Fujitsu launched Fujitsu Transformation (FUJITRA), a project to transform it from an IT company to a digital transformation (DX) company, in 2020. Transforming a huge company with over 120,000 employees worldwide is no easy task, but the company is persistently promoting DX initiatives through both a top-down approach led by the president and a bottom-up approach by all employees. We are beginning to see the shape of the Japanese model of DX promotion.
DX Business Consultant (DXBC) leverages its practical know-how gained through FUJITRA to closely support customers who are also engaging in efforts to promote DX and corporate transformation.
In this article, Masayasu Mase, a member of DXBC, introduces DXBC’s initiatives.
- Table of Contents
What We Have Cultivated Through FUJITRA
”DX” means to use digital technology to drastically transform business models and existing business processes to increase a company's competitiveness. Fujitsu is pushing forward with FUJITRA along with 4X initiatives, with the goal of realizing its purpose—"make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation.”
4X: Four pillars established with purpose at the center—transformation of employees and organization (EX), operations (OX), management (MX), and Customer (CX)
Since 2020, we have implemented a wide variety of projects through FUJITRA, including OneERP+, a large-scale project to standardize operations and systems on a global basis, and Work Life Shift, a project to improve the well-being of employees.
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In the course of promoting FUJITRA, various frameworks were also created. Among them, the VOICE Program, which creates a wind of change from the voices of customers and employees, and Purpose Carving, an interactive program that carves out an individual's purpose (personal meaningfulness) and shares it by expressing it in words, are serving as the driving forces of change. We receive many requests for them from our customers.
30 DX Frameworks established
DXBC utilizes these FUJITRA frameworks and provides services to support customers seamlessly from planning to implementation and establishment of ideas based on its own practical expertise. The next section provides in detail DXBC's efforts to closely support customers' DX initiatives, in which it converts not only its successful experiences, but also its unsuccessful ones, into the strengths.
DXBC’s Support—In Tandem with Customers
We asked DXBC members about cases of close support provided by DXBC based on its own practical experiences.
Business Operation & Sales EnablementDivision
Yuta Watanabe
――Give us an overview of DXBC’s support.
Watanabe： In the era of VUCA, customers are not looking for vendors who merely fulfill their requirements, but they are seeking vendors who stand on the same ground as them and accompany them along the way while sharing worries, having sympathy, and engaging in mutual support. DXBC leverages the knowledge gained through FUJITRA to offer various forms of proposals, including data-driven management and program management（*1）. Among them, I will introduce examples of support for vision formulation, the first step in the DX journey.
The important first step in promoting DX is to formulate a vision. If you push forward with DX efforts without a vision, the goal to reach and the need for change will not be shared, which will invoke resistance to change, leading to failure or ending up as mere digitalization. The targeted effects will not be achieved in such cases. However, our current impression is that many of our customers are taking on DX efforts through their IT departments, with no clear DX vision set and no clear linkage to their management vision, resulting in the situation where they get stuck and ask us for assistance. We therefore provide support in a way that allows our customers to think together with us, so that they can fully understand what their vision should be and make it their own, instead of just offering one-sided advice.
Business Operation & Sales EnablementDivision
Reira Murata
――Tell us the specifics and key points of your support in formulating the vision.
Murata： If, for example, we support a customer who hopes to achieve data-driven management, we must first collect data and decide how to utilize it. However, the larger the company, the more difficult it would be because there are existing systems running the operations. So, we conduct a direct interview with top management. It is because the commitment of the top management serves as a strong driving force necessary to carry out the change.
Then, based on the ideal form that has been developed, we increase the depth of common understanding of the form through workshops involving leaders and key personnel at each work site. We use a vision map that contains not only verbal explanations but also visually appealing elements so that it can be disseminated to all employees. Fujitsu has a design department, so our customers highly appreciated its ability to create meticulous drawings.
Change management（*2）is also necessary to achieve sustainable and inclusive transformation. To that end, we try to think together while providing information as needed, making full use of the FUJITRA frameworks we have established. I believe, because of our own practical experience, we can have a same view as our customers and truly empathize with them.
- *1 Program management：An overall management of multiple projects to bring about success of the customer's project.
- *2 Change management：A management method to effectively and successfully promote management strategies and organizational reform. Unlike conventional management methods, which aim to produce outcomes with existing resources such as people and money, the method places emphasis on coming up with visions and strategies, instilling in employees the need for change, and embedding actions for change in them.
Information on other DXBC initiatives is also available on the web page below.
From left: Kohei Eguchi, Hifumi Yajima (Consumer Products ＆ Service Division), Yuta Watanabe, Reira Murata (Business Operation & Sales Enablement Division)
Striving for the Realization of Individual and Corporate Purposes
Enthusiasm for DX Support of Masayasu Mase, a DXBC member and writer of this article
First, let me talk about my purpose, which is “to embody the joy of challenge and expand the circle of empathy.” I created this purpose with the hope of contributing to society to the best of my ability and doing something about Japan's digitalization, which critically lags behind other countries, by making full use of my 20 years of experience in the IT industry.
I am concurrently participating in a municipal DX project and taking on initiatives related to the municipal DX promotion plan of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Vision for a Digital Garden City Nation of the Cabinet Secretariat. Though I joined Fujitsu recently, the underlying reasons for joining the company are the same as what I mentioned. I thought that if I effectively use Fujitsu’s large-scale resources, I could move Japan’s DX forward.
Challenges that involve will—strong motivation—are really delightful. Truly I feel that through these I can cultivate a sense of ownership and produce better results. To increase the number of peers who share this feeling, I will continue to closely support our customers' DX promotion through my role at DXBC.
At Fujitsu, we are promoting FUJITRA initiatives in an ongoing basis to achieve the ideal form of the company; however, these efforts for transformation are merely a means to realize the company's purpose—"make the world more sustainable by building trust in society through innovation.” While pushing forward with our own transformation, we will continue to provide the experiences and value we have gained to our customers through the DXBC initiatives introduced here and other methods.
Related Information
- [Case Study] Nishimatsu Construction Co., Ltd.: Formulating Nishimatsu DX Vision, a vision to realize the ideal form of Nishimatsu Construction by using digital technology(Japanese)
- [Article] New Business Style. Feedback from 130,000 Employees Used as Suggestions
- [Article] The key to making DX a reality is in defining ‘individual purposes’
