The key lies in employee happiness. What is the "Happiness Management" envisioned by TOYOTA CONIQ, Inc.?

What does "happiness at work" mean?

The "Happiness Clinic" project, which directly tackles this profound question, has launched at TOYOTA CONIQ, Inc.*.

Human capital value is now a critical theme in corporate management. It's the concept of viewing employees as "capital" and implementing management practices to maximize their value. The "Happiness Clinic" represents a cutting-edge initiative to enhance this human capital value, launched to support "happy ways of working" for employees at Toyota dealerships nationwide.

What does the future of "happiness-driven management" look like? Through this project, by engaging directly with frontline employees and seriously contemplating happiness, insights have emerged. Members of the project—Ritsuko Nishinai, Hiroki Watanabe, and Satoshi Tanaka from TOYOTA CONIQ, Inc., and Takashi Uozumi from Dentsu Consulting Inc.—gather around a bonfire to discuss these insights.

TOYOTA CONIQ, Inc. is a company dedicated to creating new "systems" and "businesses" as a research institute in the digital communication field, driven by promoting digital transformation (DX) in the retail sector.

 

Creating a new "measure of happiness" beyond the numbers
 

(From left) Ms. Ritsuko Nishinai, Mr. Takashi Uozumi

Uozumi: First, let me share the background and story behind how this "Happiness Clinic" project came to be.

Before this project began, I was working in areas like CRM and customer success. While CRM aims to build medium-to-long-term relationships between companies and customers, companies often inevitably chase short-term profits. I felt there was a gap between the original concept and corporate attitudes.

Meanwhile, a new management approach called "multi-stakeholder" was emerging, where a company's value is determined not just by investors, but also by the evaluations of business partners, employees, and customers. Many companies were already undertaking initiatives to "redefine what makes a good company" from a medium-to-long-term perspective.

I felt that what TOYOTA CONIQ, Inc. is attempting to do is precisely supporting this "redefining what makes a good company" in this era of multi-stakeholder management. Personally, I had also been wanting to work on creating new relationships between companies, employees, and customers, which is why I decided to join this project.

Mr. Nishinai, how do you view the background and context of this "Happiness Clinic" project?

Nishiuchi: I believe the origin and fundamental foundation of this project lies in the Toyota Philosophy's concept of "mass-producing happiness." This phrase embodies the spirit cherished since Toyota's founding: creating happiness for customers beyond the products, for the employees involved, and for everyone connected to the work.

It began with the idea of creating a new management metric for "mass-producing happiness" – a "measure of happiness" that goes beyond mere numbers like sales volume or revenue.

While developing this measure, a team member mentioned that "happiness takes many forms." That moment struck me as a vast, expansive theme. It connects to our corporate spirit and the very essence of our company. By engaging with the diverse forms of customer happiness, we could explore deeper engagement with our customers. Sensing this potential breadth, we formalized it as a project.

Uozumi: "Diversity" is a key theme of this project, isn't it? I tend to default to averaging things out, but when Watanabe-san and Tanaka-san told me, "Look at the individual," it really made me pause. The philosophy of this project is to see the diverse happiness of each person and provide broad feedback on that. You often say we absolutely must not forget that, right?

So, that's the background behind the launch of the "Happiness Clinic." Could you please explain its role and overall scope again?

Mr. Hiroki Watanabe

Watanabe: It's about exploring your happiness and mine, then injecting that happiness into our organization and products. If we find bottlenecks blocking happiness, we pinpoint and eliminate them. We named it a "clinic" because our mission is to thoroughly investigate and actually remove these obstacles.

When we started this project, we often heard, "The happiness a car can provide is fixed." But is that really true? I believe the happiness customers and employees feel changes with the times. When a company creates something new, I think human happiness should be at the core.

Furthermore, if we start by evaluating the pursuit of happiness through marketing theories and metrics like customer satisfaction (NPS or Customer Satisfaction) or employee satisfaction (Employee Satisfaction), I believe we won't reach what people truly desire or, conversely, what they dislike.

That's why we must confidently confront the questions head-on: What is human happiness? What is unhappiness? And strive to understand them. I believe that unless we face these questions directly, we won't be able to discover the new roles for companies 100 or 200 years from now.

Uozumi: When you quantify things, people inevitably want to rank them or compare metrics. The role of this project is to probe deeper into the more fundamental, root-level aspects.

Customer happiness lies beyond employee happiness

Uozumi: This project was launched to support "happy ways of working" for Toyota dealerships nationwide. What challenges do dealerships face?

Nishiuchi: One key challenge is "balancing customer happiness with employee happiness." While everyone prioritizes customer happiness, they often set aside their own happiness as employees. But I believe customer happiness arises precisely because employees can work happily. We must place greater emphasis on enabling employees to work happily.

Tanaka: Listening to those actually working at dealerships, I felt the sequence is that employee happiness ultimately leads to customer happiness. While the project initially started from the customer happiness perspective, we want to focus our efforts first on making the employees themselves happy.

(From left) Satoshi Tanaka, Ritsuko Nishinai

Nishiuchi: Another issue is when numerical targets are set, and everyone gets caught up chasing numbers, making it difficult to find time for diverse, high-quality engagement with each individual customer. When sales volume or revenue becomes the goal, the peak inevitably becomes just getting the sale. Instead, I believe what's truly important is how much the customer uses the car and how much happiness that experience brings. Through this "Happiness Clinic," we hope to provide even a little support by creating new metrics and offering services.

Uozumi: So deepening customer relationships also contributes to employee happiness at work, right?

Nishinai: Exactly. But separately, I also think it's crucial to value the fundamental aspect of employees genuinely finding joy and satisfaction in working for the company. Reviewing things again this time, I was surprised to learn that Toyota has valued "employee education" and "providing employees with a rich living environment" for over 60 years, proclaiming "Management is about people." I strongly felt we should sincerely inherit and cherish this philosophy.

The keywords for "happiness at work" are independence, flatness, and connection.

Uozumi: As Tanaka-san mentioned earlier, for this project we visited Toyota dealerships and spoke directly with employees working on the front lines. I'm sure we gathered many insights, but were there any individuals or words that particularly stood out to you as examples of people experiencing this kind of fulfilling work?

Watanabe: Two people stand out for me. The first is someone with around 10 years at the company. They mentioned contacting every customer they've ever sold to each month, just to check they're safe and satisfied. This isn't something the company tells them to do; they thought it through and act on it themselves. They also share this approach with junior staff. Seeing those juniors, who resonate with this, interact with customers in the same way brings them happiness – knowing it's making an impact.

The other is someone in management. This person says, "The front lines run the business." So, the company never mentions sales targets at all. They leave it to the employees. They believe that when employees properly engage with customers and think for themselves, the target numbers naturally follow. They said that pursuing things that can't be quantified, unlike sales figures or employee satisfaction metrics, ultimately leads to results.

Uozumi: The common keyword emerging here is "autonomy," isn't it? Having autonomous employees, nurturing those autonomous employees, and the capacity of management to oversee them. That's what enables a happy way of working and happy management, perhaps.

Nishiuchi: Saying "satisfaction" feels like it implies a one-way street from the company to the employee. Employees also reach out to the company, and the company reaches out to employees... In a way, I think it's good to build a mutually dependent yet independent, happy relationship.

Uozumi: This connects to that independent, happy relationship. I also felt that psychological safety—the assurance your ideas will be properly accepted—is crucial for a happy work environment.

Watanabe: Being "flat" is important, right? At the dealership we visited, even with the president, directors, and regular employees present, everyone had built a flat relationship. They even called it "super-flat management," didn't they?

Tanaka: I think this applies not just among employees, but also in the relationship with customers. It was mentioned as one of the challenges retailers face, but what struck me was the statement: "It's not about serving self-sacrificing customers," but rather, "It's about a mutually supportive relationship with customers." That's another crucial element, isn't it?

Another key point I found important was "feeling connected." It really stuck with me when you said that being surrounded by customers and store staff, and feeling that connection, brings happiness. I think it's also vital to feel that sense of connection where you can reach out to help someone in need, or have someone reach out to help you.

A New Management Model Emerged Through Retailer Interviews

Questions from a third-party perspective are the first step toward happy management.

Uozumi: Based on the insights about "happy ways of working" gained from interviewing dealerships, how do you plan to connect this to supporting dealerships going forward?

Tanaka: I think what we need to do is flip the values upside down. In a typical capitalist company, the goal is to use money as capital to sell something and increase profits. But for us, starting from happiness, we aim to increase happiness through cars. I believe we should build that kind of framework. We haven't yet figured out exactly what specific support we can provide to dealerships or how to do it, but we want to work on initiatives based on this framework.

Uozumi: It would be great if we could model successful dealership cases and share them with other dealerships.

Tanaka: First, I think we need to create the spark. It's crucial for us, as third parties, to pose the question: "You might be at a turning point in your thinking." Rather than imposing a definitive answer, creating awareness and sparking that initial spark might be the first step.

Uozumi: That's right. At Dentsu Group, we've traditionally focused on end-users, listening to each individual's voice to uncover insights. In this project, shifting that focus to each employee is where our value can truly shine. We've gathered diverse perspectives on happiness within our team, but to replicate this across other dealerships, we now need to articulate the language of workplace happiness.

Nishiuchi: I think that's also a form of mass production. Articulating it and then systematizing it might be crucial. I hope we can provide a system that really activates the thinking of the dealerships who are struggling.

Uozumi: The place we're talking about today is Takibi-ba, run by Kitamoku Co., Ltd., where we gather around a bonfire to chat. This "space" will also be utilized/provided for dealerships, right?

Kitamoku practices a circular regional future creation business centered on enhancing the value of local resources in the northern foothills of Mount Asama and creating spaces like campgrounds. Takibiba is an overnight meeting facility themed around creating spaces where purpose-driven groups can regenerate their vitality. It leverages the social benefits of "campfires," learned from a quarter-century of campground experience, to rebuild human connections and provide a space where people feel comfortable speaking their minds.
About Kitamoku: https://kitamoc.com/ About Takibi-ba: https://takiviva.net/

Tanaka: Yes. I believe supporting such "spaces" can also serve as triggers for transforming values. Takibiba provides the campfire as a "place for honest conversation and relationship building."

I've experienced this myself when I visited before. Conversations here make it easy for everyone to share their thoughts, transcending positional barriers. It's truly a flat conversation. It's an environment where, in a good way, not speaking up isn't really an option.

Watanabe: Kitamoku-san describes gathering around a campfire as a "purpose-driven group." Spending a night and a day together with a clear goal—discussing the company's future possibilities or concrete actions—has an incredibly positive effect. We cook meals together and engage in non-work, inefficient collaborative tasks. This builds human connections, leading to more candid conversations. We then take these insights back to the company and implement them. There's so much to learn from Takibiba, which provides such a "space." I really want to continue collaborating on various things with them going forward.

The Future Vision of "Happiness Clinic"

Uozumi: Finally, could you share your future aspirations?

Tanaka: I think the defining feature of retailers is their presence as local companies across Japan. I hope we can create happiness in work that leverages the uniqueness of each location, precisely because it's local. The sum of that could become "mass-producing happiness."

Watanabe: Talking to many people, I realized anew that young people all have aspirations. But environments where you can directly translate those aspirations into work are rare. It's hard to turn those feelings into tangible form. I think the bigger the company, the more this dilemma exists. I want to create a place where it's not just about input, but where you can truly output, where aspirations become work, and where you find happiness in that process.

Nishiuchi: Above all, I want to keep asking myself how we can achieve "mass-producing happiness." I want to explore management styles that deliver diverse forms of happiness and develop metrics for corporate value.

I like the concept of the "tasuki" (relay sash). I want to pass on what we've inherited from previous generations to the next, adapting it to the present era. I hope this "Happiness Clinic" can become a kind of connecting point between the present and the future.

Uozumi: I believe that envisioning the happiness of the society beyond our customers, or of our customers themselves, is fundamentally the role of marketing—or more broadly, advertising. As a marketing company, we hope to work together to build that potential once again.

Nishiuchi: Exactly. By joining the Dentsu Group, I believe we can gain not just Toyota's perspective, but also a broader societal view and the consumer's viewpoint. While TOYOTA CONIQ, Inc. already has people from diverse backgrounds, I hope we can increasingly link up with colleagues from other companies like Dentsu Consulting Inc. and Dentsu Digital Inc., working together to achieve the "mass production of happiness."

Uozumi: Yes! Thank you very much for today.

Happiness Clinic Members