Visionary Dialogue Revitalizes Organizations

Founded in 1915, Yokogawa Electric was Japan’s first company to produce and market electric meters. Since the establishment of its parent firm, Yokogawa Test & Measurement Corporation (Yokogawa T&M) has become the core company in the measuring instrument business.

Yokogawa T&M is advancing its global presence by embracing a “quality first” approach, drawing on Yokogawa’s century-long legacy of expertise in high-precision measurement technology. 2023 was a banner year, as corporate performance levels reached new highs, sustained by a favorable business climate.

In today’s world of VUCA-based challenges, however, the market changes with dizzying speed. How can Yokogawa T&M grow while coping with these market conditions?

With the aspirations of Yokogawa T&M management and next-generation members aligned, a cross-departmental project was launched in February 2024 to create the future vision of Yokogawa T&M for 2040. We asked the four project leaders how their efforts catalyzed the company.

*Insights shared in this dialogue are personal and not those of an official YOKOGAWA representative.
*Affiliations and positions are current as of December 2024

 

Solid business demands twice the vigilance

Akihiko Ito advances product planning in Yokogawa T&M’s Decarbonization Business Division. For many years, Ito had felt a sense of crisis regarding the direction of the measurement business and the need to outline a vision for the future.

Yokogawa Test & Measurement Corporation is built on a solid business foundation spanning over a century and functions as a global leader developing measuring instruments with world-class precision and stability. So why was Ito consumed with such doubt?

“When we view society in its entirety, we see how trends change enormously. So too with the measurement instruments field, where we find new players as well as companies garnering strong governmental support. These external influences mean that we must also change. Yokogawa T&M is responding, having long considered initiating a future-scenario project with our next-generation members at its core.”

Toshiyuki Suzuki, Yokogawa T&M’s president as of 2022, also felt the company needed to strategize coping measures for extreme marketplace changes. That got the ball rolling. Future Co-creation Initiative Project Leader Nobuyuki Tamaki, aware of Ito’s concerns, approached Suzuki, still new to his role as Yokogawa T&M president, to recommend Ito, Yamashita, Karita, and Tomono as ideal members to spearhead the project. All four were experienced in the scenario planning method and creating interdepartmental future scenarios through dialogue.

“Young employees will take the lead in creating a vision for Yokogawa’s future.” With this in mind, the project got underway as the ideas of Suzuki and other members of the management team blended with those of the next-gen employees.

 

Rediscovering corporate strengths

The first order of business was member selection. Those filling out the ranks of management/business strategy projects are typically selected from management-track candidates and individuals nominated by board members and department heads. This time, however, members were chosen through open recruitment, respecting employee autonomy. Members concerned about the future of their business field raised their hands. Ultimately, the project consisted of 15 employees in their 20s and early 30s.

Their first task was to analyze the internal corporate environment. As Ito put it, “We hammered out the strengths and weaknesses of Yokogawa’s historical century in the measuring instrument business.”

Interviews began with over 50 individuals: next-gen and experienced employees, management, members of group companies with production capabilities, and external stakeholders. The process uncovered strengths which Ito had not noted from his home base in Product Planning.

“Customer feedback from those purchasing our products made us aware that our world-class after-sales service is a corporate strength. Our system for providing solid product follow-up is lauded not only in Japan but overseas as well. The strength of that service capability became crystal clear.”

Yayoi Tomono, who has worked in the development, sales, and marketing of measuring instruments for the Communication Business Division, adds her own perspective. “Our distributors are savvy about our products and have enhanced skills, as many have worked with us for quite some time. Surely this ensures better after-sales service.”

Yokogawa T&M has offices in the US, Europe, China, Korea, Southeast Asia, and India, among other areas, with each arm handling repair and tech support. Those services, which members took for granted, represent a key corporate strength. The stakeholder interviews reminded the scenario co-creators of Yokogawa’s global muscle.

 

Celebrating provocative opinions, eluding homogeneity

Project members were divided into three teams: technical, marketing/sales, and functional. Each was charged with creating its own 2040 Vision. Members were assigned a team deliberately reflecting their field of expertise, allowing each to offer unfiltered input leveraging their individual expertise.

Masahiro Karita, a member of the Sales Division, added, “We wanted the synergistic effect of sharing provocative opinions to generate further creative input.” The tendency of corporations to summarize things nicely left much to be desired when it came to drafting a creative future vision.

Takafumi Yamashita, who works in the Well-being Business Division, reflects, “If we say what we are thinking without holding back, we are likely to clash head-on at first. However, as we keep talking, a chemical reaction somehow occurs and draws out even better ideas. We really began treasuring each other’s passion in the second half of the project.”

“As participants, we shared our thoughts not only in the context of work but also of our personal lives, such as what we want to be like in 2040 as individuals, parents, children,” adds Tomono. “How did we picture our future ideal selves as members of Yokogawa … and of society?” Project members continued their future-oriented dialogue.

 

The excitement builds

Yamashita cited an example. “We wondered how to define measurement and began discussing that with all sorts of people. Not only in terms of electricity, light, or pressure, but measurement of the future. We began finding lots of possibilities. As we shared our future vision with those around us, we all became increasingly excited.”

Considering an extension of existing products and businesses is insufficient. Investigating future scenarios demands starting from scratch, exploiting one’s own talents to come up with revolutionary products. Combining future possibilities with a sense of mission elicits employee excitement. As Ito puts it, “This excitement is key in creating Yokogawa T&M’s future and prospective business strategy.”

“Envisioning 2040, we questioned whether our measurement expertise would remain relevant in its current form and whether our business would be as robust as it is today,” recalls Karita. “Those sessions left a lot of people consumed with a sense of urgency. From that standpoint, I’d say our effort has made waves.”

The project’s innumerable discussions transcended not only departmental and generational boundaries but corporate ones as well. In-house communication was energized as a result. “Some members from differing departments had never before crossed paths,” declares Tomono. “We reaped the benefit of interaction between next-gen and experienced employees, and between those from varying divisions.”

Ito comments, “One of the challenges Yokogawa T&M faces is skill transmission from experienced to newer employees. These discussions turned into an opportunity to resolve the problem.”

Keeping the spark alive

Yokogawa T&M’s 2040 Vision was completed in October 2024. What result did the effort produce? For one thing (as suggested above), it sparked an environment conducive to pondering the future. It also had a positive impact on employees who were not involved in the Vision project.

In a survey following project completion, many next-gen employees indicated their wish to participate in a future interdepartmental project.

A cultural change is blossoming within Yokogawa T&M. This year, for the first time, the company entrusted the planning of a corporate-wide event to the first-year employees. To their credit, the activity was a success. Older employees gifted their younger counterparts with a golden opportunity, and the latter rose to the occasion. Yokogawa T&M has sparked a budding change which now seems poised to blossom.

Yokogawa T&M President Suzuki acknowledges the success. “We learned more about the personalities and mindsets of our younger Gen-Z and Millennial employees. Each has his or her own unique characteristics and talents. They are invaluable corporate assets, and unearthing them was our greatest achievement in this project. I hope to continue nurturing employee interaction.”

Conclusion

The 2024 project embraced a wide range of stakeholders, generating an atmosphere of enhanced support throughout the company. Importantly, the project was not conducted by just a few departments, generating only partial optimization, but rather with total alignment throughout the entire organization—an integrated effort generating a synergistic effort across the entire company.

“We’re not stopping here,” says Ito. “We’re planning to share our desired future vision with all employees. After that, we’ll expand the discussion overseas and outside the company, with dialogue including young, mid-career, and senior employees. We’ll continue to fine-tune our vision of the future.”

Many executives deal with management issues such as reforming the corporate culture and climate. Organizational change is tough to accomplish, even with the help of external consultants. The first step might be found near at hand—within the employees who have experience in their own workplace, put their personal talents and personalities to work, and possess a fiery enthusiasm for creating a better future.

Organizations do not change overnight. Persistence is key. Yokogawa T&M has opened the door to a fresh new breeze with its 2040 Vision. Its ongoing challenge is to continue expanding on that catalyst for transformation.

From left to right: Akihiko Ito, Yayoi Tomono, Nobuyuki Tamaki, Takafumi Yamashita, Masahiro Karita (Yokogawa)