“ [ Our ] ambition was to become a global service company . If you want to become a global service company , your organisation needs to be global ”
Known as Rakuten , the Japanese word for optimism , Mickey ’ s company was conceptualised as an online shopping mall , a website much like eBay . Its vision was to offer the opposite of what larger organisations were doing by offering empowerment to merchants by giving them greater control over their ‘ virtual storefront ’. Rakuten found its gap in the market by offering services for a smaller free and greater customisation opportunities than larger Internet malls . “ I started [ Rakuten ] to re-empower society , community and local