My contribution to a board
Boards approving household products usually see a revenue forecast, a cost estimate and a compliance opinion. They see less often whether customers will understand what they have bought, and what happens to the company's reputation when they do not. That is the gap I can help fill. I have spent twenty-nine years designing tariffs, plans and notices for households, first in cable television, broadband and mobile, then in electricity and gas. I can read a product proposal and ask the questions that predict complaints: what the oldest customer will be told, how a relative helping from another city will see the account, what the bill will look like in the worst month, and who has tested the explanation. I also know the commercial side of those questions, because each of my decisions at Kiriyasu Energy cost revenue or procurement benefit that colleagues could measure. I would bring that evidence to a risk and compliance committee or a sustainability and customer committee. I would not bring expertise in accounting, treasury or capital markets, and I would rely on fellow directors for it. In return, I would offer them a way to read complaint data, trial results and cancellation figures as early evidence about a decision, rather than as operational noise that reaches the board only after a regulator or a newspaper has noticed it.
My first year on a board
My first months would be spent learning how the company makes money from households and where customers feel that most sharply. I would ask management for a session with the customer centre and a sample of complaint files, anonymised, before my first committee meeting. Through the chair, I would request to observe one product or pricing decision from proposal to approval, so that I understood what the board sees and what it does not. I would read the last three years of board minutes on customer matters. By my second meeting, I would expect to ask useful questions rather than to propose changes. I would also visit a branch, a service centre or a customer's home with frontline staff, arranged through management, because board papers rarely show how a product feels to the person paying for it. By the end of the year, I would ask the chair for frank feedback on whether my questions improved decisions or merely slowed them, and I would adjust accordingly.
Conflicts and their management
Kiriyasu Energy buys wholesale power, LP gas, batteries, installation services and software, and borrows from regional banks. Any of those counterparties could also supply the company whose board I joined. Before accepting, I would give the chair and the company's advisers a list of those relationships and ask them to identify overlaps. I would decline a seat at any company whose energy business competes with ours in Nagano or Yamanashi, now or in a plan the board is considering. If a matter later touched Kiriyasu Energy's interests, I would declare it and leave the discussion. Should such matters become frequent, I would step down rather than become a director who is absent whenever something important arises. My president's written consent would be a condition, and I would tell him if the time demands grew beyond what we had agreed.
My independence statement
I hold no shares or advisory role in any energy company other than my employer. Any board I joined would receive a written list of Kiriyasu Energy's suppliers, lenders and partners so that it could judge my independence itself.
Judgement in practice
01Asking what a household will remember, not what it can be shown
The four-band tariff proposal was well modelled, and I did not dispute its cost logic. My question was whether the people paying it could state its rule six weeks later. A board considering a new price structure could ask the same question and expect evidence rather than reassurance. I would want to see a trial result by customer age, the call volumes it generated and the cost of the simpler alternative stated in yen. I would also want the dissenting view recorded. Ryohei Sakuramine's argument that customers would learn was reasonable, and the president's decision was better because it was tested against that argument rather than adopted against no opposition.
02Separating a product's benefit from its saving
The battery subscription argument turned on a distinction that boards meet often: a feature customers value is not the same as money they save. Our sales team wanted backup during outages to justify a comparison that omitted the monthly fee. I wanted the fee shown and backup described in words. On a board, I would ask how a subscription or bundled service is presented at the point of sale, whether the comparison is net of every charge, and what cancellation and complaint rates show in the first year. I would not assume that a lower sales figure means a worse decision. It may mean the company is selling to people who understand what they bought.
Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
|---|
| Ready to join | Risk and compliance · Sustainability and customer |
|---|
Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 24 days per year
- Current directorships
- 0
- Sectors
- Regional utilities outside my current market · Housing and home services · Subscription-based household services
- Company type
- Listed company on a Japanese exchange, or a large unlisted company with outside directors, serving households under long-term contracts
- Company stage
- Introducing subscriptions, automated home controls or new price structures for households
The seat I am pursuing
I am looking for a first outside directorship at a company whose products reach households over many years: a regional utility outside my market, a housing or home-services company, or a care provider. I would serve as a member of a risk and compliance committee or a sustainability and customer committee, under a chair with board experience. I am not seeking a title or an advisory retainer described as a directorship. The company should be able to say why it wants a director with consumer product experience and what it expects that director to examine. I would prefer a board that already has strong financial and legal expertise, so that my contribution adds a perspective rather than covering a gap I am not qualified to fill. I would ask, before accepting, how complaint and cancellation information currently reaches directors, because that answer tells me how much of my contribution the board is ready to use.
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Kiriyasu Energy
Board of directors; product, tariff and investment papers
April 2021–present
Presents tariff structures, power-saving schemes and app investment to the board as chief product officer; not a director.
Reported to a committee
Kiriyasu Energy
Compliance committee; sales-practice and complaints reviews
April 2017–present
Reports twice a year on pre-contract explanations, complaints by cause and the conduct of battery and electricity sales.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Not yet registered
The IICA Independent Directors' Databank is an Indian requirement and does not apply to appointments in Japan, so I have not registered with it. For a Japanese appointment, the company's own criteria for outside directors and any exchange designation of independence would need to be reviewed with its advisers.
- I am studying the duties of outside directors under Japan's Companies Act and the expectations set out in Japan's Corporate Governance Code.
- I read the governance reports of listed regional utilities to understand how boards record their oversight of customer-facing risks.