Supporting new business creation and transformation from a data science standpoint

AI and other tools of the data sciences are entering an era of full-scale utilization. Here we introduce a Senior Manager with deep knowledge of AI and IoT, and explore a new vision of the times.

 

K.K

Experiences in ABeam ~ Impressive Project~

Utilization of digital data is the single most important key to future business expansion

K.K

In my department, we support the launch of new businesses and services that make use of digital data and technologies like AI and IoT. Specifically, we aim to multiply the potential of data, creating new value that incorporates user needs, even working to solve societal issues.

I specialize in refining the utilization of digital data, creating new possibilities and value by visualizing data.

Sometimes described as a "fifth element" of production, data has the characteristics of being non-competitive, inexhaustible and naturally proliferative. In addition, data can be infinitely replicated, shared, and used for multiple purposes simultaneously at near-zero cost. A distinctive characteristic of data is that it is never exhausted by being consumed. The more it is used, the more its value increases. It could be argued that most successful businesses today take maximum advantage of the economic properties of digital data.

The key to creating new business operations, services, and revenue sources from data lies in the kinds of insights that can be derived from the extracted data. And yet, many companies remain unable to handle these operations adequately. The reason for this is that organizations themselves are often formed to respond to industry-specific needs, and are thus inexperienced in working with data across the entire company. Efforts are being made to integrate human-centered, empathetic design thinking with logical, information asset-driven data science. Methods that are beginning to produce results include deepening design thinking with data science, and using design thinking to make drastic advances in data utilization. But knowledge of these approaches is not sufficiently widespread.

My vision of ABeam's mission is for us to continuously generate waves of social impact by creating new ecosystems and transforming business models based on the possibilities that arise from the multiplication of data. I believe that this is what a social transformation accelerator should be, and I am currently focusing effort on promoting the project.

Why ABeam ?

Consulting as an accelerator of social transformation

After completing a graduate school science degree, I joined a Japanese IT company and worked on assignment in Vietnam for three years starting in 2014.

I feel pride in knowing that we produced satisfactory results by leading the local staff in becoming able to analyze and utilize data on their own. When it came to proposing plans and systems to transform our clients' operations, however, I can't honestly say that we produced results to boast of. I still remember the time that, since we went no further than proposing systems implementation, a customer turned me down and said, "We could boost sales more by buying a truck than by implementing that system." This assignment really brought home to me the fact that I lacked ability to provide adequate value to customers due to my narrow perspective in analysis and proposals.

After experiencing this assignment in Vietnam, I began to want to become a person who could propose new businesses and services that could contribute to our clients' top-line growth by utilizing AI and IoT, which were increasingly in demand at the time. In order to put this desire into practice from a broader perspective, I enrolled in a management night school, and earned an MBA. These were trying times in my personal life, partly because I gave birth during this period. Still, I felt that my graduate studies had left me with the skills of conceptualizing things in terms of the big picture.

After that, I realized that there was a limit to the value I could provide to a client by simply carrying out tasks they assign me. So I moved to a foreign IT advisory firm, where I was able to learn how to present each client with a vision that is optimal for them.

I joined ABeam in 2022 in hopes of contributing value to society through consulting that combines digital technology with visioning skills. ABeam's aim is to serve as a creative partner that offers support from proposal to execution in furtherance of social transformation, which overlaps with the challenges I myself seek.

Future ~Growth Story~

Working to maximize Japan's potential

K.K

My own future vision is to become a person who can achieve the three goals: thought leadership, unlocking potential, and leaving a better world.

The first of these goals, "thought leadership," means being able to articulate a new worldview and sense of awareness, and to cultivate others with it. There is a parable called "The Tenth Man." Its lesson is that if nine people draw the same conclusion, it is crucial to have a tenth who offers a hypothesis to refute them. I believe that setting high-level agendas for data utilization is impossible without this very "Tenth Man" capability.

The second goal, "unlocking potential," means maximizing the capabilities of all stakeholders, from individuals to organizations to countries, and eliciting their contributions.

The third concept, "leaving a better world," is about future-oriented consulting in which we look 50 to 100 years down the road in order to pass on a better future to subsequent generations.

I believe that even as the full potential of AI comes to be exploited in the future, products and services will continue to be commoditized. Nevertheless, there are still many ways of addressing this challenge, including the holistic design skills and data insight skills that make it possible to stave off commoditization. The United States is where I would like to acquire these skills, since it is at the forefront of AI and IoT utilization, and ABeam offers opportunities to work on projects there.

Through these experiences, I want to learn about how to address social issues like declining birthrates and aging population by making full use of the IT field, which is among the strengths of the U.S. I also believe that by returning this valuable experience to Japan, where the full potential of the digital domain has yet to be realized, we can pass on a better future to the next generation.

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