Shiseido's open innovation program "fibona" was launched in July 2019. One of its activities is "Speedy Trial.".

Speedy Trial is a program for developing beta versions of products using research-initiated technology and quickly introduce them to the market through exhibitions and crowdfunding. By meeting and communicating with enthusiastic fans of the products, we aim to increase its value from the initial stage of development.

In this issue, fibona members Oda, Hanaki, and Abe talk with Hiroki Kobori, chief producer of "Makuake Incubation Studio (MIS)," who accompanied the Speedy Trial project. They talked about the value of product development from the user's viewpoint.

The objective of fibona x MIS to connect technology to value

Kobori:
The first time we met with Shiseido member was at CES 2018 (one of the world's largest consumer electronics trade shows) held in Las Vegas, USA. Since the direction of what we at MIS were doing and what Shiseido should work on were close, we met again after returning to Japan and proceeded with a concrete program.

Oda:
The incubator program, which MIS has been running with us, is a program for developing technological ideas from Shiseido researchers, discussing whether they can be realized as products, services, or even businesses in things like workshops, and then launching the products on Makuake. Even in terms of decision-making, there was a great deal to learn from the differences between MIS's methods and our own research.

There were three teams of 11 researchers, and in the first term, Hanaki, another fibona member, Asahi, and I were assigned to each team in a mentor-like position, and we had many discussions. It is the researchers who take the initiative in thinking, and we were, so to speak, the wall they could bounce their ideas off of. We tried to refine their ideas and encourage them to be more independent.

Hanaki:
What impressed me in our communication with MIS was Mr. Kobori's words, "Let's create what you really want.” That is what value creation is all about, isn't it? Even when the team is in doubt, if you ask yourself, "Is this something I really want”?, We were able to make decisions on our own.

Another good thing about having MIS accompany us was that they would point out the faults in our ideas. They would give us opinions that would be difficult for employees to express to each other, but from the standpoint of outsiders, they would directly ask, "Is this really going to sell”? That was good. Whenever the researchers were asked, they responded, "As a potential user, there must be people who have the desires/concerns of XX," which took the discussion to the next level.

How to elicit rather than provide answers. I learned communication techniques for this purpose.

What is "Shiseido's uniqueness" from MIS's point of view?

Another thing that I felt was very different from other companies was that the value of "Shiseido's uniqueness" was spread throughout every employee. Even during the discussions, I frequently heard people say, "This is not like Shiseido" or "This is very Shiseido," which is perhaps unique to a company with a history of nearly 150 years.

Hanaki:
I have the impression that all teams were struggling with how to incorporate Shiseido's uniqueness into their products. I thought I had a sense of Shiseido's uniqueness, but I don't think I had a clear definition of it.

Oda:
I remember that we discussed at length about the uniqueness of Shiseido and the meaning of what Shiseido does. When we put into words what each employee thought Shiseido's uniqueness was and shared it, it was natural that some parts did not match. So, we spent a lot of time trying to understand each other.

Kobori:
The search for Shiseido's uniqueness was one of the areas that I have put a lot of effort into over the past six months, including reading the company’s history and visiting the corporate museum in Kakegawa city, Shizuoka prefecture. The company name "Shiseido" is derived from a Chinese book, isn't it? And yet, Shiseido was founded as a Western-style dispensing pharmacy, and its origins lie in the fusion of Eastern wisdom and Western science. In other words, Shiseido can be seen as a company that has been innovating with different things since its inception.

By capturing the company's roots, past facts, current research and strengths, and where the company is headed in the medium to long term, and then unraveling and reframing them, the indicators to aim for will emerge. We have done much to throw out those indicators.

──How do you capture your mission as MIS, Mr. Kobori?

Kobori:
The major mission of our department is to properly introduce "valuable R&D" in Japan's major manufacturers to the world. Above all, my own mission is to create people who can transform technology into value and bring it into the world.

I used to work for an electronics manufacturer, and I felt that in large companies, there are many cases where valuable technologies, research, and projects are put on hold due to various internal reasons. However, if these technologies and research could be made available to the world, Japanese society would change for the better. I believe that this project, in which researchers create products starting at a research institute, will be a new trend in Shiseido's long history.

The meaning of "value development" as understood in practice

I also learned a lot from that. Value development is easy to say, but how to think about it is still difficult. I learned how to support value creation through facilitation, bouncing ideas off of each other, and questioning.

Oda:
Through the workshop with MIS, I was also able to think deeply about what is important for the company and what elements should be included in the process of creating products. While referring to existing frameworks, the workshop also provided us with an opportunity to consider the viewpoint that "in our company, this point is very important.”

Looking back on the time when I was doing my own research, I had a vague awareness of the importance of the technical area, but I had not yet thought through the elements necessary to make it into a real product.

What should we do to make each researcher think things through? I think I was able to study while seeking ways of expressing and posing questions in a way that would be easy to convey.

Hanaki:
I also realized the importance of reality. Instead of the persona of "a working woman in her 20s," I would ask, "Who would buy this product if it were someone who works at this institute or someone close to you?" The researchers were surprised when I asked the question this way. However, I realized that by asking such a question, it was easier to imagine a specific scene, "When and where would Mr./Ms. XX use this?"

Which should be the subject, "technology" or "value"?

When I heard about the activities of the first term, my first thought was, "Isn't this something we in the R&D Strategy Department should really be doing?"

Even before fibona started, the question, "Whose job is it to translate technology into value?" was in my mind. In a corporate research institute, research results have the fate that the brand's products are the exit. In the case of Shiseido, there are many requests from marketers who say, "We want this kind of product under this brand, so please develop it." In such cases, researchers and marketers can work together to translate technology into value.

On the other hand, as a research institute, it is equally necessary to be technology oriented and create new value. And yet, the discussion on how to translate technology into value and how to market it was in a state of limbo. The theme of the second term of “Speedy Trial” was to clear up this issue for the organization.

Hanaki:
In the second term, the starting point was to think out of the box from the technology, right? But perhaps because of the technology-driven start, I felt that the researchers participating in the program in the second term were more surprised by the value development efforts than in the previous one.

Oda:
We received quite a few reactions of "Should we think this far by ourselves?”

Hanaki:
The members of the first term gathered with the goal of "let's develop value," and MIS and we guided them on how to do so. As for the members of the second term, we started by creating a common understanding of the need to translate technology into value before that.

Abe:
I understand that feeling. When I was a researcher myself, I used to think that translating technology was the job of marketers and brands.

I learned by watching the facilitation of Oda and Hanaki, who participated in the first term, and what struck me at first was the difference in "subject matter" between the two of them and myself.

When speaking from the standpoint of the R&D Strategy Department, the subject was always technology. “What do you think of this technology? Can we use it?" But with Oda and Hanaki, the subject was "the customer" or "the value.” I immediately imitated them and adopted their approach.

──When the subject changes, the perspective also changes.

Abe:
Yes, I realized that the mission of the R&D strategy was this direction. It was a great discovery for me to realize that while it is important to increase the value and quality of technology, that alone is not enough.

Kobori:
We have seen similar cases at other companies. That is why, as MIS, we would like to establish a process whereby the researchers can properly formulate the value of their research.

The increase in the number of researchers who can translate technology into value and bring their ideas to the world in the form of products means an increase in the number of intrepreneurs (in-house entrepreneurs) who possess both "Will" and "Skill" within the company. The reason why we established a new department called the "Intrepreneur Production Department" in January 2021 is because we wanted to establish a system to provide a systematic program for this purpose to each company.

To increase the number of "creators" in society

Oda:
The transformation of people's behavior due to COVID-19 was significant, and some parts of it will never return. I think we are in an era of great change, and we need to think about what we can do in the midst of it.
In order to respond to the times of great change, we would like to continue to develop products while co-creating with our customers, as we did with the launch of “Lämmin” on Makuake.

"Are we creating personas that are convenient for us and don't exist"? We must always question this point and refine our value by focusing on the real customers. And when we think in terms of value, we also need to have a clear perspective on business and marketing. My goal for the future is to promote research and development based on value.

Abe:
I will continue to root the work of "translating technology into value" in our organization this year. I would like to root the know-how cultivated in fibona in the organization, while being conscious of both creating value in response to brand requests and coming up with new businesses on our own.

Kobori:
I would like to state two things. One is that the launch of "Lämmin" on Makuake was a big step for us and for Shiseido. We would like to find out how we can connect this challenge to the next product development and our future actions.

The second is to "create people who can create," which is also a challenge for the companies that MIS is facing. I believe that "people who can create" can only be brought about through practice. People who have experience in creating products that the market demands, not just theoretical theories. By continuing to produce such people through our efforts, practical knowledge will eventually turn into collective knowledge, which will lead to reduce the number of technologies and products that lie dormant within manufacturers without being released to the world. I hope that we can commit ourselves to "creating people who can create" by taking our own approach to creating a system that makes it easier for people to take on challenges, even in uncertain times.

Hiroki Kobori / Intrepreneur Produce Department, Makuake Incubation Studio Chief Producer and Manager
After working in the materials procurement division of industrial photovoltaic power generation systems (mega solar power generation systems), he worked in the IoT communication system business division where he was in charge of smartphone and robot phone promotion at Sharp Corporation. He then joined Makuake Inc. and participated in the launch of Makuake Incubation Studio. He was involved in supporting the creation of new products and businesses for major manufacturers.

大事な場面に、パッとひとくちで顔色めざめる！資生堂のフィルム型サプリLammin

（text: Hanae Abe　edit: Kaori Sasagawa）