Meet Our Colleagues

10 February 2021

Basic profile

Name: Kohei

Joined Year: 2012

Current Role: Senior Manager

Technology that my team uses: Java / Linux / AWS / Kubernates / Ansible

What I like to do for fun: Ride a(n) road bike / indoor trainer

 

“I have taken part in HUE development from its initial stages since my second year.”

Kohei comes from an engineering background and has been a key player in the development of HUE since its initial stages. He received the Best Employee award as his accomplishments were highly recognized by the company. He now leads a team in Singapore.

” I majored in Information Physics & Computing before I started to work for Works Applications. We studied methods to make the physical/actual world measurable by computers. For example, we tried to measure neural signals of live creatures and compute what meaning they represent sometimes by using machine learning. Basically, I studied how to distinguish what computers can and cannot compute. I have been engaged in the development of the core framework of HUE, our main product, since its initial development stage. At that time, there were no existing frameworks that could achieve what we were aiming for, especially with regards to the processing speed. Thus we decided to design and develop the whole framework from scratch. Designing a super-fast framework requires fundamental computer knowledge and I could fully utilize what I had learned in university.”

 

“In such an environment, communication becomes an essential factor in order to work successfully.”

Kohei has worked in the Tokyo office before coming to the Singapore office. He shared his thoughts on the difference between both offices.

“Many Singapore office members majored in Computer Science, so they are familiar with technology. They are tech geeks, so I enjoy discussing technology with them. On the other hand, while some Japan office members majored in Computer Science, many of them are more business-oriented; they are motivated to do business, and they see technology as the best tool to achieve it. In fact, there are many Japanese members starting their own business as their next career step. In such an environment, communication becomes an essential factor in order to work successfully. As an engineer, learning or trying new technologies is fun, but it will not produce any value without a business perspective. Similarly, the business-oriented people also need technological grounds in order to come up with solutions to customers, because you can’t propose what you don’t know. Therefore, you should avoid trapping yourself in your own comfortable field.”

 

“The company’s decision-making speed and transparency have improved.”

Kohei shared his thoughts on how Works Applications has changed in the recent years.

“In the last few years, I feel that the company’s decision-making speed and transparency have improved. The criterias for which the management uses to make decisions are shared and have become clearer, so the direction in which our organization is heading towards has become more consistent. The job scope of teams, as well as the coverages of individual teams, are more clearly defined, so each team’s role has become clear and team members are able to focus on what they should do.

For people in the management layer, organizational structures have become more organized, so they can see their teams and projects comprehensively, and are able to manage them more easily and efficiently.

It is true that there was a time where management and decision making were somewhat inconsistent, but I feel these improvements were the major changes in the last few years.”

“WAP is a good place for people who have a vision”

Kohei shared his thoughts on who is likely to have a successful career at WAP and gave a message to candidates.

“I believe WAP is a good place for people who have a vision, and want to utilize the knowledge they learned. In other words, those who simply follow what their manager tells them to do will not enjoy our culture.

If your vision and the company’s vision matches, you would get an opportunity regardless of your role or position. In addition, if you can do what you want to do, you would be motivated to work harder, which leads to higher performance. As a result, you would be able to get closer to your goals. So, I would like you to be one of the people who can make the best effort and produce results using those opportunities.

If you are a student, let me give you some advice. Focus on your current studies. Once you graduate and start working, it is more difficult than you think to secure time to study. For example, students have access to free research papers and have plenty of time to read them, such as during their school breaks.

However, working adults would need to find time and pay to do the same. Some students ask what they should study in preparation of a professional career, and to that I would say: Continue studying based on your current specialization. Even if those are not directly connected with your job, people who focus on studying their specialties tend to end up being highly successful after they start working.”

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