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As a strong woman with a thinking of her own, Emi Yamamoto is a changemaker that aspires to better the lifestyle of the Japanese society.  Starting out in the IT industry, Emi Yamamoto was a bright-eyed, driven engineer who had big aspirations to change the lives of people. She attributes her aspiration to her interest in changing norms and traditions and wish to change the conservative minds of those around her. At the start of her career, she went through a phase of disillusionment as she felt disconnected to the large corporate enterprise projects that she had worked on. She felt that she needed to connect with project beneficiaries on a stronger, personal level. When the opportunity arose, Yamamoto-san switched over to join a short-term internal project that focused on creating innovative new businesses. Even though she failed to achieve any outcomes, the job was unlike that of her previous. Moving from the role of an IT engineer to sales and marketing, Yamamoto-san found the means to the ends that she had pursued since her career began. It was in such a position that she could create an impact in the way that she has always wanted to. Contrary to the role of a systems integrator who serves to fulfil needs requested by customers, a marketer seeks to reinvent services. In her current project, she visited more than 150 business partners in an attempt to grow the business. Through such a process, Yamamoto-san picked up invaluable soft skills in the area of communications and negotiations and most importantly, the mind to “never give up”. She learnt the ways of positive thinking and kept going for another 5 years. Truly, Yamamoto-san’s hard work paid off when she clinched major deals for the company (the most valuable sales value that year) and received recognition as the first person to expand the business in a new area. Today, she receives strong support from her company, Nihon Unisys, who provides invaluable exposure like that of the DBIC program on her journey to become a changemaker. As she shares, “no one has tried these territories before and there’s no (predefined) successful approach”. For individuals with great aspirations likeYamamoto-san, “focus on moving forward by failing”. Do not be afraid of failure.  Through her short stint in the DBIC Singapore program, Yamamoto-san had a first-hand experience of the cosmopolitan environment in Singapore. She shares that Singaporeans are interested in expansions across the globe, especially in the ASEAN region. Additionally, from the perspective of a foreigner, the people in Singapore take on a ‘understanding perspective’, responding positively and putting in the effort to learn about the cultures and needs of others. Yamamoto-san attributes this to the proliferation of innovation practices in Singapore, that such an orientation allows Singapore businesses to understand social problems. Today, she is engaged in a project specialising in bettering the ‘last mile transportation’ for individuals in the suburban areas in Japan. This essentially refers to the provision of on-demand mobility services in the distances between the home and public transportation, as well as, workplaces and public transportation. The project was inspired by her visits to the suburban areas in Japan, which the transportation systems have worsened in recent years. She explains that with lesser services provided (one-hour frequency for buses), there were lesser users of the system and this resulted in a reduction of revenues that prevented transportation providers from improving their services. It was essentially a negative cycle that might lead to the obsoleting of transportation systems in the distant future.  In Nihon Unisys, women are given provisions to support their roles as active contributors of the company. Opportunities to scale success are abundant and assistive support in their role as parents are also well considered and catered to. Examples of such includes flexible hours and work from home schemes that allow mothers to care for their children whilst maintaining their careers.
Laws established before the age of digitalisation and the slow adoption of digital devices are obstacles for Japan’s endeavour to shift towards a smart nation. However, as the country gradually opens itself to international relationships, it is a good time to pivot and change. Time is definitely in the equation and a radical shift in traditions will be key in helping edge the country towards greater sustainability. This post was written by Narcissa Koh, Content Strategist of DBIC. As a corporate entrepreneur known by his peers to be a mature and compassionate leader,Masamichi Takahashi is an exemplary role model for innovators.  What defines Takahashi-san is his determination to tackle societal issues with resolve. Soon after arriving in Singapore, through conversations with his colleagues, communities and members of society, he came to realization that, perhaps, insurance companies could take a much more proactive role in helping their employees cope with mental health issues. Placing empathy at the core of his observations, he delved himself into further conversations and found that the employees faced emotional pressures stemming from their careers and money matters. Engaging in first hand conversations with counselling providers, he dived deeper into the ‘state of mind’ of employees in organisations. Despite facing high levels of stress, the sources of pressure differed radically between older and younger employees. Whilst strong feelings of responsibility affect the older generation, younger employees struggle with delivering results at work that they have yet to accustom themselves to. “Tackling Societal Issues with Passion, Empathy and Resilience.” Looking back at his own career, he could resonate with what the younger and older employees were telling him. Like many, Takahashi-san had pains in the starting phase of his career. He started out in a division where he had difficulties performing well in the role that he was assigned to. Despite the situation, he continued to speak with others and tried to broaden his perspectives. Thanks to his perseverance, he gradually started to be recognized as a successful corporate entrepreneur in the organization and the insurance industry.
When asked about his experiences as a corporate entrepreneur, he reiterates the importance of gaining insights and inspiration from others and building resilience to deal with difficult situations with flexibility and perseverance. As he shares, “everyone has difficulties, but we can take the time and effort to gain additional experiences”. These efforts will open new doors of opportunities that lead us on our journey of self-discovery. Societal changes do not happen overnight. It requires a great deal of passion, empathy and resilience on our part. The journey may be fraught with uncertainties and obstacles, but with a strong will to serve the need of society, there will be a time where these plans (dreams) will come true. “The key is to understand customers and serve them well, the rest will come later.” As an active contributor in the Asian start-up, technology and business investment scene, Kwai’s ‘food for thought’ serves to be great considerations. From his early days, Kwai Seng Lee was involved in starting up different companies. He attributes his interest in the scene to the appeal of creating and finding something to meet a market need. Kwai likens the experience as a keyholder in 3 companies to a position where one simultaneously manages multiple projects in a company. His constant connection with key customers and team members has helped him to ensure the smooth operation of the various companies. As Kwai, the MD of AIRmaker recounts his experiences in the entrepreneurship community, we pick up 4 key orientations start-ups should take in today’s environment. AIRmaker is an open innovation platform focusing on smart nation and digital health innovations.
"Try again later."
Despite the fact that profitability is a key element of a viable business, it is imperative that companies first understand customers and serve them well. Profitability and revenue growth will come later. The Singapore ecosystem has grown a lot through the years. We have come a long way to the increased acceptance of ‘entrepreneurship’ as a viable career choice for young and even mid-career individuals. There has been an intensification of activities in funding and progress has been reasonably well. The country’s small market serves as a “good test bed” for businesses, with higher inclinations towards high-end, medical technology solutions. Albeit so, there are several limitations that entrepreneurs may face in Singapore today. There is a need for companies to break beyond the limited Singaporean market to a “bigger playing field“ to gain funding in later stages. The challenge in this lies in the heterogenous nature of regional markets around Singapore. As a supporter of the DBIC program, we were curious of what Kwai envisioned for the team. He explains that ‘open innovation’ was a topic that many want to speak of but was not one that could be managed easily. More than results, the process of engaging start-ups for collaboration and finding the right solutions provide a learning experience that would help pivot Japanese companies towards change. This post was written by Narcissa Koh, Content Strategist of DBIC.  CURRENT SITUATION
Global energy demand continues to increase, together with global population. Out of available natural resources, Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) generates comparably less carbon dioxide and is a source of energy that is increasing in transaction volume. OUR CHALLENGE Although LNG is a key raw material for both city gas and electricity, the material cost including transaction cost takes up more than 50% of the total costs of city gas and electricity prices. Energy importing countries such as Japan and Singapore rely heavily on energy commodity trading which requires considerable volume of document transactions. Additionally, we, Tokyo Gas, import LNG from more than 10 countries. These add to the high transaction costs. Could we introduce smart contracts in LNG trading to make transactions more efficient and reduce risk of trading delay and document falsification? This could contribute 50% cost saving of the transaction cost. PARTNERS WE ARE LOOKING FOR Do you have a business model that makes efficient and secure LNG trading, or technology related to blockchain, process automation, or secure transactions? Or, do you have a platform that efficiently connects LNG buyers and sellers? If you do, please get in touch with us so that we can have further conversations. TIMELINE We are part of DBIC Accelerator Program and are looking for a partner who can jointly conduct a small market test to validate our idea in Singapore or Southeast Asia in August and September 2018. Our demo day is in October 2018. APPLICATION DEADLINE The deadline for applications is Tuesday 31 July 2018. Please use below form to express your interest. We will be in touch with you to take our conversations forward if your solution suits our needs. ABOUT US Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. Established in 1885, Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. is Japan's largest provider of city gas, serving more than 11 million customers for over 130 years, primarily in the Tokyo metropolitan area and surrounding Kanto region. Sales of $14.5 billion with 16,800 employees (consolidated). For more information, please visit: http://www.tokyo-gas.co.jp/en/ Tokyo Gas i Net Corp. Established in 1987, Tokyo Gas i Net Corp. is a group company of Tokyo Gas, focusing on information processing service, software development and sales of computer equipment. 725 employees. For more information, please visit: http://www.tg-inet.co.jp/ (Japanese only)  CURRENT SITUATION
Losing someone we love is the hardest emotional experience we ever have to face in our lives. Insurance has always addressed the economic and financial impact of such devastating events. It has helped millions of people around the world to cope with hardships, put their life back on track, and provide the financial benefits required in such circumstances. OUR CHALLENGE However, we have not paid enough attention to the emotional health of the people who have to cope with such difficult circumstances. Our emotional health is impacted, not just by loss of loved ones, but also by the stress and difficulties we face in everyday life, such as from relationships and work. Could we come up with a better model to cope with our emotional health when we face difficult circumstances in our lives? PARTNERS WE ARE LOOKING FOR Do you feel passionate about helping people cope with difficult circumstances, from an emotional healthcare standpoint? Do you have a business model, services, or platform that connect those people to the expert advisers? Can we develop a business model or make a survey together? Do you have technology that helps understand the need for emotional care and match to adequate counselor? Do you have technology that enables remote counselling? If you do, please get in touch with us so that we can have further conversations. TIMELINE We are part of DBIC Accelerator Program and are looking for a partner who can jointly conduct a small market test to validate our idea in Singapore or Southeast Asia in August and September 2018. Our demo day is in October 2018. APPLICATION DEADLINE The deadline for applications is Tuesday 31 July 2018. Please use below form to express your interest. We will be in touch with you to take our conversations forward if your solution suits our need ABOUT US Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co., Ltd. Established in 1879, Tokio Marine & Nichido is an insurance company under Tokio Marine Holdings. Net premiums written amounts to $19 billion (FY2016) with approximately 17,000 employees and over 50,000 agents. Total assets of $87 billion. For more information, please visit: http://www.tokiomarine-nichido.co.jp/en/ [2018] ONLINE MENTORING PLATFORM: HELPING YOUNG PROFESSIONALS THRIVE IN JAPANESE ORGANIZATIONS24/7/2019
 CURRENT SITUATION
Every Spring season in Japan, 550,000 students graduate from universities and 400,000 of them go into full-time jobs.[1] 30% of them, that’s about 120,000, leaves their job in the first three years.[2] That itself is an alarmingly high figure but what happens to the remaining 70% who decides to stay with organizations? OUR CHALLENGE With seniority system and life-time employment still in place in many organizations, the 70% who decides to stay with the organization is on a pre-determined corporate career track as long as they remain in the organization. These young professionals aspire to find role models within their organizations and try to find motivation to continue to grow and upskill themselves. However, at often times, they do not work in most suitable roles, jobs, or have supervisors that truly understand them. Could we provide a platform to connect mentors and mentees online via matching algorithm so that experienced mentors can provide personalized and appropriate guidance to young professionals? PARTNERS WE ARE LOOKING FOR Do you have expertise on career counseling, or do you have technology related to matching algorithm? We would also be keen to explore technologies related to natural language processing or emotional recognition to classify mentee’s anxiety. If you do, please get in touch with us so that we can have further conversations. TIMELINE We are part of DBIC Accelerator Program and are looking for a partner who can build a simple prototype, or jointly conduct a small market test to validate our idea in Singapore or Southeast Asia in August and September 2018. Our demo day is in October 2018. APPLICATION DEADLINE The deadline for applications is Tuesday 31 July 2018. Please use below form to express your interest. We will be in touch with you to take our conversations forward if your solution suits our need. ABOUT US Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. Established in 1965, Nomura Research Institute (NRI) is a business consultancy and technology solution firm headquartered in Tokyo. NRI was created as a merged entity of Nomura Research Institute, Japan's first private think tank, and Nomura Computer Systems, a pioneer in systems integration. For more information, please visit: https://www.nri.com/ [2018] SAYING GOODBYE TO MISUNDERSTANDINGS: USING EMOTION ANALYSIS FOR BETTER COMMUNICATION24/7/2019
 CURRENT SITUATION
More than ever in our human history, we have access to a wide range of communication methods, be it social media platforms, instant messaging platforms, phone calls, SMS messages, emails, or flying half way across the world to meet up with others. Communication has become easier, more convenient, more accessible, and more wide-reaching. OUR CHALLENGE However, we humans still misunderstand each other. No matter how technology-enabled our communication methods are, or even if we are facing each other in person, we still, at often times, fail to understand each other. We make wrong assumptions, interpret in a different way, and say things that we regret moments later. To reduce or eliminate misunderstandings, can we not understand our emotional state better, understand other parties better, or get spontaneous communication advice as to how we should or should not respond? PARTNERS WE ARE LOOKING FOR Do you have a business model to help people communicate more effectively, or technology related to emotion or sentiment analysis through words or voice or visuals, biometrics, body language analysis, emotion AI, or product or service related to effective communication support? If you do, please get in touch with us so that we can have further conversations. TIMELINE We are part of DBIC Accelerator Program and are looking for a partner who can jointly conduct a small market test to validate our idea in Singapore or Southeast Asia in August and September 2018. Our demo day is in October 2018. APPLICATION DEADLINE The deadline for applications is Tuesday 31 July 2018. Please use below form to express your interest. We will be in touch with you to take our conversations forward if your solution suits our needs. ABOUT US Nihon Unisys, Ltd. Established in 1958, the Nihon Unisys Group provides IT-based management innovation for clients in sectors ranging from financial services, manufacturing and distribution to energy and government. Sales of $2.5 billion with approximately 8,000 employees (group). For more information, please visit: https://www.unisys.co.jp/e/  CURRENT SITUATION
With rapid urbanization, our means of transportation in urban cities have developed extensively, from public transportation to ride-hailing services to portable mobility devices. In large cities, there is sufficient demand to develop new public transportation network and for new services to enter the market. OUR CHALLENGE However, in suburban cities with population of 300,000 to 1 million in Japan, we face various transportation issues. First, the public transportation network providers do not have enough demand to invest in new network or services. For example, the best they can do is to provide bus service 4 times in an hour from the station to the direction of customers’ homes. Second, the number of taxis is limited, and they are expensive to ride on a daily basis. Third, with increasing proportion of senior population, portable mobility devices are not a preferred option. Would it be possible to build a new model of last-mile transportation in suburban cities in Japan that can be as convenient as taxis and as reasonable as bus fares? PARTNERS WE ARE LOOKING FOR Do you have a business model or services that address the need for last-mile transportation, or technology that is related to geo-location analysis, fleet management, tracking analytics, optimal route calculation, or a new ride-hailing service model for smaller cities? If you do, please get in touch with us so that we can have further conversations. TIMELINE We are part of DBIC Accelerator Program and are looking for a partner who can jointly conduct a small market test to validate our idea in Singapore or Southeast Asia in August and September 2018. Our demo day is in October 2018. APPLICATION DEADLINE The deadline for applications is Tuesday 31 July 2018. Please use below form to express your interest. We will be in touch with you to take our conversations forward if your solution suits our needs. ABOUT US Nihon Unisys, Ltd. Established in 1958, the Nihon Unisys Group provides IT-based management innovation for clients in sectors ranging from financial services, manufacturing and distribution to energy and government. Sales of $2.5 billion with approximately 8,000 employees (group). For more information, please visit: https://www.unisys.co.jp/e/  CURRENT SITUATION
In most instances in developing nations, the only way for less privileged people to figure out whether they will be sick is when they get sick. They have no access to preventive health diagnosis, access to medical treatment they require, nor do they have insurance to cover the costs of treatment. OUR CHALLENGE Although there is an increasing number of trials to improve healthcare coverage, we still do not have a one-stop platform for less privileged people to understand the risk, or available insurance options according to their health diagnosis on a business basis. Neither do insurance companies have sufficient information on those in need of insurance in this particular segment. Could we build a one-stop, integrated platform for less privileged people in developing nations to understand the health risk, and become aware of available insurance options depending on their health risk? This platform could enable insurance companies to get access to much-needed data to provide insurance services to this particular segment. PARTNERS WE ARE LOOKING FOR Do you have technology that analyzes health risks, or insurance knowledge that could assess the degree of risks or coverage? Or do you have a platform business that connects patients and insurance companies? If you do, please get in touch with us so that we can have further conversations. TIMELINE We are part of DBIC Accelerator Program and are looking for a partner who can jointly conduct a small market test to validate our idea in Singapore or Southeast Asia in August and September 2018. Our demo day is in October 2018. APPLICATION DEADLINE The deadline for applications is Tuesday 31 July 2018. Please use below form to express your interest. We will be in touch with you to take our conversations forward if your solution suits our needs. ABOUT US Konica Minolta, Inc. Since its establishment in 1873, Konica Minolta has been expanding its business in various fields including office equipment, optical systems for industrial use, and diagnostic imaging system. Konica Minolta has global operations in 50 countries. Sales of $8.7 billion with approximately 44,000 employees. For more information, please visit: https://www.konicaminolta.com/us-en/index.html  CURRENT SITUATION
Surely, search engines have changed how we access information. It can generate millions of search results in less than a second. In terms of information accessibility, the world is much closer today than ever. We also can get information from consumer-to-consumer (C2C) based platforms where they share information or experiences which could be more reliable than information on advertisements. OUR CHALLENGE Despite the power of technology to access world’s information, consumers, at often times, have to go through pages of search results, or re-type various combination of keywords to find information they want because search engines generate millions of search results on any information consumers are searching for. The C2C platforms, likewise, provide access to real customer voices and experiences. However, consumers still have to search for information and spend time screening through pages after pages of information before they can get to what they want. Could we use real-time information about ourselves, such as location, schedule, preferences, feelings, mood and needs to let relevant and appropriate information come to us when we need them, rather than we spending time to search for them? PARTNERS WE ARE LOOKING FOR Do you have a business model to provide real-time information to consumers depending on their needs, or technology that analyzes real-time needs of consumers according to their preferences, feelings, schedule, etc.? Or do you have technology that allows predictive analysis on consumer behavior? If you do, please get in touch with us so that we can have further conversations. TIMELINE We are part of DBIC Accelerator Program and are looking for a partner who can jointly conduct a small market test to validate our idea in Singapore or Southeast Asia in August and September 2018. Our demo day is in October 2018. APPLICATION DEADLINE The deadline for applications is Tuesday 31 July 2018. Please use below form to express your interest. We will be in touch with you to take our conversations forward if your solution suits our needs. ABOUT US Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. Established in 1876, Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd. (DNP) is one of the largest comprehensive printing companies in the world, providing a variety of products and services to consumers and 30,000 corporate clients around the world. DNP operates 65 Sales Offices in 18 countries and regions with 76 production plants across 9 countries and regions. Sales of $12.8 billion with over 38,000 employees. For more information, please visit: http://www.dnp.co.jp/eng/ |
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