Three Intreprenuers Speak! How to "Promote New Business" Successfully within a Company

Introduction of speakers and each business

contact AI/Kenryo Kano

Kano:I was born in Seto, Japan, to a family of potters, and I have enjoyed painting, making ceramics, and creating things since I was a child. I have also traveled to 30 countries and love to interact with people.
While at Denso, where he works, he develops products such as automated driving,We have built about 30 robots as a voluntary activity in our company.The following is a list of the most common problems with the
Among them.Developed a service called "Fure AI (Ai)and started to do the following,The company recognized his volunteer activities (he received the President's Award), and he was transferred to the New Business Department in September of this year.We are developing connected services to enrich the poor in Asia.The areas of business and voluntary activities overlap, and I really enjoy every day now!I am thinking, "I am not sure if this is a good idea.

I am developing it on a voluntary basis,Fure AI Recorder, an album of family voices, can automatically record and accumulate the little happinesses in daily life that are often missed.This is what it is called. so that the drive recorder records before and after footage due to the impact of the accident,A system that automatically records audio before and after the moment of joy, anger, or sadness, notifies the user via LINE, and allows the user to play back the audio.The first two are the following.

My wife usually says, "I'm a bad mother," and she sometimes gets depressed,After listening to the recorded fun touch, I thought, "I'm a pretty good mom."Yes, I am. Knowing that my children are growing up, I am also able to participate in child-rearing with more interest than before.
Next year, crowdfund sales and verification,Plans to add Fure-AI technology and functions to existing products and servicesIt is.

A charm for my parents' house/Oshio Minami

Large salt:I moved to Recruit Lifestyle in July of this year, and today I would like to talk about a new business I worked on at my previous company, Tokyo Gas.

Tokyo Gas has a rather strange system called "Freestyle Recruitment," which recruits people who are not interested in existing energy businesses.... I joined the company under this system, telling them that I could only do new business, and I have been working on new business development ever since I joined the company.
He had planned various businesses, such as a nutrition management app and a funeral home matching service, but they did not take shape.Unoccupied house management service "Family House of Good Luck".has been launched.

The "family home charmer" is a service that undertakes periodic ventilation, ventilation, and cleaning on behalf of customers who own vacant houses. Many of the vacant houses are owned by people's parents, and many of them have been holding on to their houses for nearly 10 years because they have memories of the house and cannot let it go right away, or because they think their children may live in it someday. This service is to support the management of such houses on their behalf.
In fact, we are also marketing the company in a way that leverages its strengths, which is highly regarded internally, and people outside the company often say, "That's a strong energy company. Eventually, I hope to be able to bring it to the point where we can "continue to manage the gas appliances (water heaters, stoves, etc.), including maintenance, so that they are ready to live in when they want to live in them.

unii/ Hiroki Hamaoka

Hamaoka:I joined LIFULL Corporation as a new graduate and have been with the company for seven years now. After working in consulting sales for real estate companies in the "LIFULL HOME'S" business for about four years, here is the unique aspect of my career (laugh), I worked for about two years between the ages of 27 and 28,I was allowed to be Inoue's "bag bearer.The following is a list of the most common problems with the
While promoting various projects as a bagman,Applied for an in-house business contest called "SWITCH," and since the idea was adopted, I started my own business at the same time.So that's what happened. That was April 2019, and after about a year of hesitation and pivoting from there, it was September 15 of this year,Online interview service called "unii."was released.

unii."is a service that allows users to earn rewards for participating in company interviews or referring friends, and for companies to use their network to talk to any user at a low cost.It is.
Based on my own experience that when I gather relevant users through friends, I inevitably get biased and the number of people I can ask is limited, making it difficult to verify the business in the true sense of the word,New services to support new businesses and start-ups of large companiesWe are working hard as a

LIFULL,Tokyo Gas, ,How to create new businesses, as seen in the Denso case study

Kato:I am really looking forward to hearing about your unique business, but first, can you tell us how the new business you are working on was born?

Hamaoka:In our case, at the entrance.A business contest called "SWITCHThere is a If you pass the first screening, you make a pitch to the president and board of directors in the second screening. If you pass the first round, you make a pitch to the president and board members in the second round,You can move on to the business validation stage called the "Physibili-stage."The first is that it is a very good idea to use the same type of equipment as the second.

Up to the pitch, it is done on a voluntary basis and is not treated as work, but once you enter the "Physibili-stage," you can engage in a certain percentage of the work during your working hours, and you also receive a small but necessary budget for verification. There, you will be able to achieve KPI's,The stage is gradually raised, and the company is finally commercialized and becomes a subsidiary when it becomes profitable to some extent, which means that the originator can become the president.The system is designed in such a way that

You mentioned earlier that you have "lost your way",My hesitation was the timing of the business validation.It is. At first, I was thinking about creating an online university for students who wanted to become entrepreneurs. That's how I got into "Physibili Stage," but there was the problem of "what about profitability?" and the regulations were too strict to really create a university, so I lost the image of being able to do it, and the first pivot came.

After that, I thought about a monthly fee-based online salon where working people and students could interact, or a service where people could learn the know-how to start a new business, but all of these were "hmmm.
What I noticed after interviewing various people in the course of repeated pivots,It is important to create what you want to create, but if you neglect to understand who your users are, you will never create a good business.The reason for this is that people do not have the time or the connections to do the same work. The reason why this part is neglected is because of a lack of contacts, lack of time, or because everyone is working at the same time,We saw the challenge of the difficulty of implementing Lean Startup faithfully, which led us to our current serviceI was very pleased with the results.

Large salt:I originally joined Tokyo Gas because I wanted to "change the funeral market," but perhaps it was too early in the season, or perhaps I was told that "it was not a good time for Tokyo Gas," so I thought, "If the funeral market is not good enough, let's attack from the peripheral areas," and in looking at various options, I found that "the funeral market is not good enough,I focused on "vacant houses" as an interesting idea from "inheritance procedures.

The result of several pivots after repeated user hearings,There are people who want to sell, but the volume of people who want to hold on seems to be higher, and I think you have a better chance of winning if you start there."This led to the decision to launch our own vacant house management service, which we did in the fall of last year.

In the case of Tokyo Gas, almost no one has ever worked on a new business before, so we came up with our own gate,We want to try it internally first, and if it clears there, we want to take it outside the company."This strategy was used to persuade the company to proceed.

Kano:There are two main types of ideas for making things and making things,Making it for yourself or making it for someone else."I think it is. The latter isdesign thinkingIt is called,Solutions to market challenges to improve customer experience.So, I often work on it in my business, like spending a great deal of time setting up personas. But then,Sometimes it's not realistic or the idea is generic.I have to be careful because of the

The former is.art thinkingIt is called,Enjoy finding out "what you want."I think it's a bit like that. We can create something unique and sharp, but there is a high possibility that the market will not accept it because we are doing it out of self-satisfaction.
thereforeIdea generation is recommended to aim for the middle of bothIt is.

It's in the middle of the document where it says "aim here",Consider areas where your own interests overlap with ideas that would solve the problems of people close to you.I hope so.

My robot, too,We develop ideas from "issues that are useful to others and that I also want to solve," create prototypes, and then repeatedly modify the prototypes through interviews with users in demonstration tests to make them fit the market.I have a way of doing this.

For example, for children in a pediatric ward, we wanted them to enjoy the experience of touching animals, so we made a stuffed animal robot that looked just like a living creature, and they were really happy. For an elderly lady with dementia, we made a projector attached to the back of a turtle that projected old photos of her and a dolphin robot that talked to her, and it made her smile.

We will formulate ideas for solutions to various issues, have others look at them, and convert them into various products while receiving more and more feedback.This became our business, and "FureAI" was born as an extension of that business.

How to proceed with new business learning from points of failure and success

Failures and Advice

Kato:I believe that new businesses are bound to fail, but if you have any examples of failures or advice on what to watch out for, please let me know! If you have any examples of failures or advice on what to watch out for, please let us know!

Kano:We are doing this as a voluntary activity,How much motivation is important.It's hard when a team breaks up before an idea has a chance to take shape. It is quite painful when a team breaks up before an idea has a chance to take shape. Since it is a voluntary activity, if it becomes a low priority for the members, they can quit. It is very important to motivate the members while they have regular work, family time, hobbies, and recreational activities.

Looking for resultsManaging or commanding a team tends to lead to a bad cycleIt is. When they are not getting it done, they say things like, "Why aren't you doing it?" and I would say things that would lower my motivation, or get frustrated. And then, even though I was working hard, the project collapsed.

With membersWhile valuing the relationship, communicate your vision of what you want to do and listen carefully to understand what the other person wants to do as well.A good cycle can be created if we start with the following. We can understand and respect each other's roles and abilities,It is easier to create challenges by talking to each other in a motivational way and thinking about how to eliminate the other person's problems.I know, right?
As a result, we have won contests, had good ideas take shape, and so on. Recently, we are gaining more and more friends and expanding our business.

Hamaoka:I shouldn't have put off talking about monetization.I think. I was going to start a community site for free and monetize it later, but in the end I kept having the argument, "Well, what on earth do I have to add to monetize it?" But in the end, I ended up having to keep debating, "Well, what can I add to it to monetize it?
It doesn't matter if it's one or two people,The sooner we verify that people are willing to pay for this service, the better,I wish I had not wasted three or four months of my life.

Another thing is that there are moments when the speed slows down and I think, "I'm not good enough. I am now able to make full commitments, but the other members of the team are also working as 20% and 40%. This slows me down, and I have recently found that my speed has been reduced, and that is the standard.I think we should be aware of the speed of external startups and have a sense of urgency, but that is still difficult in the case of internal projectsI hope to make the members aware of the importance of speed in everything we do. I would like to make the members aware of the importance of speeding up everything we do.

Oshio:.From the beginning, I thought too deeply about the "how to utilize our company's strengths.Of course, I think this is a necessary concept in the end, but I feel that if we start out with this as a given, we will end up with a business that is slightly more solutions-oriented.

By starting with a solution that leverages your company's strengths, the issue becomes more of an afterthought.Or, it tends to be a "customer's problem + our strengths / 2" kind of service that sticks a little bit in both directions, but is "hmmm" kind of service when it comes to what people really want. First, a little more.It would have been better to face the customer and then calmly look for the point where we can leverage our strengths.That's what I've been reflecting on.

Success Stories and Advice

Kato:So now, can you tell us about your "success" and give us some advice on how we can make it work?

Hamaoka:It is the same for me to be speaking at Creww's event like this now,The ability to interact with people outside the company is one of the best things about doing this.I have also entered a program run by an organization called ONE JAPAN, where I am building a network and increasing the number of like-minded people with whom I can work together to improve.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with several startup managers, and I was reminded that they are all "doing it with their lives.I think that "internal new business" is often confined to the company, but it is very important to keep an antenna outside the company.I think that's right.

I also had the experience of carrying a bag,I liked the fact that I understood how decision makers think and make decisions.Yes, it is. Internal coordination is very important. For example, "If we are going to pull in a member, we need to talk to his or her superior by a certain date," or "We should proceed in this context," after carefully reading the IR report. That's why,It is very important to both connect with the outside world and understand the inside of the company.I think that is a good idea.

Kano:Information dissemination is extremely important.I think it is. In my case, I also publish a record of my hackathon and business contest activities in the company newsletter, I have a mailing list to get more friends, and I give a talk or presentation once or twice a week. I also held an in-house pitch event and was able to get about 200 employees involved.
Also, when we actively speak out in situations such as this seminar, we often receive requests such as, "I have an idea, would you like to work with us on it?
After all,"Send out what you want to do," and "listen to what they want to do."I feel that if we do a good job of doing the above, it will lead to new business and more and more of our friends will join us.

Kato:I would like to ask you, from the large company side, what do you expect when attracting associates from outside?

Kano:Exciting feelingsThat's right. It is a matter of increasing the number of people who talk to each other and say, "It would be interesting to do this. In fact, two companies have been launched from there, and we are trying to start new businesses as well, so it will take shape, after all.
I think that if you put the book straight, it all comes down to "what do you want to do? I think it comes down to the person's "what do you want to do?I think it would be great if I could create something unique to Japan, to the company, and to myself.I know you're here.

Large salt:There are two key success factors, the first is,It's a crazy good idea to do some in-house PR."This is what I mean. I was advised by someone that "when the glass of water overflows, you should put it out into the world. He said that the water in a glass is the voice of support within the company. When you get to a level where people in the company say, "We should definitely do this," the business will naturally start moving forward. On the other hand, if you put out a product in a state where the company is saying, "What are you doing? If the project is launched in a state of "What are you doing?
When we have more supporters within the company, they also become our salespeople.This is why. For example, when you visit a client, you might say, "Actually, we have started a vacant house management service.... This may lead to a discussion of collaboration, such as, "Can you tell us a little bit about your business?

There are many ways to do it, such as posting it on the company's PR or intranet, but we did it in a very analog way, such as handing out many flyers at the exit of the company cafeteria (laughs). (Laughs.) "I heard that there is a guy named Oshio who is thinking of offering vacant house services."I wonder if it is necessary to increase internal awareness while deepening internal understanding because we are among the largest companies in the industry.I think.

Second, but isn't it kind of lonely? Being in charge of new business. The people in the existing business will think, "What are you doing?" and, in fact, it doesn't become profitable right away. Your colleagues in the company are important, but as in the case of Creww's event, it is also important to have a good relationship with your colleagues in the company,It is important to have a network of people who are working on similar projects outside the company, so that we can share our mistakes with each other.I think it is good for theI want to create a society where new businesses can be created as a matter of course within major companies.Right?

Hamaoka:I think that new business managers are like fish that will die if they don't keep swimming. When things don't go well for me, it's usually because I'm not taking action.I am working in an area where there is no right answer, so I am always lonely and tormented by anxiety, but I feel that the more I act, the more progress I make and the more things move in the right direction.Thinking is important, but above all, I feel that taking action is very important.

Also, our company has a system for creating new businesses, so it is easy to gain the understanding of those around us, but in the case of other companies,Not only the person in charge of the new business, but also all the people who support the new business must have a clear understanding of what the new business is all about.I hope that you can do so and inform the people above.

How to accelerate the initial hypothesizing of customer issues in the early phases of new business development?

Kato:I know this is an obstacle that those of you involved in new business development may encounter, but what is the best way to accelerate the identification of customer-related hypotheses in the initial phase? Do you have any recommendations?

Large salt:What I did was to establish a persona, even a tentative one, and thenHow to find people similar to your persona and interview them from one side to the other.It is. In this way, the initial hypothesis gradually shifts to a hypothesis that is closer to the real issue. Therefore, it is better to work on a hypothesis than to work on a desk,It's faster to ask someone right away.I wonder if this is the case.
As for how to look for them, I would go on Facebook and ask, "Does anyone have a vacant house?" I searched on Facebook for people who have vacant houses.

How to conceive of and overcome obstacles and barriers to planning new business

Kato:Finally, can you tell us about how you come up with ideas for new business projects, and what barriers you face within the company and how you overcome them?

Kano: "Whose, what issues, and why are you solving them?"There is a famous quote from a famous person who said, "I'm going to make sure that this is a good idea.It is important to repeat interviews with customers until you can answer confidently.I wonder.
Fureai" was also designed to meet the needs of couples with small children who want to "share the casual daily life of child-rearing with their families" and "record the growth of their children as they are", as I have experienced my wife becoming depressed. I think it is important to dig deep into these areas again and again.

I have also heard firsthand from other new business managers that they have become tired of spending so much time on internal politics. So, I don't try to overcome such barriers head-on, but rather, I try to get through them from the side,I don't know if it's a good idea to proceed without too much pressure.I believe that this is a good idea.