Activity Report
ICF Meetup 2023
The ICF Meetup 2023, a networking event where participants share information and exchange ideas on solutions to societal issues, was held in a hybrid format on July 6. The event was a great success with a total of 120 participants at the venue and online. The main discussion concerned Wellness, one of the six focus areas of The Listings of Societal Issues, and was led by ICF members speaking on implementing and supporting advanced activities to resolve societal issues.
First, Professor Masashi Arakawa of the University of the Ryukyus delivered the keynote speech “The Future Well-Being in Society,” and Akira Enomoto, Healthcare Value Creation Process Manager at MRI, presented the topic “Roles and Expectations of Startups in Wellness Strategy from the Perspective of MRI.” These were followed by pitches from representatives from a total of nine companies, most of whom were Startup Members who have participated in ICF since the onset of the covid pandemic, including those who are developing wellness-related businesses and those who are trying to create new value by reframing their business initiatives to prioritize wellness.
After the pitches, eight booths were set up for the companies that delivered their pitches, and participants at the venue had the opportunity to network. At each company’s booth, there was the active exchange of ideas and successful networking through service experiences using company-provided demonstration devices.
The event report is here (Japanese only): https://icf.mri.co.jp/activities/activities-14406/
First Round of Co-Creating Member Forum
The Co-Creating Member Forum was established this year for Co-Creating Members to talk and interact with one another so that they can gain new insights and tips for business development (the forum is scheduled to be held every other month, about five times total a year). The forum will focus on topics related to future economic, social, and technological trends in Japan and overseas.
The first round was held on June 23 titled “ Let’s Talk about Business Transformation Caused by ChatGPT?,” where nine people fro six Co-Creating Member companies participated. At the beginning, a staff member from the DX Technology Division of MRI presented the strengths, weaknesses, essence, and issues of ChatGPT using examples within MRI. After that, each participating company shared its response to and use of ChatGPT, and opinions were actively exchanged. Although the companies differed in how far they had considered and responded to the introduction of generative AI, they were never negative about it. Many of them planned to start with a trial introduction in a specific department, conduct evaluation and verification, and then proceed to company-wide implementation.
At the social gathering after the forum, there also was a lot of excitement about ChatGPT. The participants provided positive feedback, saying that they found the forum greatly helpful thanks to the relevant topic, and suggested that they wanted to discuss the same topic again in six months because they were all still trying to figure out how to introduce and use ChatGPT.
The second round will be about disaster prevention, as this September marks 100 years since the Great Kanto Earthquake and the number of severe natural disasters has been increasing. The details will be announced later.
BAP 2023 Application has Opened (Application Period July 4 th August22 nd)
Application for the ICF’s 9 th business acceleration program, BAP 2023 has now opened Please consider applying for the program if you are a startup and have business ideas that can resolve societal issues Just as before, MRI researchers will accompany you to the best of our efforts to create co creation projects We are looking forward to meeting great partners who seek societal implementation together.
For large companies and local governments that are highly interested in co-creation with startups, BAP is in the early stages of creating projects that will encourage that kind of collaboration. If interested, please contact the ICF Secretariat.
Sci-Fi Thinking Workshop on Carbon Neutral Future
The Sci-Fi Thinking Workshop on Carbon Neutral Future was held online on July 4 with approximately 20 participants. First, the participants were divided into four teams to think about new futuristic words related to carbon neutrality. While imagining the lives of people in the future through science fiction, the participants considered the details of the services people would use and issues that might arise as a result. Participants stated that they were able to get ideas for carbon neutrality initiatives that they hadn’t thought of when only thinking in terms of the present. Many participants also said that it was fun and informative to think through science fiction. Through in-depth consideration of business ideas obtained at the workshop, participants will continue to study carbon neutrality.
New Insight Report
ICF published an insight report that summarizes the results of the Dietary Innovation FCP held from September 2022 to February 2023. This report was created by the ICF Secretariat to compile insights from the FCP.
https://icf.mri.co.jp/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Food_Insight-Report_202303.pdf
With the pandemic limiting communication during meals, alternative communication through the entire food process (production, procurement, cooking, and eating/drinking) is gaining attention. In this FCP, the kitchen was seen as the key to facilitating communication, and participants considered the best way to create dietary innovation. In addition, a policy roadmap was drafted and submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
This report presents an overview of the activities and the findings.
Platinum Career Awards Symposium
ICF has defined the platinum career as a career where the worker independently improves their skills through learning and experience, and is active by making full use of those learned skills to, regardless of their age, grow and contribute to the development of the company they belong to (and even the solution of societal issues!). The fifth Platinum Career Awards was held to recognize and honor companies that support such career development. This symposium was organized by ICF and Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking, and held in cooperation with Toyo Keizai Inc. based on reference information from Livesense Inc.
The primary criterion this time is whether the company has a reskilling environment that takes into account the lifestyle and career development of each employee. The symposium was held on Tuesday, June 20 to recognize one grand prize winner and six first prize winners.
The symposium started with greetings from the organizer, Etsuko Sato, the Director of the Career Development Support Office of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, and Hiroki Kawai, an Executive Officer of Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. These were followed by the keynote speech by Dr. Hiroshi Komiyama, the Chairman of Mitsubishi Research Institute and the chairman of the awards committee. He concluded by saying, “Platinum Career development can be achieved only by practicing continuous and reciprocal learning.” Following this, Professor Yasuhiro Kiyomizu of Tokyo University of the Arts gave a commemorative lecture about art thinking. Recently, art thinking has attracted attention as a way to create intuitive and original ideas by asking questions from one’s own perspective and reexamining the conventional wisdom. The lecture was very thought-provoking for both companies and workers. In the following panel discussion, many suggestions and opinions were exchanged on topics such as what companies should do to support platinum career development, how to enhance corporate value through various human resource development efforts and results, and how society sees companies that promote platinum career development.
Through collaboration with members, ICF will continue to promote new ways of working appropriate for the post-pandemic era through platinum career initiatives.
Fifth Platinum Career Award Awards
<<Grand Prize>> NEC Networks & System Integration Corporation
<First Prize> NTT DOCOMO, Iic., Okamura Corporation, SoftBank Corp., Sompo Holdings, Inc., Nissin Foods Holdings Co., Ltd., and Marui Group Co., Ltd. (in Japanese alphabetical order)
New Entrepreneurial Stories of Impactful ICF Members (#32)
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.
The new article covers Educare Co., Ltd., which is an education finance startup and joins the ranks of the 31 previously published stories. The list of English articles is here.