Chief Change Officer
#203 Ryota Tanozaki: From Pouring Drinks to Pouring Innovation into Japan’s Hotels
Thu, 27 Feb 2025
Ryota Tanozaki started his career selling shochu at Suntory. Now? He’s running the show as President & CEO of Tabist (formerly OYO Japan), leading a tech revolution for 90,000+ Japanese hotels. Along the way, he’s worn many hats—strategy consultant, product manager, GM, and even Head of Instagram Japan. We first crossed paths at Chicago Booth’s Executive MBA program (2013–2015), and I’m excited to share his journey from spirits to startups in this episode.Key Highlights of Our Interview:Navigating the Storm“Three months into my role at Tavist, COVID hit. I had to lead a restructuring—redefining the organization, renegotiating contracts, and crafting a new mission, vision, and strategy. Perseverance became not just a word but a lifeline.”Adapting to Change“COVID brought challenges I couldn’t foresee, yet it became a proving ground. Four years later, I’m still here, knowing that persistence shapes both leaders and the organizations they guide.”When Purpose Pays Better Than Paychecks“Our team can’t match the salaries of big tech giants, but what we offer is purpose. By sharing our mission—empowering small and medium-sized hotels in rural Japan through technology—we create a connection that resonates deeply with our people.”Walking the Talk: When Leaders Roll Up Their Sleeves“A leader who pitches directly to clients? Now that’s commitment. By personally visiting rural cities and convincing potential partners, I showed my team that execution starts at the top. If I can do it, they’re inspired to follow suit—and it makes the mission real for everyone involved.”_________________________Connect with us:Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Ryota Tanozaki______________________--**Chief Change Officer**--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs,Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts.6 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today. --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.12 Million+ All-Time Downloads.Reaching 80+ Countries Daily.Global Top 3% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>140,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: Who is Ryota Tanozaki and what's his career journey?
I want to share my career. And after that, maybe you'll ask some of the details for transition timing. Yeah, first, after college, I joined Tantori, a beer and whiskey manufacturer, sales and marketing, especially. After a five-year journey at Tantori, I decided to move toward Malagren Consulting Farm because I wanted to cultivate not just
Chapter 2: How did Ryota transition from Suntory to consulting?
sales and marketing capability, but also strategy building capability and also executing it. After that, I joined several management consulting firms and spent around 12 years. After that, I decided to pursue executive MBA in Singapore at the Chicago Booth. After coming back from Singapore to Japan, I got an opportunity to manage e-commerce business under a BTO company called Transcosmos.
After working for Transcosmos for 10 months, At that moment, Facebook reached out to me, why don't you become a head of the client solution manager at Facebook Japan? So that position is like playing a role of the CEO at Facebook Japan. So collaborating with a country manager to develop strategy and then execute strategy. So that kind of role. And then I spent four years at Japan.
I transitioned from Facebook to Oyo Hotels. And then I changed the name from Oyo Japan to Tavist. So I have been here for four years at Tavist. So that's my career.
When I was starting out, I loved my friends heading off to business school with big dreams of becoming CEO one day. The plan always seemed pretty straightforward. Get an MBA first, then join one of the biggest consulting firms, McKinsey, BZG, to tackle a bunch of business challenges across different industries.
Then maybe at some point, they launch their own business or start climbing corporate ladder somewhere big, become the CEO, CFO, CEO somewhere. For them, MBA first, consulting next. But you kind of flipped the script a bit. You spent five years in one of the biggest corporations in Japan in a functional role in sales and marketing.
then went into management consulting and stayed there for over a decade. Later, pursued MBA to get, I would say, some kind of extra edge. Now, before we jump into your experiences at Tapest, I'm really curious about your consulting days. Could you tell us about one of those projects? Maybe one that stands out as particularly memorable? Or that gave you some deep insights?
One of the memorable projects that I experienced was at Frontier Management Inc., a Tamnara consulting firm. That project, I played a role of COO, department store, located in the very rural area in Japan. Because of declining population in the rural city, They were struggling to increase revenue because they wanted to turn around their business.
They invested a lot of money and then lent a lot of money from banks to build new shopping malls. next to their existing department store. Frontier management was hired by biggest bank, biggest lender to the company to turn around the company. That project was quite challenging. However, it was quite fulfilling because it was the first moment
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Chapter 3: What led Ryota to pursue an MBA and what were his goals?
where I not just build a strategy, but also execute a strategy with employees of that company. So at some moment I learned, so building strategy is totally different. executing strategy. So in order for us to execute strategy as a manager, as a leader, you have to always consider people because unless people are engaged with strategy and motivated to execute strategy, company cannot move forward.
I spent two years with you at Chicago Booth as classmate, yet I've never asked you the next question. I'm going to ask you now, and you give me your honest answer. What actually triggered you to get an MBA at Chicago Booth at that point in time?
Frankly speaking, exactly at the moment when I was engaged with that project at the frontier management and at the department store, I felt concerned that, oh, my career could last in a rural city and my entire career ends. So that was my concern at the moment. I started thinking, why don't I leverage what I experienced so far globally. Gradually thinking, I want to challenge more.
Chapter 4: How did Ryota's experience at Frontier Management shape his career?
I want to challenge not just in domestic cities in Japan, but also globally. And then I consulted with my boss, the president of frontier management about the opportunity to work globally. At some moment, my boss was considering to develop the office in Singapore. They provided me with the opportunity to start developing the global office in Singapore.
Of course, I grabbed that kind of opportunity. But at the same time, I wanted to pursue MBA concurrently because I wanted to up the corporate ladder, and I wanted to acquire a business network outside Japan.
Ryota, as you were sharing your story, I did a quick Google search. Actually, three searches in about 10 seconds. I typed in change career at 30. I got about 2 billion results. Then I searched change career at 40. I got over 1 billion results. Finally, I entered change career F50. I found over 1.5 billion results. So altogether, roughly 4.5 billion results in 10 seconds about change career.
I haven't done any other keyword searches. I'm sure if I go deeper, I'll find more interesting insights. So what does this search mean? It shows that at certain stages of our lives, at certain age, we are either compelled or forced to change careers, or we have a strong desire for change in today's job market.
I would argue that we should embrace this change and be prepared to initiate the change on our own terms. In your case, you felt insecure. Some might call this a midlife crisis. I prefer to see it as a positive sense of crisis or a constructive insecurity. Why is it positive? Because feeling insecure drives you to take action. It pushes you to improve your security. It increases your chances.
You fight for better job prospects. You move out of your country. You move out of your comfort zone. You went for an MBA degree. You network with people from different industries and countries. This expands not only your horizons, but also your opportunities, turning your sense of insecurity into a positive force in your life. Would you agree with my assessment?
Yes. At Frontier Management, I realized that I was quite excited about building teams and building business. Not just building the great strategy and letting clients execute it. So that was my transition moment. It was quite natural for me to transit from consulting world to a consulting world.
At that moment, social digital marketing was quite important for corporations to accelerate their growth. And also e-commerce platform was prevalent like Shopify and others. I just considered, okay, I have to embed more technical skills and digital experiences. through my career. So I chose Brand Cosmos and then Facebook. So that's my intention at the moment.
You talk a lot about business strategy that has been a major theme in your career life. Would you say you are equally strategic about every career move you've made so far?
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Chapter 5: Why did Ryota join Facebook Japan and how did it influence his path?
How do you handle both setbacks and successes? People looking at your career might say, wow, you're incredibly successful. But we all know that behind every success, there are tons of challenges you've overcome. In fact, a lot, a lot of challenges. a lot of setbacks to support one instance of success. What is your philosophy for managing both the ups and the downs?
Yeah, that's a great question. Perseverance is quite important. At Transcosmos, what I expected was totally different. I pursued a different journey just after 10 months of work at Transcosmos. But I always think if you want to build something great, or if you want to make a great thing, perseverance is quite important.
So what you're suggesting is managing both the highs and the lows, the setbacks and successes really comes down to perseverance, right? I remember when you moved from Facebook or Meta to Tapest. which was called OYO. OYO, originally from India, a travel tech company. That was a fairly tough period of time. It was no joke.
Tell me, how did you tap into your perseverance to navigate the company through the early days of COVID, then the Tokyo Olympics postponement, and then now back to what we might call normal?
Three months after I joined Tavis, I faced COVID. And then I had to lead a restructuring. So in terms of organization, in terms of the contract with customers. At the same time, I had to build new mission, vision, and strategy at the moment. Our investors, especially SBK Gasol Bank Telecom Corporation, decided to make a local executive leadership, which is me. four years had passed.
So I didn't expect I continued to work for Tavist for such a long time because COVID lasted for three years, right? So it was quite tough, but I always believed. So perseverance is quite important. For leaders to build a great company or make a significant impact, make a significant positive impact on a society, I miss it right now.
You used the word perseverance. And often leaders like to use another buzzword, resilience. I totally get the concept as I've had to practice resilience myself over many years. But as a company leader, how do you impart this mindset, this resilience to your team? I'm not talking about operations or technology resilience. I'm talking about people, the human beings around you.
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Chapter 6: How does Ryota handle career setbacks and successes?
You might be incredibly resilient yourself. But if your team doesn't share that sense of resilience, it won't be reflected in the team, in the culture as a whole. Then the word resilience would just be a buzzword. So what's your approach to fostering resilience when it comes to building and managing your team?
Yeah, with this quite challenging situation, what I did was mainly three things. The first one is I always feared Our mission and the vision was team members in terms of compensation. So we are not that great in comparison to Facebook, Google, Amazon, you name it, the global company. At the same time, we have to, so as a leader, continue to motivate them to work for a startup, so like Tavist.
So in order for us to do that, we have to give them another reason about why they continue to work for a tapestry or continue to work for a startup. So one of the reasons is mission and vision. So our mission is to provide technology for small and medium-sized hotels and ryokan. to like that mission is quite fulfilling and it quite engaged with our people.
When our team members visit rural cities and then visit some of the local small hotels, they cannot integrate technology with their location. They see that kind of situation in reality. If we can provide technology with them, they can thrive with less people. They also have a difficulty of hiring people because that in Japan is facing the declining population, right?
It's there is a huge issue of labor resources. So you paint the situation in a real life. They embrace that kind of mission into their heart and blood. They are motivated to work for Tavist.
So that's about the intrinsic motivation, the sense of mission, the sense of action. What else?
Secondly, the important thing is to provide a strategy, clear strategy.
they also are quite smart so we have to let them understand why we can win why we can realize our mission so what kind of things are quite different against competitors so we have to find out true problems our clients face and we have to be focused on that kind of problem and then we have to provide a strategy share strategy with stakeholders of course including employees
What you call astrology, I would say is a pathway. You or the investors have the vision, you execute it. But the people around you, they follow you. So in order to follow you, yes, they have a reason, that intrinsic motivation you've mentioned, but then you tell them, well, that's how we're going to do it. You call the strategy, you call the pathway, then you engage stakeholders.
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Chapter 7: What strategies did Ryota use to navigate challenges at Tapest?
So then they gradually think, okay, Ryota did that. Why don't we do the same thing with this strategy? They could be convinced more. So mission, vision, and strategy and execution by leader are quite important for a startup to get their employees to be motivated.
Yes, that is leadership by example. I would also like to see this as you getting closer to your customer. You really want to learn about the situation, the problems. And then you show to your staff how you win accounts, how you solve problems. If they're smart enough, they observe how you do it. And then they follow you. They take some of your best insights, the best lessons, and then execute.
It's also a kind of quality management so that you can train up your staff to deliver. Let's extend on this topic of leadership by example. Leader, one kind of leader, which I admire, is called servant leader. You lead by serving. Another kind is you lead by coaching.
So some of the best leaders I've worked for in my career life, they coach me on the side, make me become a better person, better leader. Now, I know that outside of office work, you teach marketing, social media strategy at one of the business schools in Japan. Share with me about your teaching experience as a faculty member.
Yes, I'm teaching at a global university marketing and strategy. My customers, so my students, come from a variety of Japanese and very established corporations. My career vision is to realize potential of people. Leading by example is quite important, but you cannot do everything. You have to create a great team.
So training, educating, and nurturing them is also quite important, not just at Globist, but at Tavist. That's the reason why I teach not just at Globist at university, but also at Tavist as well.
Leaders are like coaches, right? They're always helping others to learn and grow. Speaking of which, are there any books or resources that really changed the game for you? Maybe something you recommend to our listeners to help inspire them just as much as it did for you?
Yeah, yeah, two books that I want to encourage people to read, especially business people to read. So first book is from classic book, so Innovate, Innovate Limer written by Clay Lee Stanton. The reason why I chose this book is because it is quite transformative for me because even
The products focused on small and medium-sized customers can win over the great products or great companies with large corporations. So that is quite counterintuitive, but that's happening. So that kind of concept still is distilled in the Tavist strategy. I believe we are now focused on providing our technology to small and medium-sized hotels and ryokans.
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