These days, teamwork
gets a lot of lip service. At iXL Japan (the acronym stands for Internet Excellence) a
picture is worth a thousand words. When Kit Pancoast Nagamura interviewed Vice President of Creative Services Michael Holmes, he
insisted the photo accompanying this profile include all the members of his team. They
are, from left to right, Creative Director Gaspard de Beauvais, Design Director Karl
Pisor, Art Director Andrea Bodman, and VP Holmes.
E-business is teamwork
at iXL Japan Photo by Kit Pancoast Nagamura
Tell me a bit about
your company.
iXL is a new kind of consulting firm that focuses on e-business. We started in the US
about four years ago, and we' attracted clientele and grown to become an international
group of over 2500 professionals because we go beyond what a typical consulting firm can
offer. iXL brings together three entirely separate ways of thinking about consulting:
strategy, design, and engineering. Since e-business requires our clients to think about
all of these, we position ourselves to help at every point along the way.
Your head office is in Atlanta. How long have you been in Japan?
iXL began working with Japan-based clients about a year ago, but we haven't had an office
in Tokyo until this past January. Through our work with local clients, we've come to
understand that the market is ready for our particular kind of integrated consulting work.
In response, we're building an entire organization specifically to serve our Japanese
clients better.
What are your plans for the market here?
iXL, globally and in Japan, really focuses on integrating three specific branches of
e-business. On the creative side we offer visual design, functional design, and authoring.
On the strategic side we have business specialists in areas such as finance, media, and
entertainment. And the engineering side handles everything from making sites more
interactive to setting up something which we call e-transformation; taking non-existing
businesses and building them to where their only interface with customers is through the
web. Currently in Japan, you might find a great design studio, or an incredible
engineering firm, or a good consulting group; iXL Japan's model is to combine all three.
What kind of job possibilities are available at iXL Japan?
We are really looking hard to find bright, talented people to add to our team, and to
assist us in building a first-class Japanese organization. Right now, there are positions
open in Project Management, Strategy Consulting, Engineering, and - my area - Creative
Services. The creative group is looking for information designers, visual designers, as
well as HTML site authors. A broad background in web design and technologies will be vital
for people who are interested in joining our team. And, of course, we need people who have
a strong desire to live and work in Japan. While Japanese language skills are not a
prerequisite, applicants must commit to attain or improve upon business-level Japanese. If
you know someone who might be right for us, don't hesitate to let us know.
You can reach iXL Japan at Kyowa-Gobankan Bldg 4F, 3-3-13 Kita-Aoyama, Minato-ku, Tokyo
107-0061, tel 03-5772-8070, fax 03-5772-8073. For job info, Michael suggests that you take
a look at the very specific job postings for the Tokyo office at www.ixl.com For creative positions, applicants should supply
a list of URLs highlighting their web design experience.
