Yokogawa rolled out a cross-organizational virtual team directly under the president to adapt to the turbulent environment and an uncertain future. We are committed to advocating Yokogawa’s Purpose, building a co-creative network, creating value to deal with social issues, and developing the next generation of leaders.
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 23 “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 90 corporations across a variety of industries.
Future Scenario 2035: A Journey Through Time
Future scenarios for the year 2035 developed by the next generation of leaders through co-creative dialogue
Click to Download Future Scenario 2035 (PDF 1.9MB/22P)
Details
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 90 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 Institute of Governance and Sustainability. Members of the project include C-level executives and professionals from 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.
Publication of Future Scenario 2035: A Journey Through Time
Future scenarios for the year 2035 developed by the next generation of leaders through co-creative dialogue
Using scenario-planning techniques, young Yokogawa employees have developed future scenarios and refined them through dialogue with internal and external participants. These future scenarios target 2035 and incorporate factors such as highly uncertain outcomes, the nature of the global environment and digital societies, and a wholesale reorientation of industry.
This effort culminated in a white paper entitled Future Scenario 2035: A Journey Through Time (PDF 1.9MB/22P), which is available to the public as a free download. It can be downloaded from the “Resources” tab at the top of this page.
What are our project philosophy and goal?
Create a brighter future through Serendipity and Open Dialogue with Like-minded Allies
Yokogawa operates businesses in 61 countries worldwide. Our customers across a wide range of industries seek a long-term perspective that extends beyond a few decades. We have responded to these needs by aiming to be their trusted partner.
The current external environment has been changing rapidly with the COVID-19 pandemic, energy transition, SDGs, digital transformation, and growing geopolitical risks. In order to adapt to the uncertain times ahead, the long-term perspective that Yokogawa values will become even more important. Therefore, Yokogawa launched the Future Co-creation Initiative using scenario-planning techniques. Its purpose is to develop the next generation of human resources and value co-creation activities that contribute to solving social issues through dialogue with people inside and outside the company with a long-term perspective and future orientation.
Nobody can predict the future, and nobody can change the past. But the preparations we make today can create a better future. Yokogawa alone cannot achieve this goal. That’s why this project embraces the concept of Open Dialogue and Serendipity. We will go beyond the comfort zone of merely seeking efficiencies and right answers. Instead, we will put ourselves out in the field, pursue unexpected encounters, and engage with people who have diverse value systems and different ways of thinking.
By tracing a vision for the future and pursuing dialogue, we can connect with a diverse range of people as we learn, grow, and create a better future together. Through these activities, the Future Co-creation Initiative will align our efforts with those of others who share our vision to contribute to our planet’s future.
Sponsored Article on WIRED
This article was created in collaboration with WIRED. It introduces the activities of Yokogawa's Future Co-creation Initiative.
Click here to read branded article on WIRED
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