Pros
The team is made up of some incredible, passionate, caring and talented individuals. The product is and brand is top notch. Brand mission and ethos is easy to get behind. There’s a lot of opportunities to contribute and grow one’s career experiences.
Cons
All of the incredible potential the company has is continuously squandered by the incompetent and unproductive “leadership.” Upper management is totally disconnected from the business, yet holds the keys to the kingdom; managers aren’t allowed to lead their business unit, as they get constantly overruled by senior leadership, and the expertise and abilities of managers aren’t leveraged at all. Overtime, the US branch has lost its autonomy and we are basically being asked to replicate the approach taken by the parent branch (in Japan) in the NA marketplace. Being a Japanese company, the management and culture is wrought with prejudice; no matter how strong one’s performance or contribution is, unless you’re a man or Japanese, you won’t be allowed to be successful. In May of 2023, the company performed their first “work force reduction”, and the direction from the CEO in Japan to the US executives was to trim “15 percent of head count”, instead of targeting a reduction in salaries by a specific percentage or dollar amount. Underperforming and non critical employees were kept, and long-tenured and strong performing employees were trimmed; the former were Japanese or men (or both), the latter were largely female, BIPOC, and LGBTQ (or a combination of these three). In addition to this, the senior management just continues to make horrible business decision after horrible business decision.