Interview with Yasuhisa Iida, Group CDO of Japan Post: The Transformation to the "Post Office of the Future" - Part 1 (Dentsu BDS, Yamahara)

This series delves into the essence of top executives who break all biases and personally execute business transformation within their companies as architects (overall designers).

Our guest is Mr. Yasuhisa Iida, CDO of Japan Post Group and Representative Director and CEO of JP Digital. JP Digital, driving the Japan Post Group's DX (Digital Transformation), is working towards realizing the "Post Office of the Future." This involves not only digitizing post office operations but also pursuing transformation with a long-term vision.

Shingo Yamahara of Dentsu Inc., who partners with Mr. Iida in driving this transformation, interviewed him as he leads change at the helm of this massive organization responsible for societal infrastructure.

Japan Post Group CDO Mr. Yasuhisa Iida (right) and Dentsu Business Design Square Mr. Shingo Yamahara

Taking on the challenge of transforming a massive organization with approximately 24,000 post offices nationwide and over 400,000 employees

Yamahara: Mr. Iida, after serving as President of Dyson Japan and President of Rakuten USA, you have been working on reforming and transforming the Japan Post Group since 2021 as an Executive Officer of Japan Post Holdings, an Executive Officer of Japan Post, and CEO of JP Digital. First, could you give us an overview of the Japan Post Group and the background driving this transformation?

Iida: The Japan Post Group was established in 2007. It currently operates postal and logistics services, banking, and life insurance businesses. It has 24,000 post offices nationwide and employs approximately 400,000 people across the entire group.

The Japan Post Group has a history of approximately 150 years, dating back to the founding of the postal service in 1871. It has long been a pillar supporting Japan's social infrastructure, but times are changing. Opportunities to send letters have decreased with the spread of email and messenger apps. There are other companies operating parcel delivery services, and the same applies to banking and insurance businesses. We feel a sense of crisis that if post offices do not evolve, their presence in society could diminish.

Yamahara: Against this backdrop, JP Digital, established in July 2021, positions itself as a professional group spearheading the transformation of post offices centered on DX (Digital Transformation), adopting the concept of a "tugboat of change." What kind of organization is it?

Iida: JP Digital brings together people seconded from various companies within the Japan Post Group. While it's possible to transform the post office by gathering people solely from companies involved in postal services, there's value in bringing together individuals with different cultures, expertise, and perspectives. In modern terms, it's about valuing diversity. This represents a new experience for Japan Post Group, as such an initiative hasn't existed before.

The "Post Office of the Future" that enhances customer experience value

Yamahara: To drive this transformation, since Mr. Iida became CEO of JP Digital in 2021, we've been holding one-on-one meetings together. Our first meeting focused on JP Digital's vision and credo. While digitizing post offices is a major theme, as I listened, I sensed Mr. Iida wasn't simply aiming to digitize postal operations.

Iida: There are many areas we want to evolve, like developing a digital post office app, streamlining parcel shipping and pickup, and enabling online financial consultations. But digitizing the post office itself is not the goal.

Before joining Japan Post Group, I worked at Rakuten for 15 years. Rakuten is an e-commerce platform provider and an IT company, so it might have a strong digital image. But it's people who make and sell things, and it's people who buy them. Digital technology exists to make the experience of buying and selling goods better and more convenient. People are always the main focus. I believe this applies to businesses beyond e-commerce as well.

Japan Post Group operates postal, banking, and life insurance businesses. Furthermore, we have employees engaged in diverse roles—from those working at headquarters and branches to those on the front lines at post offices. All these people work for our customers, and our 24,000 post offices nationwide are the points of contact with them. The starting point for considering digitalization efforts must be aiming for better post offices and providing better services for those customers.

Yamahara: During meetings, Mr. Iida passionately discusses JP Digital's role and his vision for the future of post offices and the Japan Post Group. Listening to him, I feel he truly has so many things he wants to achieve.

Iida: Whenever I pour out my thoughts to Yamahara, he responds by clearly articulating them or simplifying them into diagrams, saying, "So what you mean is this, right?" We've been having this kind of back-and-forth conversation for a long time.

From this dynamic, the concept of the "Future Post Office" was born—a fusion of the physical post office network with digital technology. What we aim to realize is a post office where every customer experience, including those at physical post offices, is made smarter through digital power. Digitalization is merely a means; what truly matters is how we can create new value for our customers.

Visiting post offices nationwide, meeting people, and exchanging ideas

Yamahara: Compared to the foreign companies and startups you've worked for before, isn't the corporate culture quite different at Japan Post Group, with its 150-year history?

Iida: I definitely feel a significant difference. I understand that Japan Post Group is a very large organization with layers of history and circumstances, so not everything can be changed easily. That said, I don't find Japan Post Group's rules or culture restrictive. Rather, I make new discoveries every day and enjoy learning. When I was president of Rakuten's U.S. subsidiary, I was based in America and traveled to various countries to internationalize our business. Encountering different cultures brings surprises and enjoyment, doesn't it? It's the same here.

When I became CEO of JP Digital last year, my mindset was "Let's start with what we can do." To use a baseball analogy, it's about hitting the pitches you can handle for singles, not aiming for home runs from the start. This approach remains unchanged; I believe transformation comes from accumulating hits. Taking action step by step and proving what we say might seem mundane and time-consuming. But I don't think we should rush.

Yamahara: Within the Japan Post Group, there probably aren't many executives like you, Mr. Iida, who have extensive experience at foreign companies and startups. When you became the Group CDO, I imagine some employees felt a mix of anticipation and anxiety, wondering if major changes were coming. You seemed to positively integrate with those people. Were you conscious of how you interacted with employees?

Iida: Even when working overseas, I always communicated with the mindset that we were colleagues from the same company, regardless of race. Now, while most employees I interact with are Japanese, it's the same. I think about how we can connect on a deeper level.

Yamahara: From the very beginning, what impressed me about Mr. Iida was how he focused on big visions like "adopting a customer-centric mindset" and "creating the post office of the future" rather than getting bogged down in details. He fostered a sense of anticipation through internal communication. Furthermore, to embed the "post office of the future" vision, you visited post offices across regions like Kansai and Hokuriku. In an era where much can be done online, what was the intent behind meeting people face-to-face?

Iida: What happens at headquarters isn't visible to those working in regional branches and post offices. I felt that simply having headquarters present a concept wouldn't create a sense of change. It felt like the usual days would just flow by unchanged, with a vague sense of stagnation... That's why I wanted to directly convey what the "post office of the future" means and what the Japan Post Group is aiming for. Also, I wanted to meet and talk with people working at various post offices firsthand to get to know our employees.

With Mr. Yamahara's help, I presented this vision directly to our employees. I believe it was fresh content for the post office staff.

The message was that post offices don't become mechanical through digitization; it's the people there that make them truly post offices. Digital technology allows us to provide better service to customers while also streamlining employees' work. It seemed like people saw a glimmer of hope in this vision of what we want to achieve. I even received messages saying, "We'll keep working hard until the 'Post Office of the Future' becomes a reality."

Yamahara: I also had a chance to read some of the letters and messages we received from postmasters and others after the presentation. It seems many people felt a sense of anticipation, a feeling that something significant might be about to change.

Iida: I certainly hope so. With 400,000 employees across the Japan Post Group, we still have a long way to go, but we will continue to share our message.

*Continued in Part 2