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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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