Background and experience

January 2000 in Orlando Florida, and during the excitement of the annual Lotusphere conference the directors of Teamstudio hold a board meeting (over pizza and beer at a local restaurant) and the next step in their quest for global domination was agreed ..... to go open an office in Japan. Roll on seven months and Steve Crane was on a one way ticket to Tokyo armed with a one page excel business plan and a suitcase full of cash. During the first year we established Teamstudio KK, signed the lease on an office, hired a team of 12 local staff and looked for every opportunity to talk to potential customers for the products. By the end of the year we had notched up sales to 400 Japanese companies and the momentum was building.

The second year proved more challenging, but also very rewarding as the momentum continued to grow. We adopted some creative marketing techniques and boosted the telephone based sales operation. By the end of the second year Teamstudio was making significant profits and starting the pay back the year one investment.  At the end of year three the customer base had grow to almost 1,000 and making healthy profits.

Buoyed by this experience and hungry to see if it was possible to repeat this success Steve Crane co-founded  his second business in Japan 'Electronics Link Japan'. The mission of this new company was to offer the experiences and knowledge gained from Teamstudio to other foreign companies wishing to enter and grow their business in Japan. Over the past 5 years ELJ has developed a highly experienced team and has worked with a wide variety of clients to help them in Japan.

One example of the success of ELJ is with Apical Ltd.  As their business started to grow in Japan, Steve took the role of Japan country manager and set about recruiting a team in Japan. Steve re-hired a few of the top performers from Teamstudio to join the next adventure and the Apical business growth accelerated rapidly. High value license deals were signed with major Japanese electronics companies and Japan became the highest revenue generating business for Apical.

In 2009 the opportunity was spotted to form a new business and Business Link Japan was born. The objective was to (a) support government organisations to achieve their goals in developing trade and investment links (b) to get involved in supporting Japanese companies to enter overseas markets and , (c) to help foreign companies from other sectors to do business in Japan.

In it's short life so far Business Link Japan has won contracts with UKTI to organize events including 'Japan Day' at Lougborough (one of the largest Japan related business events held in the UK), The 'Motorsports in Japan' conference at Silverstone and the East Midlands 'Market Visit to Japan' in July this year. In addition BLJ has won contracts with the East Midlands Development Agency to promote the region in Japan and to attract inward investment.

It has been quite an adventure over the past 10 years, and I often think back and wonder what direction I would have taken in life if I didn't eat that pizza and drink beer with Nigel Cheshire of Teamstuio in Florida in January 2000.