For clients · case studies
Discover how Adept Group has partnered with leading technology companies to build exceptional teams in Japan. The following case studies are anonymized to protect client confidentiality while illustrating the real outcomes we deliver.
SaaS
Retained Search
· 3 months
A US-based SaaS company needed to establish their Japan office and hire a Country Manager and core sales team within a tight 3-month window ahead of a product launch.
Adept Group ran a retained search to identify and secure a bilingual Country Manager with a proven track record in the Japan SaaS market. We subsequently placed 3 Enterprise Account Executives with existing client networks in the target verticals.
The client successfully launched their Japan operations on schedule and exceeded their first-year revenue targets by 20%. The Country Manager placed by Adept remains in role 3 years later.
Cybersecurity
Contingency Search
· 6 months
A fast-growing cybersecurity startup required specialized bilingual security engineers — a highly competitive and scarce talent pool in Tokyo.
Almost none of this pool was on the market, so we worked from a mapped list of the Tokyo security teams where the relevant skills are actually built and approached engineers directly. Each candidate was briefed on the product, the technical environment, and the company’s stage before introduction, so first interviews started at a substantive level.
We placed 4 Senior Security Engineers within 6 months, enabling the client to meet their product development milestones and secure their Series B funding round.
Data Platforms and Analytics
Contingency Search
· 9 months
A US-headquartered data platform and analytics company had outgrown what its small Japan presales team could support. It needed Solutions Architects who could go deep with enterprise data engineering teams and run a Japanese-language workshop for business stakeholders in the same week — a combination that thins the candidate pool sharply in this market.
We mapped the market by employer rather than by job title, working outward from the data platform, cloud, and BI vendors where that hybrid technical and commercial profile is actually built. Every candidate was briefed on the product, the competitive landscape, and the client’s Japan strategy before introduction, so first interviews opened at a technical level instead of a discovery one.
We placed 5 Solutions Architects in 9 months, with all 5 offers accepted. All 5 remain in role more than a year later, and the client’s Japan presales capacity has doubled — it now covers financial services, retail, digital native business, and manufacturing accounts independently.
Enterprise Software
Ongoing Search Partnership
· 12 months
A US-headquartered enterprise software vendor was operating in Japan with a team of 3 and a mandate to build a self-sufficient local organization — sales, presales, consulting, and marketing — without a recognized employer brand to hire against. Building across that many functions at once usually forces a choice between running several agencies with no shared view of the market, or slowing the plan to whatever a single specialist can cover.
Adept Group became the primary search partner across every function rather than a vendor on individual roles. One briefing standard, one calibration loop, and one consistent candidate experience meant learning from each search carried into the next — including compensation benchmarks, competitor movement, and which job titles translate credibly to Japanese candidates. As the team grew, we adjusted the profile of each hire to the shape of the organization that already existed rather than repeating the original brief.
Over 12 months, the client’s Japan organization grew from 3 people to 30 across sales, presales, consulting, and marketing. Adept Group placed 10 of those hires — a third of the team — including 4 Account Executives, 3 Solutions Engineers, 2 post-sales Consultants, and 1 marketing hire. More than a year on, all 10 remain with the company, and 2 have since been promoted internally.
