Articles

"Human capital management" has become one of the major trends in corporate management. "Human capital management" is not something that companies are forced to do because of external pressures such as fads or mandates. The "Guideline for Human Capital Visualization" by the Cabinet Secretariat provides a roadmap for properly communicating the results of efforts to the outside world - a guidline which we should make us of. This paper traces the basic concept of human capital management and explains why it is an essential topic for corporate management.

Smart cities and the metaverse are expected to be at the center of the world after DX (a society in which DX has become widespread and everything is digitalized). However, there are clear barriers and challenges to commercialization. Through market trends and case studies, we explore the current status of these two themes and share our outlook on problem solving using technology.

The B2B payments industry is large, estimated to be worth approximately 1,000 trillion JPY in Japan. However, the percentage of cashless payments is less than 40%. With an increasing number of companies are beginning to enter this lucrative, “blue ocean” market, the key to success is to add value beyond payments function. This report will explore best practices for discovering opportunities to add value and implementing services by looking at examples from leading companies overseas and in Japan.

BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later: financing that allows consumers to make purchases and pay for them at a future date) is a trend that has mainly emerged in the U.S. and has spread to Japan. However, the trends seen among players and users in Japan differ from those in the United States. While BNPL is facing challenges such as regulatory tightening overseas, we examine BNPL’s potential for growth in Japan and how it can coexist with existing players. The key for this coexistence will be to create a win-win situation in which the customer experience is fundamentally improved throughout the payment process.

“Insourcing”, which used to be a proud characteristic of Japanese companies, is nowadays said to be an impediment to innovation. This paper discusses the need to move away from insourcing in Japan and proposes models for moving away from insourcing, focusing on the life insurance industry. The two approaches of mutually beneficial cooperation and complementary cooperation will provide hints for business transformation in all industries.

Communication with sales and service partners is critical for the effective management of existing operations but can also act as a driver for transformation such as new business development and value chain restructuring. While changes in the environment and technology have dramatically improved the efficiency of communicating with such business partners, they have also presented new challenges. This report presents three approaches to tackling such challenges based on countermeasures taken by leading companies against real examples of such challenges.

Carbon neutrality is a core theme in modern business management. In promoting carbon neutrality, applying frameworks, proposed by various global entities and initiatives, are essential. However, the extent of how much these frameworks can be and understood and utilized, as well as the general level of enthusiasm towards them, differs greatly between companies, and even within different divisions of a single company. This article explores such frameworks from four perspectives with the aim of fostering penetration of key values and in/external cooperation related to carbon neutrality efforts.

The Japanese government has officially designated sports as one of the core industries in its pursuit of economic growth. The fate of this industry, however, depends on the creation and expansion of markets by fusing sports with other industries. Sports Marketing plays a critical component in this. As the fusion of sports and other industries progresses with the advancement of digital technologies, the time is now ripe for new co-creation by combining the unique value of sports assets with companies’ own technologies and services.

The history of retail distribution industry in Japan overlaps with the history of enriching people's lives in terms of food, clothing, and shelter. However, even if we focus on one of these industries, "food," price increases have been stagnant for a long time, and growth is difficult to foresee. To change this situation, it is essential to reform the complex and partially optimized supply chain.