Manabe's thoughts on the term "We Co-Build"

In 2024, when the baton of "CEO" was passed from founder Takahiro Hayashi to Taichi Manabe, Monosus revamped its website the following year and announced a new tagline , "We Co-Build" | "Creating Together ." About a year later, we've heard some members say that they "still haven't fully grasped the meaning of the term 'Co-Build'." So, we've planned a series of articles in which the CEO himself will explain "We Co-Build" once again.

In the first episode, we talked about the phrase "We Co-Build - Creating together."

Under former CEO Sugimoto , the phrase "working with people you want to live with" became ingrained in the members' minds and was even abbreviated as "Tomohata." I'd like to hear about the background behind the change from "Tomohata" to "Tomotsuku" this time.

Manabe: Right now , Monosus is a mix of businesses in different fields, such as Web & Digital , Creative & Food , but I think what they all have in common is the awareness that "we are making things." In English, for example, the word "to make" can be translated as "make" or "create," but in the case of Monosus, we decided that it should be "build."

We often say we "build" a website, right? In our food business, which provides "everyday meals" centered around our company cafeteria, we also feel like we're building and implementing the systems and operations that go before we actually prepare and serve the food every day. We say "we build together" to make it easier to understand, but the feeling of "building and implementing" is common to all the businesses involved with Monosus, so we decided to define it with this website renewal.

I had the pleasure of working alongside Sugimoto when he was writing the text for "We Co-Build" | Creating Together . I was particularly struck by the opening line, "Our manufacturing process begins with something like a small 'passion'."

Manabe: From my own perspective, I basically want to start projects and businesses with a kind of "passion" from people, a feeling of overflowing enthusiasm. I feel like I'm searching for that kind of "passion," both inside and outside the company, or rather, waiting to come across it.

Sugimoto: When you say you're waiting for someone who has "passion," what do you mean by that?

Manabe : Of course, you can do business without "passion," but in the world I want to create, I want to do business that is "people-centered" and "passion-centered." For example, Arai (Shigeta, Director of Food Business and Development Director of Food Solutions) is a bundle of passion. We started the food business because of him, and Food Hub started with meeting Shiratou (Kaoru, Co-CEO). However, even "passion" might die down without colleagues. I feel like I'm playing the role of kindling the fire and adding fuel to make it bigger.

Sugimoto: We spent a lot of time and went back and forth on the part about "designing relationships," didn't we? Designing "devices" and "tools" to "create autonomous and sustainable relationships" that don't fall into structures of conflict and exploitation. I think this also reflects the world that Manabe wants to realize.

Manabe: For example, in the case of Food Hub , it was jointly established by the Kamiyama Town Hall, the Kamiyama Connect Corporation, and Monosus. However, instead of the typical outsourcing of operations, the important thing was to design a relationship where it was a "third-sector organization with a certain degree of freedom as long as the founding objectives are achieved." This design was one of the "mechanisms" that determined the relationship between the town hall and the Food Hub employees.

In the food business, Mr. Arai has a unique contract scheme for employee cafeterias, a B2B business, that sets him apart from the conventional employee cafeteria industry. That's why he can create employee cafeterias that provide meals using fresh, high-quality ingredients at a sustainable price. In the web business, Monosus also has a scheme for operational services that is typical of the company and has high customer satisfaction, so there are many clients who have continued their contracts for 10 years or more. Whether or not something can be schemed or systematized is also a design of the relationship. I often use the word "integrate," and I pay close attention to whether or not it has been "integrated."

Sugimoto : Indeed, Manabe-san, you often say "grapple." What is the nuance of that expression?

There's a moment when the Manabe concept, the assignment of specialists, the operations, and the business and service models all click into place. I describe that moment as "fitting together," and once it clicks into place, it starts to run on its own. After that, it's fine to only get involved about once every six months. Of course, people change, and if I sense that things are starting to go wrong, I jump in and refit it.

Sugimoto: When you assemble something and then let go, does that happen as part of the process of building up that little bit of "heat"?

Manabe: That's right. After that, it starts to burn fiercely, so to speak. I think I'm looking at people rather than the situation. In that sense, because I don't look at the business itself, my judgment may be slow, or there may be a limit to the number of businesses I can handle. But I guess that's my current management style.

We were talking about architectural terms like "co-build" and "assembling," but in the end we ended up talking about "burning fiercely," which was a bit thrilling. It seemed that the words "construction" and "heat," which don't seem to go together semantically, overlapped seamlessly in Mr. Manabe's thinking. I would love to have a conversation with Mr. Manabe about "We Co-Build" with this text in hand.

See you next time!