Hajime Endo: Making People Happy Through Beauty

2024/04/23

Since September 2022, I have served as the president of istyle Inc., a company that operates "@cosme," a beauty-focused business encompassing media, e-commerce, and physical retail stores.

It has been nearly 20 years since I entered this industry. It all started when a senior from my university seminar, who was running a cosmetics retail company, invited me to work with them.

I eventually moved to istyle following a joint venture between that company and istyle, which brings me to where I am today.

istyle operates under the vision of "Creating a consumer-centric market" and the mission to "Update the world of beauty and make many people happy."

While istyle's strength lies in the fact that our "@cosme" service is supported by so many consumers, our fundamental strength is that every one of us is earnestly committed to the aforementioned vision and mission. As a symbol of this earnest commitment, we opened a large-scale store called "@cosme TOKYO" in front of JR Harajuku Station in 2020. I wanted to create a place where everyone who visits—from our customers and brand partners to our own employees—feels, "I'm happy and having fun being here," and I believe we have achieved that to some extent.

As the president of such a company, what I value most is "organizational management with high psychological safety." In other words, creating a company where everyone feels comfortable expressing their opinions in various situations.

I realized the importance of this because my late mentor from my university seminar, Professor Hirokuni Sogawa, always conducted himself in that manner. I suddenly remembered how he always warmly accepted my comments, even when I was a bit rowdy, and I have been conscious of it ever since.

I intend to continue cherishing the lessons Professor Sogawa taught me through his actions and move forward to make as many people happy as possible.