Clarifying "strengths" through organizational structuring

-First, please tell us about RPS.

Kobayashi:RPS is a service that uses AI technology at its core to create specific menus for promoting digital transformation for our customers, achieving a high level of intellectual productivity worthy of the name "professional."
The Digital Business Development Department to which we belong launched a service called "Re:Alize" about three years ago. It is a "co-creation platform for creating new value." It is the parent of RPS, so to speak. Initially, Re:Alize 's business was centered on providing AI​ ​PoCs, and it achieved a certain level of sales. However, as the market matured, a new direction was required.

Therefore, we decided to next develop and deliver systems such as data acquisition incorporating IoT and AI models. However, we gradually realized that implementing AI alone would not be enough to meet customer expectations. This is because it is extremely difficult to develop in this field by clearly defining requirements. As we explored various options, we realized that "AI development requires agile methods that are different from conventional methods, quick planning and hypothesis testing, and stakeholder involvement."

As I learned these things, I began to think about how to "help our customers' business" AI Not only improving with DX With the aim of Summary Ninja "If we sell our in-house developed system like this, we can provide a new business model," Re:Alize has now expanded its scope of activities even further.

Especially in the last four to five years, AI has been evolving at a remarkable speed. Re:Alize has constantly changed to keep up with the latest trends, and as a result, the services it can provide have become more diverse. However, it is difficult to convey to customers in one sentence that "we can do a lot of things." In addition, when new members join in order to scale the business in the future, a clear explanation will be needed to lead them. Against this background, we reorganized Re:Alize structurally, and RPS was established as one of its elements.

-What was the first thing you focused on when designing the organization?

Kobayashi: There are two things. The first is to take stock of the services we can deliver, and the second is to organize our story. As I mentioned earlier, we have undergone major changes while providing a variety of services. However, even though it may seem like we have been doing different things at each time, in fact we have always had one story: "Supporting our customers' digital transformation with AI technology at the core," and I think it was important to visualize that this has not changed since the birth of Re:Alize.

-What was the most difficult part?

Kobayashi: The inventory wasn't that hard since it only involved reviewing our track record, but organizing the story was difficult. When we heard about a customer's request, we could respond as needed at the time, but it was extremely difficult to later analyze market changes and summarize them in a persuasive way, such as "Why were there so many projects like that at that time?" and "Why did those projects increase the following year?"

How did you overcome that?

Kobayashi: Anyway, I read a lot of books (laughs). I thought that the best way to learn how to incorporate ideas into a frame would be to borrow the wisdom of those who came before me. Professional Services Business Model "and" Survival Strategies of Professional Service Firms "of 2 I especially made use of the books, and found them all extremely useful.

Murazawa: In terms of "overcoming," I think one factor is the hiring of mid-career employees with skills and know-how. At Re:Alize as a whole, we recently hired several people, including myself, who were previously active in AI vendors. I feel that Macnica will eventually be able to establish very strong capabilities, but in getting there, the presence or absence of members with experience venturing into uncharted territory will be a major factor in whether we succeed or fail. Hiring people knowledgeable about AI is not an easy task, but it would be good if we could gather a large number of them.

The secret to running a business with few resources is a "bottom-up" approach

--What skills and qualities did you focus on when selecting RPS team members?

Kobayashi: We placed importance on the company's business knowledge in new business development and experience in AI project management, as well as whether the company's culture and philosophy matched ours and whether it was flexible. Our business requires positive responses and quick hypothesis testing, so a spirit of adventure and a positive attitude are essential.
Customer management experience is also important, something that neither the head of the digital business development department nor I had. Previously, you could make sales by using the word AI as a hook, but now you need to be more strategic to scale, so we needed people who are knowledgeable about observing customer behavior and turning it into data.

--The RPS team is very energetic, but it seems like there are only four members. What kind of ideas do you have to operate with limited resources? 

Kobayashi: I believe that if we provide an environment where each person can do what they want and can maintain their motivation, the team can perform to the best of their ability. So I tell myself about twice​ ​a week, "People should only do what they want to do." (laughs) Rather than restricting anything, I let people do what they want as much as possible, and I place importance on a bottom-up approach from there.

Murasawa:RPS requires various customizations depending on the customer, so the content and direction are still vague. Therefore, from now on, it will be important to create a "weapon," that is, a selling point. Once this is complete, we will be able to utilize Macnica 's sales resources as a whole, and for example, our products will be introduced even when a different department is in negotiation. As a result, the number of sales man-hours will be greatly reduced, and once we have something to sell, the direction we should take as a team will become clear.

Kobayashi: There is a lot to learn from traditional consulting businesses when it comes to business development, and in the future we would like to standardize our services in order to scale RPS.

"Cultural anthropology" and "geopolitics" are useful for solving problems

--If you encounter a problem during your activities, how do you solve it?

Kobayashi: Reading is the best. I sometimes share books and their contents with my team, but I don't actively explain them or force them to read. The timing when reading is really necessary varies from person to person. Even if I wasn't interested in a book later, I sometimes suddenly realize, "This is it!"
While reading is input, we also value its opposite, output. We often use frameworks to organize information, many of which are taken directly from books. 
However, when planning our AI business at RPS, we did not use a framework used by general AI vendors, but instead used a framework from BCG (Boston Consulting Services), which specializes in global business strategies, because we believe it is extremely important to grasp the issues abstractly.

For example, when interviewing a client such as a senior executive in a consulting job, it is necessary to think about how to conduct the interview, the content of the interview, how to grasp the insight, etc. In this case, what really helped me to approach the essential part of the client, rather than what they were saying on the surface, was not an interview textbook, but a fundamental method called "ethnography(※)" that was born from cultural anthropology.

* A research method used in ethnology and cultural anthropology, etc. This involves immersing oneself in the subject's life and analyzing their habits and values through behavioral observation and interviews.

In corporate consulting, if you don't make a proposal that matches the client's culture, they won't nod, and they'll say things like, "I understand the general idea, but it doesn't suit us." Also, I think it's very difficult to make a proposal that really resonates with them based on only superficial stories heard in a one-hour interview with the client's president and a few project members. That's why I turned to cultural anthropology, which organizes different cultures in a systematic way.

Cultural anthropologists once observed and understood the behavior of others while coming into contact with a language they had never seen or heard before. In addition to learning about different cultures, or in our case, customers, the approach of understanding "why the other person behaves in a certain way" is useful for consulting and development, so I think it is worth studying for those involved in this field.

Geopolitics is also useful for business planning. The business environment, especially the AI market, is changing rapidly, but at least as long as the Earth remains a planet, universal things are unlikely to change in a few years. For example, Japan is an island nation, while China and the United States are continents, and their relative positions are the same, so the overall business structure is fixed. And it is also a fact that various businesses are born from there.

If you study cultural anthropology, which teaches us about others, and geopolitics, which teaches us about what remains unchanged, beforehand, I believe this will provide you with the basis for thinking about how to deal with problems when they arise.

-Please tell us your future goals.

Kobayashi: Identifying the customer segment in which we can be of the greatest help. I have worked as a member of society for over 10 years, but I feel that this is a really difficult task, as there are so many different industries and it is difficult to categorize them all.

To achieve this goal, I think it is necessary to quickly turn input and output. However, the number of people in the Digital Business Development Department is currently increasing, and so are the opportunities for co-communication. This slows down the speed of hypothesis verification and creates risks such as misunderstandings, so I think the key is to reduce these risks.

Once we have overcome these challenges, we would like to develop a service that is tailored specifically to specific markets.

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