Koji Kurushima spent years reshaping how Mongolians think about teamwork, leadership, and what a telecom company can become. His answers are as direct as his philosophy.
When Koji Kurushima, CEO of Mobicom Corporation LLC, took the helm at the company, he brought with him a deep belief in collective thinking over individual authority. Having led one of Mongolia’s foremost telecommunications companies, he reflects on the decisions and strategic pivots that defined his tenure.
Leadership means different things to different people. What does it mean to you, and what shaped your approach?
My basic principle is that leaders shall make decisions but shall not act solely on their own. Since no human is perfect, it is important to incorporate opinions and input from others in order to enable wider viewpoints to pursue the best decision to be made. An organisation will be more sustainable and resilient if you utilise the power of all your employees, how you encourage them to be proactive, motivated to create new value, and raise constructive opinions, not just listening and being obedient to the boss’s instructions, matters greatly.
Where do you think leaders in telecom and ICT are leaving value on the table?
Working in a telecommunication and ICT industry, we tend to think about connectivity only. Once you have a certain level of network coverage, how to use this connectivity infrastructure to make business and people’s lives better is the next stage to create value. This will make you see the different value of your core product apart from connecting people, as well as think about the customer first to make your organisation more sustainable and get away from a pricing war.
Looking back at your tenure at Mobicom, what was the decision that changed everything?
I believe the most defining decision I made was creating a mid-term strategy and employee philosophy for the company. CEOs are not in the position forever, but a company should be operational forever. My impression working in Mongolia was that typical Mongolian companies have a very strong leader and a talented team to support the leader’s intention. But I always thought teamwork could overpower individual talent since I came from a Japanese background where teamwork was prioritised. It has taught me that you can change anything as long as you have belief.
Telco to Techco is a significant shift. What does that transformation actually demand?
Mobicom has already defined its strategic shift, from Telco to Techco. The world is moving fast and many players conduct their business on top of network infrastructure created by telecoms. Mobicom also needs to be in this field. Doing business as a connectivity provider and as a platform, application, and service provider is quite different. This will be a big challenge; to transform the way one thinks, the way one works, and the way one approaches the market.
What is your message to leaders who are still finding their footing?
I believe anyone can become a leader. No leaders, especially CEOs, were perfect from the beginning. We may make mistakes or could have made better decisions when reviewing the past. But how much you believe in what you do is important, which will make you accept the consequences of the decisions made. The more mistakes you make, the more you learn and develop yourself. What I want to recommend is: take initiative, be responsible, and challenge yourself. It will make your work life more exciting.
Editor’s Note: This interview was conducted while Koji Kurushima was CEO of Mobicom Corporation LLC. He has since been appointed Deputy Head of Global Consumer Division at KDDI Corporation, Japan.
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Teamwork can overpower individual talent. You can change anything as long as you have belief
