Mitsuru Urushibata: Unwavering Passion Becomes Reality

2021/12/11

During my student days, I had a vague desire to make a living through mathematical science. However, as a struggling math student, I lacked the talent to become a researcher, and being a math teacher wasn't for me. I looked for ways to utilize my skills in the corporate world, but it was an unexpectedly narrow path, and by early autumn, I hadn't received a single job offer. My plan as a struggling math student was naive. Giving up on bulk online applications, I applied to and was hired by a financial data analysis company I found through the university's job board. Shortly after, the world was plunged into a financial crisis by the Lehman shock, followed a few years later by the big data boom. Simultaneously, the star of mathematical professions shifted from financial engineering to data science. Truly, fortune is unpredictable and changeable.

About 10 years later, I founded a company focused on data analysis. It wasn't that I disliked working as an employee, but I began to feel a disconnect between the philosophy of my company at the time and my own. Feeling that no existing company aligned with the philosophy I envisioned, I started my own. Our company uses mathematical science as a tool to address social issues. That is why we work hard even on tasks unrelated to mathematics. For example, before looking at a client's data, we strive to understand the story behind it. To achieve this, we don't shy away from the unglamorous work one might not associate with data analysis, such as visiting stores or observing a client's sales operations firsthand. Furthermore, while we study and are well-versed in various technologies, both old and new, we never make the technology itself the objective. We adopt technologies that are necessary and sufficient for the challenges faced by society and our clients. Harmonizing the seemingly contradictory relationship between people/society and mathematical science to provide value—this is the philosophy I have drawn.

It has been about 14 years since I finished graduate school, and I have continued to study, however lazily. I'm not sure if it's because of that, but I have come to be recognized by clients as an expert in data analysis. My vague desire to make a living through mathematical science has become a reality. In this way, a self-centered passion transforms into a philosophy by harmonizing it with the challenges of people and society, which then translates into action and reality. When you think about it that way, the superiority or inferiority of one's ability at any given point is not the issue; the absolute volume of one's passion is what matters. If it is small, it settles in a small place; if it is large, it settles in a large one.

What about your passion?