Creating the Future Through Vision-Driven Innovation: Co-Creating Future Ventures for an Unpredictable Era with "Future Vision Studio" (Part 1)

We live in uncertain and unpredictable times. Past conventions no longer apply, and many companies feel the limitations of traditional marketing approaches. Amidst this, Future Vision Studio advocates for vision-driven business development.Rather than predicting the future based on the present trajectory, it involves first defining the desired future. Working backwards from the envisioned future, it materializes the actions needed today. Using this methodology, the studio has co-created future businesses and their concepts with numerous companies in just about two and a half years since its launch.

In Transformation SHOWCASE, we interview Mr. Ryosuke Sakaki of Dentsu Inc., who founded Future Vision Studio, along with Ms. Kaori Sato and Mr. Daisuke Ichikawa, who resonated with Sakaki's vision and joined as members. In Part 1, we delve into the full scope of the future concept support program offered by this project.

Envisioning the future with breakthrough ideas, then visualizing and materializing them

Q. First, could you explain your background and the circumstances leading to the establishment of "Future Vision Studio"?

Sakaki: After joining Dentsu Inc., I worked in advertising as an art director. Over time, my work expanded beyond design into broader areas like branding, business planning with companies, and urban development.

Among the projects I've been involved with, the precursor to "Future Vision Studio" was the food tech project "OPEN MEALS. " This project visualized a future vision for the food industry centered on "digitizing food." We implemented various initiatives based on groundbreaking ideas, such as digitizing sushi and transmitting it to remote locations.

With "OPEN MEALS," we didn't just propose ideas outright. We built a foundation of factual information, engaged in discussions with research institutions and startups, and visualized and communicated a future that might seem wildly ambitious at first glance but actually held a core of reality. As a result, we started receiving numerous voices from around the world saying, "We want to help realize that vision together."

I believe we are now in an era of unpredictability. No single company can create something new alone; we must drive business forward as one team, transcending industry boundaries. This inevitably increases the number of stakeholders, making a stronger vision essential. Around 2018, I sensed that the future would be an era of vision-driven business development.

From there, we developed a framework for vision-driven business development and built an organization capable of meeting the diverse needs of our client companies. This led to the launch of "Future Vision Studio" in August 2020.

Q. What kind of members make up "Future Vision Studio"?

Sakaki: I believe the standard approach going forward will be to attractively visualize future business concepts drawn from breakthrough ideas, then backcast from there to build the business. This is where the skills of advertising creators who generate breakthrough ideas and the power of art directors who captivate people through visualization come into play.

Therefore, I felt we needed four teams: creators who generate breakthrough ideas, illustrators who visualize the vision, data analysts who forecast the future, and technologists who develop and implement prototypes. While the collaborating companies and staff members change, we advance projects with members who fulfill these four functions.

Q. Please tell us about your roles, Mr. Sato and Mr. Ichikawa.

Sato: I'm an art director, but I also frequently engage in tasks like co-creating products with client companies and planning events. Personally, I have a wide range of interests. I've done things like interviewing university professors to absorb future technologies, expand my imagination, and then create illustrations based on that. It was during this time that Mr. Sakaki approached me, and I joined this project. I help develop the program, facilitate workshops, and also create illustrations on the spot during these sessions.

Ichikawa: I participate in this project as a producer and facilitator. In my producer role, I listen to and organize client companies' challenges, share them with the creative team, and handle the overall program production. I also manage business strategy, coordination with partner companies, and external communications.

The power of outputs that visualize an exciting future

Q. What kinds of consultations do companies bring to you?

Sakaki: We're now in an era termed "VUCA" (an acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity), where rapid technological and societal changes mean past norms no longer apply. Despite this, many companies remain focused solely on pursuing short-term profits within familiar domains.However, without investing broadly into unknown areas that may prove valuable someday, won't companies struggle to adapt in the coming era? Amidst this, we increasingly receive inquiries from companies driven by the desire to "harness the power of vision and imagination, discard evidence, common sense, and fixed notions, and create a new future."

Specifically, many express concerns like: "The future is too complex to determine our direction," "Traditional marketing methods can't keep pace with this rapidly changing era," "We have vague ideas, but they lack persuasiveness and appeal, so we can't gain buy-in and move forward," "We're trapped by past successes and biases, preventing breakthrough ideas from emerging internally," or "We're scheduled for an event but can't envision an exciting future to communicate there."

Q. What specific programs do you offer? Please also explain their features.

Sakaki: It's a future vision support program designed to unlock a company's potential for leap forward. The program is divided into two phases: the Visioning Phase and the Implementation Phase. In the Visioning Phase, we first listen to the client company's needs and develop the program. We then input a large volume of future information, facilitate idea generation and convergence, and synthesize it into a single vision.In the implementation phase, we provide support to realize the envisioned future. This includes developing compelling vision videos that inspire excitement and empathy, planning and executing experiential events and future-focused exhibitions, as well as prototype development and business implementation support.

A distinctive feature is having creators and illustrators join the table, visualizing concepts rapidly through on-the-spot discussions. Our methodology varies based on the client's challenges and business phase. For clients with a vague future vision needing idea generation, we use a proprietary framework to generate 200-300 breakthrough ideas and visualize them within a single day.For clients with a clearer vision of their desired future, we progressively increase the resolution, clarifying challenges such as "This is what we need to focus on" or "We lack this type of engineer."

Furthermore, it's crucial not just to brainstorm ideas from pure imagination, but to multiply them with reliable information. Therefore, we collaborate with Dentsu Inc.'s Future Business Research Institute and consulting firms specializing in data -driven future forecasting to develop workshop tools.

We live in an era where the future cannot be predicted by merely accumulating past data. What proves useful in such times is the power of imagination—the ability to envision unconventional futures unbound by common sense or fixed notions. The "Future Vision Studio" takes this further, visualizing those visions, grounding them in reality, and guiding their actualization. By co-creating the future together, we can break free from stagnation.In Part 2, we'll delve deeper into the current momentum and the uniqueness of "Future Vision Studio."

• Creating the future through vision-driven collaboration. Co-creating future ventures for an unpredictable era with "Future Vision Studio" (Part 2)