(1888PressRelease)
September 20, 2008 - Tempe, AZ and Tokyo, Japan - For the second year in a row Rinkya, the premier Japanese shopping network, is proud to be named to the prestigious INC 5000, America’s standard listing of the fastest growing companies.
“I grew up with small business,” says Rinkya’s CEO Heather Russell. “I can’t really remember a party or gathering when I was growing up that didn’t include some of my parent’s clients. I think some of the lessons learned then have made Rinkya what it is.
“If we have any real advantage,” continues Heather, “it is the fact that we are pioneers. As American Internet companies begin to look at international business opportunities through the Internet, we have already staked a claim. And a lot of the new land we’re exploring comes from applying small business ideas to the international marketplace.
“One summer, when I was in high school, my Dad employed me in his fur factory to make earmuffs he invented with walkman earphones (embarrassing show of age, please make allowances.) He actually handled the books and did the advertising, so I asked him why he started sewing fur too. He said something I’ve used ever since. ‘When you’re green, you’re growing, when you’ve learned it all you’re ripe, that’s when you rot.’
“Since making last year’s list we’ve expanded the shopping choices, you can now buy from several on line stores and even the Internet malls of Japan, like Rakuten and Amazon through Rinkya. And we’ve just begun an expansion of our service into Italy. You can see our INC 5000 profile here: http://www.inc.com/inc5000/2008/company-profile.html?id=200838330 . We’re still green, we’re learning how, we don’t know how. And that admission is, I think why we’ve made the list two years running.
“I suppose there’s a mindset too. Small business is personal. Your customers, your clients, they’re people and you know that they are. You have to see and understand their needs to make your business work. In the end, people are the key to what we are doing. We have learned to do it their way, in countries across the world where their way isn’t exactly like anyone else’s. Bringing businesses and products together has epitomized international trade for centuries, but bringing people together, two by two, in a new Internet world is in it’s infancy. So I guess we’re growing so fast, because we have such a long way to go.
“Of course growing fast isn’t the be all end all, not in small business. I learned that too. Serving a demographic isn’t serving a person. There’s an essential difference in how it’s done, an essential dignity and importance embodied in a customer that a demographic profile doesn’t see or recognize and at Rinkya we happen to believe that importance is one we can’t ever forget. The Internet is a whole new world of business, and, just maybe, as big as it gets, it will only be successful when it remembers the little things.
For Further Information Visit : www.rinkya.com
USA Contact:
Elaine Gross,
Rinkya Inc.,
elaine ( @ ) rinkya dot com
(866) 970-4485;
fax (480)-970-4486
Tokyo Contact:
Heather Russell
Rinkya Inc
heather ( @ ) rinkya dot com
03-3430-0557
###
