Graduates in their 40s who made a career change

Mr. KOUNO Mitsunobu

PROFILE
Representative Director of
Kouno Building Co., Ltd.
Kouno Yoshu-ten Co., Ltd.
Handson Co., Ltd.

Graduated from Seikei University
Completed the Master Program of Information Systems Architecture in 2009.

Using project management for regional development

The place to learn practical project management

What is needed in my family business of the real estate rental business is good judgment based on experience and expert knowledge of laws and regulations. Most of the people I meet for business purposes specialize in real estate. Because of this, I tried to study IT and business extensively to avoid having a narrow perspective of society. I also enrolled in seminars for business professionals. I acquired Project Management Professional (PMP) certification prior to enrolling in the program at AIIT.

After acquiring the certification, I became more interested in project management, so I wanted to study at a specialized graduate school. I chose AIIT because I was attracted to PBL. I anticipated learning from professors with vast practical experience in project management in IT companies.

Although I thought the teaching would overlap with the content of seminars, I learned something different from the classes. While I realized that the value of certifications depends on how they are actually used in the work, AIIT provided a great opportunity for me to receive practical training.

Studies for leading large projects to success

In PBL, I worked on different themes in the first and second semesters. In the first semester, I studied with educational materials from an IT project to construct SCM. In each phase, members took turns as the project manager to advance the project. It became a fresh experience to be on a team and work with students of different generations and from industries with whom I has no contact in my regular work.

For the second semester, new members joined the team and studied the method of project management in areas outside IT. Using interviews with the person who launched the Tokyo Marathon as class material, my team examined a method to lead large projects to success, which is common to a variety of different industries. At the end, we presented our research results.

The method of project management can be applied and used in many different sectors.

In my opinion, the key point of project management is to analyze the minds of capable project managers and apply the method myself. One professor simply said that this would develop the skills to setup. In fact, after studying at AIIT, I can follow the cycle of project management in my mind while working on-site. I realized that I could work faster and more accurately. For example, it became easier to determine a goal in the initial planning phase of a project and to develop a clear vision of the path to achieving the goal. In that process, I also learned to minimize waste and missing elements.

In my case, I implemented what I learned for the regional development of Nishi-Shinjuku where my company is located. In the annual autumn festival, I used the method of project management to attract a large crowd of people to a music event. Recently, I had the pleasure of being involved in a regional development project for Yakushima. Today, I am starting a new company to develop local beers and open a small FM radio station in anticipation of disasters.

I am a person who demonstrates that the project management skills acquired at AIIT can be applied to a variety of sectors.