"Mr. Mori, what does it mean to convey something??" When logic hits a dead end, sometimes you just have to embrace your intuition (Part 1)

Introducing part of the special dialogue from "Why Do You All Start Talking About the Same Things When It Comes to Job Hunting? ", a book adaptation of the "Classroom Connecting You and Society" series. This time, we welcome Kenshiro Mori from SCOO, an online learning service provider, as our guest to discuss the theme of "Communication". Mori shares that he also struggled with communication during his student days job hunting and his early career at Recruit Media Communications.

His rookie days began with having an ashtray thrown at him

Identifying the Zone Where Your Communication Connects

Hoshii: Mr. Mori, I understand you are currently active as an entrepreneur, but you went through the standard job-hunting process as a new graduate.

Mori: I graduated from Kinki University's Faculty of Business Administration in 2009 and joined Recruit Media Communications. For the first six months, I was in Chiba doing corporate real estate sales. My job was to sell SUUMO advertising to local real estate agencies. At the very first client I visited, they threw an ashtray at me and tore up my business card (laughs).

Kakari: That's quite the ordeal (laughs).

Mori: For six months, I sold to old men who hated Recruit and couldn't even use computers, relying purely on my personality. They'd say things like, "I hate Recruit, but I like you, so I'll give you a shot." After that, I returned to headquarters and worked on producing residential ads.

Koshii: Looking back on your own job search, do you have any memories of struggling with "communication"?

 

Mori: Yeah. My initial struggle was realizing I wasn't as comfortable talking to adults as I thought. With people my own age, you kind of intuitively know what resonates. But saying the same things to people in their 40s or 50s—who grew up in different generations and positions—just didn't land. I never really figured out how to adapt that. Getting hired at Recruit was partly because a young HR person noticed me during an internship, so I think I ended up just muddling through without really bridging that gap.

Koshii: So after joining as a new graduate, you were doing cold calls and had ashtrays thrown at you (laughs). You were facing the toughest audience imaginable. What strategies did you employ back then?

Mori: Even around my first year, I hadn't solved the problem of "getting the message across." So instead of changing my approach, I analyzed it using a matrix to figure out what kind of person actually understood the message.

Koshii: You realized you couldn't change yourself.

Mori: Since I couldn't change myself at that point, I identified the specific communication styles that resonated with people. I created a list just for those styles and focused my sales efforts there.

Okurai: That's amazing.

Mori: It was the first time I ever drew a four-quadrant matrix... in my life (laughs). I plotted a matrix of Male/Female and Emotional/Logical. For instance, if it was an emotional female president, the message would really resonate (laughs).

Sometimes it's important to embrace your intuition

Koshii: I heard you started your business at 24. Apparently, you wrote your resignation letter the very next day after coming up with the business idea. Didn't you overthink it at all?

Mori: I think I've always been that kind of kid. When I make a decision, it's either intuitive or logical—there's no middle ground. But as a student or in my early twenties, at least in my case, I wasn't mature enough to make fully logical decisions. So I figured jumping in intuitively when something felt interesting would lead to greater happiness. I still meet kids struggling with job hunting, and they're all frantically trying to follow frameworks they can't really grasp, thinking they'll regret it if they don't decide logically.

Koshite: College is when you get bombarded with so much regurgitated logical thinking, right?

Mori: Suddenly they're taught self-analysis and frameworks, right? Even during job-hunting interviews, when explaining their motivation, they try to use frameworks like, "Competitors in the market are like this, but your company is like that..." Kids who aren't good at that, or who are doing it for the first time in their job hunt, absolutely can't explain it well. It's not going to resonate with someone who's used to logical explanations in their work. I don't think you should avoid the effort to speak logically or organize your thoughts, but sometimes, just going with your gut and owning it is also important for getting your message across.

※The second part of this interview will be updated on Friday, January 30th.

You can also read it here on AdTie!

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Sendenkaigi Online:http://www.sendenkaigi.com/books/new/3393