Hitoshi Yamada, a successor with 37 years of experience ranging from management crises to M&A, launches 'Right-Hand Support for Successor Presidents'

Equal Keiei (Headquarters: Yamagata City, Gifu Prefecture; Representative: Hitoshi Yamada) is launching full-scale 'Right-Hand Support for Successor Presidents' to provide comprehensive, hands-on assistance for business successors in management decision-making, product development, market expansion, and organizational development.

Representative Hitoshi Yamada stood on the front lines of business for 37 years as a successor president after taking over his father’s woodworking shop following his sudden passing.

After taking the reins, he faced multiple management crises, including industry shifts, client bankruptcies, and declining sales due to major clients bringing production in-house. He eventually achieved a V-shaped recovery by developing his own product, the 'Tenugui Frame,' leveraging e-commerce sales, exhibiting at trade shows, and expanding sales channels. Ultimately, he also achieved a third-party business succession through M&A.

Based on these real-world experiences, the company now provides execution-oriented management consulting with the goal of 'creating a state where successor presidents do not have to struggle alone and can make informed next moves based on the field and the numbers.'

Successor presidents' challenges cannot be solved by textbooks alone.
Successors face many dilemmas, such as:
- How much should they change the predecessor's methods?
- How to build relationships with long-term employees and executives?
- What to prioritize when sales decline?
- Whether to challenge new products or businesses?
- The difficulty of delegating while wanting to trust the team.
- How to explain the situation to financial institutions or trading partners.

Such challenges are difficult to solve with mere management theory. In small companies especially, the president's decisions directly impact the field, sales, cash flow, and human relationships. Yamada, having faced the same doubts, failures, and recovery efforts as a successor, emphasizes support that works side-by-side with successors, thinking, organizing, and executing together, rather than offering desk-based advice.

Services provided by Equal Keiei
Supporting successors in decision-making, product development, sales expansion, and organization.

Equal Keiei provides support to successor presidents and executives of SMEs, mainly focusing on:
- Management decision-making support
- New product and niche product development
- Market expansion and e-commerce utilization
- Organizational management and on-site improvement
- Consultations on business succession, M&A, and PMI

Drawing on Yamada’s experience in developing the 'Tenugui Frame' and expanding sales channels through platforms like Rakuten, Amazon, and Yahoo! Shopping, as well as trade shows and media exposure, he translates his methods into a format that even small regional companies can execute.

Representative Hitoshi Yamada’s Comment
'Drawing on my real-world experience inheriting my father's woodworking shop, I stand with successors in their struggles.'

Succession is not the finish line; it is where the real management journey begins. Having experienced multiple crises—client bankruptcies, declining work, plummeting sales, interpersonal relationships with employees, and challenges in new markets—I have had more moments of doubt, hesitation, and failure than success.

Successor presidents are lonely. Every day, they are forced to make decisions while caught between the predecessor, employees, business partners, financial institutions, and family, often without anyone to consult.

I want to be someone who thinks alongside the successor, not someone who pushes fancy theories. Small companies cannot survive if the president struggles alone. By looking at the numbers, checking the field, re-evaluating the company's strengths, and crafting the next move together—that is the role of Equal Keiei.