At 26, I founded the company with the sole motivation of seeing how much I could grow if I put myself in a situation where I couldn't make excuses. I didn't have grand ambitions or aspirations. Over twenty years ago, I approached our current president, Nagasawa, with a crude business plan.
After that, despite being on the verge of giving up due to various difficulties, I have reached this point with the support of my friends and many others. Each time, I felt keenly that "I am being kept alive."
Over the past few years, I've spent more time focusing on organizational development. To be honest, I've been frustrated by organizations that are slow to change, and I've repeatedly felt my own incompetence. This isn't about rose-colored glasses; I'm still grappling with it.
That's why I feel like I truly understand the feelings of clients who approach organizations in the same way, from the bottom of my heart.
Even now, receiving vague consultations from clients and engaging in a back-and-forth discussion together is purely enjoyable. Sometimes I can empathize as a fellow business owner, and other times I have to reflect on painful truths I'm told. While touching upon a part of my clients' lives, I am also made aware of things and grow myself.
I intend to support you, but I always end up learning from you. That's the honest truth.
In 2016, I moved to the Philippines with my family and young children to establish a group company. Initially, my motivation was a curiosity to "work with people from various countries abroad." While that feeling hasn't changed, it has actually deepened.
I know firsthand how interesting it is to work with people from various countries who have different cultures and customs. Now I communicate with our members in the Philippines on a daily basis, which would have been unthinkable not too long ago. That experience in itself is our "Borderless" experience.
In an era where borders, languages, and business barriers are becoming increasingly blurred, we, as a GLOBAL BRANDING AGENCY, want to contribute to our clients' growth alongside people from diverse backgrounds. That is our aspiration.
We call our organization "MONSTER FIRM." It's a place where individuals with unique and somewhat unconventional abilities gather, complementing each other's strengths and weaknesses, and genuinely dedicating themselves to our clients' growth.
Perhaps the reason I have been kept alive is to make this concept a reality. I think so now.
Lionheart can be your turning point.
Lionheart was founded by four co-investors, including the current chairman, when they were 26 years old.
A departure with no sense of purpose or mission, driven only by the joy and curiosity of building their own company.
It was a business start from absolute zero, with no customers, no work, and no money.
It's easy to imagine, and after that, there were many difficulties such as the founders splitting up and the company being on the verge of bankruptcy, but
Thanks to the support of so many people, I was able to somehow survive.
And now, ten years since our founding. To build an organization and a future that isn't just an extension of the past,
I have become the CEO and have set a course for a future of further growth and leaps by painting a vision story for 10 times the growth in 10 years.
私たちの事業は、LHメソッド・理念経営・顧客体験を活かすという根幹にある３つの独自性によって、明確な強みを発揮しています。
Among these, the LH method helps customers be chosen as special beings (brands),
Using our original framework, we will carefully organize your current situation and challenges.
そして、ブランディング・マーケティング・HRの多角的なアプローチから、
We will support you in realizing your vision and commit to delivering solid results.
"I'm Not a Creator—So Why Am I the CEO?"
When the company changed presidents, I decided my role would be to create an environment and a stage where employees could perform at their best.
There is unlimited potential for human growth. It's strange for me to say this, but when I see the plans and creative work our employees offer to clients,
I'm sometimes amazed by how people come up with such ideas and concepts.
Giving form to potential that has not yet become words.
To maximize the potential of organizations and people, centered on our clients who are business leaders
To contribute to the "innovation" and "growth" that shake the foundations of our client companies.
We hope that meeting us becomes a turning point for you.
With that resolve, we will face our clients' futures.
I cherish the principle of "giving my whole heart to the present moment," which is also my life motto.
With sincerity towards the people and things before you, consider what you can contribute as your true self.
To delight our customers, be needed by society, and earn their expectations,
We will become a group that pursues the spirit of altruism and contributes to activities that improve society through our client companies.
I joined Lionheart as a designer in 2012.
In 2016, I was appointed as an executive officer. While I was still on the front lines of creative work, exploring my role as a member of the management team, I was inspired by the president's words, "First, you need to build a track record," and ventured into management from recruitment. Starting with practical experience, I expanded into organizational design, evaluation systems, and labor relations, eventually establishing a strategic HR department. During this process, I repeatedly experienced situations where recruitment setbacks cast a shadow over the entire organization. And I've realized this keenly: "Recruitment failures cannot be compensated for by training," and that recruitment is, in itself, management.
It started with design, and before I knew it, I found myself on the side of building organizations. The essence hasn't changed. For clients, there are things they want to convey but can't quite put into words. Turning those into form, seeing clients happy, and witnessing them move forward is the most rewarding moment. Now, the focus has simply shifted from physical creations to people.
Appointed Managing Director in 2023. There's something I've always felt since I started working in HR. This experience will definitely be of service to our clients. While working with various companies in the design field, I've seen many companies that are wonderful but struggling with recruitment and organizational issues. My own company has also been in a constant state of struggle. In 2025, I gave shape to those feelings and launched our HR business.
HR is a mechanism for realizing the future. What kind of organization do we want to create? Working backward from that, we recruit, develop, and place people. Because we have built this up from scratch, we want to think alongside those who approach organizations in the same way.
I am not a founder. I joined as an employee, worked on the ground, became an executive, and became involved in management. That's why I can see things. The frustration of the top's intentions not reaching the front lines, the helplessness of the front lines, and the difficulty of standing in between. Translating management's words into words that reach. I know firsthand how much that can move an organization.
Recruitment and organizational development, when boiled down, are all about how to leverage people's strengths. My job is to make the most of life. Whether in creative fields or human resources, organizational challenges always lie between people. It's not always pretty. Because they're about humans. That's why I believe my experience in bridging those gaps will surely be of service to you.
It has been 15 years since I joined Lionheart as a new graduate engineer in 2009. My journey so far has been within the "field" and the "Kaizen" of pursuing better forms. In 2016, I was seconded to the Philippines to launch a group company, where I was engaged in building a local team as a manager. At the time, it started with an intuition that it "seemed interesting," but in facing members with different languages and cultures, I came to keenly feel the difficulty and rewards of building an organization from scratch and working towards a common goal.
Despite struggling with communication in unfamiliar English, I persistently repeated trial and error, such as developing guidelines and building an educational system. The joy came from seeing individual strengths, which had been fragmented, mesh together and intentions "correctly understood" by organizing the systems. The accumulation of those experiences allowed the Philippine team to grow into an indispensable foundation for the group. My stance towards work has been greatly influenced by this experience, particularly in calmly accepting difficult situations and considering how to solve them with systems, while embracing the process itself in a positive light.
Lionheart is an organization that excels at extracting the essential challenges of its clients using its proprietary "LH Method." My role is to implement those sharp ideas and aspirations in the optimal "visible form" and deliver them to society. Rather than simply building according to blueprints, I combine evolving technologies and trends to further unlock the potential of the plans and elevate them to a quality that exceeds expectations. I believe this is a role that can be considered the "heart" of the group, bringing the client's vision to life and maximizing its value.
What I aim for is a vibrant organizational structure where members with diverse talents can freely exchange opinions across job roles, allowing new information and ideas to naturally blend. Each individual asks themselves, "How can we make this better?" and never stops honing their skills. I am confident that this relentless spirit of inquiry in each person will elevate the overall "ability to realize" of the Lionheart Group, becoming a reliable force supporting our clients' challenges. We will strive to support the future possibilities our clients envision with a sincere power of actualization, delivering value that exceeds expectations.
Maxime focuses on e-commerce, fintech, AI, and advanced technologies, supporting growth companies in global markets. They have experience investing in and engaging with companies in Japan, China, the Philippines, the United States, Europe, and Australia, and strive to uncover opportunities from a cross-border perspective.
Furthermore, in the fields of marketing and e-commerce, I have been involved in launching and managing companies of all sizes, possessing both practical execution skills and strategic insight.
As an external director, I provide an outside perspective on new trends, helping Lionheart identify new opportunities, re-evaluate assumptions, stay ahead of rapid technological changes, and contribute to the promotion of overseas expansion.
Introducing Lionheart's company basic information, overseas locations, and executives.
