Partner Glen Hung TECHNOLOGY, TOKYO Independent Agent ASK ME ABOUT My YouTube channel, biking to a faraway beach for an overnight with the elements, or how to talk your way onto a basketball team using only sign language. AND FOR THE REST OF THE STORY At Zensho Agency, we say there’s no such thing as …
Partner Josh Kenealey TECHNOLOGY, TOKYO Independent Agent ASK ME ABOUT How I went from nihongo zero to hero in four months, won the silver medal for Karate at the Goodwill Games, or grew enough underage beard to get into a Pearl Jam concert. AND FOR THE REST OF THE STORY Does this man look like …
Partner Jen Laurence TECHNOLOGY, TOKYO Independent Agent ASK ME ABOUT Bread-watching as meditation, how to buy your own island, or the time I survived a hold-up in Manila by pretending my pack of gum was a gun. AND FOR THE REST OF THE STORY If you think environment has nothing to do with character, think …
Partner Takuto Matsushita TECHNOLOGY, TOKYO Independent Agent ASK ME ABOUT The mysterious Frenchman in my family tree, Egyptian hieroglyphs, or treating myself with herbal medicine in the middle of the Sahara Desert. AND FOR THE REST OF THE STORY Sometimes you hear voices. Takuto grew up in Fuji City, Shizuoka, basking in the magic of …
Partner Andrew Peters TECHNOLOGY, TOKYO Independent Agent ASK ME ABOUT The feeling behind the wheel of a 1955 MK1 Consul, Lenny McLean – AKA The Guv’nor, AKA “the hardest man in Britain”— doing me a favor, and how I got the nickname Rocker. AND FOR THE REST OF THE STORY He’ll run the table at …
Years from now, you may not remember the particulars of deals you closed at Zensho (or what the returns were). You will remember your colleagues and how it felt to work with them. The imprint you left on the world.
We invited you to join our tribe because you impressed us as someone who shares values intrinsic to our culture. But just to ensure we’re totally on the same page, here they are, spelled out in black and white and trimmed in our corporate colors.
Freedom is Zensho’s central pillar. Beyond the mere state of being free, for us the word carries with it a sense of obligation: “Freedom to…” What follows should define you as a person. Of course, to provide your business community with amazing service, but also to engage and give back to the world. And that’s where Autonomy comes in. Unlike the general implications of self-rule, ours leads not to detachment but to a broad and radical sense of interconnectivity. One that enables each of us to commune with others in infinite ways. Together, these two values empower you like nothing else on earth, and they’re here waiting for you.
So, what do we ask in return?
Transparency means not only having open books, but being one yourself. No secrets or ulterior agendas. It is to share personal and industry information without seeking to leverage it for profit or motivate others in any way. Its cousin, Clarity, is about including precision and context in the communication process. At Zensho, we always try to anticipate the details a fellow partner might need and supply them up front.
Which leads us to…
Collaboration. That is, to cooperate meaningfully. Because only through recognizing individual strengths can we thrive as a whole. For us, collaboration requires presence as we listen and respond, evolving toward a collective goal represented by the name of our charity initiative: Ayni (reciprocity). This can’t exist without Collegiality. How we care for each other and the tribe as a whole, share both opportunity and responsibility with open hearts – that’s what empowers us to excel as a firm.
With these six in place, our seventh value happens all by itself.
Harmony. When your environment manifests balance between all people and things – even forces that oppose each other – life just flows. Living completely becomes a state of being. After all, that’s the very meaning of Zensho.