Activity overview

What is the Future Co-creation Initiative for?

To lead co-creation utilizing future scenarios developed by the next generation of leaders

Recently, we’ve entered an era of profound change in the external environment, with the future being extremely hard to predict. Aware of the urgent need to harness our future-oriented perspective, Yokogawa launched the Future Co-creation Initiative in April 2021. Under this initiative, Yokogawa fosters the development of human resources who can adapt to change, who have a broad vision, and who possess creative collaboration skills—all so that we can continue to lead and contribute to our clients worldwide as a long-term reliable partner. The project is built around scenario-planning activities, and it is dedicated to building a creative collaboration network with outside entities, creating new value to resolve social issues, and fostering the development of the next generation of leaders.

The Future Co-creation Initiative builds on its predecessor, Project Lotus, which launched in December 2019. The new initiative currently operates as a cross-organizational virtual team that reports directly to the president. The team consists of 24 “scenario ambassadors”—younger, millennial employees ranging in age from their mid-twenties to their early forties and chosen from various departments across the company. The group is spearheading an effort that transcends organizational and industry boundaries to utilize our future scenarios to shape Yokogawa’s Purpose. Our Purpose is stated as: “Utilizing our ability to measure and connect, we fulfill our responsibilities for the future of our planet.”

The initiative won a prize in the Corporate HR category of the HR Award 2021, which is hosted by the Nihon no Jinji-bu, the largest HR network in Japan, and under the auspices of the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare.The future scenarios envisioned by the team’s young members express a worldview that will be a precondition for implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and digital transformation. The team’s unique initiatives have earned high praise. As the collaborative network expands, project members have engaged in creative dialogues with executives and experts from more than 100 corporations across a variety of industries. 

 

 

What does the Future Co-creation Initiative do?

Deepens engagement with diverse stakeholders through Future Scenarios and Communityship

The Future Co-creation Initiative fosters open dialogue that goes beyond industries, organizations, job titles, and generations. These dialogues embrace Yokogawa’s future-oriented perspective and use future scenarios developed by team members as a shared language for exploring future possibilities with a wide range of stakeholders. Since the future scenarios are updated continually, the initiative also serves to spur organizational learning and growth.

 

Shaping a Collaborative Network with Like-minded Allies

• Sharing future worldviews with more than 100 executives and experts from corporations and academia
• Engaging in a wide variety of events and webinars on themes such as sustainability management and digital transformation

Exploring Future Management and Organization

• Enhancing the alignment of individuals and an organization with a futuristic mindset
• The transformation of corporate culture led by millennials
• Promoting an explorative co-creation project with an individual corporation

Nurturing Co-creative Talent

• Outside-in and backcasting ideas
• Ability to ask Critical Questions to fuel co-creative dialogue
• Connecting individuals and organizations through a purpose-driven approach

Creating a Forum of Open Dialogue and Serendipity

• Shaping an industry-government-academia community to co-create the future
• Acknowledging common social issues and exploring business opportunities
• Engaging in “4Revs,” a global co-creative ecosystem focusing on young innovators, entrepreneurs, and intrapreneurs

We launched the Green Phoenix Project in partnership with Waseda University’s Governance & Sustainability Research Institute (GSRI). Members of the project include C-level executives and professionals from over 30 corporations who represent a diverse range of fields and industries. We host regular workshops as part of the project. The Green Phoenix Project is a learning community that fosters open dialogue and connections between industry, government, and academia to address shared social and management issues such as sustainability, the digital transformation, and well-being.