68: Jeff Crawford, Managing Director, Zo Digital Japan

<p>Jeff Crawford provided great insight into the tech and digital marketing industry from his experience as a programmer in Silicon Valley to becoming the co-founder of Zo Digital Japan.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mr. Crawford originally worked in Silicon Valley for 16 years working in famous companies including Apple and Microsoft. Living in San Francisco, he became familiar with Japanese food and culture, and took frequent vacation trips to Japan. He eventually began working at Microsoft’s Japan branch for five years as a Program Manager. Mr. Crawford then stepped into a managerial position, leading a team of five staff as well as managing vendors. Next, Mr. Crawford moved into Adobe Systems Japan, also managing a team of approximately 5 people . Afterwards, he got the “entrepreneurial bug” and began a digital advertising service for music and dance schools in the US. After realizing the business model was not going to work, Mr. Crawford moved on to started Zo Digital, an SEO and digital marketing agency.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mr. Crawford first began as a consultant before starting Zo Digital, and eventually started hiring contract staff to run as an agent. On starting his own business, Mr. Crawford reflects: “Fortunately for me, I had management experience at places like Microsoft and Adobe. I think I understood how to manage people, how to have good processes, that type of stuff. And so for me, personally, everything came together. I've always had a love of user experience with computers. I'm very strong and very interested in things like analytics, looking at data to see what people are doing.”</p> <p> </p> <p>In 2015, Mr. Crawford began a professional network organization called Tokyo Digital Marketers. The first event had about 10 people, but the organization has grown to over 2000 people registered and usually 50-60 people showing up in events. Mr. Crawford has also been active in other business organizations such as the American Chamber of Commerce Japan and the Japan Market Expansion Competition. Through these networki