Casual Chat with Daily Portal Z Editor-in-Chief Hayashi "If someone asks us 'Why are you doing that?', we'll just disappear."

In this project, Daily Portal Z Editor-in-Chief Yuji Hayashi acts as a growth hacker, proposing ideas for projects within Dentsu Inc. ISID's research and development organization, the Open Innovation Lab (Inolab). This time, he talks with Inolab Chief Producer Hiroshi Morita about "Open Innovation."

What exactly is open innovation? Is it useful? What's its future potential? Masanao Sumi, who joined as the scribe since the last session, will cover these topics and more.

Is open innovation just a girly dream?

Abe: The other day, during a casual chat with Hayashi-san, I felt that what Inolab is doing with "open innovation" and what Hayashi-san's Daily Portal Z is doing might actually be quite similar. So, I thought it would be great to have our Morita and Hayashi-san discuss open innovation.

Morita: Hayashi-san, it's good to have you here.

Hayashi: Yes, I've prepared some materials on open innovation from my perspective.

Morita: I'm looking forward to it. Before that, let me briefly explain how Inolab came to be.

Hayashi: Come to think of it, I've never heard the story behind Inolab's creation. Sorry about that, even though this is the fifth installment (laughs).

Morita: Inolab was founded in 2011. Back then, we faced the challenge of how to create new businesses as a company. In such situations, companies typically set up something like a "New Business Development Office," conduct market research, and then focus on commercializing the keywords that emerge from that research, right?

Hayashi: I hear that kind of thing a lot around me too.

Morita: But I thought that to match the speed at which Silicon Valley startups rapidly turn ideas into reality, the traditional approach of a New Business Development Office wouldn't work. I started thinking about how we could challenge new things at the same speed as Silicon Valley.

Hayashi: I see.

Morita: That's why the name is crucial. If we could already do something new ourselves, it wouldn't be new. That means we need to connect with people outside our organization to create new value. That's why I focused on the word "open."

Hayashi: I understand completely. You can't start something new without opening up, right?

Morita: We also decided to drop the term "business development" and call it a lab instead. A lab exists before business development. We wanted to start from "Is this needed in the world?" rather than "Will this be profitable?"

Hayashi: That's a great point. The moment it becomes a lab, the sales responsibility disappears!

Morita: Exactly (laughs). Ultimately, it has to lead to sales, but fixating on that just pulls us back to an extension of the existing model. So, with "open" and "lab" in place, and the idea of doing something new like "innovation?", we arrived at "Open Innovation Lab." "Open Innovation" feels like a made-up term. Actually, it's a word that emerged as a result of the process.

Hayashi: The term "open innovation" is pretty widespread now, isn't it?

Morita: That's surprising. I'm not its originator or anything (laughs).

Hayashi: Given that context, I feel a bit hesitant to show you my materials...

Hayashi: Open innovation feels like the term itself has gotten ahead of itself, turning into this dreamy concept. It has this girly, romantic vibe, like dreaming that the perfect person for me is out there somewhere.

Morita: Hahahaha! There definitely is that kind of vibe.

Hayashi: I was thinking that, and then it suddenly hit me—isn't Daily Portal Z itself a form of open innovation? Right now, we have about 40 writers, plus several staff members who create things. With this many people on board, we can pretty much do anything.

Morita: That's exactly open innovation. Connecting with external people to create new value. I believe two things are essential for creating something new. One is teaming up with people you've never worked with before. The other is finding new technology seeds. It's often said innovation starts with technology seeds, but looking back, I feel more interesting projects tend to emerge when you connect with someone first and then think, "Let's do something," even if it's a bit of a follow-up.

Hayashi: Yes. So I've revised my thinking—open innovation isn't some girly fantasy after all! (laughs).

What you need for brainstorming? Sweet chestnuts, plain and simple

Hayashi: I believe the key to open innovation is gathering people and building momentum.

Hayashi: Getting people excited is relatively easy—Daily Portal Z has been running for over 10 years, so we have know-how for gathering writers and brainstorming.

Morita: What's this "eating sweet chestnuts" thing?

Hayashi: Snacks are essential during design thinking sessions, right? But don't we end up eating a crazy amount?

Abe: True. You get totally absorbed in the snacks.

Hayashi: Exactly! Sweets fill you up too much. Sweet chestnuts, on the other hand, are just the right amount of hassle.

Morita: Oh, right! Because you have to peel them!

Hayashi: We concluded that something slightly tricky to eat, but not as engrossing as cracking crab, is ideal. Basically, we want to keep our hands busy because we can't sit still.

Morita: Wrapped chocolates are good too, right? You have to unwrap them.

Hayashi: Once, following that logic, a young editor brought in prosciutto and asked us to put it on bread for them (laughs). That was a bit much, though.

Abe: That's practically a meal!

Hayashi: Also, the most important point I want to share today is "don't search." When we're all talking, someone always immediately searches, right? Like, if someone says, "That thing around Xavier's neck is interesting," it's not that we want to do a deep dive on Xavier—we just want to expand the conversation from there. But then someone searches and comes back like a know-it-all, saying, "That's such-and-such!" When someone gives you the definitive answer like that, it kills the flow of the conversation. It's not innovative at all.

Morita: We're not looking for the right answer in conversation, after all.

Hayashi: Also, gathering people is crucial. I've come up with five approaches.

Hayashi: Sorry if this sounds like a discarded idea right off the bat. Going to meet them is the quickest way, but if you go vaguely, they get wary. Like, "What are they here for? Are they trying to sell something?" Then there's the drinking party approach, right?

Abe: But you're dead drunk!

Hayashi: Yeah. The fun at drinking parties often comes from sharing the space. Trying to turn that fun into content online doesn't work because the "space" is missing.

Abe: You mentioned you're cutting back on drinking parties, right?

Hayashi: Lately, I've been sticking to pure drinking! Just facing the alcohol, not work.

Is open innovation kind of like a "dating service"?

Hayashi: One way to gather people is to "place an order," but that creates a master-servant relationship, right? Plus, you might end up with something weird delivered.

Morita: Open innovation has that "dating service" aspect to it, doesn't it? It doesn't come from a relationship where a big company places an order and says, "Deliver by this date."

Hayashi: True, the part where you're both sizing up strangers is very dating-like. But in reality, your options are limited: either just go meet and exchange business cards, or jump straight into something like an ideathon or hackathon. I wish there was something in between. Teaming up with strangers at an ideathon is incredibly stressful, isn't it?

Morita: I totally agree. When you go to those matching events billed as "connecting startups with big corporations," there's usually a long line just for exchanging business cards.

Hayashi: So, it boils down to exchanging business cards.

Morita: Inolab often uses the term "convincing feeling," but what we really want is a compelling story that makes you think, "I want to work with them." And before that, you need a foundation of trust. Take my meeting with Hayashi-san as an example. I had this sense that people introduced by Abe-san were generally like this.

Hayashi: There's that trust in the intermediary, right? Or conversely, thinking "people that person introduces are sketchy" (laughs).

Morita: Who's in the middle. Who you have mutual friends with is important. Maybe that's the only place we see them. On the other hand, looking at it from the opposite perspective, the more edgy someone is, the less they might need us. How do we get someone like that to want to work with us? What clothes should I wear to be liked? That sort of thing.

Hayashi: You promote your profile to attract the right kind of people. It's like a dating app, isn't it?

Creating spaces to gather people is also important

Hayashi: I think creating a place is also a way to gather people.

Hayashi: Actually, Daily Portal Z once set up a coworking space in Hikarie. Our main takeaway was "Cleaning is a pain!" (laughs).

Morita: This place too (the Inolab studio), cleaning is tough.

Hayashi: We ended up closing it after six months. Since the only people stationed there were writers, they just sat there silently writing their manuscripts. It wasn't really a space for people to see (laughs). How did this space come about?

Morita: Once we coined the term "Open Innovation Lab," I realized we absolutely needed this kind of space to connect with various people. We designed it inspired by Kubrick's movie "2001: A Space Odyssey."

Hayashi: I'm impressed you got the company to approve that. I'd love to see the proposal materials (laughs). Building this studio must have cost a fortune.

Morita: In my mind, this is only about 10% of what I want to do (laughs).

Hayashi: Your social skills are impressive, Morita-san. I suppose another option could be creating a snack bar or drinking spot, but then people might drink too much and their bodies wouldn't hold up.

Morita: We also talked about bringing a coffee shop into the office, but then someone asked, "Who even has that kind of license?" and the idea just fizzled out.

Hayashi: When you tour Google's offices, there's coffee everywhere, right?

Open innovation is media-friendly and highly compatible with events

Hayashi: Regarding gathering people, I've recently come to think that creating lighthearted events and meeting people who come to them is a good approach. For example, Daily Portal Z has been running an event called " Subdued Costume-Only Halloween " for three years. It's not about regular cosplay, but about doing subdued cosplay. Like dressing up as a Tully's employee or a Kaldi employee.

Abe: Or Muji store staff.

Hayashi: About 400 people show up, and it gets quietly lively. We also do things like a "Victory Pose Workshop."

Morita: A workshop on victory poses?

Hayashi: Everyone thinks they can do a victory pose, but when you try, it's surprisingly hard. So it's a project where you learn from people who are good at doing victory poses.

Morita: Sounds interesting (laughs).

Hayashi: The key is to keep your elbows tucked in. And then, push your fist forward.

Morita: I see.

Hayashi: For high-fives, the trick is to bring your hands together and then quickly pull them up. Like this.

Hayashi: What I realized from doing a low-key Halloween event is that the participation barrier is actually pretty high and not very welcoming. But I found that this attracts more interesting people. Raising the barrier might be the first filter.

Morita: I see. So events that are just easygoing and fun don't draw people?

Hayashi: Exactly. Last year was Daily Portal Z's 15th anniversary, so we rented a banquet hall and held an event where we just drank for over half a day. Almost no one showed up (laughs). It really hit home that people won't gather without a theme.

Abe: Maybe it's awkward for participants at a pure drinking party?

Hayashi: That could be part of it. Late last year, we had a project asking, "If you were going to a deserted island, what would you bring?" Trying to gather people for a winter deserted island event, only one person showed up. Raising the bar that high just means people won't come (laughs).

Morita: Setting the right level of difficulty is tricky.

Hayashi: To get people to come, I think it's important to show them beforehand in articles what we'll be doing. Also, keeping it under three hours (laughs). Using that know-how, I want to grow our community in an open innovation kind of way.

Morita: Since Daily Portal Z is a media outlet, the event itself becomes an outlet for open innovation.

Hayashi: That's true. We can bring coverage of the event back to the media. Speaking of which, I heard that since newspapers have nothing to report in the summer, they started the high school baseball tournament.

Morita: So media and events are built on that kind of relationship.

Abe: And that also helps attract sponsors.

Morita: People often say Inolab is media-like, and we see ourselves that way too. But the company tells us we can't just stop at events.

Everyone: (laughs)

Morita: We need to take it a step further from there.

Hayashi: You mean turning what we create into some kind of product?

Morita: At Inolab, we use the slightly more vague term "deploy." In computer terms, "deploy" means implementation. Implementation can take many forms—sometimes it means getting paid by a client to implement a system, and other times it means implementing a hypothesis in society before that stage.

Hayashi: With Daily Portal Z, the ultimate goal is to build up the media platform, figure out how to monetize it effectively, or attract sponsors. Ultimately, the goal is sustainability, so that's the mindset.

Morita: Open innovation is very media-oriented and often tied to events.

Hayashi: Well then, I'll share some recommended event ideas for the future.

Asking "Why are you doing that?" is prohibited.

Morita: Is Daily Portal Z diverse, meaning it feels like a gathering of all sorts of people?

Hayashi: Hmm, I'm not sure. Well, the writers all have a similar vibe. Their professions and areas of expertise vary, though.

Morita: So it's a pattern where there's diversity in abilities but a shared set of values? InnoLab might be like that too.

Hayashi: Daily Portal Z articles often approach things from the perspective of "This is the norm, but maybe this alternative works too? Is there another way?" So in that sense, I think many contributors aren't bound by conventional wisdom.

Abe: It wouldn't be interesting if they only wrote about common sense stuff, right?

Morita: People often say diversity is essential for open innovation, but on the flip side, if the gaps in understanding are too wide, it becomes hard to get things done quickly.

Hayashi: If it's truly too diverse, you just can't communicate. You'd be stuck if someone asked, "Why are you doing that?" So maybe it's about having enough diversity without reaching the point where people ask "Why are you doing that?"

Morita: We get asked "Why are you doing that?" a lot, don't we?

Hayashi: It happens a lot. But if someone says that, we're dead. It's a total rejection (laughs). It basically means this site becomes unnecessary, right?

Morita:The Kinect-based Excel control we did with Hayashi-san last April Fools' Day was a great project in my book, but I bet some people wondered, "Why are you doing this?"

Hayashi: Even so, I think it's incredibly interesting, and some people really laugh at it.

Morita: I want to value that perspective: "Hey, maybe this is what the future could look like."

Hayashi: I think one of the things we take for granted is the cause of people's suffering. So, when someone asks "Why are we doing this?", I sense an atmosphere where they stubbornly believe in one single correct answer, and that's scary.

Morita: So you mean that's the position we take as a media outlet?

Hayashi: I hadn't thought about it that seriously, but that's what Daily Portal Z is about. When you actually try it, you realize, "Hey, this might actually be pretty good?" That's why we call ourselves an alternative portal site.

Morita: "Alternative" is a keyword that comes up a lot at Inolab too. Like, "We tried using it this way."

Abe: Blockchain is another example, right?

Morita: I think fintech can lead to interesting things when approached alternatively, and blockchain is a perfect example.

Hayashi: Moving forward, I want to pursue open innovation with alternative thinking to build win-win relationships. Though somehow, it feels like I haven't really said anything (laughs).

Morita: Well, next time we meet, I'll make sure to have some candied chestnuts ready (laughs).