Agile companies run by empowered employees can successfully outperform much larger, more established competitors, Rakuten Symphony’s Internet Services Business Unit (IS BU) President has said.
In the first edition of Rakuten Symphony’s employee live webinar series, ‘The Inside Track’, moderated by our comms director James Dartnell, Ryan Son shared his insights on what sets the IS BU apart from its competitors and how he ensures all of the division’s employees are supported to deliver meaningful work.
Rakuten Symphony may be better-known internationally for its innovative approaches to deploying and operating mobile networks, but the IS BU has carved out a reputation for delivering OTT(over-the-top) technologies that benefit global telecom, enterprise and other industries.
A comprehensive provider of communications and cloud-based services, the IS BU boasts several standout products, including Send Anywhere, the large-file transfer service; Rakuten Link, the ‘super-communication’ app for Rakuten Mobile, which provides access to Rakuten’s wider ecosystem services and is now used by over 90% of the network’s subscribers in Japan; CPaaS (Communication Platform as a service); and Rakuten Drive, the cloud storage service. Together, the services have tens of millions of users around the world.
The IS BU has developed an impressive track record for delivering innovative technology built within agile teams, according to Son. “Our greatest strength is our exceptional agility when our teams come together to develop products and services for our global users,” he said. “Most of our team, including myself, came from startup backgrounds. We prioritize lean operations and believe that passionate individuals deliver outstanding results.”
Son went on to emphasise the importance of an organization instilling a culture where employees can discover their strengths. “I believe that we should find and pursue our own unique path- that means doing what you do best. In an organization that values agility and where we can aspire to create our own future, we often find ourselves on new roads of discovery, discovering what we’re truly good at.”
Son and the IS BU team have identified automation and the Internet of Things as the main future growth driver for the division. That approach has manifested with the recently launched Rakuten NEO, the automated AI-based IoT space management solution designed to enhance operational efficiency and maximize profits for unmanned businesses.
Rakuten Neo is now used in Seoul across 12 shared offices, allowing a single person to manage outlets used by 10,000 people every month. It was also recently adopted by a major gym chain and is growing in popularity among large corporate offices and self-storage clients in both South Korean and Japan.
Rather than actively pursuing specific target clients, the IS BU is more broadly focused on deepening its understanding of global market trends in order to create business opportunities, Son said. “We realized that SMBs in Japan need cloud storage, but not in the same large volume as big corporations. Most cloud storage services in the market require customers to buy fixed storage amounts per account. Forcing SMBs to pay for unused capacity doesn’t benefit them. We started offering customisable storage amounts with no restrictions on the number of accounts. That has led to a widespread adoption by SMBs in Japan.”
“Send Anywhere is a product that is very close to my heart. I’m very proud to seen it develop into what it is today – one of the world’s leading services in the file transfer space.”
The strategy has paid off for the IS BU, having recently won a deal with a 1,200-employee company.
Send Anywhere has also been another major success story for Son and the IS BU. Launched in 2012 and developed and operated by Rakuten Symphony Korea from its Seoul base, it has since become one of the most popular file transfer services in the world; in 2022, the service reached 50 million downloads in 230 countries around the world. Send Anywhere allows users to send and receive files simply and securely, aiming to address the issue of inconvenient file transfers between various devices.
“Send Anywhere is a product that is very close to my heart,” Son said. “I’m very proud to seen it develop into what it is today – one of the world’s leading services in the file transfer space.”
Son’s flexible approach also been evidenced with Rakuten Drive’s recent moves in the maritime sector, a complex industry with very different demands from telecom.
As of July 2024, International Maritime Organization regulations compel ship owners, yards and suppliers to build cyber security ‘barriers’ into their systems and vessels, requiring compliance across the full spectrum of critical on-board control and navigation systems. Son and the IS BU sensed opportunity on international waters.
“With the increasing data stored and generated on smart ships, we anticipated the need for higher demand for cloud storage within vessels. Japan and South Korea are major players in the global shipbuilding market, accounting for about 40% of the global market share. We kept looking for any POCs or projects from Japan or South Korea. We’ve now won a maritime contract with the South Korean government and Rakuten Drive will be deployed on a couple of larger ships from South Korea this year.”
Having cultivated a reputation as a popular leader within Rakuten Symphony, Son also used the first edition of The Inside Track to discuss his own leadership philosophy, and passion for passing on his knowledge and experience to his contemporaries.
“I emphasize one key principle to my team members - you're not just employees, you're the owners of Rakuten. I firmly believe that an ‘employee’ mindset is the mindset that can hold you back, whereas an ‘ownership’ mindset is the best way to achieving success for anyone in any kind of organization. It’s also very important to find your ‘why’ - the reason you need to work hard. That helps you to move to that owner’s mindset instead of an employee mindset.”
