Mr. Yuki Kuwabara, CEO of ＆PUBLIC Inc.
Despite the passion of those involved in social projects, their value is often difficult to see or communicate. &PUBLIC Inc. uses its proprietary tools and indicators to visualize the social value of its projects. The company organizes desirable social outcomes and the pathways to achieve them, and provides services to help people and organizations improve in order to maximize the impact of their business. We spoke with Mr. Yuki Kuwabara, CEO
of &PUBLIC Inc.
―No matter how good a business is, it cannot move people unless its value is properly communicated to them. Members of the Mitsubishi Research Institute are also very interested in your efforts. Could you tell us about your background and how you started your business?
We started &PUBLIC Inc. in February 2023. I myself had been working in a completely different field for 10 years before that. I studied international relations in college, and all through my college years, I was studying the microfinance business of Grameen Bank.
―That’s a system to lend money to poor women to help them get out of poverty, right?
That’s right. But after graduation, I got a job at a recruitment advertising agency, where I worked for about four years as a sales representative. I then moved on to a consulting company specializing in resolving social issues.
After the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, I was temporarily transferred to a company working on the reconstruction of Rikuzentakata City, Iwate Prefecture, which I think was one of the turning points that led me to start &PUBLIC. Initially, I began with a workshop in which we worked with residents of the city to rebuild a tsunami-devastated meeting hall using kits made from thinned cedar blocks. Eventually, the realizations I had during that period led directly to the work that I do now.
―You started your first business by yourself in 2013, two years after the earthquake.
That’s right. In 2013, I started my first company in Rikuzentakata City, where there are very highly skilled carpenters called Kesen Carpenters, who not only build ordinary houses but also are able to take care of shrines and temples (Kesen is the name of the district that encompasses Rikuzentakata City). With the cooperation of these local carpenters, I started a joint stock company called KUMIKIPROJECT to create furniture and spaces.
―I heard that those days left a strong impression on you.
I bought a work coverall for the first time in my life and learned the basics of construction under the tutelage of skilled masters in their 70s. But it was at that time that I was first impressed how creating something together could connect so many people both inside and outside their community. Since then, I have been very eager to see more of this kind of relationship building, so I have conducted these types of participatory renovation workshops nationwide.
In 2019, I established a foundation and, as part of my work, started developing instructors for the workshops. I expanded stores across Japan with a shared studio called KILTA.
―And then this year, 2023, you founded &PUBLIC. You are truly a serial entrepreneur. Now, could you tell us about &PUBLIC?
Under the slogan of “Let’s innovate the power of the public together,” we work on two main activities: First, we provide training programs that help organizations verbalize what kind of value they are creating and organize the steps they need to take to ensure that this value is expressed properly. Second, we develop SaaS-type tools that allow organizations to visualize the increase or decrease in social value they are creating through dashboards that display multiple graphs and tables at once, and through which reports can easily be produced.
―Before &PUBLIC, you had always been engaged with projects related to construction. . What inspired you to start a business to visualize corporate value?
We have always valued creating opportunities for people to connect with each other and have made serious efforts to enrich those connections. However, people are often unsure about what benefits there are in connecting with each other or how it’s beneficial to do things like utilize local wood. I have a lot to say on these topics, such as that these activities create more vibrant communities and richer forests, but I have not been able to visualize those statements in a way that has convinced people. It’s been like that for the last 10 years.
―True, society has a hard time seeing value without explicit visualization or verbalization.
Gradually, I began to question myself if I was really doing everything I could. I then came across the concept of the “logic model” and of the concept of social impact management, which aims to properly and proactively manage social value. So, &PUBLIC was essentially started as an initiative to visualize the social value of KUMIKIPROJECT, not the intention to create an actual company.
―Ah, that’s where it started. So, how exactly can a company’s value be expressed?
We are developing an impact management tool called “purposeboard” that organizes and records the results that a business or project is aiming for, the path it is taking, and the steps it is taking to get there. One of the characteristics of our tool is its intuitive interface. It allows users to move and stack cards as if they are putting sticky notes on a piece of paper. Many of the measures used to measure societal value are non-financial indicators, but we believe that it’s important to design and consider indicators that make sense to the people involved.
By making it possible to see the significance of a project’s existence at a glance, our tool cleanly organizes both results and actions so that users can implement a cycle of improvement. We support their efforts to maximize social value, but don’t stop there. We also artistically visualize the efforts with illustrations and other graphics so that everyone can more easily and immediately understand.
―Instead of being satisfied with just doing something, users can clearly identify the value and use it to appeal and reflect. I would assume it’s difficult to decide the indicators you display. How exactly do you decide them?
In addition to using well-known indicators such as, for example, the SDGs, we are developing our own indicator database by interviewing people who are engaged in similar activities throughout Japan and conducting detailed research on how they set up their own indicators We are working hard to create indicators that are unique to us.
―You also have a promising new feature under development, right?
Right now, we are developing features that allow users to easily create an impact report simply by dragging and dropping that shows what kind of social value a business is aiming to achieve and how the value is being visualized.
―I heard that you and your colleagues originally came up with the features to introduce the effectiveness of KUMIKIPROJECT to society.
That was our original starting point, but as we progressed, it became clear that even though many companies and NPOs are enthusiastic about resolving societal issues, their results haven’t been clearly or successfully demonstrated to the public.
For example, if a local government has done something to resolve local issues, it is still often difficult for residents to understand how effective the implemented policies have been. We believe our tool can help these local governments. They can use our tool to organize their procedures for addressing issues so that both stakeholders and residents can both understand and remain involved. They can also express the effects of the procedures in a way that is convincing to the people.
―The visualization of procedures will also allow local governments and other organizations, for example, to accumulate wisdom for resolving issues more tangibly.
That is an area where we have high expectations. Accumulated wisdom makes it possible to design policies of high social value, regardless of the level of proficiency of the personnel on hand. The annual expenditure of local governments in Japan is approximately 123 trillion yen, and tis money can be used far more effectively.
―So the accumulation of wisdom is important, right?
We call it “public wisdom” and hope that it will be accumulated and further developed through a vigorous cycle of implementation to improvement and back to implementation. Many similar issues are emerging overseas, as in Japan, including the declining birthrate and aging population. We, &PUBLIC, are engaged in tool development and programs that support the design of social activities in the hope that we support the accumulation of this “public wisdom” around the world.
―Thank you, Mr. Kuwabara. When I asked you about the origin of the company name &PUBLIC, you said, “Every effort starts with our individual thoughts and self-interest. But if you continue to work seriously, it will eventually lead to the public, the public good.” That is now very clear to me. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule today.
| Company name：＆PUBLIC Inc. |
| Founded：February 1, 2023 |
| Number of employees：3 |
| Main Business：Providing training, workshops, and consulting for the visualization and maximization of social value and promoting digital transformation through an impact management tool URL：https://andpublic.jp |
This article is part of a series of articles introducing venture companies working together as ICF members to resolve societal issues.