[AI-Driven New Business Creation] How Qualiteg Defines Approval Criteria for New Businesses to Avoid Disputes After Planning

Hello, and welcome to the Qualiteg blog. I'm Michele. In my work on AI-driven new business and marketing, there are certain questions I hear from clients again and again. Through this blog, I'd like to share my own answers to the challenges that anyone considering an AI-based business is likely to face.

There is one concern I hear frequently from the clients I support in new business planning.

We were told to come up with a new business using this (DX, for example), but for some reason the executives keep turning it down.

I hear this a lot. Many new business initiatives start from a predetermined means, such as "introduce AI" or "think about DX." Yet even after presenting that solution as a new business proposal, many people find that, for reasons they can't quite pin down, it never gets approved for commercialization.

Today I'd like to talk about why a new business should be planned now, and how to obtain approval smoothly from the executive responsible for the business.

Start by asking why you are launching this new business

The most important thing when planning a new business is to be able to answer, with confidence, the question: "Why does our company need to do this new business?"

Whenever I take on a new business consulting engagement, I always ask the client, "Why is your company considering a new business at this time?" In most cases the answer is something like "An executive told us to think about DX" or "We heard a competitor started doing AI, so we need to do AI too." The solution is already fixed, but the significance of the business itself is often unclear.

As a result, teams end up casually proposing an imitation of some DX project a competitor seems to be doing, and approval for commercialization never comes. I believe this pattern is very common.

Today, while thinking through why your company needs to launch this new business, I'll explain what conditions need to be met for the business to get the go-ahead.

The true value of innovation lies in the synergy that emerges when different strengths come together. Qualiteg's Innovation-Cross is a program that creates innovative synergy through the optimal combination of a company's strengths and external resources. Through an analysis of the company's current state, we clarify its core strengths and strategically select external partners who complement and amplify them.

Through idea workshops and hackathon planning, we spark the kind of chemistry that "couldn't be created by our company alone," and build sustainable co-creation relationships through open innovation and partner development. Our experienced consultants, drawing on the latest AI technologies as well, design a process that maximizes this innovative synergy and realizes value creation where 1 + 1 becomes 3 or more. When strengths meet strengths, innovation accelerates.

What is the significance of launching a new business in-house?

First of all, let's clarify the purpose for which your company is undertaking the new business.

• Market expansion
• Diversification of revenue sources
• Driving innovation
• Responding to customer needs
• Strengthening brand image
• Building strategic partnerships
• Creating new user experiences
• Contributing to society
• Developing talent

Most new business initiatives fall under one of the items above, but it is very common to find a gap in understanding between the person planning the business and the person approving it.

Using these as a reference, start by putting into words why your company needs to plan a new business at this time, and align everyone's understanding.

Set a goal for the business purpose

Once the purpose of the new business is decided, the next step is to define the goal for that purpose.

For example, if the purpose is "market expansion," the goal might be "achieve annual sales of one billion yen within three years of market launch." If it is "creating new user experiences," the goal might be "launch a service that improves the quality of life for our target users, business professionals working in urban areas." If it is "strengthening brand image," the goal might be "have our service covered in the media after launch and increase visitors to our website by 20% over the current level." In this way, the goal can be defined according to the business purpose.

Start with the purpose and the goal

To use a travel analogy: once you decide that your purpose is "to recover from work fatigue and refresh both mind and body," and set the condition "a one-night, two-day trip that lets us get back to Tokyo quickly," you can settle on "let's go to a hot spring in Hakone"—that is, a trip somewhere near Tokyo to refresh.

Deciding the direction of a new business works the same way.

Very often, people start the discussion without first clarifying the purpose and the goal.

In travel terms, it's like one person saying "Let's go to New York," another saying "Hawaii would be better," another saying "Let's go to a hot spring in Kyushu," and yet another saying "No, let's go golfing in Hokkaido"—the conversation never comes together. When considering a new business, start by making the purpose and the goal clear.

Once the business purpose is set, ideas for the direction of the new business come into view

Now, once the business purpose is decided, you can start to see what direction your company should take.

As an example, let's take the earlier case:

For "creating new user experiences," the goal is "to launch a service that improves the quality of life for our target users, business professionals working in urban areas."

Let's use this as our theme.

Before generating ideas, you will need to research your existing user base through interviews and surveys. This is the point at which you set a rough directional idea in order to decide who the target should be.

As an example, let's consider the following as directions for a service that improves the quality of life for busy business professionals in urban areas.

• A service that helps users maintain their health at the office or at home
• A service that helps users recover from work fatigue and feel refreshed
• A service that supports users in advancing their own careers

The commercialization criteria you need to agree on with the executive (the person responsible for the business)

After the proposal is drafted, the executive responsible for the business will make the commercialization decision. Before that, however, you need to consult with them: "Here is the kind of project, direction, and approach we plan to take, so we would like you to evaluate it along these criteria."

To do that, at this stage you should present the directional ideas, set the purpose and goal of the new business, and propose the criteria for the commercialization decision.

In this example, it might go like this:

We are targeting urban business professionals who are loyal users of our electric bicycle service, and this time we are considering a business that leverages one of our strengths: user personalization data.

For example, we would like to explore directions such as a service that helps users maintain their health at the office or at home, a service that helps them recover from work fatigue and feel refreshed, and a service that supports their career advancement.

In evaluating this new business for commercialization, we would like to use the following three points as the decision criteria, and we ask for your approval of these criteria at this time.

1. The market must be one that major players have not yet entered in Japan, but where there is market demand and growth can be expected
2. The service proposal must leverage our company's strengths to create business synergy and differentiate us from competitors
3. The service must be able to launch within the current fiscal year

In this way, what you first need to agree on with the approver is not whether the idea is good or bad, but the purpose of the commercialization and the criteria by which the go decision will be made. Reaching agreement on those criteria is what matters.

Many people are hesitant about this phase because they are unfamiliar with it or find it tedious. But if you don't align on direction at the outset, it's like proposing a strange travel destination. So start by aligning on the purpose, the goal, and the decision criteria.

Thank you very much for reading this column to the end. At Qualiteg, we provide training and consulting on AI technology and new business planning methods. If you are interested, or if you have specific requests, please feel free to contact us through the inquiry formhere.

We also run a popular workshop for those who want to master the steps of new business creation. The training focuses on helping each participant think about the business from an executive's point of view, and the content is suitable not only for planners but also for their engineering, design, and marketing counterparts.

We sincerely look forward to hearing from you. Please stay tuned for the next column.