Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2011

Courtesy of EC Studio

In a nutshell, what does EC Studio do?
EC Studio helps small and mid-sized businesses in Japan increase profits and efficiency using IT. Specifically, we offer website consulting and access analytics to help increase profits for businesses online.

You bill yourself as the top company in Japan for employee satisfaction. What’s the secret?
We have a number of unusual benefits and incentives, like providing iPhones for the staff, a travel allowance to visit family twice a year, and money for our employees to take their significant others out on birthdays. We also do our best to decrease working hours, and we use things like PS3 video chat to help lower the number of business trips our staff have to take.

EC Studio only has 33 employees. Do you think that it would be possible to do this at a much larger company?
EC Studio’s work environment would be fine for companies of up to 100 people. It probably wouldn’t work for larger companies. This is why we pride ourselves on being a small business, and why we work to support other small businesses in Japan.

I can’t think of many Japanese businesses that only communicate with clients via email. Do you think companies here put too much emphasis on “face time”?
The Japanese do tend to put a lot of focus on in-person meetings and phone calls. There are times when it’s important to meet in person, but there are also plenty of times when you can get just as much done with PS3 video meetings, chat and email.

Japanese companies often get criticized for being too slow to change. Are there any that you think are getting it right?
[Kamakura-based IT company] Kayac is a great example. They currently have 100 people and they’re likely to keep growing. Even at that size, they’ve maintained their quirkiness and are always doing interesting things. Other than that, I don’t really know of any companies in Japan that are doing it better than EC Studio.

I know your head office is down in Osaka, but do you have any favorite haunts in Tokyo?
When I’m in Tokyo, I spend most of my time at our offices in Sangenjaya. Not too far from there is a neighborhood called Mishuku which has a lot of great restaurants: Italian, French, Japanese. I like having dinner in that area with our staff.