The CTO and Head of Global Recruiting Talk about Engineering Globalization Initiatives

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Here at Money Forward, we are rapidly globalizing our overall company organization and human resources department.

Currently, the engineering organization is at the center of this effort. About 30% of our engineers are Non-Japanese members as it stands now, and by 2024, we plan to make English the official language of our engineering organization.

“What is the reason for this globalization?"
“What concrete measures are being taken?"

Mr. Nakade, our CTO, and Mr. Hoshina of the Global Talent Recruiting Division answer these and other questions. 

They will elaborate on the current state of Money Forward's globalization and its future.

Aiming to be a "Global Tech Giant": Past efforts towards globalization

ー First, let’s begin by looking back at our efforts to date in the areas of "establishment of overseas bases" and "recruitment”.

ー So, if we look at it this way, 2018 was really when it all started. Mr. Nakade, when did you first begin thinking about the globalization of Money Forward?

Nakade: It was around the time of our Mothers listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (September 2017). The services we offer at Money Forward are needed the world over.   We started to move forward with the idea that “we should look to grow not only in Japan itself but also in the world at large.” 

When it comes to globalization, there are many different approaches and stages, but what we have decided to aim for is becoming a "Global Tech Giant".

The image is of companies like GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook (Meta), Apple), but for us, the key point is to see things from the tech perspective where we are “technology generators”.  Organizations that create unprecedented new services also create new technologies to make them happen. Amazon's AWS (Amazon Web Services) is one example.  As the saying goes, "necessity is the mother of invention," and one thing all these companies have in common is that they are inventing technologies that make full use of or and stretch beyond existing ones. 

Ultimately, one of our goals is that our services will be widely used across the globe (globalization of our business), but to achieve this, we are aware that it is essential to attract engineers from every corner of the world as we aim to become a truly global tech giant.

ー And so with this in mind, you have carried this out by establishing overseas bases, mainly in Vietnam, and also by recruiting new graduates who are non-Japanese.

And one thing that particularly accelerated recruitment was Mr. Hoshina joining the company in 2021 when the Global Recruiting Division was launched.

Hoshina: Yes, that's right. Before I joined the company, our only targets for global recruitment were new graduate engineers from overseas universities who already had a certain level of Japanese language skills and could be expected to perform their work using Japanese. This was the situation, and I joined the company because I found the mission of establishing a recruitment and onboarding system from scratch for people, regardless of Japanese language ability or physical place of residence, to be very appealing.  

Nakade: It was great that we were able to have Mr. Hoshina come to us at this time as the head of the Global Talent Recruiting Division. We knew that if we were going to hire someone for this position, we wanted someone “thoughtful" above all else. I wanted to bring on someone who would not only recruit for us, but also would consider how people from all over the world could become active members of Money Forward.  Mr. Hoshina shared these exact kind of thoughts with us even from his interviews before joining, so I had no hesitation when I thought “I want him to be a part of this.”

(Over the past year, in addition to recruiting, the company has put in efforts for relocation and onboarding support, getting internal texts and procedures put into English, establishing an interpretation and translation support system, and setting up a Prayer Room, among other steps.)

Progress of the English Language Learning Program for 2024

ー Please give us some insight into current efforts being made. 

The major topic is "English as the official language of the engineering organization by 2024," which was announced just a year ago. Was there a particular reason you decided on this timing?

Nakade：Knowing that in the not-too-distant future the majority of our engineers will be non-Japanese, I started speaking with other people from companies that have progressed further in their globalization than Money Forward. In the midst of that, we realized that the best first step would be to unify communication in English, and then that led to us deciding that, if we know we will do it someday, then there’s really no time like the present. 

Hoshina: Yeah, we just sort of made the decision at a regular old meeting one day, didn’t we? Mr. Tsuji was also there and set the tone by saying, "Let's go for it!” That was back when I had just joined, and I got goosebumps thinking, "This is how Money Forward’s idea of Speed works.”

Nakade: Even within the engineering management team, there was already a sense of “Oh, we’ll have to do this eventually”, so really it came down to the matter of timing.

ー When I heard the announcement, I had two reactions; on the one hand, I thought “Finally!” but also “So suddenly?” What reactions did the engineers have?

Nakade: On the day of the announcement I got a lot questions, but there was less opposition than I anticipated and most people actually took it in a positive way. 

Hoshina: At that point, we had also announced that the company would be providing English lessons and study, but we hadn’t decided concretely what that would look like, so we were basically thinking on our feet.  Now there are members who have come aboard as English education specialists and study programs have gotten under way, so what do you think, Mr. Nakade? What is going well so far and what isn’t?

Nakade: To be honest, it is still difficult to judge. While members' TOEIC and other test scores have certainly gone up, I don’t think it’s right to judge anything on that basis alone.

There are two things that I believe are going to become touchstones of our efforts.
The first is welcoming one EM (Engineer Manager) from Money Forward Vietnam as VPoE in Japan. Communication with him will have to be in English, so members are going to have more opportunities to actually use English in their day-to-day work lives.

I am sure that it will be frustrating to be the “first manager who doesn’t speak any Japanese” but as he is coming from Money Forward Vietnam, expectations can be adjusted in that area. And if after some time he returns to the Vietnam base, he will still be a link between Japan and his home country. 

The second touchstone is that, even though it’s not 2024 yet, some divisions will convert to all-English by the end of this year.  We do have teams where all members originally could speak English anyway and so already have gone all-English, but this is the first time we will have teams with members who don’t speak making the switch.  I want to take a look at the results of this and see what we can learn from it.  

Hoshina: That’s great. There is always a hurdle between studying English and actually using it in a work context, so I want to make it more of a natural transition when each team switches over. 

Nakade: For this, we are thinking to assign team members who can’t speak English in a good balance, and to start, have interpreters support at meetings.  

“Let's make it together!" Laterally linking domestic and overseas engineering organization 

Nakade: In tandem with shifting to English language communication, it’s also important to unify globally the company’s engineering organization.  Systems in place by 2024.

ー What image are you envisioning?

Nakade: Up until now, we opened overseas bases not with an “offshore” way of thinking,  but rather with the idea of reaching out across the world to increase our scope of “colleagues who create together”.  In fact, Ms. Kanai, our VPoC (Culture) was involved in office design on site, and also jointly holds company-wide general meetings.

However, right now, development systems and reporting lines are split between Japan and overseas, and we would like to see these come together.  To do this, under our business division, each office will be equally allocated. For example, "Money Forward Cloud Accounting" as a single product is developed separately by microservice, so we need to build its team with the best and most appropriate members from each office.  So the image would be maybe you work in Japan, but your supervisor might be in Hanoi.  I know there are difficulties with remote work, etc., but I believe that having the best possible team in each location around the world is a net positive for both Money Forward as a company and for the careers of our engineering members.

Hoshina: It is very on brand for Money Forward to strive to increase the number of "colleagues who create together.”

Nakade: When I was on a business trip to Vietnam, one thing I really liked was that they end meetings by saying "Let's make it......" and then respond, "Together!” Concluding any meeting with a smile naturally fosters a culture of togetherness and unity. 

When I was there, they told me, "Tuck (Nakade's nickname) is going to do the call today," and I was feeling a little shy but I did it anyway, and it felt really good.

Hoshina: That’s so great. Let's reverse-import that for here (laughs).

(They join in doing a round of "Let's make it together!")

Beyond the English language, creating a system for active participation

ー You mentioned that it will be a little while before we can reflect on how it’s going, but I have the impression that we are well on our way to 2024. What do you think?

Hoshina: Yes, there are still many things that we need to address.

Nakade: I have already accepted in my mind that a mountain of difficulties still await us.  

Hoshina: For starters, it’s essential that we ensure that the working experience of non-Japanese members is on par with that of Japanese members. In other words, making sure their ease of work and opportunities to play an active role are the same.

If we look at the general stages of the hiring process— “recruitment”, “onboarding”, “establishment/active participation”—in terms of Non-Japanese members, we are just at the point where "recruitment" and "onboarding" have taken shape. For our next step, we need to design how we will evaluate performance, place members in the company, and update and instill our culture so that our members all over the world can be successful in the long term.

Nakade: Right now, global members who have come to Japan have shown a high level of satisfaction in surveys, and for better or worse, no major issues have popped up so far.  However, there’s always difficulties and hidden feelings that only those who are experiencing them can understand, and if we just keep going as is, distortions will for sure arise in the months and years to come. 

The first thing we can try, for example, is having Japanese managers work on teams where they are under non-Japanese supervisors for a little while, and this will help them understand Non-Japanese members’ points-of-view. 

ー Not only language, but there are differences in management styles and how feedback is given among cultures in differing countries and regions. So what we need to do is create the right mix of all these together so everyone can work with a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment together. 

Nakade: Yes, exactly that.  This is why we are proceeding with recruitment of people who have management experience in global organizations, and we believe that this will become an essential metric in creating a system where the distribution between non-Japanese and Japanese members at the different internal grade levels equals out, especially in upper management.

Hoshina: We have to listen to members’ feedback and also make the data we receive visible so we can respond to any issues that pop up in the future. 

Nakade: We are also looking for ways to promote the Englishnization of non-engineering organizations, although this will be a little down the road. 

Creating isn’t done by engineers alone, so naturally it’s best if members are in communication with other departments as well, but for Japanese members in Japan itself, there are people who don’t interact with anyone that isn’t Japanese. 

Hoshina: It wouldn’t be true to Money Forward if everyone was pushed to make the switch to English without a sense of conviction or necessity.

Nakade: As we continue to globalize our engineering organization, we have to think about structure that fits Money Forward.  And since we brought English-language education in-house, we should be able to apply that know-how to other positions as well.

Truly great engineers are attracted to companies that are trailblazers who raise new banners and offer unprecedented services.

ー What do you have in mind in terms of globalization as well as further enhancing the company’s technological capabilities?

Nakade: Right now, we are thinking of two things: continuing to refine and expand the value that Money Forward is already providing, and then, an exciting future beyond that, something that will be truly "big banner".

With the former, we will first aim to achieve a situation where we are unbeatable when it comes to a functional comparison with competing services. I believe that we have reached the level of product integrity we see now thanks in part to the hard work that has been done throughout the company to date. Regarding the latter, we need to be imaginative and really grapple with consideration of what our “big banner” will be in the future when we stand next to those other products and take measure. 

ー So these two things are being worked on simultaneously.

Nakade: Yes. In order to bring great engineers who will help us realize this goal into Money Forward, we as a company must become hands-down Number One in our field. Then we can say, “If you join us, you can be a part of making all this happen.” 

To this end, we are tackling the obvious with functional development and bringing new value to the world a little at a time, and we’ve also created a research organization such as Money Forward Lab to have people in academics join with us too.

Hoshina: Speaking of big banners, it is very exciting to hear about the "Next Billion Users" project, for example, in which Google and other tech companies are aiming to bring the Internet to the next billion people.

Nakade: That is exactly what I’m getting at. When we think about what kind of society we ultimately want to realize, we sometimes talk within the company about things like creating a smart city. With that, cashless is the norm, accounting and other records are done automatically, and there is no need to even file taxes.

I’m always pondering how to shift direction so we can realize that kind of future. I think the time to start spending a certain amount of internal resources on that might be coming. 

If I go on and on about that though, everyone around me might get a little annoyed. 

ー I guess they get mad at you (laughs).

Nakade: I still have my eyes on what’s in front of me.

But anyway, we first have to finish transitioning our engineering organization to all-English in order to take that first major step towards becoming a global tech giant.

I am also constantly thinking about how I myself can grow as a person and can contribute to this process of hiring and training engineering leaders. Even if I ever step down as CTO, I would like to continue contributing to Money Forward in some form or another, so I would like to acquire skills that I might have lacked then and still take an active role even after I pass the baton. 

The only thing that will never change is my determination to keep moving the world forward. It's not Google's "Don't be evil," but Money Forward should continue to focus on solving the world's problems, not on profit supremacy or trying to beat those around us.

Hoshina: I feel the exact same way. We will continue to do our best in recruiting and creating a system that allows all our members to thrive. From a world-wide viewpoint, Money Forward is not yet well known, but our role is to make more people aware of us and gain understanding of the company, and to make it a company that people are happy to join.

ー Thank you both so much for your time today. "Globalization" and "Englishnization" can be done in a myriad of ways and take many forms, but I hope that today's talk has given everyone a solid view of Money Forward’s philosophy on both, and the kind of organization we aim to become. 

In the spirit of "Let's make it together!", let’s also move the world forward!

Interview and text by Mika Tsutoyama (Money Forward Recruiting and Public Relations)
English text by Koyama Victoria & Hashimoto Nagisa（Global People Partners）