No. 129 navigating complexity June 2018 "Wannovation and Our Partners" 〜 Colleagues Getting Together with Vision 〜 2 Think:Act "Wannovation and Our Partners"〜 Colleagues Getting Together with Vision 〜 「"Wannovation and Our Partners"」 〜 Colleagues Getting Together with Vision 〜 I want to energize Japanese companies as well as Japan. I want to create a people-oriented society, a affluent society. Three years ago, I started meeting a variety of people with these feelings in mind. This activity is far different from problem solving, which I'm good at. So, in the beginning, I moved forward with caution. Without issues to solve, there is nothing to discuss and I found it hard to warm up the place. However, I continued and started realizing, little by little, Wa-novation that there are people who feel the same way as I do. As I ~ Creating New Value ~ continued further and further, I came across people who surprised and inspired me in new ways. And fortunately, at some point I started meeting more and more of these types of people. I guess you could say "an invisible circle of partners" had begun to form. We propose “Wa-novation” Later on, this circle of partners became a bit more as a unique Japanese visible. Although only a little at first, I feel that I was able approach to innovation. In the Japanese language, to link different circles of partners as well. This activity “Wa” is the root of many naturally led me to form "Wannovation and Our Partners", words, including Japan itself a project I started a year and a half ago. Currently we have (和 ), dialogue ( 話 ), and 10 companies, but we hope to continue our vision and circles of compatriots(輪 ). further expand the circle. Ideally, we want to spread like a wildfire. This issue is our special inaugural issue, created by the partner companies. We would like you to fully experience and appreciate each company's charm as well as the improvement in productivity brought by combining our various abilities and knowledge. Roland Berger Managing Partner (Japan) Satoshi Nagashima Think:Act 3 "Wannovation and Our Partners"〜 Colleagues Getting Together with Vision 〜 Introduction In our view, "open innovation" means innovating through open dialogue with partners with a shared vision. This is somewhat different than simply finding complementing technology and skills you don't possess from external resources. Together with your partners, you combine different abilities and knowledge that are based on various experiences to unlock future possibilities. Having so many unique and sophisticated weapons from your partners right at your disposal, you can feel as if your competency has increased, and as if you are able to produce tremendous value. It is quite a feeling. Creative productivity would increase as well. Creative productivity is about new values produced/time spent, but the numerator, the size of new values, will increase as it mixes with diverse value judgements of partner companies. If we can get the most out of the amazing talent and knowledge that we have, the speed will be accelerated significantly, and the denominator will decrease as well. And creative productivity will be enhanced even more. New values have already been produced through more than 30 projects. Not all, but some of these projects have achieved the kind of speed that had not been possible before. Of course, there have been hard times with regard to creation due to the difference in common understanding as well. However, we achieved a sense of being on the right track and enjoyment. In this issue, we are going to introduce you to people who are leading our partner companies, which have already produced such new values or are in the process of producing them now. We will introduce 5 companies this time. We asked them to share their feelings and thoughts and to tell us about their unique strengths. These interviews may not be able to give you a complete picture, but we hope you can discover these interesting people and get to know them better. In a previous interview with Mr. Nagashima, he told us that he considers the role of design as "a job that represents the five 和 Wannovation Partners senses and emotions". Technology has evolved rapidly, and our lives has been changing significantly. In a time like this, this Profile No. 1 ： GK Kyoto role is becoming more important than ever. Design thinking, for example, has been getting more attention in economic "The World We Would Like to Create through activities, but the original value of design is to capture things Our Vision and Wannovation" from a bird’s-eye view and to represent "signs of well-being" for society through the filter called "beauty", which is a non- The weather this time of year is calm and comfortable, productive, yet primordial and globally shareable value. and the city of Kyoto is full of domestic and international The role of our design in Wannovation includes: 1) pointing tourists. Nowadays, the Internet has become part of the global to the right direction without being heavily oriented towards infrastructure, and people from all over the world can access economic performance and efficiency in the time of rapid information in real time. People who can afford to visit Kyoto, technology evolution, and 2) adding cultural viewpoints do so with the hope of experiencing "Authentic Kyoto". that are essential to human beings, such as taste, humor, 和 It's not enough to just experience it on a screen. It’s a and playfulness. These added values are exactly the "wa ( 輪 話 universal value that goes beyond time and space: the essence = harmony), wa ( = circle), wa ( = dialogue)" angles that of traveling is to touch with your hands, to listen to sounds, to others cannot imitate. feel the atmosphere, and to enjoy scents and flavors. A number of international events have been scheduled and We could say that Kyoto's charm inspires the five senses and Japan has been getting more attention these days. Japan's this charm can be shared globally. Wannovation activities, which are conducted through Japan's "five sense values" that go beyond mere symbols, should be able to become something that has the kind of charm to attract people from all over the world. Author: GK Kyoto, CEO, Nobuyuki Enomoto > An affiliate company of GK Group. Founded in 1972. Operating primarily in Kyoto as a design firm, GK Kyoto designed the doors for the RB Digital Room. They have recently begun developing the "Creative Hub" project, further deepening their design Photo: Hanamikoji, Weekdays in Kyoto (Provided by GK Kyoto) management skills. 4 Think:Act "Wannovation and Our Partners"〜 Colleagues Getting Together with Vision 〜 和 Wannovation Partners 和 Wannovation Partners Profile No. 2 ： YUKI HOLDINGS Profile No. 3 ： EXAWIZARDS Creating Systems that Bring Innovations to the AI Venture ExaWizards - "Cooperation Manufacturing Industry between AI and Manufacturing" YUKI Precision was founded in 1950 as a screw manufacturer It has been 5- 6 years since AI began attracting more attention called Otsubo Rashi Seisakujo by my grandfather. Since then, due to the rapid technological development of deep learning. Until our company has been cutting metal in a highly precise manner only recently, AI was mainly associated with the world of robot to create precision parts, and has been growing as a company. In animations, especially in Japan as well as the fantasy world of sci- 2006, I changed jobs from a venture capital company, which was fi movies. These days, however, it has become possible to use AI in trying to bring innovation to manufacturing through cutting various business settings and manufacturing sites (Gemba) thanks edge digital technology, and started working for YUKI Precision, whose business was struggling despite the economic boom to the development and popularization of cloud computing at that time. The sales at that time were about one hundred technology as well as the use of big data. million yen and the company had 20 employees. Back in the AI technology development requires data. The more balanced days, its automatic lathes had been working for 24 hours non- the quantity and quality of data input into AI are, the more likely stop, even on Saturdays and Sundays, but at this time they were the data can output appropriate results. In a sense, this is similar to hardly used even in the middle of the day. Eleven years later, how humans grow through quality education. For that reason, in with our backs against the wall, the company scaled its size of order to make use of AI effectively, it is crucial to have the presence sales 5 times by shifting towards the kind of industry where of data natives who are in close contact with Gemba and their high quality is demanded and by continuing to innovate. We are specialized in cutting materials used in special environments with an acceptable error range of only a few microns, such as parts used in the aerospace field and medical equipment. Materials like these are extremely difficult to cut in the first place. My biggest takeaway from these first-hand experiences is that even skills acquired over a few decades can go away in a moment if we lose track of the needs of our clients. People who develop skills and people who apply these skills are not necessarily the same. In January 2018, Yuki Holdings, Inc., which was founded with the aim of bringing innovation to small and mid-size businesses, acquired the majority of the shares of VTC Manufacturing Holdings, Inc., which is a conglomerate of 8 manufacturing companies. Through this move, the company has become a group made up of 11 companies and Image ： PIXTA 540 employees, with domestic sales of 6.