Kit Pancoast Nagamura

Mark Yamamoto, president of Virgin Cinema Japan

What do you do at Virgin Cinemas?
We build movie theaters throughout Japan. We go all over the country looking for real estate. Then, if we find something we're interested in, we'll start negotiating with the landowner. If it looks like we can do a deal, we'll get our designers in to design the project, find the general contractor to build it, sign the contract, oversee construction, hire and train staff, get the cinema running and operate it for roughly twenty years.

What's your connection with the Virgin empire?
Virgin's a very interesting company. It turns over about $8 billion a year, and yet there are only four people in the head office. As everyone knows, our chairman, Richard Branson, started Virgin from a mail order record company. What connects all of Virgin's businesses is Richard himself, and the entrepreneur who approaches him with a vision. Richard is incredibly skillful at recognizing who has the talent to get things done. I'm kinda blowing my own horn here, but the main point is the same as with Virgin Atlantic; he's the owner, takes great pride in his business, provides a lot of personal attention to it, and is always there when I need something. However, in running our business we have about 95 percent autonomy, the five percent being Virgin accounting reporting standards, which are the same worldwide. Strategically, we are very free to run our business as we like. There are two reasons for this. One, we're all the way over here in Japan. And two, I raised all the financing for the business myself.

Where are your cinemas?
One group of cinemas is in Fukuoka, at Torius Hisayama, Japan's largest shopping mall. The second site is in Nagoya Bay City, a twelve screen, 2600 seat cinema. The third, a Megaplex? that opened last November, is in Ichikawa's Colton Plaza. It's a nine screen, 2,200 seat cinema with about 2500 free parking spots.

Who are your clients?
Our first clients are obviously our customers-we have the responsibility of delivering to them the best sound and picture quality on the planet. Movie distribution companies are also our clients; we have to offer them the best sound and surroundings possible. All our product suppliers can also be considered clients-it's up to us to serve up their products in the best form possible. We also consider the site developers as clients.

What positions are you hoping to fill soon?
I'm looking for a CTO (chief technical officer) right now. We're trying to take our entire business online. I'm not talking about just a webpage - we've already got that - but I want an e-commerce page that will take all of our business through a portal using the web browser as the backbone. Applicants should also be able to help set up bilingual i-mode and Internet ticketing.

What's it like working for Virgin Cinemas?
It's awesome. I wanted to change the stiff, salaryman-type mentality I encountered in Japanese companies, and I knew the only way to do that was to be the president of a company. The atmosphere I've made here is one of pure potential for our staff. I have eight senior executive positions, and five are filled by women. My director of construction, in fact, is a 29-year-old woman. I'm trying to get rid of many barriers.

What's the best seat in any movie theater?
That's easy. Your lover's. That's the seat you want to be in.

IT wizards are welcome to apply by mail to Virgin Cinemas Japan, Ltd., Hiroo Alpha Building, 4-5-48 Minami Azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-0047, attn: Ms Megumi Katsuura. And feel free to check out their website: http://virgincinemas.co.jp  

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