss reinvented himself. He became the twenty-first century’s ultimate conjurer of capital, masterminding a new-age, transnational tech-and-finance empire that still touches many of the most dynamic parts of the world economy. Through will-power and guts Masa turned into a figure who embodies a gilded age of tech-utopianism, benign globalization and borderless finance."

"This mixture of stubbornness and inspiration illuminates the essence of Masa’s character and his approach to business. Convinced of his own techno-centric world view, he truly believes he can see into the future and make it reality in the present. ‘Masa thinks that if something could happen, it should happen. And if it should happen, it will happen,’ says a long-time SoftBank colleague, ‘and if it will happen, then in Masa’s mind, it’s already happened. He’s already visualized it.’[16](private://read/01jg9b8njt7zc5haz30afb9n29/#ch02_16)"

"Kitao’s career was suitable to support SoftBank’s finances. At that time, he supported the fundraising for SoftBank, which had just been listed, and the amount raised reached 500 billion yen. It is no exaggeration to say, “The funds necessary for SoftBank’s rapid growth were procured by Kitao.” Kitao supported SoftBank’s rapid growth as “SoftBank’s treasurer.”"

"A recent example would be SoftBank’s acquisition of “Vodafone Japan Corporation (now SoftBank Mobile)” in March 2006. At the time, Vodafone was constantly lagging behind NTT DoCoMo and au and had never experienced being “number one.” When Son spoke with the executives back then, he immediately felt that “their eyes were dead,” they “lacked confidence,” and they had a “habit of losing, thinking everything they do fails.” So, he told them: “Even if it’s just for a month, we will definitely achieve a net increase of being number one at least once.” It takes time to achieve cumulative number one. So, we take the challenge for one month. Son believed that even if it’s just for one month, experiencing a net increase in being number one would instill a “habit of winning” once they realize, “Oh, we can be number one.” What was the result? “Once we achieved a net increase of being number one, we’ve continued to achieve net increases of being number one almost every month since then, except for a few months. Once this position becomes the home position, it feels unsatisfactory and unpleasant not being number one.” A recent example is the catchphrase “No.1 in smartphone connection ease,” which reflects Masayoshi Son’s strong commitment to the “number one principle.”"

"A recent example would be SoftBank’s acquisition of “Vodafone Japan Corporation (now SoftBank Mobile)” in March 2006. At the time, Vodafone was constantly lagging behind NTT DoCoMo and au and had never experienced being “number one.” When Son spoke with the executives back then, he immediately felt that “their eyes were dead,” they “lacked confidence,” and they had a “habit of losing, thinking everything they do fails.” So, he told them:"

"Masayoshi Son, in the globally reorganizing telecommunications industry, acquired the Japanese subsidiary of Vodafone for about 2 trillion yen. While Vodafone had consolidated sales of 1.47 trillion yen and an operating profit of 158 billion yen (both in the fiscal year 2004), SoftBank, for the fiscal year ending March 2005, had consolidated sales of about 840 billion yen and an operating loss of about 25 billion yen. It had been posting deficits of several hundred billion yen up to that point. The acquisition of Vodafone Japan was precisely an M&A where a small entity swallows a larger one. At that time, to compete with NTT and KDDI as a telecommunications infrastructure provider, SoftBank was heavily investing in Yahoo BB and had just acquired Japan Telecom, a fixed-line phone company."

"In an interview article from “Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun” dated March 24, 1997, Masayoshi Son said the following. “SoftBank has 50 to 60 affiliated companies with an investment ratio of over 20%, and about 100 companies including those with under 20%. In the consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ending March 1997, we have expanded to a scale reaching 340 billion yen in sales. The entire group is expected to expand to 1,000 companies within five to ten years.” As of May 2014, the SoftBank Group has expanded to approximately 1,300 companies as mentioned above. Son has set a goal to increase this to 5,000 companies within thirty years."

"In today’s rapidly growing “emerging countries of Asia,” SoftBank, with its main base in Asia, has the “advantages of the land,” Son asserts confidently."

"There was a period when I read books related to ‘The Art of War’ voraciously. It was during the three and a half years from 1983 when I, having founded SoftBank in 1981 and as the business began to take off, was repeatedly admitted to and discharged from the hospital due to chronic hepatitis."

"However, at Casio, Son was treated coldly by the section manager and was thoroughly disparaged, which left him feeling dejected. At Sharp, he was subjected to rather pointed questions by the person in charge. Although the feeling from his first choice, Sharp, was not bad, there wasn’t an optimistic sense that they would immediately sign a contract. There, Masayoshi Son devised a plan and called from near Osaka’s Umeda Station to the Osaka Patent Attorneys Association to investigate a patent office strong in dealing with Sharp. Fortunately, he was introduced to Patent Attorney Nishida of Nishida Patent Office, who was formerly with Sharp’s patent department. He immediately visited the office to confirm whether Son’s invention was worthy of a patent. Subsequently, he was informed about two key figures at Sharp: Executive Director Shosuke Sasaki, who was then the director of Sharp’s Central Research Laboratory (later VP of Sharp, advisor at SoftBank), and Deputy Head of Technology Atsushi Asada (later VP of Sharp and chairman of Nintendo). Son immediately asked for help. “Please call those two and tell them they should meet me.” The director called and said: “It sounds like an interesting device. At least try meeting him.” The next day, Masayoshi Son called Sharp to arrange a meeting, and together with his father, who was urgently summoned from Kyushu, he visited Sharp’s Central Research Laboratory in Tenri City, Nara Prefecture. At the time, still a 21-year-old student, Masayoshi Son thought he needed his father’s presence lest he not be taken seriously when it came to signing the contract. His father gladly accompanied him on his son’s first business venture. However, all negotiations were conducted by Masayoshi Son. The successful experience of negotiations at this time gave Masayoshi Son a significant confidence boost in launching and conducting business in earnest. In that sense, it became “Practice Session Number One” in negotiation combat for business selling."

"Declaring from the very beginning the intention to “eventually run a business worth one trillion or two trillion” In the case of Masayoshi Son, looking back from the founding of SoftBank to the present, it can be observed that he has accurately followed the “migratory fish” upstream path. However, there are two aspects where Masayoshi Son differs from ordinary business people. One is that he has not been satisfied with creating small amounts of funds like two to three million yen when advancing his business."

"Infrastructure, as defined by the word, is the social and industrial foundation, and is more of a base. If likened to the transportation network of traditional industrial society, it corresponds to general roads and highways. On highways, the installer collects fees from drivers at toll booths. Masayoshi Son must have thought, “By providing infrastructure, let’s become the toll booth of the digital information industry.” That way, hit products of the moment would have to rely on the infrastructure held by SoftBank, and SoftBank itself could stably grow."

"Currently (mid-May 2014), SoftBank is actively pursuing various initiatives to acquire T-Mobile US, the fourth-largest US mobile provider. If this acquisition occurs, SoftBank would become the world’s second-largest mobile communications company after China Mobile."

"The trend that Masayoshi Son foresaw when he founded SoftBank was indeed the “digital information revolution.”"

"Basic Management: Combination of “Team System” and “Daily Financial Closing” This combination of “daily financial closing” and “team system” forms the cornerstone of SoftBank’s management know-how, relying on computer assistance. Currently, SoftBank Group has approximately 23,000 employees and likely more than 2,000 teams. Each team constantly analyzes its profit and loss, and underperforming teams “go bankrupt.” Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) between teams also occur. If a team’s number exceeds ten, they split, leading to spinoffs from rising teams. Teams are automatically divided if they surpass ten people due to strong performance."

"Furthermore, no matter where in the world, SoftBank’s management is continuously monitored and analyzed through computers. The software for “daily financial closing” was, of course, developed uniquely by SoftBank and remains proprietary."

"Masayoshi Son suddenly changed the arrangement of each segment of twenty-five characters to the current order the day before the “SoftBank Academia” opening ceremony. In an interview twenty-four years ago, in response to my question, “What is absolutely necessary for a manager?” Masayoshi Son replied as follows. “There are three important things that the top management must have in place to exercise leadership. They are <aspiration, vision, strategy>. Moreover, there is an order of importance to these. It is in the order of <aspiration, vision, strategy>.”"

"[Better.com](http://www.Better.com) wasn’t just another pitch deck full of dreams. It had just reported more than $200 million of net profit in its latest year – real numbers, not projections. More impressively, it was fundamentally changing how people got a mortgage: instead of the usual multi-week ordeal, it had developed technology to approve a loan in a single day. This wasn’t incremental innovation. It was groundbreaking. No one had done it before. I would also be teaming up with the most prominent tech investor in the world, SoftBank, who had been championing this company before I entered the picture, and I took great comfort from their enthusiasm and willingness to put huge amounts more capital to work than they had already invested in the previous two years. I was captivated. Here was a profitable, fast-growing disruptor, and I had the means to bring it to the public market. It felt like the perfect alignment of opportunity, timing and ambition. But beneath the excitement, a quieter force was at play: fear of missing out. And afterwards, as one banking analyst put it succinctly: Better ended up being ‘the exact wrong company at the wrong time’."