Society is now seeking a driving force.

This series follows Dentsu Inc.'s 'Company Design' team as they uncover the secrets behind vibrant companies with 'originality.' The 10th installment focuses on 'Mellow,' Japan's largest mobility business platform, which is gaining attention by matching vacant urban spaces with uniquely charming food trucks. We delve into their innovative challenge, which envisions the 'reorganization' of lifestyles and cities themselves.

Restrictions on movement and gatherings have made us realize anew that the driving force keeping society running is "contact." No matter how wonderful the products we create, no matter how heartfelt the services we offer, if "contact" with people is severed, society simply cannot function.

Of course, alternatives like online services and delivery exist. Yet they can never fully replicate the energy, atmosphere, excitement, and fulfillment that once existed in person. While terms like "touch," "warmth," and "breath" are often used as lyrical metaphors, what we truly crave now is the real thing.

Amidst this, one company continues its bold challenge: Mellow, Japan's largest mobility business platform. You might not recognize the name, but if someone asked, "Well, do you know food trucks?" in this context, everyone would surely say "Ah, I see" and become intrigued. Of course, the "driving force" in this article's title, "Society is Now Seeking a Driving Force," is neither metaphor nor poetry. It refers to a genuine, real "driving force."

Written by: Tetsushi Yoshida (Dentsu Inc. Business Co-creation Bureau)

Mellow:
Founded in February 2016. Leveraging the mobility of food trucks, Mellow operates under the motto "Turning ordinary places into delightful ones." By matching vacant urban spaces with shop mobility (mobile retail units) like food trucks, Mellow has created over 450 spaces primarily across the Kanto, Kansai, and Kyushu regions. Additionally, Mellow provides support for launching food truck businesses and event operations. "Go to that place, and the shop you want to visit will be there." Mellow's shop-mobility stop, "SHOP STOP," provides rich experiences and environments to people's lives.

Challenge means diving into work that isn't just an extension of what you've done before.

"I'm the type of entrepreneur without a foundational experience. My passion didn't spring from something like experiencing an earthquake; I'm more of a laid-back type," President Moriguchi began calmly at the start of the interview. Before joining Mellow, he worked in "data science." Perhaps as a reaction to that, he gradually became drawn to things like human connections and the atmosphere of a place. "When people think of challenge, they imagine something like, 'Now's the time to really put my cultivated skills to use!' Right? In my case, the reason I jumped into this business—if you can call it a reason—was probably because I wanted to put myself in a place where that mindset wouldn't work at all."

Takuya Moriguchi:
Founded ALTR THINK Inc. while attending Waseda University (2013). After developing multiple chat apps used by over a million people through data analysis, sold the company to a publicly listed firm. Following involvement in numerous projects including building corporate data analysis platforms, joined the founding team of Mellow Inc. where he remains today. Striving to grow the shop mobility market across all contexts: business, technology, creative, and operations.

"But honestly, COVID was tough. Sales dropped by about half in the short term." Food trucks that appear in office districts. It's easy to imagine how helpless they felt when the streets emptied of people. Here, President Moriguchi quickly showed a composed side. "Fundamentally, shop mobility is a business targeting 'places where a supply-demand gap exists.' It's not just that customer numbers decreased; the very gap that is the core of our business disappeared. Of course it was tough."

Organizations grow stronger through adversity

Amidst this, they managed to secure a business partnership with a major real estate company – the one everyone immediately thinks of when real estate is mentioned. This was highly unusual amidst the turbulence of the pandemic. It seemed like a stroke of luck, but President Moriguchi remained utterly composed. "It was simply a matter of good timing and a good location." When asked if that was all, he replied, "Our own efforts played a part, but everyone puts in effort. As for special reasons, that's all there is to it." To borrow President Moriguchi's words from the beginning: "We accept opportunities as they come and focus on what we can do."

At the time, President Moriguchi felt a strong sense of crisis about the company's business. Shifting from his naturally gentle disposition, he issued a series of tough directives focused on "how to make money." "Even so, I believe the members followed me because of the 'accumulated organizational investment' we had built up until then." While many startups "begin building company culture only after they've reached a certain level of profitability," Mellow did the opposite. "Why was that possible? In our case, even without established company performance, we were fortunate to have good connections and were able to secure funding relatively easily." Herein lay part of the secret to Mellow's rapid advancement.

Just as lunchtime in office districts has traditionally been the main battleground for food trucks, mobility truly shines where there's a gap between supply and demand. In April 2020, as office districts emptied, food trucks began appearing in residential neighborhoods. The pandemic clearly demonstrated that adaptability to a rapidly changing world is the core of the mobility business. Where do we live? Where do we work? What defines prosperity? What do we do to live? Mellow will continue its challenge to deliver true prosperity for each individual in this ever-changing world.

Food Trucks: A Picture-Perfect Business

As someone exploring "The Secret Behind Why Some Companies Thrive," I was eager to ask President Moriguchi how Mellow achieves partnerships not only with the aforementioned large corporations but also with government agencies and municipalities. His answer was, once again, unexpected. "We use our track record for PR. To do that, entrepreneurs themselves function as advertising icons, like celebrities. That style is common these days, but I don't think it suits me well, and I didn't need to do it. Because food trucks are a 'business that makes for great pictures'."

Ah, I thought. The very scene of a food truck parked there is "photogenic." In modern parlance, it "looks good on camera." You could say this is something written on the very first page of any PR textbook. For business negotiations, thick proposal documents aren't necessary either. Just showing one photo instantly conveys the business's philosophy and potential. President Moriguchi then continued:

"We make every effort possible. But what's crucial afterward is probability theory. Which window to enter through. The more rigid or large the organization, the more routes there are. The important thing is to find the window of someone who shares your vision and keep knocking." According to President Moriguchi, the much-discussed "digital and analog division of labor" boils down to the same principle. "What matters is the probability of how you deploy resources × how you pull them together. Rather than specializing in just one, I focus on finding the optimal combination."

With co-CEO Masayoshi Ishizawa.
In the early 2000s, impressed by the "individual strength" of food truck operators, Ishizawa (left)—who knows the "front lines" of mobility better than anyone, having built the platform foundation to turn their appeal into a sustainable business—and Moriguchi, who launched his student startup. Precisely because their backgrounds before meeting at Mellow were completely different, they complement each other's perspectives while painting a shared vision.

What is diversity?

When asked, "What exactly is the essence and potential of diversity?" President Moriguchi responded from an unexpected angle. "Take the music industry, for example. While CD sales continue to decline, live concert revenue is growing. I experienced that moment of reversal during my first and second years of university when I was involved in music. As content distribution advanced (i.e., distribution costs fell), the cost of discovering niche music decreased, increasing the overall variety of content in the music industry. The essence of diversity lies in breaking free from the traditional major-label dominance. I find the sense of accelerating values beyond 'fast, cheap, and good' truly compelling."

President Moriguchi says that while there are many solutions for convenience, there are still few solutions for true enrichment. For example, even when addressing local issues, focusing solely on supplying essential content will eventually lead to exhaustion.

Cities have their own "non-essential pleasures," and local communities have theirs. "The key to embracing diversity, I believe, is valuing cultural or human connections and respecting each other. In that sense, while our food truck business's founding policy remains unchanged, I feel the areas where we can apply that know-how are expanding."

A scene from workshops held within the office. By reaffirming Mellow's social value together, the company's next vision takes shape.

Rules change daily

"When it comes to diversity, I believe we're now in an era where each entity—individuals or companies—has its own definition of richness and can communicate that to the world through various means. The more such expressions exist, the richer both individuals and society become. Mellow aims to function as that platform."

According to President Moriguchi, defining success is crucial for starting a business. What rules govern society? For salaried workers, what rules govern the corporate organization? Understanding these mechanisms—the rules—and being able to control the level of abstraction needed to comprehend things allows one to manage any job effectively.

"However, we must also recognize that 'rules change daily.' Many corporate failures stem from repeating past success patterns without noticing that the rules have changed. To use an extreme soccer analogy, it's like stubbornly playing only with your feet after the rule change allowing hand use." Indeed, that approach is bound to lose. To view yourself and your surroundings objectively, it's not enough to merely understand the "rules"; you must constantly question them.

President Moriguchi concluded the interview with this statement: "I believe the crucial thing is 'never skimping on investment in thinking, and in continuing to think.'"
 

The word "mellow" carries diverse meanings—ripened, rich, mellow, calm, relaxed, sweet, mature, rounded, well-fed, fertile—yet consistently evokes a "mellow" image. A mellow society, overflowing with mellow richness: smooth, rich, and deep. It was named with the desire to realize this vision.

Visit the Mellow homepage here.

SHOP STOP's image movie is here.

Season 2 of the series where Dentsu Inc.'s 'Company Design' team explores the secrets of 'vibrant companies' with 'originality.' Episode 10 introduced Japan's largest mobility business platform, 'Mellow.'

Season 1 of the series is here.
The "Company Design" project site is here.

[Editor's Note]

The editorial team posed a deliberately childlike question to President Moriguchi: "I absolutely love cars. How about you, President Moriguchi?" "Well, first and foremost, they're exciting, right?" replied President Moriguchi to this elementary schooler-at-heart, now over 50. That's where it gets interesting. He explained that the essence of a car's excitement lies in the unique "texture of space" only a car can provide.

In terms of transporting goods, people, or services, trains or rickshaws do the same job. But cars have a unique thrill. President Moriguchi says the reason lies in the "texture of space" cars provide, specifically their "diversity." Cars, symbols of "freedom" and "diversity," come right to your doorstep loaded with whatever fast food, vegetables, or fish you desire. Who wouldn't get excited?

And that excitement, President Moriguchi continues, explodes when placed midway between "going" and "coming." Instead of sitting and waiting at a store, you "go" right to the customer's side. Instead of anxiously waiting for delivery to "come" to your home or office, you "go" to the exciting destination itself. That's why both sellers and buyers naturally end up smiling. To put it in more technical terms, food trucks occupy the space between "impulse visits" and "purposeful visits," President Moriguchi explains. They blend the joy of "stumbling upon something unexpectedly" with the joy of "finally finding what you were searching for." That's what creates that thrilling feeling.

I'll say it again: that "excitement" drives you to "come." It makes you spontaneously head out to "go." It's incredibly free, incredibly open, and offers a comfort you can't experience anywhere else. "I don't think the kind of richness our times demand is about uniformity, or something you finally attain after enduring hardship and effort. Isn't the food truck the symbol of that?" President Moriguchi's remarkably straightforward yet profoundly deep insight made this elementary schooler over 50 nod in deep agreement.