Toward promoting organizational innovation

14 major domestic companies are participating in Batch1 as Plug and Play Japan’s official partners. This time we interviewed Fujitsu Limited, one of the partner companies of the Fintech program, about why they decided to participate in our program, how they realize open innovation and their challenges collaborating with startups etc.

Nicole: Fujitsu has joined our platform as a partner since Batch 0, the first program of Plug and Play Japan. Why did Fujitsu decide to join as a partner while running your own accelerator program?

Tokunaga: Our role is to promote collaboration and bridging the gap between business divisions of Fujitsu and startups. Therefore, we constantly participate in various events to look for startups that fit the mission and objective of Fujitsu. Up until now we have met with a lot of domestic startups, however overseas startups have not been readily reachable. Plug and Play has a wide network with such overseas startups, which we can utilize to meet many overseas startups efficiently in Japan. This is why we have joined as a partner.

Suzuki: Also, as overseas startups selected by Plug and Play Japan are based on Series A or later stage companies, it is attractive for us to be able to meet with companies that are considering the development of business in Japan.

Nicole: What kind of innovation is Fujitsu aiming to achieve through collaboration with startups?

Suzuki: Our business divisions list up their technical and business challenges quite specifically. For example, challenges in terms of IoT, AI, work style reform etc. We actively seek startups who we can collaborate with in order to overcome these challenges. Our mission is to “create new value” through these kind of collaborations.

Tokunaga: Well, the big missions are the same, but there are various specific issues for each division. With Plug and Play Japan’s programs, we aim to cooperate with startups that are most suitable for solving these issues. To achieve this, it is important to meet a wide range of startups, as well as get to know and discuss things with each startup individually.

Nicole: What challenges do you face when collaborating with startups?

Tokunaga: When bridging with business divisions, a conflict may occur where existing products of our company and startup innovations compete. In Fujitsu, in order to make existing products better, we are constantly trying to add new functions, so it can happen sometimes that products that are planned to be developed have similar functions with products that startups are developing. In Fujitsu many people find that it is not worth collaborating with competing products. On the other hand, on the startup side, they already deploy their products to certain customers and the project is complete. It is important that we realize that innovation is not to incorporate the product itself, but to create a flow of businesses to manufacture, develop and optimize. When confronted with existing products, if large enterprises can grasp start-up innovation not only as a product, but also as a growing business and find value in incorporating the business itself, I think that business development will progress.

Nicole: I see. How about the challenge of communication and cultural differences?

Suzuki: Because Japanese companies have a culture which “read between lines” or “hide the true intention not to hurt someone’s feelings”, we cannot directly say “I cannot do it” or “This will not benefit ourselves” when negotiating with startups. But startups do not want this ambiguous attitude as they cannot go forward if they don’t get a direct answer. So part of our job as the venture collaboration promotion team, is to encourage the business division to speak more frankly. We try to have a clear discussion whether we can or cannot do it. We are also trying to improve such awareness through our own accelerator program and Plug and Play Japan’s program.

Nicole: Why do you want to collaborate not only with domestic startups but also overseas startups?

Tokunaga: We would like to increase the number of startups to meet first, so we need to look for not only domestic, but also overseas cooperation. Actually speaking with many overseas startups through Plug and Play Japan’s program, we feel that they are very good at showing their value to customers. They are not only thinking about developing a good product, but also how to show the advantages of business collaboration to customers, and they are good at this kind of value presentation. We hope to collaborate with them while having inspiration through the negotiation with such startups in the world.

Nicole: What do you want to accomplish through Batch 1?

Tokunaga: The ultimate goal is to build a business together, but the goal during the period of Batch 1 is to conduct PoC (Proof of Concept) for commercialization. We would like to make proposals to customers together with startups that we got to know through the program, or make prototypes in joint development.

Nicole: Finally, do you have any message for startups?

Tokunaga: Up until now, I think that many people have a closed image of Fujitsu against open innovation as we have our own laboratories and develop products by ourselves. However, since 2015 we began to look outside through running our accelerator program and becoming a partner of Plug and Play Japan. We would like to get to know and discuss with many more startups and explore the possibilities together!

Suzuki: I have been promoting new business with open-innovation of startups and large companies at major copier manufacturers in my previous job. At Fujitsu, we are also doing various efforts to make innovation systematic. Let’s change the world together with further innovation!!

At Plug and Play Japan, we will hold a DEMO DAY on September 5th and 6th, together with Batch 1 startups and partner companies to announce the results of our 3 month program! There will be a booth where you can talk with selected startups and partners. Tickets are on sale in advance, so make sure you do not miss this chance!

From December, we will hold a three month program “Batch 2” to support matching between startups and promote innovation of large companies.

Please feel free to contact us for if you have any questions or inquiries regarding participation in the program!

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