Text by Reiko Imamura
NEXPERIENCE is a methodology of creating new services from newly conceived ideas through collaborative creation with partners. In previous eras at Hitachi, designers who specialize in creative ideas and service engineering researchers who logically design advanced systems and services had studied methods for creating new businesses separately from their own perspectives. In the organizational restructuring in 2015, however, NEXPERIENCE was systematized by fusing the two methods upon the establishment of the Tokyo Center for Global Social Innovation.
NEXPERIENCE consists of frameworks and IT tools to facilitate the process of unearthing issues, creating ideas, and verifying hypotheses, bringing all together as a business plan backed with customer value, profitability, and feasibility. There are opportunities as well to utilize Hitachi’s unique knowledge on an abundance of examples from handling a wide range of business fields.
In NEXPERIENCE, the process changes depending on the project pattern. One is a pattern that solves the latest issues, such as improving business efficiency and customer service. The other is a pattern that draws a path to think about the future a little further. In today’s uncertain future, there are increasing needs to be met with high levels of abstraction, such as “I want to think of ideas that will lead to future proposals” and “Can I do something with advanced technology?”
At Hitachi, we practice NEXPERIENCE, for example, in collaboration with insurance companies. First, we use the “25 signs”, based on the PESTLE method to gain insight into the environment surrounding future companies. Imagining the world in 5 or 10 years, we discuss what kind of changes in values and social issues are likely to occur. Then, we put out as many service ideas on what the company can do to meet the needs.
The key element of NEXPERIENCE is that we exchange opinions in a workshop style. By doing so, ideas that cannot be thought of by one person are born.
Once all ideas are on the table, then they are narrowed down. The most important perspective in narrowing is customer value. The second is profitability and then comes feasibility. In this order, we evaluate ideas and choose the ideas that are promising.
After narrowing down the service ideas, it will be the final stage of NEXPERIENCE, designing the business model. With all stakeholders identified, money, information, and human interactions are schematized. While checking for deadlocks, we will work out the model to be a win-win for everyone. The tool used here is “Business Origami,” which was developed by Hitachi and has been used for a long time. The key element is to “use the five senses.” By assembling a business model with colleagues using Business Origami, physical senses other than the head and sight are released, changing the way the business looks, and new ideas for the stakeholders, values, and realization measures will come out.
Currently, an increasing number of divisions of Hitachi, besides the business division, are starting to incorporate NEXPERIENCE. In order to spread this movement throughout the company, we are now in the process of evolving methods and IT tools as well as nurturing design thinking practitioners and specialists who master this, so that NEXPERIENCE will permeate throughout Hitachi at an accelerated pace.
