Three Perspectives Behind the Idea-Realization Internship

From idea generation to implementation-focused internships

While concerns persist about prolonged job hunting for the Class of 2021 due to the pandemic, the timing for summer internships targeting the Class of 2022 is approaching.

As joint information sessions for the class of 2022 increasingly move online, many companies are likely rethinking the nature of internships.

Internships are a crucial opportunity for students to learn about companies, and for companies, they are a valuable venue to connect with diverse students.

We at Dentsu Inc. Youth Research Department (Dentsu Wakamon) have been producing the "Dentsu Wakamon Internship" since 2015. From 2016 to 2018, we ran an "idea-generation" internship titled "Classroom for Moving Hearts."

At Dentsu Inc., we value two core strengths: "the power to think" and "the power to realize." In 2019, rather than focusing solely on "the power to think" as in previous years, we designed an internship that also emphasized "the power to realize."

We completely changed the concept, setting the theme as "Don't Let Ideas Stay Ideas." Internship participants bring in issues they feel "can't be ignored," devise ideas to solve them, and challenge themselves to actually realize those ideas.

In shifting to this idea-realization internship, we prioritized whether the program would truly put students in the driver's seat. We considered this for three reasons.

① We wanted to challenge the conventional arrow of "adults → youth" and instead create an arrow of "society → youth"

A gap has unknowingly formed between adults and young people. Phrases like "Why are young people so ○○? (Don't they get passionate? Don't they spend money?)" are often heard. This stems from adults viewing young people based on their own values, essentially capturing only fragments of their actions and values.

This one-way arrow of "adults → youth" was also present in internships. What does this mean? Many corporate internships and business contests follow an idea competition format where experienced adults (companies) critique students' ideas and that's the end of it.

However, evaluations aren't singular, and rankings can vary depending on the judges. While the idea competition format is one valid approach, shouldn't there be internships with a different directionality? This time, we challenged ourselves to create a new directionality: not "adults → youth," but "society → youth." We conducted an internship where students used crowdfunding to realize their ideas.

② We wanted an internship where students could speak in the first person about their results

In April 2019, Dentsu Inc. Wakamon conducted the "Youth Insight Survey 2019." The results revealed that today's youth strongly desire to "enhance their own skills and build their careers." Therefore, the themes tackled in the internship needed to be ones the participating students themselves genuinely wanted to pursue.

 

The survey also showed that young people value "time performance" – what return they get within limited time. Therefore, we also aimed to use crowdfunding to help participants "clarify the results of their own challenges."

The protagonists were each intern. We approached the internship not as instructors, but as support staff helping students realize their ideas.

③ We wanted to convey the excitement of "ideas for realizing ideas"

Creating something new from nothing—the "0→1" action. The "Idea Generation Internship" is a program focused on developing ideas to solve problems. If we represent this as "0→0.5," then the latter part—"0.5→1"—the ideas needed to realize those ideas, is also something we think about daily in our work. And that's where the real excitement of Dentsu Inc.'s work lies.

If the past was an era of "company selection" for students choosing which firm to join, we are now entering a true era of "job creation." Amidst trends like the collapse of lifetime employment and the lifting of restrictions on side jobs, we believe it's crucial to share Dentsu Inc.'s approach to idea generation and the know-how for realization with young people who want to acquire the skills to achieve what they truly desire.

With these perspectives in mind, we developed our internship program. In the program, Dentsu Inc. members provided input on essential skills: how to establish concepts for idea generation, how to deepen insights, and project management methods and PR approaches necessary for idea realization. Over the six-day program, students refined their ideas daily. Each intern then became a project leader, managing teams and budgets, raising funds through crowdfunding, and working to bring their ideas to life.

Next time, we'll introduce the actual projects the students worked on.

A planning & creative unit that thoroughly explores the realities of young people in their teens and twenties, primarily high school and college students, seeking hints for building better relationships between youth and society.
https://dentsu-wakamon.com/