EPISODEINTERVIEW
14

We will use our frontline strength to build an unwavering relationship of trust with customers.

Kanto Chuo Branch
Fujimi Office
Office Manager

YASUHIRO FUKUSHIMA

YASUHIRO

FUKUSHIMA

"There is no excuse when it comes to safety": I hold these words of my seniors in my heart as we provide distinctive safety and quality services.

At our location in Nagano Prefecture, we are involved in the production lines at the factories of several major beverage manufacturers and OEM producers, and I am the office manager in charge of operations. Nagano is known for its clean, beautiful water and air, which attracts the factories of a variety of industries including food and beverage; the site we handle is one of these. I'm responsible for a series of important manufacturing operations, including the handling and opening of beverage ingredients, product transportation, and loading and unloading. I first worked overseas for another company, was reassigned back to Japan and then joined Konoike. After gaining workplace experience in a distribution center and the production line of a dairy company in Kanagawa Prefecture, I came to this office. Today I am busy with a staff of over 70 people as we work to meet the needs of our customers. I've really kept the phrase I learned from my seniors, "There is no excuse when it comes to safety," close to my heart, and I am committed to providing Konoike's unique level of safety and quality.

YASUHIRO

FUKUSHIMA

No matter where you go, you'll find the same high level of safety and quality.

We value acting as soon as we set our minds to something, an attitude of taking on daily challenges, and the flexibility to change. For example, when our customer's outsourced factory had to stop production due to the 2016 Kumamoto earthquake, the factory here in Nagano went on full production, giving up our weekends and holidays and we kept the production system going. I believe that we have a wide range of performance abilities that we have built up over the years. This factory was the branch office of the Hakushu factory of another major beverage manufacturer before it was promoted to be our sales office. Maybe it's this history, but the people here seems to have inherited the Konoike DNA. Many of the leaders here have a high degree of consciousness that lets them act before others tell them to do so, which really saves me as the office manager! There is a Safety Work Standards manual that was completed before I arrived, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is updated daily. I think that it's very important that we provide the same level of quality and service wherever we go. In the history of Konoike, we see the "root" being able to draw the strength of our frontline to nurture the "tree" of unwavering trust by our customers, something that I will carry on into the future.

YASUHIRO

FUKUSHIMA

Handing down our DNA to the next generation is how we can sketch out the vision of the future.

It's been six years since I came to Konoike's only business site in Nagano. When I was younger, I visited more than 30 countries around the world and saw many things; now I'm working in Nagano, with the real knowledge that I'm very much at the center of Japan. My grandfather is a carpenter, and my father is a craftsman on construction sites, so my DNA is definitely that of a person on the frontline of the workplace. I'm really happy to see my subordinate who has been working for me since I first became the office manager coming into his own. We must understand the changes that come with the times, and in the environment surrounding our customers, so that as we pass the baton of the Konoike DNA we can also sketch out the vision for the future.