Consulting × Creative: The Front Lines. What Is the "Value Creation Method" Needed Now? (Part 1)

The business environment has grown increasingly complex, making corporate steering and new business launches far from straightforward. Many executives likely grapple with various challenges: uncertainty over the company's direction, or management's vision failing to permeate the front lines.

This time, Hiroshi Tanaka, Partner at Dentsu Consulting Inc., which supports corporate management challenges and business strategy, and Noritaka Obuse, Director of the Future Creative Center at Dentsu Inc., a cross-disciplinary creative organization continuously generating new outputs beyond the advertising domain, discuss the mindset required for future corporate management and new ventures, as well as how to create value in today's era.

It's perhaps closer to exploring than consulting

Tanaka: First, let me introduce myself. After working at two major foreign-affiliated general consulting firms, I joined DuPont, a major US chemical materials company, where I handled corporate planning and also gained experience in sales and marketing within the food ingredients division. Later, I worked on business planning at Amazon, a major US e-commerce company. However, through interactions with people, I felt a desire to do "emotionally engaging work," leading me into the world of branding. Since 2022, I've been at Dentsu Consulting Inc., primarily providing consulting focused on B2B branding.

Obuse: When I joined Dentsu Inc., I initially worked as a Strategic Planner. From there, I moved to the Creative Division, and now I'm at the Future Creative Center (FCC), where I handle support for grand designs of management and business, branding design, and activation planning.

Recently, I've been collaborating with Mr. Tanaka and others at Dentsu Consulting Inc. on various projects to create future value for companies. However, what we do might be a bit different from what you'd typically call consulting.

Tanaka: What kinds of inquiries does FCC typically receive?

Obuse: Well, we often get inquiries from people who want to think about and initiate something new, like "We want to create a new kind of town," "We want to consider the value of mobility in the coming era," or "We want to think about new future competitiveness for a conglomerate." It feels more like embarking on an adventure together to find answers that don't yet exist. So, what we do is closer to exploring than consulting. In fact, we sometimes go on trips with clients.

Tanaka: From our perspective at Dentsu Consulting Inc., we also receive requests from within the Dentsu Group for specialized expertise, such as "market value assessments." Many corporate executives and business leaders seem troubled by how to compete in the future amid changing market conditions, expressing concerns like "we can't foresee how our future customers will evolve."

There are two types of meetings: "sorting meetings" and "creative meetings"

Tanaka: Amidst the various challenges companies face, there are also numerous consulting approaches to address them.

When interviewing executives to formulate purpose, I was particularly impressed by the approach Mr. Obuse employs.

Not just the interviews themselves, but the moments right after, when we'd step outside the building for 5-10 minutes to reflect, saying things like, "Maybe that was because..." Honestly, I feel like these are precisely the moments when the most incisive opinions tend to surface.

Obuse: It's often said that ideas are born when external stimuli change, so right after a meeting is actually a time when ideas tend to flow quite easily, right?

Incidentally, I believe there are two types of meetings: "creative meetings" and "sorting meetings." I suspect most meetings held within companies fall into the "sorting meeting" category. You prepare an agenda beforehand, discuss along those lines, identify the pros and cons of each option, and make efficient judgments. These meetings are necessary in their own right. However, I think this approach makes it difficult to find "answers that don't yet exist."

That's because what "creative meetings" require isn't the tense atmosphere needed for logical judgment, but rather a positive atmosphere where everyone builds and nurtures ideas together to capture that breakthrough moment.

Tanaka: I see. When I observe Mr. Obuse facilitating meetings, it seems like he moves the session forward by listening intently to people while consciously focusing on "how to grasp" the intangible elements floating in the space.

Obuse: "Capturing" is probably close. It's not about selecting the correct thing from the verbalized ideas expressed in that meeting. Rather, I see it as a methodology where we use the verbalized ideas as a springboard to search for the unseen value floating above them.

Tanaka: In meetings that generate new ideas, the ability to listen is crucial, right? For me, "listening" isn't passive—it's a highly active action. I believe it amplifies the energy of the space.

What's needed to find new answers is to possess a "separate realm."

Obuse: I have the impression that you, Tanaka, are a consultant who is exceptionally skilled at listening. How do you manage to maintain such a flexible receptiveness?

Tanaka: That might largely stem from my experience working with people from very different backgrounds throughout my career.

For example, when I was doing branding at my previous job, I often worked with creators from art universities. Their approach was completely different from mine. Even when discussing the same client, after a meeting, when I asked for their impressions, their output—"This is what I thought"—was sometimes entirely different from mine. That was fascinating in itself, but at the same time, I found it challenging to reconcile their opinions with my own.

In such cases, mutual compromise becomes essential. If you retreat into your own world and impose your logic on others, it inevitably becomes harder to find common ground outside your own domain. I consciously think about how to maintain that connection.

Obuse: I believe that to create new value, it's crucial to know worlds different from the one you inhabit and to understand those worlds. Tanaka-san, who comes from the consulting world, entering the world of creators who graduated from art universities and seeking points of empathy is precisely that kind of action, right? I call that "having another world." The world of management and the world of frontline employees. The world of adults and the world of children. The world of the city center and the world of the region. By stepping out of your own world and having another world, you become able to notice new dissonance. I think new value always emerges from the boundary between two worlds.

As sustainable corporate approaches, such as purpose-driven management centered on social value, gain attention, the approach of creating value that doesn't yet exist in the world will become increasingly important.

In Part 2, we will delve deeper into approaches for identifying corporate challenges and the future of consulting that shapes corporate futures.

• Consulting × Creative: The Frontiers. What is the "Value Creation Method" Needed Now? (Part 2)