On the first Tuesday of every month, we’ll announce a new Fearless Female, including a video interview of them sharing their business story. Want to be featured as a Fearless Female?
Contact Memberships at memberships@greaterkwchamber.com for more details. The Fearless Female Program would not be possible without our Title Sponsor, Scotiabank.
To learn a little more about the Scotiabank Women Initiative, and why they’ve chosen to sponsor this program, see the video below.
The Fearless Female we’re featuring for the month of September is Tomoko King, Chief Executive Officer & Founder of King Enishi Inc.
Tomoko King is Founder and CEO of King Enishi Inc., a Japan-Canada business advisory practice based in Waterloo, Ontario. Bilingual and bicultural, born in Ottawa and raised in Osaka, she brings over 25 years of cross-sector experience spanning corporate, government, healthcare, and education.
She spent over 15 years at Toyota’s Canadian subsidiary, leading global projects and bridging teams across Japan and North America. She went on to build enterprise project management capability in the public sector, establishing the City of Guelph’s Corporate Project Management Office from the ground up and leading a Kaizen program in Ontario healthcare that returned an estimated $1 million in annual administrative time.
Today her practice focuses on the Osaka and Waterloo Region corridor. A certified Women Business Enterprise, she is committed to building stronger ties between women entrepreneurs in the two countries. She serves on the Board of Directors of Project Management Institute, Canada’s Technology Triangle chapter (PMI-CTT) and speaks regularly through guest lectures and panel discussions.
kingenishi.com | linkedin.com/in/tomokoking | contact@kingenishi.com
To learn more about Tomoko’s journey as a Fearless Female, watch the interview below (or read the written format).
Please introduce yourself.
I’m Tomoko King. I’m the founder and CEO of King Enishi Inc., a Japan-Canada business advisory practice based in Waterloo region.
Tell us more about your company.
At King Enishi, we bridge Japan and Canada in either direction, supporting market entry, finding and building partners, and strengthening existing relationship for better alignment. Enishi is a Japanese word for the connections between people, the sense that an encounter is not coincidence and the one that’s meant to be and my company logo is a cherry blossom and a maple leaf growing in harmony from a single stem.
What inspired you to start this business?
What inspires my career path actually goes back quite a bit, generations ago. My great-grandfather, my mother’s side, he met a missionary from Canada in Japan a long time ago and ended up becoming Christian, which was very uncommon in Japan; and that led to his son, so my grandfather, my mom’s dad, coming to Montreal to go to McGill and before becoming a ministry at a church in Japan.
And later, my mom and dad met and my father choosing Ottawa for his two-year research, and that’s when I was born. So, thinking about these generations between and within my family that had connection between Japan and Canada, that itself feels like Enishi, the connection that was meant to be, and starting this business to continue this for generations to come after mine, was a natural move for me.
Tell us more about your professional and educational background.
On education, not just lived in both countries, I was educated in both countries, Japan and Canada. Going through a Japanese school system, which is quite unique compared to the ones in here, I gained quite a bit of discipline.
And all of my post-secondary in North America, in the States, as well as Canada, including the MBA from Wilfrid Laurier in this region; and in terms of background and experience, I talk about my experience at Toyota quite a bit. I learned so much at Toyota, honestly, from really the best, and all about operational excellence.
What really stuck with me is about the balanced need to balance the stakeholders and in terms of not just shareholders, not just about the bottom line, but about their employees, customers, suppliers, business partners, and community. And I was certified by Toyota HR Global as a certified Toyota Hosting Country Master Trainer, which is about their strategic planning process, cascading their objectives throughout the organization, and aligning their strategy and operations in people. That really equipped me with leadership skills that I was able to leverage and lead that work in various organizations that I joined afterwards.
What have been some of the highlights of your career?
I had a lot of highlight moments at Toyota and other organizations. But I must say, one of the biggest highlights is actually my recent trip to Japan. Ever since I started this business, I had kind of going back and forth between different directions, but always within Japan, Canada, bridging Japan, Canada.
But only really recently, early this year, so eight, nine months ago, did I start to see the real potential between this region and my hometown, Osaka. So I started to speak about it every chance I got here in this region and also in Toronto and other interviews. And I plan a six week trip to Japan.
And with a lot of help from all the connections I made, who are based in Osaka, my hometown, I was able to host and speak at four different events. And a lot of the some of the people from the rooms are now my clients. To build a bridge between the Waterloo region and my hometown, Osaka, to make it a real corridor, as opposed to just talking about it as an idea, you really have to bring those people together.
So, for example, I need to get some of the Waterloo companies to go to Japan and visit Osaka and meet my contacts there and bring in Osaka companies to this region, which I’m actively working on and something exciting to share later as well.
What are some of the challenges that you faced so far?
Spent my childhood in Japan and all my adult life in Canada. I’ve always thought I’m not a Japanese woman.
And I’m not a typical Canadian woman. And some of the challenges I felt was at some time in my career, I felt I kind of lost my identity or didn’t know who I was, or I was supposed to be. Because each, you know, a typical Japanese woman or a Canadian woman, each of those comes with a set of certain expectations and pressure.
And I felt like I wasn’t meeting either of them. After losing my father, this kind of got harder. You know, am I Canadian? Am I Japanese? Who I’m supposed to be and where I’m supposed to be? But all of that reflection led to actually starting this business and feeling that it’s okay to be both and I’m both and wanted to actually embrace that and spread that to others who might be feeling that way.
If you could go back in time, is there something you would have done differently?
I wish I started this sooner, like 10 years ago, because there’s so much I want to do. And there’s only enough, you know, 24 hours in a day, and I’m just cutting my sleep hours, right? And challenge when I was at Toyota, as well as now is when I try to work with both countries, the time zone, right? 13, 14 hours difference. So sometimes you’re doing double shifts.
And that’s a challenge. And having said that, that I wish I started this 10 years ago, every bit of experience to date is actually strengthening what I’m doing now. So if I started 10 years ago, maybe I wasn’t in this mindset, or I wouldn’t have had this network.
So no regrets there. And in that sense, I’m constantly taking different courses, I love, you know, lifelong learner, I am lots of certifications. One of the certifications that really opened doors for me is a PMP, project management professional, I’ve been certified since 2002.
While I was at Toyota in doing actually MBA at the same time. And at the time, project management certification or project management itself wasn’t really commonly recognized other than construction and IT fields. So getting into that early had really helped me.
Because no matter what the industry sector role you’re in, or even no matter what country you’re in, there’s always project. And (9:51) having that skill set really has been a good strategy and door opener for me.
Tell us more about Project Management Institute (PMI).
PMI, Project Management Institute, is a global organization, their headquarters are in the but it’s in more than 200 countries.
And you can be a chapter member of any, you don’t have to reside in that area. So for example, I’m a member of Canada’s technology triangle chapter, which serves Kitchener, Guelph, Waterloo, this area, and I’m actually serving as a board member. I’m also a member of PMI, Tokyo, Japan chapter.
They allow remote access, I, you know, visit and network and take courses from there as well. The 25th anniversary gala we had, I was able to co-sponsor or organize the event with great KW Chamber, because Ian McLean was the keynote speaker talking about vision 1 million. Because it was very much fitting where our chapter has been growing rapidly over the last 12 to 18 months.
And this region preparing for 1 million. So having him come in to share the vision, and having the industry panel of leaderships in this region, Toyota, Open Text, and Skills Wave was very fitting talking about what projects are upcoming in this region.
What does success look like to you?
Professional success, for example, for me, is something that I’m able to build for long term, as opposed to flavor of the month, whether it’s process improvement, project management, I really try to train people, educate people as opposed to doing it on behalf of others.
And hearing after so many years after I left Toyota or City of Guelph, what I’ve built such as playbook or project management structure is still in use to date, that success for me. And in my work, I am trying to focus on building a long term relationship and partnership between Japan and Canada, as opposed to a short term or one off transactions.
What are some of the core values that you have integrated into your business?
Core value for me is, as I named my company, any she the connection, I do believe people the right people find each other, whether it’s through introduction from your friends and colleagues, or through events that you bump into each other, or somebody find each other on LinkedIn.
I do believe when when I feel the right connection, I follow through and I follow up. And typically, you know, it’s mutual feelings. And that’s the kind of connection that I really, really value and pay attention to; and that has been very helpful in terms of growing my network that is not superficial.
What are some of the advantages of establishing your business in Waterloo Region?
I really like this region and I love Waterloo because of the university vibe, right? When you have one university, but actually have two good universities and also a college; and so you have a lot of people from all over the world, and makes this community so unique and diverse. And great mixture of different generations, young people and people who are retiring.
I find that people who may come here for school, actually end up getting a job and staying. Which is, you know, similar experience as a lot of people I know. It’s a friendly, vibrant community, excellent universities, and having those students after graduating from university stick around.
And we have a lot of great local startups and it’s not quite the biggest cities like Toronto and Vancouver, but it’s big enough to be able to bring talent together to achieve something that’s top notch. And yet small enough, so that when you think of, hey, I need to meet this person, you can meet them within half an hour. Try that in Toronto and Vancouver, right?
What inspires you?
What keeps me going? Definitely one of the biggest is my family in both countries, both sides. They are supportive, and they create an environment that allows me to go back and forth and to pursue my dream. But what’s really motivating currently are actually my clients.
They are taking a very big step in a territory that is totally unfamiliar, different language, different culture, different business practices, different laws, and so far from their home and that takes a lot of courage. And that’s why it motivates me to want to help them in either direction, so that from somebody who understands both sides, so that their transition or experience is smooth and pleasant and comfortable and reduce risk and actually, honestly, to have fun.
What advice would you give to other aspiring women?
As I shared earlier about a difficulty of pressure and expectations that you may have from your own cultural background, or your own family background, or others around you. One of the best advice I could give to young woman is really to embrace yourself and your authentic self and as a woman, I think there’s tendency to over-prepare.
I do that too, and be a bit of a perfectionist in some ways. But saying yes to invitations and opportunities before you feel ready, it’s hard. I kept telling myself to do that as well.
And every time I do, good things happen. And really be open-minded and share what you want to do with people you trust. Say it out loud.
And most people want to help you, and they wouldn’t know how if you don’t tell them. So yeah, be yourself and say yes before you’re ready, and tell everybody what you want to do.
What are some of your strategies for team building and collaboration?
What makes a strong team in my industry or in my space is about collaboration. When I see individuals or professionals or companies offering similar services as my company, I don’t see them as my competitors. I actually see them as potential collaborators or partners. because we’re all working towards the same purpose and with same passion of strengthening Japan-Canada relationship.
And we all have different skills and different perspectives, different background. For example, I met somebody who may look like me, and it’s not about ethnicity, right? She’s Japanese-Canadian, but completely opposite from me. Born in Japan and raised in Canada.
In my case, I was born in Canada, raised in Japan. And we felt that we could connect on a lot of things at the same time can be complementary to each other in terms of skill sets and gaps. So if any of you who are listening to this, who are in the same ecosystem, with same purpose and same passion, if you’re open to connecting, I am very happy to chatting and finding ways to collaborate so that we can together be stronger in our services of helping Japan-Canada, whether it’s market entry or strengthening relationships.
What are some of your future goals and projects?
I have something exciting brewing. So in about 12 months from now, which is August 2027, mark your calendar, first weekend of August 2027, I’m bringing a group of Japanese leaders from Osaka and surrounding areas to this region. And it’s 12 months away, but I already have one (20:13) business individual signed on and committed to coming to this region.
And I have three others in discussion. And I’ll be reaching out and approaching for more early, early stage with a lot of great ideas that could include things like networking events between the business leaders in the region and the Japanese leaders who are coming, B2B matchmaking meetings, collaboration between the local partners and the individual that are coming from Japan, for them to have some opportunities to showcase their business, as well as Waterloo businesses to get opportunities to showcase their businesses to Japanese counterparts, looking for local venues, local business, even food companies, cafes, restaurants, catering, government organizations and business individuals to get involved. So if you’re in Waterloo business owners, looking to get involved either as a collaborator, a participant, a sponsor or speaker, or any of the above, please reach out to me.
How can someone reach out to you directly?
I’d love to get connected to start shaping this together so that it is beneficial for Waterloo business community as much as for the Japanese people coming. It will be the best and easiest way to connect with me is through LinkedIn and just search my name Tomoko King. And my website is KingNishi.com. Nishi is spelled E-N-I-S-H-I –KingNishi.com. I’m in Waterloo region a couple times a week. I live in Guelph and look at sort of Waterloo and Guelph as you know, one big region and around and up for meeting up for in-person coffees all the time.
