Why BizReach, the job placement service for executives, is not slowing down

BizReach founder and CEO Soichiro “Swimmy” Minami in his office’s new tropical-themed entrance.

When Tech in Asia last spoke with Soichiro “Swimmy” Minami, founder and CEO of BizReach, his job transfer site was just starting to gain steam. With a network of 800 firms posting a total of 5,900 positions, the company’s 90 employees were helping 140,000 registered job seekers. Two years later, those figures have spiked across the board.

BizReach’s business model is simple yet innovative for the Japanese job market. According to Swimmy, most recruiting firms do not open up their databases to the hiring companies, meaning firms are in the dark about what talent is available. With BizReach, firms are able, for a price, to see all registered applicants. The applicants themselves also pay BizReach a fee to be listed. BizReach’s atypical transparency has succeeded so far.

Now 2,300 companies have posted 19,000 positions and 310 employees assist 330,000 job seekers in finding their next position. BizReach caters exclusively to upper management and executive employees who can command a yearly salary of over US$75,000. More growth is expected as Swimmy is planning to hire an additional 200 employees.

Ordinarily, past performance is a strong indicator of future success. But, in this instance, with Japan’s working population shrinking, BizReach’s future glory is less than preordained. Swimmy sees the future differently, however, and believes not only are there plenty of opportunities for growth in Japan but the surge of new talent is going to drive BizReach into its next phase.

BizReach 2.0

BizReach is leaving its exclusive legacy behind. The initial business plan was horizontally oriented, available only to the highest wage earners. The company is now exploring verticals targeting various social groups like young workers in their twenties and manager class women.

Swimmy is unlikely to stop there. “I think there is still a huge opportunity left, which is the mass market. We haven’t really come out with a new service that aggressively markets to [that],” he said. Swimmy also predicts that Japan’s stereotypically quiet labor market is about to get a lot busier.

Traditionally, Japan’s labor market had very little fluidity. The system of “permanent employment” meant that people would enter a company in their twenties and leave with a nice pension in their sixties. That system is eroding.

According to the Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the rate of permanent employees in Japan has been dropping (Excel) for the past five years, part of a larger twenty-year trend (Excel) that has seen the rate of permanent employees fall from 84.7 percent in 1984 to 63.2 percent as of June 2014.

See: Wantedly: Japan’s trust-based recruiting site officially debuts

The rising volatility of the job market is a boon to Swimmy, but some Japanese companies are still unsure how to use the BizReach service. “It would be great to be like LinkedIn and say, ‘Hey, here’s a database. Go use it.’ We have a lot of demand from corporate clients to use our service but they need to be assisted in an analog way,” he said. To address those needs, Swimmy is earmarking most of the incoming 200 new employees for client facing roles.

Taking the mission abroad

BizReach sits in an envious position of strength in Japan and is looking to duplicate that success overseas. The company’s business model is considered innovative for Japan but, in Singapore, where BizReach’s international branch, RegionUp is located, it does not stand out in the same way.

To attract more corporate and private users, the company changed tactics to make access free for job hunters and recruiters. BizReach has yet to explode in the region but Swimmy feels the company is on schedule. “We can’t say we’ve succeeded, but we have planted a foothold in the industry,” he said, also noting RegionUp is only a year-and-a-half old. BizReach has reached its present position after five years.

Managing BizReach’s large-scale operations in Japan concurrently with its leaner venture in Singapore is a difficult challenge. Swimmy relishes it, though. “I learned through experience that when you build a company, you need a mission to change the world, change society,” he said.