Message from the Secretariat
Chief of Staff,
ICF Secretariat
The Initiative for Co-creating the Future (ICF) has entered its third year. In this fiscal year, ICF intends to further enhance and accelerate its activities in order to implement as many societal issue-resolving projects as possible while continuing to work to create a collective impact and further expand the industry-academia-government ecosystem.
The Secretariat extends its gratitude to all those who took the time to participate in the ICF General Assembly on April 18. The venue was filled to capacity, and ICF members had a lively time exchanging their opinions in the networking event that followed. New collaborations were born amongst the discussion, as well. The Secretariat will continue to accompany and support members as much as possible.
In 2023, like in previous years, the ICF has planned various activities throughout the year.
We here at ICF look forward to members’ continued active participation, including suggestions on topics to explore in the future.
ICF NEWS
The Secretariat publishes a monthly newsletter, ICF News, to share with members the initiative’s past activities and future plans. Excerpts are also available to the public on the ICF website.
In addition to information on seminars and events organized by ICF, the newsletter will deliver hot topics from member companies and organizations.
Activity Report
ICF General Assembly (April 18th)
More than 170 people, mainly from member companies and organizations, attended the ICF General Assembly, which was held in a hybrid format (online and in person).
Masanobu Todome, the CEO of SUNDRED Corporation, gave the keynote speech entitled An Approach to Co-creating the Future Based on Societal Implementation. Following the speech, the Chief of Staff of the Secretariat presented a summary of the ICF’s activities in FY 2022 and detailed the ICF’s strategies for FY 2023. In the second half of the event, 12 companies and organizations, made up of mainly new members that have joined the ICF network within the past six months, presented their recent projects and talked about their expectations for ICF.
After the closing, a networking event was held at the venue. The entire program was overall a grand success with active and productive interaction among the newcomers and other ICF members.
Many comments endorsing ICF activities were provided in the questionnaire after the assembly, such as: “This was an opportunity for me to think about societal issues that I hadn’t been aware of and about how to resolve them. This assembly was extremely informative!”, “I understand business development far better than I did before,” and “I really felt like becoming an ICF member was the right decision.”
Societal Issues Portal Launched
The ICF has launched a website portal that aggregates content related to societal issues (The Listings of Societal Issues, Walk Through Videos on Societal Issues, Societal Issues Index, etc.) by theme.
For each of the themes, easy-to-understand illustrations, such as those visualizing societal problems (what is wrong) and societal issues (what must be overcome), are provided.
Visit the URL below for all 31 themes.
https://icf.mri.co.jp/societal-issues
Release of Entrepreneurial Stories of Impactful ICF Members (#29 and #30)
In order to tackle societal issues through business, entrepreneurs must have excellent interpersonal skills and strong organizational capabilities. What do they think and how are they trying to achieve the world they want? The ICF has published a series of articles that sheds light on the personalities of entrepreneurs who are striving to resolve societal issues. The goal of these articles is to share with readers the philosophies of and the issues being tackled by these business founders, which in turn should lead to accelerated social breakthroughs in the future. The list of Japanese articles is here.
30 articles have been released, including the new articles on Yukai Engineering Inc., which provides communication robots, and With The World Inc., which provides online programs for schools. English versions of the articles have also been released. The list of English articles is here. Please take a look!
Upcoming Activities (May – July)
BAP 2023 Application Opens (July)
The ICF’s 9th business acceleration program, BAP 2023 will start in July by accepting applications for business ideas that can resolve societal issues.
The ICF, just as in previous years, is fervently considering new plans for the upcoming year to accompany and support businesses that resolve societal issues and contribute to societal implementation through co-creation, so please stay tuned for more information.