Another testimony from our former Giftmaker from Japan. Her name is Akane Yamauchi and she did her internship mainly in Do-Business. Currently, she is a junior student and majoring in Liberal Arts at Soka University in Tokyo. Her studies mainly are about marketing, economics, and finance but she focuses more on marketing and branding. When she decided to join su-re.co she was originally interested in circular business and microplastic issues, things she had never learned in her university. She was glad that she could employ the knowledge that she could get from the university. In fact, su-re.co was her first company which she stayed the longest, six months.
Here is her testimony. 😊
What did you like about su-re.co as a company? Every worker is very brilliant, supportive, and enthusiastic, therefore she always got motivated and inspired to work. In addition, the projects, the people, work environments, and lots of things have rapidly changed while she was working. Therefore, every day was very stimulating and challenging for her. Moreover, she always felt that working at su-re.co is worthwhile because everything is connected to support Indonesian farmers.
What do you like about su-re.co work culture? Why?
What she likes about su-re.co's culture is every new challenge is welcomed and respected. Compared to common internships in Japan in which intern has to follow the manager or boss’ order, su-re.co allows everyone to start action after thinking. She really appreciates that she could not only engage in the business team but also work with the research team, contributing to proposal writing and research team meeting. Therefore, she could learn a lot about biogas, climate change, and agriculture in Indonesia. Plus, su-re.co deploys flexibility so she could manage to manage her university activities too.
What did you learn at su-re.co?
She learned that it was very important to think one or two steps further for implementing a new plan or business. When conducting several webinars, she is always reminded of what our CEO, Dr. Takama, said,” we have to think and do new things which go one or two steps further”. In addition, she learned that hesitation is a big obstacle in small businesses. She recalled our CEO changed the website soon after the team meeting so that we are now able to sell su-re.coffee, su-re.cocoa, biogas digester, and many more on our website. Therefore, she learned that hesitation would stop the company’s growth.
What would you improve in su-re.co?
For this question, she actually is looking forward to the creation of an alumni channel in which alumni including her could easily contribute to current and future su-re.co’s projects or coffee businesses. She believes that she is not alone, expecting to contribute to su-re.co again in the future. 😊
What kind of change you see in yourself between before and after the internship?
When she compared what she was 6 months ago and what she is after the internship, she could see lots of changes. Firstly, she is more confident in identifying her own tasks and work on them. It might sound strange for other people because finding tasks is probably very easy and common. However, she gets used to Japanese culture, which is top-down culture (waiting for the leaders’ command), so she found it difficult to identify her own task at first. Secondly, she could more confidently facilitate the online events thanks to the exposure when su-re.co did crowdfunding in Japan. The first time she did as a facilitator did not go well because of her lack of preparation; the second time was more fun and smoother. Thirdly, she gets used to think the reason why she does every task before doing it. Although she wasted time on unnecessary tasks for the first one month or two months, she then could adjust and save time by thinking and communicating more frequently with other Giftmakers. Overall, it was a learning process for Akane.
What would you say for those who would like to take the leap to su-re.co?
“I would like to say su-re.co definitely change yourself and enables you to broaden your horizons because you can work with excellent colleagues from different countries and Dr. Takama. In addition, su-re.co will assist your new challenges and welcome your new ideas. Since everyone is working on new projects all the time, you can observe how su-re.co changes a lot while you are working. Therefore, I would like you to say su-re.co is an ideal company for those who want to try something new and change yourself.”