Global Fujitsu Distinguished Engineer
Hidekazu Tanaka
Message
"High-volume production in the world's strongest teams" - High-speed commercialization from ideas to manufacturing becoming a reality, and the spread of organizations and processes allowing anyone to take on this challenge across Japan and the world are themes in my life.
I started my career as a system engineer, working on speeding up system development and developing tools. Later, while getting experience in development and researching new technologies at a U.S. research institute in Silicon Valley, I also had the opportunity to experience the startup ecosystem there and about the essence of agile development, which brings together management and technology.
After returning to Japan, I transferred to a department for new business creation and changed my career to become a designer because I realized there were limits to change by thinking only as an engineer. To build mechanisms together with members who have the same vision to allow people in a large company to go from problem discovery to finish at product release in one process, my activities were centered on design thinking, lean startup, and agile. In this context, I was involved in a wide variety of projects, including collaborative projects with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, students, and adults, creating businesses connecting small factories to medical professionals, and taking charge of strategy in medical device development.
While promoting new businesses, I realized that company-wide transformation by top management was still essential in order to truly increase business agility, so I switched to become a DX consultant. I have been engaged in management, organization, and technology consulting to help in the digital transformation (DX) of companies. And based on my extensive experience and standpoint as an engineer, designer, and consultant, I have promoted an approach connecting management and technology.
I am currently working on company-wide organizational transformation initiatives including business models and human resources throughout all of Fujitsu for transformation to agile mindsets, organizations, and processes. My activities outside the company include working together with like-minded people to support startups and new businesses, and teaching at universities.
I look forward to creating new value and opening the way to a bright future together with those who share the same vision.
If you are interested, please feel free to contact me anytime.
Achievements
- Individual lectures related to new business creation and agile software development (Major automobile companies A and B, general trading company C, Osaka Gas Business Create, Doshisha University, Unicornfarm, etc.)
- Founder and MC, Startup Grind Fukuoka; Founder and MC, Startup Grind Nagoya; MC, Startup Grind Tokyo (MC in Startup Grind, the world's largest startup community with 3,580 members participating in the operating chapters as of 2024)
- Partner, XPonential Technology Partners
(Founder and MC of the global accelerator) - Director, Industry-Academia Collaboration Promotion Center, Inc. (Consulting on new business creation and agile software development, etc.)
- Researcher, Doshisha University Well-being Research Center (Research, discussion and lecture on Agile, SDGs, organization theory and psychology)
- Part-time lecturer, Tsuda University
- Certified Scrum Professional (certified as the 60th CSP-SM and 50th CSP-PO in Japan, which are top certifications for roles of the Scrum Alliance, an international certification organization for Agile)
- Writing, contributing to books, reviewing translations, etc. (“Introduction to Agile Software Development: To consider a new type of organizations towards well-being”, “Contemplating Well-being: Possibilities of Multifaceted Approach”, “Knowledge Integration for the Future”, “SCRUMMASTER THE BOOK”)
- Planning and organizing many other external events, study groups and workshops
Value Creation
- Building a common cloud development environment and proposing a development process for the introduction of DevOps, and applying the new approach to projects
- Building a new business creation workshop based on design thinking, Lean Startup, and agile software development, and creating businesses by mixed teams of students, designers, and Fujitsu engineers in collaboration with the MEXT
- Creation of open innovation businesses for nurses and town factories in collaboration with local government
- Consulting for companies aiming to become DX companies, including management reform roadmaps, DX vision building, support for company-wide reform of management, human resources, organization, and technology, strategic technology selection, new business processes, and mind change
- Lecturer on new business creation and agile mindset training for internal and external directors and executives
- Investigation of commercialization strategy for medical device research
- Speaker at external events (Fujitsu Forum, SAFe Day Japan, Agile Japan, etc.)
- LinkedIn -
