Inviting Creativity to the Table
Hirokazu Toda, director and chair of kyu’s parent company Hakuhodo DY Holdings Inc., reflects on 10 years of kyu.
Image created in Midjourney with the prompt: “marker scribbles with muted pastel green and blue colors.”
First of all, I am greatly impressed by the fact that 10 years have passed since the launch of kyu.
Back in 2014, I was considering the global strategy of the Hakuhodo DY Group. Many advertising companies were globalizing by expanding their overseas networks to keep pace with the globalization of their clients’ business or digital media. But I was thinking about another possibility: globalization powered by creativity.
Image created in Midjourney with the prompt: “people enjoying nature in a beautiful mountain landscape with a lake.”
Recognizing a Social Need
In terms of scale, Hakuhodo DY Group was the second-largest advertising group in Japan and tenth in the world. Even so, we were dwarfed by mega-agency groups and mega-consultancies. But what mattered was not quantity but quality. We needed to win a competition of quality with uniqueness, or “one-of-a-kindness.” I considered that creativity could be a potent weapon toward that end.
The Hakuhodo DY Group’s philosophy includes several key concepts, one of which is “sei-katsu-sha thinking.” (Sei-katsu-sha is a term used by Hakuhodo Institute of Life and Living to reference a holistic human being.) The action principle of sei-katsu-sha thinking is to know sei-katsu-sha best and realize the highest level of creativity by leveraging insight into sei-katsu-sha. At that time, I was increasingly aware of a sea change in the relationship between sei-katsu-sha and businesses. Actually, sei-katsu-sha were asking businesses not only to supply products and the benefits that came with them but also to play a role in providing social value. Conventionally, businesses were required to find solutions to people’s desires. Now, they are required to find solutions to social issues, which today are borderless, like climate change and aging. I wondered whether solving social issues could underpin globalization. Was human creativity not the source of power to help solve complex social problems?
I asked the same questions to Michael Birkin (CEO, kyu), with whom I had become acquainted over the years. Having just resigned from serving as vice-chairman of Omnicom, he was working hard on getting his own startup, RedPeak, going. As I talked with Michael, I hit upon the idea of forming a “jewel case” of businesses, extending invitations to unique, one-of-a-kind companies highly reputed for their creativity, rather than going after the mega-agency model that focused on maximizing scale and profit.
That is why kyu has been joined by companies working under the banner of creativity and practicing sei-katsu-sha thinking or other ideas aligned with the concept. As exemplified by IDEO’s “human-centered” design and Gehl’s “people-first” principle, I believe that sei-katsu-sha thinking underlies the philosophy of each kyu collective company, just like an aquifer.
Image created in Midjourney with the prompt: “A giant tree in a beautiful landscape.”
Meticulous in Purpose
How can I forget the workshop held on July 13, 2014, at the SYPartners office in New York, where we gathered to determine the purpose and positioning of kyu? The purpose of kyu now reads: “To be a source of creativity that propels the economy and society forward.” But the initial draft went: “To be the source of creativity…” with the definite article “the” instead of the indefinite article “a.” I remember that “a source” was chosen over “the source” in the final draft, because someone said: “How can we pretend to be ‘the’ source of creativity? We should be humbler.” We were that meticulous when it came to our purpose.
We were equally meticulous in discussing the organizational structure of kyu. A group was simply a gathering of companies, whereas a team was composed of members aiming to achieve the same goal. We should not be a traditional group of businesses operating under a holding company but a team of companies united under a single purpose and poised to make a stronger impact across the world. Our discussion culminated in the adoption of the word “collective” to describe the organizational structure of kyu, built on spontaneous collaboration among members united in a shared philosophy.
Executive Vice President Naoto Akagi reviewing kyu's purpose statement.
Having started with only a few members, I am delighted to note that kyu is celebrating its tenth anniversary with over 20 members, all distinguished for their unique creativity. Now, kyu is growing from a child into an adolescent. If kyu was a human body, this first decade would be characterized by the activation and rapid growth of its cells. But you have to develop a robust skeletal structure to be an adult. We might be approaching a point where we have to be aware of, and eventually get over growing pains.
I believe that we have been successful to a certain extent in achieving the initial objective of building a pipeline of creativity by bringing together like-minded members exercising the highest level of creativity based on the understanding of sei-katsu-sha. Going forward, however, we will need to re-invent our “one-of-a-kindness,” leveraging AI and other emerging technologies to augment and enhance human creativity, thereby sharpening the edges of our uniqueness.
To conclude, I would like to express my sincere hope that you will succeed in guiding kyu into a new stage of excellence.
(Translated by Keiichi Akiyama)
Hirokazu Toda is Director & Chairman of Hakuhodo DY Holdings.