Key to surviving the COVID-19 crisis: “multiplying” your business? Introducing the new company “Agile” | SSU Group Newsletter #1

Hello, I’m Sunny-chan from PR!

SUNNY SIDE UP GROUP has been steadily adding more group companies. However, we still have not been able to fully introduce what each company does… so, starting with this issue, we would like to introduce our group companies!

The first feature is Agile Inc., a company established in July 2020 to support the development of new business formats and new products.

Through an interview with Kazunari Higuchi, President and Representative Director, we will introduce the company’s business and future outlook.

☑ About 30 years in the industry: a “promotion support professional”

Nice to meet you. My name is Kazunari Higuchi (Kazunari Higuchi; born May 13, 1966, in Chiba Prefecture), and I serve as President and Representative Director of Agile Inc.

First, a brief self-introduction. In fact, my career began as an interior designer working on store design and related projects. Later, at the age of 26, I made the bold decision to change careers and move into the marketing industry. In 1992, I joined Ibex Co., Ltd., which handled design and planning.

I worked there for about 15 years and ultimately served as President and Representative Director. I believe I was able to help the company grow into one that could handle planning and sales promotion professionally. The company was then integrated into DG Ibex Co., Ltd. (now Digital Garage, Inc.), and in 2006 I was appointed President and Representative Director there as well.

In 2012, I became Vice President and COO of Legs Co., Ltd., which provides corporate promotion support and related services. During my tenure, I successfully increased the company’s sales from around 7 billion yen to 16 billion yen.

Then, considering 2020 as a major “milestone,” I stepped down that year. To pursue a business based on the core concept I had long envisioned—“making new business format development agile” (= commercializing it and maximizing the speed at which the business scale expands)—I founded Agile Inc.

☑ Agile’s business

(1) “Connecting” businesses and brands — Business Value Editing —
With planning, development, and promotion of new businesses as our core focus, we provide consulting related to “business value editing,” which creates new value and businesses by connecting each company’s value and strengths.

(2) “Creating” businesses and brands — Developing and promoting private brands —
In addition to developing and promoting private brands for various retail companies, we manage master licenses for various IP (intellectual property) in the entertainment industry and develop sublicensing.
*We have entered into an advisory agreement with Tetsuya Shigematsu, former President and Representative Director of Fields Corporation. We also promote new business development in the content domain.

(3) “Accelerating” businesses and brands — Business support in Japan and overseas —
We provide a range of business support in Japan and overseas for developing new business formats and new products. We also place strong emphasis on business support for startups.

☑ In an era when long-selling hits are hard to come by, companies need a “professional arranger” to connect businesses

Over the past roughly 30 years, I have been involved in developing a wide variety of new products and new business formats by connecting companies with one another. What I have come to feel is that while each company has “good ingredients” in the form of content, in many cases they are not fully leveraging those ingredients. What matters is what kind of “recipe” it ultimately becomes. In other words, businesses need a “chef” or an “arranger (editor).” It is the idea that “if you combine element A from one company with element B from another company, it becomes content C with entirely new added value.”

Try combining the “ingredients” one company has with the “ingredients” another company has. That can create a “recipe” with entirely new value. Here are a few examples from past projects.

• Combine a popular manga character with an apparel brand popular among young people and sell it via e-commerce.
• Combine an anime character with a cosmetics brand to create content popular with young women.
• Combine a baseball team with an apparel brand to develop limited-edition collaboration goods and acquire new fan segments.
• Combine a café with character content to launch a “content collaboration café business.”

Taking the “character collaboration café” I have been involved with since around 2015 as an example, combining anime content with food created an entirely new business format that multiplied the value of both. By creating a new worldview for anime content through food, it drew large crowds and boosted sales of related goods. It has now grown into a huge market.

Content such as “2.5D (= anime × stage)” is another good example. However, initiatives like these are difficult to realize with a single company alone. Therefore, to create high value-added “recipes” by combining content with content, a professional business arranger is essential.

With external factors such as COVID-19, more companies are being forced to change management policies and restructure their businesses, and many industries are now literally in a period of “transformation.” In times like these, the power of an “arranger” who creates new added value and markets is needed. The idea that “if you combine element A from one company with element B from another company, it becomes entirely new content C” may be more indispensable than ever.

☑ “Multiplying” businesses with Agile Inc.

At Agile, we also aim to leverage the “arranger” perspective to combine the corporate value, IP (intellectual assets), real-world venues, and other resources held by each company to create new content. As a company that supports the development of new business formats and new products, we will work on initiatives such as “restructuring existing businesses” for operating companies, “developing new businesses” that leverage each company’s unique strengths, and “startup support.”

We will place our primary focus on how to solve the challenges companies face. For example, for an apparel brand forced to change direction during the COVID-19 crisis, combining it with a fast-rising artist to create limited-edition products and sell them via e-commerce and physical stores may be a good solution. Ideally, a company could handle this in-house, but it is often difficult to bring such a business to life on its own. That is why there is a need for a team that connects companies, provides concrete solutions, and takes them all the way through to actual sales.

☑ Becoming a hub that connects different fields: commercial facilities, education, food beverage, cosmetics, and more

As our first initiative after establishing Agile, we are advancing a collaborative project with Bandai Namco Amusement Inc. We provide the resources and know-how of the company’s various amusement facilities—such as the latest technologies and services including VR and AR—to other companies and commercial facilities. By adding new value and services to commercial facilities, we support new businesses that provide solutions for “creating unique entertainment spaces.”

In addition, we are currently advancing multiple projects based on the idea that by connecting business formats that may seem far apart—such as commercial facilities, education, food beverage, and cosmetics—we can create new content that could not have been realized by individual companies or brands alone.

☑ Our goal: “Japanese artists to the world. The world’s content to Japan.”

I believe that by breaking down the stimuli people seek, we may be able to create new consumer activity.

There are three types: (1) the serotonin type, which feels stimulation physically; (2) the dopamine type, which feels stimulation through emotional uplift; and (3) the oxytocin type, which stimulates empathy, emotion, and a sense of well-being.By creating content tied to these stimuli, we aim to become a “solution platform” that promotes consumer activity in society.

Rather than creating an enormous plan and executing it over two to three years, the meaning of our company name “Agile” (= fast, nimble, quick-thinking) is to continuously create content and new businesses, refining them as we go.

As a solution platform, with “Japanese artists to the world. The world’s content to Japan.” as our guiding goal, we would like to create a wide range of initiatives.

The official Agile Inc. website is here.