Always Go Extra Miles JISR Graduate Baraa Aldarkazanly

Baraa Aldarkazanly (hereafter, Baraa), a businessman who works for a trading company based in Osaka, is a first-round graduate of the JISR Program. Many JISR participants, due to conditions in their home country, find employment and continue to stay in Japan after completing the program, and Baraa is one such example. After completing his master’s course in business management at Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University (APU) in Kyushu, he currently works for the Osaka-based ZenGroup Inc., which provides cross-border e-commerce services. ZenGroup Inc. (https://zen.group/) was established in 2014 (originally ZenMarket LLC) and launched ZenMarket, which is a proxy shopping service for Japanese online stores. It currently conducts business in 19 different languages in countries all over the world. We visited the company’s offices in Osaka to interview Baraa and also talk with the CEO of ZenGroup Inc. and Baraa’s superior.

When I was a student in Japan, people would always ask me to buy them Japanese souvenirs whenever I returned to my country, Ukraine. That’s where I got the idea of cross-border EC (e-commerce). Japanese products are very popular all over the world. Even though many people around the world want to buy Japanese products, in reality only around 5% of such people are doing so.

There are numerous barriers for people who want to buy Japanese products in overseas countries. First, there is a language problem. Unless you understand Japanese, it is very difficult to understand the contents correctly and make purchases from Japanese websites. Next, there are difficulties in terms of distribution and customs clearance. Buying and selling across borders entails complicated customs procedures, while numerous risks and issues arise concerning transportation to inaccessible locations or places where there is no previous experience of selling. Another issue concerns payments. Payment procedures can be complicated for people who do not have credit cards or in cases where the handling of consumption tax, etc. differs between different countries. We aim to make things smoother for people who want to purchase Japanese products by performing such procedures on behalf of customers and providing multilingual services.
At the same time, our business benefits the sellers of products. Because the Japanese market is shrinking due to the declining birthrate and aging population, many manufacturers, especially small and medium enterprises, start e-commerce in search of overseas markets. We contribute to society by helping such enterprises overcome the barriers they face in expanding business overseas. In the future, we hope to increase Japan’s share of cross-border e-commerce from 5% to 20%.

Our company would like to support customers in as many countries as possible, not just the major markets of the United States and China, but small countries too. Therefore, we currently provide services in 19 languages and have a multinational workforce assembled from 30 countries. ZenGroup Inc. is looking for human resources who can work in multinational environments while respecting the customs and cultures of each country. Moreover, because we pioneer new markets and develop original products in addition to providing customer support, we also look for language ability as well as the ability to perform work accurately and efficiently.

Baraa singlehandedly pioneered the Arab market for us from scratch. The Arab world includes numerous countries, however, for each one, he surveyed the kinds of products that people want to buy, and investigated and proposed the optimum transportation routes and means of payment for ensuring the efficient and certain delivery of products. The Arab world has a diversity of dialects and uses various means of payment. Baraa developed the ideal customer services for each and explored the path that would allow people there to find and smoothly purchase the products they want from the Japanese market. He is also active in the field of user experience. Understanding that smartphones are important means of marketing especially in the Arab world, he also created website contents that are optimized for mobile screens. His main responsibility is creating Arabic language online advertisements – from researching channels to analyzing the results. It wasn’t easy, but he is doing a great job. I think that the way he works hard stimulates and imparts a positive influence on the other team members.

Recruitment interviews usually entail only questions and answers, however, not in Baraa’s case. In his interview, he presented the findings of a marketing survey he had conducted in the Arabic-speaking world. His attitude of proactively surveying what is needed and thinking one step ahead left a big impression. He was the first candidate to go those extra miles, and that convinced us that he could immediately be an effective worker.

He excels in performing all tasks independently, setting realistic timelines and in conducting survey work with accuracy. Other strengths are the enthusiasm he brings to his work, his willingness to learn new things, and his ability to get new things started. For example, he has autonomously participated in online courses to learn skills for writing articles and techniques for optimizing search engines, etc. and brought these skills into his work. He has a tremendous desire to improve himself, as may be gathered from his desire to take the initiative in conducting analysis on customer service and conduct in-company presentations.

As another example, which happened a little while ago, when the company needed to conduct marketing in Arabic for the first time, because our web settings didn’t correspond to the Arabic system of writing from right to left, Baraa personally completed the complicated work of rewriting the code. He always thinks one step ahead and initiates new ideas. One example is improving our website design, another is offering incentives so that more customers will respond to our customer satisfaction surveys using Google Form and so on.

First of all, please allow me to express my gratitude to Allah. I am thankful to be here, that things are going well, and that I can be together with my family secured and living independently.

In ZenGroup Inc., I am mainly in charge of marketing on our cross-border EC site in the Arabic-speaking world. The work is very interesting and lets me feel that I am directly contributing to the company’s growth through my own efforts. Thanks to the JICA scholarship program JISR that covered not only the tuition fees for the university program, but also all living expenses during my master’s studies, I was able to come to Japan and study at the graduate school of management at APU. I am so grateful to all the people involved in managing this scholarship, it is such an invaluable opportunity that changed my whole life.

Job hunting wasn’t easy, however, knowing that from the beginning when I came to Japan , I was able to work on my studies while conducting activities with an eye on finding employment during my master’s program. During this period, I experienced an internship at a well-known big Japanese corporation, and this experience imparted a positive impact on my later job hunting activities. The career office at APU also helped with job hunting. Eventually, using LinkedIn, I responded to an advertisement by a company that was looking for Arabic speakers to expand their marketing activities to the Arab world. That company was ZenGroup Inc. Convinced that this was a precious opportunity to utilize my Arabic language skills in Japan, I was determined to receive an offer, so I spent a week investigating the Arabic market and presented my findings in the job interviews. I made my own name card and handed it to the interviewers. I then received the employment offer and became in charge of the Arabic marketing for ZenMarket until this day. I believe that I am here today thanks to the support of my family, relatives, the extraordinary support from JICA and all related parties, and above all the God’s superior will. I believe that the key to succeeding is the desire to strive for success and a willingness to always go one extra mile beyond what is expected.

My time at APU was not only a time to study MBA, but it also gave me opportunities to understand the Japanese culture and customs here. Since it was necessary to understand the Japanese culture when going through job hunting, the things that I learned at APU proved to be very useful. I was also fortunate to learn business skills at numerous employment support seminars that were held by JICA in Tokyo. The knowledge I learned about how to conduct interviews in Japan and how to write my Japanese CV and so on were very helpful when I applied to different companies. I already had basic knowledge concerning the business management before I entered APU, however, I always strived to autonomously learn high-level skills and to study Japanese language as much as I could during my master’s program.

Because the company has a flextime system that lets employees leave at 16:00, it is great for maintaining work-life balance. Since I get to spend time with my family, I can also do my best at work. It is a good environment that is free from excessively long working hours. I experienced a lot of skills on digital marketing soon after entering ZenGroup Inc. The work entailed devising SNS-linked advertising methods and collaborating with famous influencers. It was a very good experience that let me learn lots of new things.

When I first joined ZenGroup, I launched the first ads on Google, however, we could not make any progress for some time. Naturally I became nervous about the situation and investigated the cause, and I found that the advertisement had not been activated from the beginning due to my error. That was my first mistake in the company. However, none of the other staff members or my superiors berated me for making this mistake; rather, they told me that all I needed to do was learn from the mistake and try to avoid it in future. This left an impression on me. The company has an atmosphere of learning things together. This point brings me a lot of satisfaction in my work.

• Focus on learning Japanese first. If you want to live and work in Japan, you have to learn Japanese. Especially if you are majoring in business, Japanese language is essential in order for you to be able to communicate in the business world.
• JICA provides scholarships, etc. for three years, however, you must not rely on your laurels during that time. You should think of these three years as a period of preparation for the next big step in life, and you should make proactive efforts geared to realizing that. It is not good to do nothing and just wait for someone to appear and help you out.

• Believe in yourself. You will experience difficulties in daily life, studies and job hunting activities and more, however, please believe in yourself and keep moving forward.

• The JISR Program is a special scholarship program that allows you to come to Japan. For Syrians who are confronted with great difficulties at home, it is precious that the life in safer place is secured. However, one should not expect to get everything just from the program itself. It is important to have one’s own plan and strategy for achieving the goal that and making effective use of this opportunity without becoming overly dependent on support from JICA and Japan. When you apply, be sure to have a plan for utilizing this precious chance as a means for paving your own life.

Being positive, energetic, extroverted, and warm-hearted. These are the first impression of Baraa that you may have. He talked about how he strives to “always go extra miles” in all aspects of life. Having obtained the opportunity to study in Japan through JISR, rather than resting on his laurels, he has been always making the effort to advance one step beyond, and always will. I pray for the future success of Baraa.
We express my gratitude to ZenGroup Inc. CEO Mr. Surovyi and Baraa’s superior Ms. Baumgärtner for graciously accepting the interview.