
Masa Masuyama
Verified Expert in Finance
Management Consulting Expert
New York, NY, United States
Toptal member since March 7, 2022
Masa is a collaborative, proactive, and pragmatic executive with decades of experience who believes strategies are living organisms that must adapt to thrive. Global initiatives he led continue to deliver results across a variety of sectors, including life sciences, fine arts, adtech, private equity, media, manufacturing, and entertainment. His results include an 87% reduction in operating costs, various successful new market entries, and a new revenue stream that beat projections by 41%.
Career Highlights
Education Highlights
Certification Highlights
Case Studies
Expertise
- Business Strategy
- Business Transformation
- Cross-functional Team Leadership
- Global Team Management
- Go-to-market Plans
- Startups
- Strategy
- Thought Leadership
Work Experience
Executive Advisor | Strategy and Execution Consultant
Various
- Liaised between the C-suite, stakeholders, and partners to devise and deliver global strategic initiatives that boost revenues, productivity, and efficiency through fresh perspectives, differentiated thinking, and effective approaches.
- Designed and iteratively delivered a digital transformation strategy for the oncology medical affairs group at Daiichi Sankyo, the second-largest Japanese pharmaceutical organization.
- Advised luxury industry executives on AI and Web3-driven product strategies, leading to over 10% CAGR in projected revenues.
- Advanced Gagosian's organizational productivity and efficiency by replacing locally installed legacy software with a cloud-based ERP (Microsoft Dynamics 365). Delivered the 1st phase of the global implementation on time and 14% under budget.
- Spearheaded a global business transformation and change management initiative for Phillips. Liaised between the C-suite, stakeholders, and vendors to realign business rules and processes, ensuring a seamless transition from JDE to NetSuite.
Managing Director | Director of Strategy
Music Traveler
- Strategized with the founders, tuning roadmaps, and leading global teams to amplify Music Traveler: an Airbnb/LinkedIn/Patreon for the performing arts, a marketplace and networking platform endorsed by Billy Joel, Hans Zimmer, and John Malkovich.
- Investigated the highly fragmented market, assessed TAM/SAM/SOM, customer acquisition costs (CAC), and lifetime values (LTV). Maintained revenue models, established business and organizational strategies, and pivoted based on evolving needs.
- Charted go-to-market strategies that developed inventory in 15+ countries and generated 270,000+ Facebook followers in year one.
- Pivoted strategies rapidly in response to COVID-19 and the Ukrainian crisis by helping launch a Patreon-like service for musicians and leveraging the Music Traveler marketplace to accommodate temporarily displaced Ukrainians.
- Refined revenue goals and devised operational plans in parallel with technical development milestones for the initial launch and ongoing improvements to the platform.
Engagement Manager
Acquis Consulting Group
- Formulated global go-to-market strategies for the CEO and President of AppNexus, a Silicon Alley adtech startup.
- Created frameworks to continually identify and evaluate business expansion/efficiency opportunities, while systematizing a structured yet flexible methodology for Agile improvements to business/sales operations (BizOps/SalesOps) and to Salesforce.
- Devised and executed strategies for a post-revenue recreational services startup recognized by Google as a category leader.
- Assessed and developed a relaunch strategy for a customer loyalty program at Zoetis, a leading animal health organization under Pfizer.
Vice President | Project Manager (Global Portfolio and Program Management)
Christie's
- Solved unique challenges that baffled teams from McKinsey & Oracle by proactively identifying business needs, devising effective strategies, and implementing pivotal global programs as an intrapreneur within a centuries-old organization.
- Spearheaded a COO-priority initiative to convert a cost center into a revenue stream. Delivered on time despite aggressive timelines and unexpected resource constraints due to the 2008 financial crisis. Revenues beat initial projections by 41%.
- Launched the 1st-ever auctions for Christie's in Shanghai and Mumbai by leading multidisciplinary teams across six time zones.
- Gained 87% in cost savings by designing and leading COO-sponsored global shipping and inventory management initiatives.
- Proposed and directed US team budgets (around $3 million) in coordination with the CIO. They were on or under budget every year.
- Recruited, coached, and directed a team of project managers, business analysts, and developers for global initiatives. Pragmatically applied SDLC/Agile best practices while ensuring organizational and individual goals were achieved.
Corporate Director for Revenue Management Systems
Loews Hotels
- Optimized revenue reporting accuracy and eliminated critical flaws in a new CEO-mandated global sales strategy.
- Boosted group productivity (around $200MM in revenues) by simplifying processes and leveraging existing systems.
- Initiated, planned, proposed, and implemented a data standardization and duplicates elimination initiative for 70,000+ client account records. Developed post-clean-up methodologies for data maintenance.
- Worked with the National Sales Organization in developing processes and performance metric methodologies following a new corporate strategy in account management and provided training as necessary.
- Helped launch a customer survey program for clients that have held events at Loews properties as a part of the new, corporate-wide sales incentive program.
Business Strategy | Program Management Consultant
Various
- Optimized pharmaceutical sales systems as part of Pfizer's "Adapting to Scale" program that reduced costs by around $800 million.
- Formulated a leveraged buyout (LBO) strategy for a private equity firm seeking to maximize IMG's underutilized brand assets.
- Accelerated capital-raising efforts for a general illumination LED technologies consultancy prior to widespread adoption. Identified potential investors, facilitated investor discussions, and prepared detailed market analyses and financial projections.
- Bolstered US initiatives for Japanese industrial technology organizations seeking international expansion. Assisted OMRON in submitting an RFID implementation proposal to WalMart and assisted Nojitech in UL certification and marketing its patented systems.
- Devised innovative digital transformation strategies for clients such as Golf Digest, E.W. Scripps, and Cravath, Swaine & Moore to transition online.
- Improved sales automation and program-scheduling applications for A+E, MTV/Showtime, and Discovery Channel/BBC America.
Senior Consultant for the Media and Entertainment Unit
Accenture
- Led Accenture’s global rebranding initiative as one of five project managers liaising across global teams. Given the fixed delivery date, effectively minimized scope creep.
- Ensured timely and accurate delivery of finished products by leading international project teams consisting of content owners, producers, internal IT groups, and external technology vendors in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.
- Communicated system changes and issues to all levels and coordinated testing of system modifications.
Education
Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
London Business School - London, UK
Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA)
Columbia Business School - New York, NY, USA
Bachelor's Degree in Engineering Psychology and Human Factors Engineering
Tufts University - Medford, MA, USA
Certifications
Progress Toward a Certification in AI For Business Specialization
Wharton | University of Pennsylvania
Introduction to Generative AI
Data Science Professional Certificate
IBM
Mental Health First Aid
National Council for Behavioral Health
Skills
Finance
Market Research, Pricing Strategy, Market Opportunity Analysis, Data Analysis, Forecasting, Financial Modeling, Fundraising, Blockchain, Private Equity, Pricing, Anti-money Laundering (AML), Total Addressable Market (TAM)
Output Software
Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, Microsoft Outlook, SharePoint, Jira, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Dynamics
Geographic Expertise
United States
Industry Expertise
Early-stage Startups, Software, Venture Capital, Health & Wellness, Energy
Data & Analysis Software
Salesforce
Other
Microsoft Visio, Strategy, Program Management, Thought Leadership, Global Team Management, Cross-functional Team Leadership, Management Consulting, Resource Management, Go-to-market Strategy, Strategy Development, Business Strategy, Business Design, Market Research & Analysis, Target Operating Models, Go-to-market Plans, Innovation, Growth Strategy, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Project Management, eCommerce, Presentations, Executive Presentations, Strategic Planning, Strategic Planning & Execution, Organization Assessment, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Communication, Operational Workflow, Workflow, Systems & Procedures, Vendor Management, Consulting, Business Model Strategy, Business Modeling, Market Assessment, Intrapreneurship, Performance Management, Business Operations, Management, Reporting, Risk Management, Team Leadership, Team Management, Competition Research, Business Transformation, Change Management, Business Plan Consulting, IT Consulting, Psychology & Mental Health, Competitive Strategy, Market Sizing, Market Entry, Partnerships, Business Models, Business Model Canvas, SaaS, Startups, Business Partnerships, Strategic Partnerships, Launch Strategy, Customer Segmentation, Value Proposition, Product-market Fit, System Integration, Idea Validation, Business Analysis, Business Cases, Business Planning, Marketplaces, Growth Strategy Consultants, Sales Strategy, Product Strategy, Knowledge Management, Product Development, Workshops, Operational Efficiency Improvement, Process Mapping, Operations, User Interface (UI), B2C, Business to Consumer (B2C), Digital Transformation, Request for Information (RFI), Request for Proposal (RFP), Business Services, Pitch Decks, B2B, Software as a Service (SaaS), B2C Marketing, Social Media Marketing (SMM), Sales & Channel Enablement, Content Marketing, Business Process Improvement (BPI), B2B2C, Business to Business to Consumer (B2B2C), Growth, Global Business, Entrepreneurship, Human Factors, User-centered Design (UCD), Market Segmentation, Innovation Strategy, App Product Management, Organizational Design, Process Design, Marketing Plans, Business Development, Organizational Structure, Blockchain & Cryptocurrency, Non-fungible Tokens (NFT), Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Finance and Operations, Data Science, Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Early-stage Venture Capital, Advertising Technology (Adtech), Growth Hacking, Know Your Customer (KYC), Apple, Value Analysis, Web3, Mobile Applications
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