After gaining hands-on experience as a network engineer in his previous role, S. E. joined AMCON INC. as the company’s first referral hire. Today, as a member of the Information Systems Group, he supports internal IT operations and works to improve business processes across departments. We spoke with S. E., who wants to “create systems that make everyone’s work easier,” about what led him to join the company and what he finds rewarding about his work.

A Referral Helped Me Discover a Company Where People Can Take on Challenges

Q. Why did you join AMCON INC., and what made you decide to join?

A senior colleague who had helped me a lot at my previous job had already moved to AMCON INC., and he reached out to me. That was what first led me to consider joining. As I learned more about the company, I became very interested when I found out that its young management team actively incorporates new ways of thinking and takes on challenges without fearing change. I was also attracted to the environment where people can share their opinions and take on challenges regardless of when they joined the company, and I decided to join because I wanted to work in that kind of environment.

From “Work That Receives Instructions” to “Work That Makes Proposals”

Q. Please tell us about any concerns you had before joining and any differences you noticed after joining.

My biggest concern was whether I would be able to identify issues on my own and make proposals. In my previous job, my work mainly involved fulfilling requests from customers, and I did not have many opportunities to think of improvement ideas or make proposals myself.
At AMCON INC., I am expected to propose improvements from the perspective of, “Wouldn’t this make work easier?” At first, I was unsure how to approach that, but with the support of my manager and everyone around me, I have been able to work with confidence.
Through listening to each department about their work and the issues they face, I have come to believe that the first important step is to carefully understand what the other person is struggling with. As I have gained more experience, I have gradually developed my own way of making proposals, and now I am able to think of improvement ideas that fit the other person’s work and position.

“Thank You” Leads to the Next Improvement

Q. What do you find rewarding about this work?

I like helping people. When people actually use a system I improved and say things like, “My work has become easier” or “Thank you,” it makes me truly happy.
In business process improvement, I place importance on first listening carefully to the other person and understanding what they are struggling with. When the system I then come up with is useful in their actual work and they tell me, “That really helped,” I feel the reward of this job.

An Environment Where Even Younger Employees Can Easily Share Their Opinions

Q. What do you find appealing about working at AMCON INC.?

Before joining, what appealed to me was the company’s attitude of trying to change itself, led by its young management team. Even after actually working here, that impression has not changed. There is an environment where people properly listen to the ideas you propose, and there is a sense of speed in saying, “Let’s try it first.” The Information Systems Group is not a department that directly sells products, but I feel that it is a job where we can contribute to the entire company by using the power of IT to create an environment where everyone can work more comfortably.

Aiming to Build an Information Systems Group Unique to AMCON INC.

Q. Please tell us about your future goals.

In the Administration Department, we have the idea that “our customers are each and every employee who works at the company.” That is why, as the Information Systems Group, I believe our role is to create an environment where employees can work more comfortably and to minimize the impact on operations as much as possible when system trouble occurs.
Going forward, I would like us to become an Information Systems Group that can make people say, “AMCON INC.’s information systems can do this much.”
At large companies, I think it is difficult for the information systems department to be deeply involved with each employee. But at AMCON INC., we can listen directly to voices from the workplace, understand each person’s opinions and requests, and propose improvements that suit each situation. I believe that an information systems function that can improve things while listening to each individual is something unique to AMCON INC.