"The lessons I learned during my time as a systems engineer is still fundamental to how I do my job today," says Kazuhiro Sakai, Corporate Senior Executive Vice President and Co-Chief Operating Officer (Co-COO) of NEC Corporation. Sakai, who spent many years on the front lines as a systems engineer and project manager, now governs the NEC Group's IT Services business as the head of the IT Services segment and maintains an unwavering focus on customers. As NEC enters the final fiscal year of its Mid-term Management Plan 2025, we sat down with Sakai to discuss his aspirations for the NEC Group going forward.

Earning trust through troubleshooting: "Please have Mr. Sakai lead this project"

──You built a long and successful career as a systems engineer.

I joined NEC in 1988 and spent about 15 years engaging in onsite system development for customers. Along the way I also gained experience in sales, but the bulk of my 28-year career leading up to becoming a corporate executive was spent in what is now the Open Mission Critical System and Common Carrier Solutions Business Division.

One of my most memorable experiences happened when I was a senior specialist leader. I was working at a machine center on a holiday to restore a system following a failure when one of the executives came by to check on our progress. While NEC had planned to provide a formal report the next day, I went ahead and explained what was going on to the executive right then and there. After that, this executive started coming to me directly to ask system-related questions and for consultations. Later on, while bidding for a project, this same executive expressed their desire to work with NEC and requested that I serve as the project leader. This is something I will never forget.

──Troubleshooting enabled you to earn their trust.

When it comes to troubleshooting, the most important thing is to thoroughly understand the specifics of the services provided by the customer and the extent of the impact of those services. It's not enough to simply restore the services. You can only earn their trust when your handling of the situation matches the level of the problem they are facing. What I learned during my time as a systems engineer is still fundamental to how I do my job today.

Achieving steady profits with BluStellar in the robust IT Services business

──NEC is entering the final year of the Mid-term Management Plan 2025. What kind of performance are you seeing in the IT Services business?

BluStellar, the value creation model unveiled in 2024 to guide our customers into a brighter future, has redefined the core digital transformation (DX) business that is driving DX. We are already witnessing steady growth in sales and profits in this area.

As for our other base businesses, we have achieved significant growth in areas where we can leverage our inherent strengths, including the modernization of existing systems, thanks to rising demand for IT services. This is expected to allow us to attain the targets set forth in the NEC Mid-term Management Plan 2025.

It goes without saying that this is not something we made happen overnight. Over the course of our previous mid-term management plan (i.e., the NEC Mid-term Management Plan 2020), we anticipated a shift to cloud-based services in the near future, and this led us to partner with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to train engineers. Meanwhile, in the enterprise domain, we embarked on an initiative that would allow us to provide speedy and repeatable value in the form of system integration models created by patterned system integration plans that had up until then been developed for and provided to individual customers. These efforts ultimately allowed us to boost growth and profitability.

By rolling this initiative out to Public and other domains, we have been able to successfully capitalize on market growth. Going forward, we will aspire toward further growth in the domains of Digital Government/Digital Finance and Global IT Services.

──I get the impression that NEC is strengthening its customer-centric initiatives.

To earn the trust of customers, NEC must do everything it can as quickly as it can to provide customers with what they need, and even exceed expectations through the power of professionals. I've had this mindset since the very beginning of my career, and now I am working on accelerating these initiatives.

Business starts with people: Achieving growth with 12,500 DX professionals

──When you were just starting out, did you ever imagine yourself in a leadership role like this?

Honestly, it never even crossed my mind. I was seldom at the office because I was out working at client worksites, yet my boss would tell me, "It would be crazy to let someone like you go unchecked." One day, my boss ordered me to go to weekly meetings at the head office, and I found that I gained a lot of insight from these meetings.

The NEC Group has many employees who—like myself in the past—are stationed onsite with customers. When you constantly work outside the company, it can become difficult to identify as an NEC Group employee. That's why it's crucial to have a foundation like the NEC Way and Purpose that allows employees to feel a sense of unity as members of the NEC Group.

──People are at the core of both management and business.

The key to business growth is increasing the number of suitable personnel who possess abilities and skills that match the needs of the market. The target set forth in the Mid-term Management Plan 2025 of employing 10,000 DX personnel by FY2025 was achieved in 2024, a year ahead of schedule. With that accomplished, we're now setting our sights on the goal of reaching 12,500 DX personnel. Since you also need somewhere to assign these personnel, we calculate the projected business scale and systematically train and acquire talent accordingly.

── NEC is looking beyond the Mid-term Management Plan 2025.

As the Co-COO responsible for the IT Services business, I believe that we are on track to achieve the targets of the Mid-term Management Plan 2025. At the same time, it can also be said that it is only natural that there will be a positive outcome based on the environment in which we find ourselves.

Our current targets are a baseline, and 2025 is simply a milestone. We need to continue earning the trust of our customers and providing them with new value. This is our starting point, and one I revisit over and over again. I remain fully committed to making the NEC Group even more beneficial and valuable to society.

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