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Case Study

Moon Creative Lab: Mitsui’s venture studio

By Benoit F. Leleux, Jim Pulcrano, Adam Hansson Tönning, Alexandra Loboda, Anette Papuga and Daisuke Shinohara

15 pages

April 2024

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Reference: IMD-7-2544

This case follows the steps taken by Kaichi Yokoyama, Moon Creative Lab’s CEO, to establish the entity as a pioneering venture studio and entrepreneurial talent development entity within the Mitsui Group. As a corporate venture, the story began in 2018 when Kaichi embarked on a mission to reshape Mitsui’s deeply entrenched traditions and pursue a new era of innovation and creativity, a need highlighted by the appointment of a task force entrusted with the role of charting the company’s strategic direction until 2030. Kaichi believed Mitsui needed to evolve from merely “connecting” to “creating” to remain relevant in an ever-evolving world and to avoid being disrupted from the outside, but rather the inside. His vision extended far beyond short-term profits; it was about investing in Mitsui’s most valuable asset: its people. Kaichi aimed to nurture curiosity, broaden employees’ perspectives and create a culture of innovation. Moon was the vehicle to bring the vision to life, a corporate venture studio that would revolutionize Mitsu’s conventional operations and mindsets by celebrating curiosity and innovation in a venture studio set up in Silicon Valley. Despite strong resistance from Mitsui’s middle management, Moon pressed on with its mission. By 2023, it had to take stock of progress and define the objectives for the next five years, as well as the KPIs that would ensure its continued relevance within the Mitsui Group in an era of increasing uncertainty.

Learning Objective

Discuss the challenges of building and measuring success for an ambitious corporate venture studio that seeks not only to create new businesses for the group but also to profoundly change its mindset.
Investigate the issues associated with deep mindset transformation and talent management within a large, established Japanese group.
Analyze the various possible performance metrics for an original innovation engine like Moon, a corporate venture with a mix of objectives, from business creation to cultural transformation.

Keywords

Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital, Corporate Venturing, Venture Studio, Innovation, Innovation Lab, Innovation Leadership, Acceleration, Incubation, Start-up, White Space Strategy, Silicon Valley, Transformation, Digital Transformation, Platform, Entrepreneurial Leadership, Talent Development, Ambidexterity

Settings

World/global
Moon Creative Lab, Mitsui Group, Finance and Insurance, Venture Capital
2018-2023

Type

Field Research

Available Languages

English

Related material

Teaching note, Video

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