Name:FORCIA, Inc.
Office:Tokyo, Japan
CEO:Hiroko Yashiro
Established:March 22, 2001
Capital:100 million yen
Employees:104 (July 1st, 2017)
Business:Accurate search business solutions including search platform development and consulting

Patents:

• Japanese Patent No.4278022
• Japanese Patent No.4707476

Awards:

• Japan Venture Awards 2011, IT Special Award
• Women of the Year 2011, Award winner (Hiroko Yashiro, CEO)
• Best Workplaces Japan 2016, 2017, Award winner
• The Third Good Action Awards, 2017 Award winner

Hiroko Yashiro, CEO

Co-founded FORCIA, Inc. in 2001. Previously worked at Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. and Goldman Sachs in Tokyo.
Holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Keio University, and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Tetsuro Yashiro, COO

Co-founded FORCIA, Inc. in 2001. Previously worked at Nomura Securities Co. Ltd. And Morgan Stanley in Tokyo.
Holds a bachelor's degree of science from the University of Tokyo, and an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

Naoki Yamada, Director

Joined FORCIA, Inc. in 2005. Previously worked at ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS TRADING Co. Ltd., ALL NIPPON AIRWAYS Co. Ltd and ANA Sales Co.Ltd.
Holds a bachelor's degree in Sociology from Kwansei Gakuin University.

FORCIA was founded in 2001 by Hiroko Yashiro (CEO) and Tetsuro Yashiro (COO). Both Hiroko and Tetsuro received MBA degrees from MIT Sloan School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and worked in the financial industry for over 10 years. Then, together, they founded FORCIA, Inc, with a goal to contribute to society and future generations, in a company environment that fosters employees to pursue self-fulfillment and enrich their lives.

FORCIA's product is a site search platform that can be applied to all types of business engagements. The development of this platform has been guided by three underlying principles:

• It should be smart to fit human thinking and behavior,
• It should allow users to quickly get an over view of the big picture, and show what kind of choices exist, and answer where and how?
• It should be able to sort and prioritize items based on the end-users' preferences and priorities.

The founding team focused on maintaining the end user's satisfaction throughout the search process and also incorporated their insights and experiences from the financial engineering sector. In the early 2000's, this model was quite different from the other available types of search software. Due to their unconventional approach and an unproven track record in conservative Japan, the first five years of the company were difficult. But eventually, after the founders persistent sales negotiations, the largest travel agency in Japan agreed to use FORCIA's product. Travel data is large and complex with millions of combinations, and adoption of FORCIA's search platform led to immediately boosted sales and the conversion rate. As this result became known, adoption within the Japanese travel industry spread, and today, most of the travel agencies in Japan are using FORCIA's platform.

In addition, clients in other data-intensive business segments such as life sciences and retail have also chosen FORCIA for their search needs. Especially, FORCIA is currently supporting an industry leader in the life sciences category, to transition from a paper-based catalogue to a full e-commerce search site.

The company's name 'FORCIA' is derived from the Latin phrase, "Citius, Altius, FORtius", which means "Faster, Higher, Stronger". This is also the motto of the Olympics, and expresses our aspiration to constantly challenge ourselves. We desire that people with the same spirit of "faster, higher and stronger", work together to achieve results, according to spirit of "fair" play.

Fairness - Our Philosophy -

FORCIA especially values "fairness". Based on the belief that excellent work results from fair relationships, we respect and build mutually win-win relationships and work sincerely to support our partner's goals.