The value of communication in the pursuit of forward-looking governance

Could you tell me a little about yourself to get started?

I am a South Korean national, but I was born and raised in Japan. I got my CPA qualification during my time at University and began my career at an auditing firm. After several years of auditing financial institutions, I transitioned to internal auditing at a business corporation. Before coming here, my last position was in Financial Advisory Services (FAS), where I focused on accounting-related advisory, primarily handling restructuring and M&A projects. I supported clients’ management through tasks such as business plan development, due diligence, and post-merger integration (PMI).

Additionally, while working at FAS, I was seconded to a government-affiliated financial institution, where I was involved in the practical side of M&A finance. I didn’t join SmartNews immediately after my previous job, though. I got my MBA overseas before coming here.

Where did you study abroad?

I went to the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Due to my parents’ work, I had lived briefly in California as a child, and I wanted to go back. Also, while most MBA programs primarily target people in their 20s to early 30s, USC offers an MBA program where the average student age is in the late 30s, which attracts people from my generation, including managers and executives from various industries. That aspect was also very appealing to me.

How was California?

It was fantastic! The weather was terrific. I really believe that weather plays an important role in affecting your mood—when the sky is clear and bright blue, it uplifts your mood. It makes you feel like you can push through even when things get tough.

I was also struck by the diversity of the population. Many Asians lived there, so I settled in quickly. USC’s MBA program places a strong emphasis on global communication, and the students enrolled in my program came from seventeen different countries. I felt that diversity every day on campus. My classmates came not only from the U.S. but also from China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, India, Brazil, Russia, ASEAN countries, and others. Despite the global political climate, we all helped and encouraged each other to get through the program. It felt like everyone had an attitude of, “There is a lot going on geopolitically right now, but let’s put that aside and get through this together.”

What got you interested in a career in finance?

Actually, I had initially wanted to be a painter when I was little. Halfway through high school, though, I felt that I didn’t have enough talent to become a professional artist and lost confidence, so I gave up on that dream. So, I started thinking about what kind of career I wanted to pursue. I figured that a knowledge of economics would be important no matter what job I ended up doing, so I enrolled in the economics department at university and majored in finance. It was there that I learned finance is like the lifeblood of the world. If this circulation stops, it leads to chaos and stagnation. Although it’s a complex system with many intertwined variables and no absolute solutions, I found it fascinating.

Becoming a certified public accountant was partly motivated by the fact that I don’t hold Japanese nationality, so I thought having a qualification for the future would be beneficial. The compatibility between that qualification and what I studied in the economics department was also a key factor. With accounting knowledge, even in unfamiliar businesses, you can analyze and understand the current situation and trends through financial figures. It’s proven to be a very useful skill, so I’m glad I got it.

What made you want to join SmartNews as the next step in your career?

Although I had periods of time where I was seconded and took a break to study abroad, I was at FAS for over ten years. During that time, I felt I had established a solid foundation in accounting and finance as core skills. While I could have continued to deepen my expertise in these areas, I started considering what I wanted to pursue long-term. Instead of remaining a specialist in one field, I wanted to think more broadly about the overall management of a company.

As an advisor, you’re always an outsider to the company, no matter how far you go. Even when you provide advice from a professional standpoint, how your advice is implemented within the overall management—or whether it is used at all—is entirely up to the client. But, I was becoming increasingly interested in how my actions and proposals could directly influence an organization, and that’s when I started thinking about transitioning to a company where I could settle down and personally tackle various challenges within the organization. I wanted to understand how a corporate management division holistically and support organizational activities. I was eager to take on the challenge of contributing to building the organizational foundation as part of that process.

As for why I chose SmartNews, one key reason was that they were hiring for a position where I could gain broad experience in the corporate management division. I was also drawn to their mission of using technology to ‘deliver the world’s quality information to the people who need it.’ I felt that this was a business contributing to improving the quality of people’s lives and their overall well-being. During the interview process, I sensed that every employee I met took pride in the company’s mission and enthusiastically approached their work. That had a significant impact on me as well.

It’s been three years since you joined. How has your experience working at SmartNews been?

The environment here was much flatter than I had imagined. Because SmartNews is a startup, I expected communication to be better than compared to that of a large corporation, but I was still surprised at just how closely I got to work with the management team. This is partly due to the nature of the work my team handles. Also, the scope of responsibilities has far exceeded my initial expectations, and even now, I continue to have new experiences and learn something new every day.

Personally, moving forward, I’d like to increase informal communication opportunities with people in the engineering and business departments. Of course, we already have the necessary work-related communication, but in order to truly achieve our company’s organizational philosophy of ‘Global One Team,’ I feel it’s important to gain a deeper understanding of members outside of the corporate division and their perspectives. By doing so, I believe I can contribute even more effectively to the corporate team, ensuring we operate in the most optimal way possible.

Since joining the company, how have you grown in your career?

I’m on the Planning and Administration team, which among other things is handling the secretariat duties for key governance-related meetings such as board meetings, shareholders’ meetings, and executive management meetings. The role of the secretariat goes beyond just sending out invitations, taking minutes, and managing schedules; it also involves understanding when and how decisions are made or should be made in these meetings, and determining who to collaborate with and how to ensure these processes run smoothly. This requires a wide range of flexible planning and coordination skills and close collaboration with the management team. Supporting and understanding the company’s key decision-making processes through this role has contributed significantly to my personal growth.

In addition to this, our team is also responsible for managing a wide range of tasks related to the establishment and maintenance of governance, often running several projects simultaneously. I feel I’ve become more efficient at multitasking than I was during my FAS days, though I still consider this skill a work in progress.

Which departments or teams do you frequently collaborate with for your daily work?

I frequently collaborate with a wide range of teams, including Legal, Stock Administration, Accounting, IR, FP&A, the CEO’s Office, and Internal Audit. As my team is responsible for various tasks under the broad umbrella of governance-related work, we often serve as a kind of all-around team within the corporate structure. In addition to our regular duties, we also handle many ad hoc tasks, such as coordinating corporate projects that span multiple teams. As a result, we end up working closely with various departments. Personally, the project where I collaborated with the most teams was the launch of the Singapore office.

The opening of the Singapore office seems like it must have been quite a challenge.

It was. I had no prior experience in establishing overseas subsidiaries, so given my limited knowledge, I needed support from many members both within and outside the corporate team. My main role was to act as a coordinator, ensuring that the right people were involved and working together. For example, while I led some tasks like establishing internal regulations, handling international tax compliance, and setting up management accounting systems, there were, of course, many other issues that needed to be addressed in order to start the business as a legal entity. A lot of people were involved in the process.

There were certainly difficult moments, but that made the joy of successfully launching the subsidiary and seeing the business start all the more rewarding. The challenges I faced provided valuable lessons, and I believe I gained a lot from the experience.

Going back to the topic of your team, what is its current structure?

Currently, our team consists of five members, including myself: one in the US and four in Japan, one of whom holds a dual role. Our team gets along well. We respect each other, and when we have opinions, we make sure to express them openly.

How often do team members come to the office?

The frequency varies depending on the member. My schedule is quite irregular, but one person comes to the office almost daily. Another person with small children adjusts between coming to the office and working from home based on their family situation.

SmartNews is actively hiring, but some people may hesitate to apply because they perceive startups as unstable or risky. Do you have any advice for them?

Even established large corporations aren’t necessarily stable these days, and work is no longer about dedicating your entire career to a single company. When choosing a job, I personally think it’s more important to focus on how much you resonate with the business and mission, how much you can contribute, and how you can grow rather than overly relying on the company’s stability. From the perspective of contribution and growth, startups often give you significant responsibilities early on, and compared to large corporations, they offer more opportunities to gain a wide range of experiences in a short period of time.

What kind of person is well-suited for the Planning and Administration team at SmartNews?

This applies to our team and SmartNews as a whole, but you’re expected to be autonomous, make quick decisions, and push things forward in line with the role expectations. Specifically, the Planning and Administration team is responsible for corporate governance and internal control-related tasks, as I mentioned earlier, including managing board and shareholder meetings and overseeing the internal rules for the entire group. Since SmartNews operates globally, different legal regulations and business customs apply to each group company. Our team is tasked with determining the best rule framework to effectively and efficiently build and maintain governance across the company, including revising job authority and approval processes.

Additionally, as a startup, our company needs to adapt its organization and strategy flexibly according to changes in the business environment and its growth stage, which means the concept of appropriate governance also evolves. In such a dynamic environment, it’s crucial to anticipate needs and promptly implement appropriate updates. To catch these needs in time, communicating not only with team members but also with a wide range of people is essential. I believe that those who enjoy deepening their thinking through such communication are a great fit for this team.

Since organizations are made up of people, you can’t understand what kind of governance is desirable for an organization without engaging with others. We are looking for someone who has a genuine interest in people, values dialogue, and is eager to work together to build governance.