Auntie's meddling saves the company

Have you heard of Higashida Dry?
It is a local dry cleaner with five stores based in Nishiwaki City, Hyogo Prefecture. It is a long-established company that has been in business for 60 years, but it also has another side to it. It launched an online delivery dry cleaning service called "Livinas," and in just five years since its launch, it has become the second largest company in terms of sales in a highly competitive market. It is a company that is well known among those in the know. That is Higashida Dry.

Home Delivery Dry Cleaning "Livinas". For details, click here.
 

What's ordinary inside the company becomes its valuable asset

 

A glimpse of Higashida Dry's "meddlesome" work

My encounter with this company came through the TV program "Cambrian Palace" (TV Tokyo network), broadcast last June. The program featured how the company achieved tremendous growth by marketing the "meddling" of its artisan aunties. Without being asked, they would repair any concerning areas on the clothes entrusted to them, restoring them to the best possible condition. And they did it all for free. Services like "mending loose threads," "stain removal," and "button replacement" – reaching into those hard-to-reach places – meant these artisan aunties' meddling made them beloved by the townspeople even before they started their delivery cleaning service.

Internally, this was considered standard practice, so it wasn't specifically marketed. However, when the company identified metropolitan areas as the primary market for home delivery cleaning, they realized this could be a valuable asset for customers and their greatest differentiator (i.e., their competitive strength). They decided to prominently feature it, and orders flooded in. It perfectly matched the need to entrust cherished clothing, especially high-end items, to craftsmen who would handle them with care. This is a prime example of success achieved by focusing on the wisdom, ingenuity, and self-driven initiatives of frontline employees and establishing them as the foundation of a new business.
(An interview report with Nobuya Higashida, President of Higashida Dry, will be published in the new Dentsu Inc. Web Denpo series "The Secret Behind Somehow Energetic Companies," starting late November.)
 

The Four Steps of "Company Design"
 

The case of Higashida Dry shares the same fundamental concept as the "Company Design" approach introduced in the previous installment of this series. Learning that such initiatives can lead to actual success has given the Company Design team both conviction and momentum in their activities.
So, what exactly is "Company Design"?
"Dentsu Inc.'s original scheme that connects to the company's originality by creating and disseminating activities (i.e., systems, mechanisms, devices, spaces, etc.) designed to unearth the company's latent value buried within the workplace and maximize the abilities and wisdom of each individual employee." (For details, see here.)
Specifically, it consists of the following four steps:

The Four Steps of Company Design

 

STEP 1
Uncovering the company's latent value: "the wisdom, ingenuity, and self-directed activities of frontline employees"

The front lines inherently possess diverse employee wisdom, ingenuity, and self-directed activities. Often, these are deeply rooted in the company's DNA and vision. However, these activities frequently remain confined to the front lines, often invisible to upper management. We uncover this "hidden value" created by frontline employees through an objective, third-party perspective.

STEP 2
Design and execute "activities" that engage frontline employees

Based on the uncovered potential value, we plan and design activities unique to the company (i.e., systems, mechanisms, initiatives, platforms, etc.). Working backwards from the perspective of future branding and communication utilization, we leverage Dentsu Inc.'s distinctive creative power to shape these into forms with high societal value. We can also provide implementation support to ensure these initiatives spread company-wide.

STEP 3
Leverage activities for "branding and communication"

Simultaneously with executing the activity, we transform the process into content. We express and edit it for effective communication to the world, utilizing it for branding and communication through advertising, PR, SNS, web videos, internal tools, and more. By visualizing and disseminating the activity beyond internal walls, we establish it as the company's originality.

STEP 4
Collaborative Development of New "Business" to Accelerate Innovation

We believe that by generating new businesses, products, and services from activities originating with frontline employees, and accelerating innovation, the company's originality will grow even stronger. We aim to collaborate as partners, not stopping at branding and communication, but pursuing the ultimate goal of these activities.
 

Vigorous companies emerging one after another across Japan

Similar to the "Higashida Dry" case introduced at the beginning, the "Tanita Cafeteria" case served as a reference when conceptualizing the Company Design concept and framework. After Chisato Tanita, the current president, took office, Tanita redefined the company's raison d'être from "measuring health" to "creating health." Focusing on the health menus that had always been a standard offering in their employee cafeteria, they published these recipes as books and leveraged them for PR. This series achieved the unusual feat of surpassing 5 million copies sold. This success triggered their entry into the food service industry by launching restaurants under the "Tanita Shokudo" brand.

As evidenced by the recent publication of "Tanita's Work Style Reform" (Nikkei Publishing), Tanita continues to introduce initiatives that boost employee engagement and motivation. Their approach of originating activities from frontline employees and leveraging them for branding and business growth is precisely what the Company Design team strives for.

Employees work with vitality, delight customers, and contribute to society. Naturally, the business grows too. Such vibrant companies are emerging one after another across Japan. If Company Design becomes one method used to achieve this... the team members' aspirations are expanding significantly.

(Continued in #03)

Company Design Team

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