Makoto Ikeda
Representative, Tunagibito
Certified SME Management Consultant (Chusho Kigyo Shindanshi)
Makoto Ikeda is a certified SME management consultant based in Matsudo, Chiba, Japan, and the representative of Tunagibito. From 1988 to 2024 he spent 36 years at a major electronics manufacturer, where he took stock of roughly 10,000 internal processes and reworked 7,000 of them. He now supports small and medium-sized companies with business process reform and generative AI, and under the name Genseki Kobo runs courses and writes about noticing what is already inside you.
I grew up in a small family factory whose specialty was polishing metal.
From childhood I saw both sides: things before they were polished, and things after.
From 1988 to 2024, I spent 36 years at a major electronics manufacturer.
I started in design, then moved through production control, sales, procurement planning, and on to IT strategy and business process reform.
Toward the end, I was taking stock of the company's internal work, one process after another.
Of roughly 10,000 processes, I reworked 7,000.
That saved about 40,000 hours a year.
At the time, though, only about two in ten could be taken all the way to automation.
That is where I learned that fixing the parts does not make the whole any lighter.
Today, as a certified SME management consultant, I help companies in Fukushima, Saga, Tochigi and elsewhere digitize their work and put AI to use.
Some of them I have worked with for three years running.
Alongside that, under the name Genseki Kobo, I run courses and write about noticing what is already inside you.
- Qualifications
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- Certified SME Management Consultant (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)
- Mentoring Skills, Grade 1
- Business Coaching (Business Coach Inc.)
- Master Counselor (Japan Communication Trainer Association)
- Negotiation Analyst, Grade 1 (Japan Negotiation Association)
- Procurement Specialist
- What I take on
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- Business process reform and digitization for small and medium-sized companies (including the use of public subsidies)
- Designing how generative AI fits into real work, and helping it take root in the organization
- One-on-one sessions with executives and managers
I handle all of this myself.
So the number of engagements I can take on is limited. - What I do not do
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- I do not sell what I have not made sense of myself. I build it, fail with it, and only then hand it over.
- I do not rush anyone with "today only".
- I do not inflate numbers. Every figure above is real.