What is IKUTO ?

Our company name, “IKUTO,” means “cultivating people” in Japanese and was named after our wish to “continue to be a company which cultivates human resources.”

The origin of “IKUTO” dates back to my school days. I regretted that I could not receive an education that suited my personality. Later, when I strongly desired to start a business, I made it my goal to create a company or organization emphasizing cultivating the individuality of each employee as a corporate philosophy.

To illustrate: “Each person is a gemstone which needs polishing.” An employee’s capacity can be expanded 10 times or even 100 times, depending on the environment or instructions from his superiors. So, I thought I needed to grow as a polisher, and then I read various books and studied a lot. Before starting the business, I was a sales rep in a staffing agency, but I never liked handling human resources as a product. This experience also influenced our corporate philosophy of cherishing humans.

Based on this belief, we launched a new staff-led initiative in 2019 to “do business out of what the staff wants to do.” Employees naturally feel more fulfilled in an environment where they can do what they wish instead of what they are told to do. It is still a fresh attempt, but I think each project can, if promoted carefully, activate human exchange, provide the joy of growth and sense of satisfaction, develop maybe into a major business of our company and eventually identify what our organization stands for.

CEO　Tatsunori Hirai