At Double Harvest Summit 2022 held on July 7, leaders who promote DX in various fields took the stage. In his lecture, Jun Murai, professor emeritus at Keio University, talked about the factors that enabled Japan to accelerate DX during the coronavirus pandemic. In addition, Sony Group CTO Hiroaki Kitano spoke about the MTP (realistic major goals and visions) that Japan should tackle in the future, based on AI Strategy 2022.

In this article, we will explore the efforts of various companies promoting DX with MTP in mind.

Toshiba aims to develop the digital economy

"For people, the earth, and tomorrow."
Toshiba Group's purpose. Regarding this purpose, ``I like the fact that there are only nouns and verbs, and no adjectives,'' says Taro Shimada, Toshiba's representative executive officer and president.

``For example, if you include an adjective like ``beautiful,'' it will limit the image of the person (who viewed Purpose). If it's just nouns and verbs, there's a wide range of interpretations, and there's no timeline, so it's 50 I think it's a purpose that will be relevant even 100 years from now.'' (Mr. Shimada)

Mr. Shimada further increases the resolution by breaking down the purpose.

First of all, ``people'' means a safe and secure life for each individual, and to achieve that, it is necessary to build infrastructure that everyone can enjoy. "Earth" means social and environmental stability, and for this purpose, building a data society is essential. And "tomorrow" means what we can do for our children. It is important to increase sustainability by achieving carbon neutrality and a circular economy.

In this way, by understanding purpose specifically, Toshiba can see what it needs to do. So, what exactly is Toshiba aiming for? That is "development of the digital economy."

“We have drawn up a worldview of Digital Evolution (DE), Digital Transformation (DX), and Quantum Transformation (QX) as the stages of development of the digital economy.We believe that there are many things we can do with each component. (Mr. Shimada)

However, what you need to be careful about is "DX", which is also a trending word. This is because many companies consider simple digitalization to be DX. Regarding this point, Mr. Shimada said, ``If something cannot be turned into a platform, it cannot be called DX.''

However, just creating a platform is not enough. No matter how much innovative transformation a company achieves, it will be difficult to survive unless it is successfully commercialized.

``The important thing is to turn it into a service.If we don't make a profit because of all the costs, we won't be able to continue our business.Even with AI, just being able to acquire data is meaningless.Package as a service You need to think about it.'' (Mr. Shimada)

Dai-ichi Life Insurance envisions a future where insurance companies work behind the scenes.

At first glance, the insurance industry seems far away from DX, but Dai-ichi Life Insurance is strongly promoting DX. The company has advocated insurtech (insurance DX) from an early stage and has revolutionized the insurance industry with technology.

Based on this experience, Yoichi Ichikawa, head of the Innovation Promotion Department, boldly predicts that ``in the future, insurance companies will be working behind the scenes for service providers.'' This is because, ``Insurance companies are the ones who come out in the unlikely event that something happens and return the minuses to zero.Since it is better for the worst to never happen, insurance companies work thoroughly behind the scenes.'' It would be better if that were the case,” (Ichikawa) said.

Technology supports Mr. Ichikawa's ideas.

For example, as technology in the healthcare and medical fields advances further, genetic technology and regenerative medicine will further develop, and a time may come when it will be possible to prevent the onset of all kinds of diseases. If this happens, the existence of insurance will become even more immersed in everyday life, becoming a part of each person's life as a "behind the scenes" person.

Mr. Ichikawa envisions such a future as MTP, and says that as part of his efforts to move toward that future, he also wants Dai-ichi Life Insurance to step into the field of preventive medicine.

“Health” - Well-being was defined by the WHO in 1946 as a state of good physical, mental, and social health.I feel strongly that we as a company must work in this area. For example, we would like to expand into areas that Dai-ichi Life Insurance has not yet touched, such as mindfulness and community.'' (Mr. Ichikawa)

Tokio Marine creates value as a system through collaboration with other industries

Tokio Marine Holdings is another insurance company that advocates MTP and promotes DX. ``Tokio Marine has faced humankind's risks and unreasonable losses through insurance,'' said Masashi Namatame, Managing Executive Officer and Group CDO.

“Recently, in response to natural disasters, 14 companies from across industries came together to launch the Disaster Prevention Consortium.We all have a strong passion to create a world without disasters. This is our MTP.” (Mr. Namatame)

In realizing MTP, Mr. Namatame says that he is conscious of ``not just creating individual products, but creating value as a system.''

Mr. Namatame cites Japan's Shinkansen as a specific example.

The Shinkansen originally opened in 1964 as the ``Dream Super Express.'' The idea behind this idea must have been to create the world's best means of transportation. The Shinkansen has become a reality because MTP is passionate about perfecting speed, accuracy, and ride comfort.

In addition, the surrounding movements that support the Shinkansen are also important. For example, Mr. Namatame mentions JR East Techno Heart Tessei, a company that cleans Shinkansen trains. Shinkansen trains only have about seven minutes between stopping and departing, but the cleaners are able to complete the cleaning perfectly in that time. This amazing work is possible only because each of the company's employees approaches their work with a high level of awareness.

Why was such a high level of awareness achieved? In fact, JR East Techno Heart Tessei has significantly changed the mindset of its employees by removing the word "cleaning" from its purpose and instead focusing on "providing customers with a comfortable journey." . Mr. Namatame says that employees view Shinkansen cleaning as a performance, and think of the Shinkansen as a stage that provides a performance. Transformation occurred by providing such a story.

“Insurance is the same. Transformation is not possible if you limit yourself to specialization. It is important to collaborate with other industries and conduct repeated demonstration experiments. Management needs to support them so that they can create new value.'' (Mr. Namatame)

“Ishigaki-type organization” built with diverse human resources is the key to transformation

We introduced the efforts of three companies that are transforming their businesses toward MTP without being constrained by the framework of their existing businesses. So, what does it take for other companies to undergo transformation like these three companies?

Mr. Namatame said that in order to bring about change, it is necessary to have "crazy ideas and to allow them," and that "we must inject energy that exceeds gravity (constraints such as budget)." was.

There are two important points to inject this "energy".

First, organizational design and human resources can become a factor of "resistance" that inhibits energy. This is because, no matter how much MTP is promoted, it is not easy for many employees to make it their own.

Regarding this point, Makiko Shinoda, director of Ale, which provides online 1on1 training with outside personnel, points out, ``No matter how much training you provide, there is no point in the end if employees don't figure it out on their own.'' ing.

``In order for each individual to personalize the activities of an organization, it is important to design the organization in the first place.Instead of building a block-wall-type organization made up of stones of the same size (uniform human resources), we create organizations with different shapes, large and small. It has to be a solid stone wall-type organization made of stones (diverse human resources).'' (Mr. Shinoda)

The second point is collaboration across industries and other boundaries. Regarding this point, Toshiba's Mr. Shimada said, ``In order to create value from data, it is important to separate the hardware and software layers, turn the software into a platform, and deploy it horizontally.'' In this way, by connecting products and applications from other companies, it is possible to create new business.

Mr. Ichikawa of Dai-ichi Life Insurance also has strong feelings about collaboration between large companies and startups.

"In order for a large company and a startup to collaborate successfully, they need to be aware that they are on the same boat. Who is doing what kind of work? Unless they look at each other and understand each other, things will not go well." (Mr. Ichikawa)

He also says that even if you are a large company, it is important to maintain a startup spirit. For example, Dai-ichi Life Insurance is generally considered a large company, but says, ``The life insurance industry has a history of only about 140 years.Compared to industries like agriculture that have been around for 2,000 years, we are like a startup.'' (Mr. Ichikawa).

DX leaders from various fields, represented by the companies that took the stage at Double Harvest Summit 2022, are constantly envisioning a realistic future and achieving bold business transformation with a purpose.

Cinnamon AI aims to realize MTP together with such leading companies, and has set the company's purpose as ``Together with AI, we will create a world full of creativity where everyone can envision a new future.'' We will continue to provide our technology and knowledge to help companies realize business transformation.