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         Locate Your ‘People’                         not, QAHWA cooperated with Nomura Securities in the
                                                      area of investment too. In fact, there is no limit as long
             Your Team  Many owners ponder the question:   as you recruit the right people.
         Where are my target customers? If there are no custom-  Your Customers  As the CEO of QAHWA Inc. with
         ers, there is no business. Right? But first of all, you should   different titles such as barista champion, board member,
         really consider who you want to have on board to work   or coach, Izaki said: “I think my role is the same even
         with you as a team. For Izaki, his answer is building a   though it sounds different because I believe my work is
         strong team with people from different backgrounds.   to bring someone’s best out of them.” He invited a new
         “We are a unique coffee start-up, QAHWA Inc. Myself   board member, who used to work for P&G as Head of
         as a coffee specialist but other members come from   Marketing as Izaki knows how important marketing is to
         different fields, such as marketing, creative direction,   market education.
         and food science.” In this way, it helps Izaki to expand   Last year, he started working on a RTD (ready-to-
         businesses across different industries and regions. For   drink) project. “It’s more like a marketing test to showcase
         example, if you see the list of QAHWA’s clients, you will   how diverse coffee can be,” he explained. The RTD coffee
         be surprised at its diversity: McDonald’s, MARUYAMA   uses specialty coffee beans scored between 80-85 points
         COFFEE, Simonelli Group, T-fal, Nestle, or DS AUTO-  instead of those top beans like Geisha. “I want to test how
         MOBILES. However, it’s just part of a long list. “If you   marketing can change the sales of the product,” he shared.
         see coffee from different angles, you can see it as a   In Izaki’s view, the social project-like initiative will
         lifestyle for people,” Izaki explained. “Since I’ve realized   help change targeted consumers’ perceptions of RTD
         this, I’ve been collaborating with lots of national and   coffee as well as the way they shop because it is put on
         international brands.” Besides the above-mentioned, his   an e-commerce platform rather than in popular conve-
         company also worked with the renowned cream cheese   nience stores and street drink vendors in Japan. “I notice
         brand Philadephia for innovative recipes or Japan’s Fu-  we have a massive gap between consumers in specialty
         jiya to promote national favorite sweets. Believe it or   coffee,” Izaki said.






                                                                              Hidenori Izaki
                                                                              In 2014, Hidenori Izaki of
                                                                              Maruyama Coffee in Nagano,
                                                                              Japan won the World Barista
                                                                              Championship in Rimini, Italy,
                                                                              becoming the first Asian barista
                                                                              to win the title. Since winning the
                                                                              title, Izaki has coached many           I think my role is
                                                                              barista competitors for WBC. He
                                                                              is CEO of QAHWA, a coffee               the same even
                                                                              consulting company.
                                                                                                                      though it sounds
                                                                                                                      different because

                                                                                                                      I believe my

                                                                                                                      work is to bring

                                                                                                                      someone’s best

                                                                                                                      out of them.
                                                 (Hidenori Izaki: second from the right)





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