What sorts of problems did you face before using J-GoodTech?

At LIXIL, we manufacture our products in a process that runs through steps from research through product development and product design. In this process, we often face technical problems during the research and product development phases. In particular, it is generally difficult to conduct initiatives focused on new technology at internal company laboratories alone.

In such situations, we take advantage of a variety of methods for finding the technologies we’re looking for. This includes relying on the connections of our internal purchasing department and external trading firms, attending exhibitions, and directly contacting known companies. However, most researchers who need to search for technology have positions dedicated to their own research. They do not have many opportunities to broadly develop connections outside their specialized field. Moreover, they have no way of coming in contact with SMEs except by chance at exhibitions or through word of mouth. At the same time, we believe it is important to give researchers an environment in which they can focus on their research. One of our issues in that respect was how to provide support in the search for external technology in order to resolve research problems.

Please tell us about what led you to begin using J-GoodTech.

It was in this context that we visited the J-GoodTech Special Exhibition at the New Value Creation Exhibition 2016. This was hosted by the Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation at Tokyo Big Sight in November 2016. We were approached by experts from J-GoodTech who asked us whether we were having any technical or technology-related problems. We consulted with them about technologies we’re currently searching for, and they contacted us several days later to say there might be companies on J-GoodTech with the technology we need. That was when they introduced us to J-GoodTech’s Needs function.

Did you have any concerns when using the Needs function?

J-GoodTech includes niche top companies and other high-quality companies. We were also told that companies registered on J-GoodTech have undergone screening by the Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation. This was why we didn’t have any major concerns. However, we were concerned about whether there were companies on J-GoodTech who could satisfy our demands, and if they were out there, whether they would contact us with a proposal.

What was it like to actually use the Needs function?

The needs we had when we approached J-GoodTech could be served by a very small number of companies even in Japan. It probably would have been quite difficult to find such a company using a private matching service. However, we were surprised to find that the experts at J-GoodTech found several companies among their registered members that seemed capable of making a proposal suited to our needs. Moreover, we were able to use the Needs function to screen our company name while providing information about our needs to just the companies found by the experts. We appreciated this ability to communicate our specific needs while still maintaining confidentiality. Also, J-GoodTech’s services are all completely free. We were very thankful that we could take a “we’ll never know until we try” approach in communicating our needs to other companies through J-GoodTech.
After we had communicated our needs, we were also impressed with how J-GoodTech’s experts conscientiously and thoroughly served as an intermediary between us and the companies making proposals. Another major contributor to the success of our business discussions through J-GoodTech was the advice we received to actually visit proposing companies to learn about their level of technical capabilities.

Was there anything you took special care to do in using the Needs function?

In communicating our needs through this function, we felt that we should be sure to be as clear as possible about what we were looking for. When searching for technology, information about our needs will become public. We spoke several times with relevant parties about just how much information to release for this purpose. It is very difficult to draw the line between what information can and can’t be publicized. We gave as much thought as possible to the extent of what we would make public. But we also felt it was important in proceeding toward real negotiations that we be as specific and concrete as possible in sharing our needs. This would make it easier for the SMEs on the other side to make their proposals.