Hitachi×UoC. Exploring Consumer Challenges and a Better Future: A Dialog between Company and Consumers
Part 1

Contemplating the future of personal data use

Okada (Hitachi): We recently held a workshop where everyday people joined us in thinking of stories of better futures for personal data use. The participants came from many different backgrounds and demographics—junior and senior high school students, working people, seniors, researchers—and the discussion was so lively that it sometimes ran over time. Today, we’re going to look back on the workshop while doing a deep dive into the value of companies engaging in dialog with consumers at large.

The workshop began with an introduction to studies of personal data from Japan and the rest of the world and the current state of legislation. Case studies of how Hitachi uses personal data were also shared. The participants were then asked to identify issues they felt affected them personally and consider how they stood to benefit once they were solved.

Note: A full account of the workshop and how it unfolded is available on the UoC website at:
https://uoc.world/articles/details/?id=BoNlctd9WTv

Promoting people-centered, socially oriented innovation by engaging with consumers at large

Okada: Wellbeing is enshrined as one of the objectives of Society 5.0 and in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Human-centric value, which means giving people’s values and needs pride of place in discussing what kind of future to aspire to, is now more important than ever. Initiatives that engage ordinary citizens are under way in certain parts of the public sector, but what are businesses doing? Being a B2B company, we have hardly any opportunities to interact directly with ordinary consumers. But maybe our research & development arm, which works on open innovation, can generate technical advances and breakthroughs better oriented to society’s and people’s needs by engaging with ordinary consumers. That was the idea behind the workshop. We wanted to engage with as wide a range of people as possible. We were therefore very fortunate to be able to partner with the people at UoC, a center of co-creation that brings together many ordinary consumers, as opposed to just businesspeople.

Tamura (UoC): That’s gratifying to hear. After all, when we designed UoC, we envisioned it as a forum where various people could mingle. The people who come here have many different specialties and positions in life. But what we’ve always focused on instead is this. When they encounter each other as free agents, to what extent can they just sit back and come up with neat ideas together on a given theme?
Putting an exciting question at the center makes it easier for everyone present to engage with each other as equal individuals, regardless of status. It would be ridiculous to have no young people present, especially when thinking about the future. With that in mind, we’ve developed a culture of opening our doors to people of all age groups and demographics without distinction, starting with kids in primary school.

Sato (Hitachi): To make social innovation happen, they say, it’s vital for an innovation center, a future center, and a living lab to work hand in hand. Being a technology company, we act as the innovation center, while UoC acts as the future center. Our two organizations have totally different personas. From the start, there were expectations that the chemical reaction set off by a collaboration between a pair like that had to be pretty cool.

Okada: Here at UoC, even the place itself bespeaks freedom. Something has started just now next to where this session is happening. You can hear them banging away [laughs].

Ono (UoC): At UoC, people can change around the layout themselves by rearranging the scaffolding. It’s a good thing today’s talk session wasn’t by videoconference [laughs].

Okada: The way the appearance of the place constantly changes is typical of UoC. It’s like a living organism. The workshop generated a lot of blue-sky ideas, and I think the power of this place had a lot to do with it.

A shared responsibility for building a new world

Ono: A company like Hitachi with a workforce of over 300,000 is in a sense a pillar of the nation. As the obsession with maintaining a competitive edge in a linear economy of mass production, mass consumption, and mass disposal leads society into an impasse, it seems to me that you at Hitachi feel a responsibility for building a future. Having worked together on this initiative, that’s something I can strongly identify with.

Tamura: I’ve spent many years in sales working on solving clients’ pain points. I became involved in UoC out of a belief that we could make the world a better place by applying our powers of concentration and creativity across society. I don’t think of Hitachi as a client we’re doing a project for but as a partner in the quest for solutions to society’s problems.
The topic of the workshop, using personal data, was one well worth pursuing. Personally, I found it fascinating. Japanese people are extremely wary about the use of their personal information. How can such gut feelings be alleviated? What can we all do to get things moving in a better direction?

Okada: People know in their minds that social issues need solving, but unless they have a personal connection to an issue, they feel it’s someone else’s problems. It seems remote. So how do we get people thinking it’s their problem? That, I believe, is one of the keys to engaging consumers in the quest for social solutions.

What particularly struck me at the workshop was an idea thought up by a student in junior high who likes eels. He loves eels, but eel populations are declining because of ocean pollution, which requires a solution. And that was the starting point of the idea. Okay, so what can be done to reduce wastewater from homes, one of the causes of ocean pollution? Maybe it could be monitored and regulated. That’s the idea that emerged.

Personal data is a difficult subject in that it’s hard to know what’s actually happening to it, even though it’s an issue that hits close to home. I doubt that the student who came up with the idea would have gotten that far on his own. He started with a personal concern, but he was able to deepen his thinking on that problem through dialog with the other participants.

A dialog, not a presentation

Ono: The workshop generated some fascinating discussion. The facilitator teased out each person’s views and, when the discussion veered from the story at hand, immediately picked up the thread. He also asked probing questions that were to the point. Plus Mr. Okada brought a generative AI tool to put together future stories, and it was really exciting. We were already using generative AI at UoC, but you did even more interesting things with it in a unique way.

We thought that personal data was a pretty fuzzy topic. Mr. Tamura and I talked about how it might be tough to hold an entire workshop dedicated to the subject, and initially we suggested a different format. But Mr. Okada insisted on having a go at a workshop. The input from Hitachi’s Design Center made a big difference.

Okada: Thank you. I’d taken part in several other UoC events, and one thing that made a vivid impression on me was getting into in-depth discussions with high school students. That’s what I really wanted to do, and I was convinced that UoC was capable of doing exactly what we were aiming at.

At your typical workshop, I imagine, people come up with ideas without the foggiest notion of whether they’re feasible. At this workshop, though, a Hitachi designer and researcher joined each group. Even if they didn’t say a word but just nodded in assent, participants realized their idea had traction, like it might actually work. That was, I think, the advantage of having Hitachi people take part.

Tamura: There were people of all ages, from junior and senior high school students to seventy-somethings, and I was really struck by how much fun they were obviously having. When people have done some good creative thinking, they all look like they’ve had a great time. That’s exactly the look that the workshop participants had on their faces afterwards.

Businesses and consumers are completely separate in today’s society. But before asking how to make something that sells, which is a one-way proposition, there’s another question that should come first: what kind of society do we want to create? That concerns businesses and consumers alike. Building the future can only be done by complementing each other’s strengths. And that, surely, will require breaking down barriers and engaging in dialog.

Okada: I agree. That’s why we didn’t want to hold an event in the style of a corporate presentation, where a company offers a proposition to see what consumers think of it. Instead, we wanted to engage in a dialog like a jazz session, where each side is free to come up with ideas inspired by what the other says and keep developing them.

Tamura: One team said that they could no longer tell who were the participants and who were the researchers [laughs].

Tomioka (Hitachi): It was striking how an initial idea would be steadily updated as people were inspired by what someone said to add a comment of their own.

A fun yet serious dialog cutting across demographics

Tomioka: For ordinary consumers, personal data has quite a few downsides, like the risk of data breaches and fraudulent use. Still, I was heartened by what one junior high student wrote on the questionnaire.

“I didn’t have a favorable image of personal data, but I now realize that it’s valuable for creating better services. I also realize you can change it for the better yourself.”

Sato: When discussing the topic, I had to come to grips with it by fully mobilizing the many facets of who I am as a person: not just a researcher but also a human being, a working man, and a father. The same was true of whoever I was talking with. It was a no-holds-barred clash of views between two fully rounded human beings, and I had a lot of fun. The other researchers who took part also came up with some really interesting ideas. They said things I guess they wouldn’t normally say at the office. So it was a stimulating forum for everyone.

Ono: The scheduling may also have made a positive difference. The workshop took place during the day on a Saturday. Everyone was in a relaxed holiday mode during the four hours they spent there, which surely got them opening every drawer in their brain.

Okada : When you’re a businessperson, there’s a growing list of things to comply with, leaving you little room for maneuver. You’ve got to protect your ideas. You’ve got to avoid stepping on other people’s toes. And then there’s the issue of the privacy of personal information. The existence of a place like UoC that serves as a kind of extraterritorial enclave or special economic zone where you’re free to do anything allows ideas to emerge that otherwise would not have. That’s the neat thing about it.

Part II describes the insights that technical experts and designers gained from talking with ordinary consumers. It also considers what the next step will be now that the workshop is over.

Hitachi×UoC. Exploring Consumer Challenges and a Better Future: A Dialog between Company and Consumers Part 2

Profile

Note: Titles and affiliations are as of the date of this talk session.

ONO Katsuhiko
Producer, UNIVERSITY of CREATIVITY (UoC)

Born in Nagasaki Prefecture in 1969, Katsuhiko Ono graduated in economics from Kyoto University before joining Hakuhodo in 1994. After working in sales, he transferred to new business development in 2010. He was involved in M&As in the Corporate Strategy Division and was then seconded to a newly affiliated company as Director & Executive Vice President. He has been with the Business Development Division since 2018, serving concurrently as Producer at UoC since 2022.

TAMURA Hirotoshi
Producer, UNIVERSITY of CREATIVITY (UoC)

After thirty years working in sales at Hakuhodo, Hirotoshi Tamura was transferred to the UNIVERSITY of CREATIVITY launch team, where he helped get the new organization up and running as head of administration. At UoC, he has acted as leader in the industry field, focusing on driving next-gen economic growth by coordinating social solutions with business. On a personal note, he has developed an interest in nature education and community through his involvement in a wide range of activities over twenty years ever since he sent his two children to a nature-oriented unlicensed preschool.

SATO Kouji
Design Lead, Strategic Design Department, Design Center Research & Development Group, Hitachi Ltd.

After joining Hitachi’s design arm, Kouji Sato worked on consumer electronics product planning, as well as delivering business presentations at Kansai Branch Office. He then embarked on designing communications to inform various stakeholders of Hitachi’s initiatives. He works in a wide range of fields relating to different aspects of the Hitachi Group’s operations, including branding, promotion, and presentations. Currently, he handles messaging for the Research & Development Group.

TOMIOKA Yukari
Senior Designer, Strategic Design Department, Design Center Research & Development Group, Hitachi Ltd.

After joining Hitachi, Yukari Tomioka handled a wide range of projects as a member of the new business development team, focusing mainly on graphics. She designed presentations showcasing business concepts, display panels for events, and screens for medical and nursing care systems. Currently, she works on various communication design projects, including studying approaches to emotionally engaging internal and external stakeholders by informing them of how Hitachi aims to evolve as a business, with the focus on corporate purpose. As a designer, she provides support with various messaging efforts from the Kyōsō-no-Mori research & development facility in Kokubunji, Tokyo.

OKADA Ryotaro
Senior Designer, Strategic Design Department, Design Center Research & Development Group, Hitachi Ltd.

Ryotaro Okada began his career as an artisan at a small factory tucked away in a corner of town while working at a design agency. He later engaged in product design and planning and new business development at a lighting manufacturer and a maker of office supplies. He joined Hitachi in 2020, where he works on communication design in the areas of social solutions and open innovation. He is now embracing a new challenge: broadening the scope of his design work from products to experiences to comprehensive frameworks. Among other accolades, he has won the German Design Award Gold, been named to the Good Design Awards Best 100, and netted the Good Design Award.