Accelerating Hitachi Construction Machinery's Transformation into a Solution Provider Through a Structured New Business Strategy

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
Case Study
  • Machinery
  • New Business Development
Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. (hereinafter "Hitachi Construction Machinery") has set forth its evolution into a "solution provider" and established a cross-departmental "New Business Creation Unit" in April 2022 to promote initiatives for new business creation and open innovation.
To further strengthen the unit’s functions and activities, ABeam Consulting has been supporting the design of its organizational model and strategy since March 2025. Based on the philosophy embodied in the new corporate name "LANDCROS," which is both the concept of the medium-term management plan starting in FY2026 and scheduled to be applied from April 2027, the policy for new business creation centered on partner collaboration, as well as the organizational structure and activities required to realize it, were concretized.
Through this initiative, the company is promoting the strengthening of its new business creation framework, the acceleration of activities, and enhanced internal and external branding.

Challenge

  • While positioning "providing innovative solutions" as a management agenda, there was a need to further concretize the strategy to achieve it.
  • While emphasizing the concept of "Open," the specific approach for new business creation based on partner collaboration had not been clarified.
  • While the New Business Creation Unit was responsible for promoting cross-departmental collaboration, role definitions and activity policies had not been sufficiently concretized, and strengthening execution capabilities was required.

ABeam Solution

  • By leveraging knowledge in new business creation support, the organizational model and strategy for new business creation were concretized within a period of approximately one month.
  • Through dialogue incorporating Hitachi Construction Machinery’s aspirations and unique perspectives, an effective promotion framework premised on partner collaboration was formulated.
  • Support was provided for external communication and the planning and promotion of collaboration measures toward advancing open innovation.

Success Factors

  • By organizing the framework for new business creation, a shared understanding was cultivated with management regarding the significance of activities and key focus themes.
  • Through external communication of the new business creation policy centered on partner collaboration, improvements in recognition and promotion of understanding both internally and externally were achieved.
  • Based on the organized content, new business creation activities have accelerated, and multiple new business initiatives are being promoted.

Client Challenges

Clarifying the management agenda for evolving into a solution provider and defining the role of the New Business Creation Unit

In addition to its strength in manufacturing physical products, Hitachi Construction Machinery is also taking on the challenge of creating value through new technologies, and has positioned the evolution into a "solution provider" that responds flexibly and quickly to changing customer business issues as a management agenda.
Under the new corporate brand "LANDCROS"—which also serves as the new company name scheduled to be applied from April 1, 2027, and represents a concept combining "LAND" (vision) with "Customer," "Reliable," "Open," and "Solutions"—the company emphasizes the concept of "Open" and aims to contribute to solving customer issues by collaborating with partners worldwide and integrating products, technologies, human resources, and ideas.
Within this context, the cross-departmental "New Business Creation Unit," newly established in April 2022, has been driving new business creation as the organization primarily responsible for external collaboration. While certain results had been achieved through past initiatives, challenges remained, including speed in launching new businesses and responding to trend themes, insufficient functions and activities to explore future business opportunities, and limited recognition of the unit both internally and externally.
In light of these challenges, to further accelerate new business creation, it became necessary to organize and concretize the roles to be carried out by the unit and the activities and measures to be strengthened, with a view toward the medium-term management plan beginning in FY2026.
Accordingly, Hitachi Construction Machinery selected ABeam Consulting as a discussion partner, recognizing its strengths in accumulating knowledge through dialogue with players involved in open innovation across a wide range of industries and business domains, as well as its ability to conduct flexible and speedy discussions, organization, and visualization without relying on specific frameworks.
Through multiple discussions, the direction was clarified, and since March 2025, with the support of ABeam Consulting, initiatives have been undertaken ranging from the concretization of organizational models, strategies, and activity policies to external communication and the promotion of new business development.


The Meaning Behind the New Company Name

Key Project Success Factors

Integration of assets related to new business creation and consistent execution from planning through implementation

The success of this project lies in not relying on specific frameworks, but in utilizing and integrating the "assets" accumulated by both Hitachi Construction Machinery and ABeam Consulting—such as knowledge and networks related to new business creation—and consistently promoting all activities from planning through execution. The main factors are as follows:

1. Highly effective examination through the utilization and integration of "assets"
In this initiative, while aligning with Hitachi Construction Machinery’s current strategy and intentions, and incorporating examples from other companies, the concretization of an effective organizational model was promoted.
By utilizing and integrating "assets" such as trends accumulated through new business creation challenges, as well as success and failure cases and the insights gained from them, a more effective outcome was achieved. ABeam Consulting supported the advancement of this initiative by systematizing such knowledge and applying it to discussions, enabling both quality and speed within a limited period of less than one month.

2. Establishment of a common foundation through visualization of tacit knowledge
Concepts related to new business creation—such as target domains, human resource requirements, and necessary activities and key performance indicators—had not been systematically organized and were implicitly shared among stakeholders.
Through this support, these elements were visualized as explicit knowledge, fostering a shared understanding among management and stakeholders while establishing a foundation for external communication.

3. Linking examination to execution
Based on the organized policies and activity plans, concrete actions toward new business creation were initiated. As one of the measures, an event targeting diverse players involved in open innovation both domestically and internationally was held, communicating Hitachi Construction Machinery’s initiatives and direction externally. This contributed to fostering understanding and empathy for the company’s approach and led to the creation of new partner collaborations.

ABeam’s Contribution

Supported alignment among stakeholders and facilitated the transition from planning to execution, accelerating new business creation

The contributions of ABeam Consulting in this project can be summarized into the following three points:

1. Contribution to forming a shared understanding regarding new business creation
By organizing and visualizing a framework for new business creation unique to Hitachi Construction Machinery, a foundation was established for conducting concrete discussions with management.
As a result, a shared understanding of the significance of activities and the themes to be addressed was developed, creating a starting point for discussions toward the formulation of the new medium-term management plan.

2. Contribution to promoting activities related to "Open"
As one of the measures, an event targeting diverse players involved in open innovation both domestically and internationally was held. Based on the content organized in this project, Hitachi Construction Machinery’s direction and initiatives were communicated externally.
This enhanced recognition and understanding among external stakeholders and created opportunities for building relationships for external collaboration.
Additionally, the importance of being "Open" to become a company that is "chosen" as a partner in external collaboration was reaffirmed and shared with management.

3. Contribution to accelerating new business creation activities
Based on the policies and activity plans organized in this project, new business creation activities have been accelerated since the latter half of FY2025.
Multiple new business ideas, including initiatives in new domains different from existing businesses, have been generated and are being advanced toward commercialization. Part of these initiatives continues to be supported by ABeam Consulting.

Going forward, ABeam Consulting will continue to accompany the execution phase from new business creation through commercialization, contributing to the realization of outcomes.


Over the past several months since we first met, this project, which began by sharing various challenges, has been an extremely important initiative in organizing policies for building business in new domains as a solution provider, with a view toward Hitachi Construction Machinery’s transformation into "LANDCROS."
The scheme for classifying new business domains as a construction machinery original equipment manufacturer established in this project has served as a "common language" with senior management and has become the foundational concept for our department’s medium-term management plan formulated last year.
We look forward to continuing to work together as a reliable partner supporting our new challenges.

Masahiro Yamada
President of New Business Creation Unit

Masahiro Yamada President of New Business Creation Unit

The trigger for this support was an introduction from an acquaintance at an open innovation event. Looking back, the initial theme was "how to enhance corporate value through innovation," but as we shared a similar approach to innovation, the topics expanded one after another. Innovative ideas were exchanged on organizational structures, startup collaboration, partner building, and even the concept of ocean cities. Through this process, we developed strong rapport and decided to co-host an innovation event, where it was also enjoyable to have many people active in the innovation field join us. This has been quite a different kind of relationship compared with consulting firms we have worked with in the past. We expect that the discussions we have had together will bear fruit going forward.

Kenichi Moriwaki
Head of Business Development Office
Head of LANDCROS Innovation Studios
New Business Creation Unit

Kenichi Moriwaki Head of Business Development Office Head of LANDCROS Innovation Studios New Business Creation Unit

Customer Profile

Company name
Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
HQ Location
2-16-1 Higashi-Ueno, Taito-ku, Tokyo
Estd.
October 1, 1970
Business
Manufacture, sales, rental, and after-sales service of construction machinery, transportation machinery, and environmental-related products
Capital stock
JPY 81.577 billion
Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.

Jul 21, 2026

Professionals

  • Kazuhiro Yoshida

    NewTech Adviser

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