Meet NTT DATA People
Ikumihito Shimada
SAP Global Sales
Ikumihito was born in Japan and lived in Germany before he started his formal education when his family moved there. He came back to Japan for elementary school and junior high school before moving overseas with his family where he attended high school in the USA. Finally, he returned to Japan at the start of his freshmen university year at Waseda University. It was while at university that he joined a Lacrosse extracurricular club and fell in love with the game. He had never played the sport before, so like most people in Japanese universities his participation was from skill level zero.
Despite being a beginner, his hard work and dedication in the sport of Lacrosse has paid off, and his team eventually won the Japanese national championship. His efforts have been recognized and in 2023 Ikumihito will represent Japan in the Lacrosse world cup in San Diego, USA.
Loving Life, work and of course Lacrosse!
Tell us about an interesting project
I started working at NTT DATA in 2020, initially in a technical role, just to get used to how the IT industry and SAP works. However, after doing that for two years, I switched to working in the SAP Global Sales team. This role is well suited to me because I get to leverage my experience of living overseas to interact with my team who are dispersed over Japan, Europe and the Americas.
Recently, one client decided to roll out a global AMO which included all the regions of my team. I am involved in the project and the reason that stands out for me is because working on the project has taught me valuable lessons in the different work styles and attitudes of people from each region. Moreover, one of my team members from the UK visited Japan as part of the project and I had the opportunity to meet him, introduce him to Japanese culture and discuss many important topics other than just the project. This communication was very special to me and confirmed my belief that NTT DATA was the right company for me.
Describe a regular working day.
As I started my working life at the beginning of the pandemic, I didn’t have a usual initiation into the company. So, for me working at home seemed normal when for other people there was a big transition to working remotely. These days, I still mainly work at home so that I can do most of my routine tasks quietly and efficiently. However, I do try to schedule meetings with my colleagues in either the main office or a satellite office a couple of times a week. I think it’s important to be able to touch base face-to-face occasionally to catch up and have quality time together. Outside of that, I also make client visits. But I would say I go to client sites maybe twice a month.
How has NTT DATA supported you?
As I mentioned, I play Lacrosse. At university that meant getting up early to practice before studies began and carrying on practicing once the studying was done for the day. They were long days, but I grew used to that lifestyle. Once I started working though, I imagined that I would have less time for practice due to my work commitments. However, I found that NTT DATA and my colleagues were supportive of me as a Lacrosse player and allowed me some flexibility in my work schedule to practice every day. I’m sure that without that support I couldn’t have got the right amount of practice in to make the Japanese national team for the world cup. So, I’m grateful for their support and I am very glad that I chose this company for my career.
