“exaBase Sprint”, a Co-creation Type Program That Leads Enterprise Transformation with the Power of AI and Design Is Now Available to the Public
—Adopted by SAPPORO HD, created approx. 80 business themes and 16 service prototypes in five months –

ExaWizards Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director & President: Makoto Haruta; hereafter, “ExaWizards”) announces “exaBase Sprint”, a co-creation type program that leads enterprise transformation with the power of AI and design is now available to the public.

☑︎ Two programs adapted to the focused future and needs of the company support progress toward discontinuous innovation
“exaBase Sprint” is a co-creation type program including workshops and enables embodiment of strategy and measures required for enterprise transformation by utilizing the power of AI and design. Two programs, “Backcasting Sprint” which produces discontinuous business themes of the future, and “AX Sprint” which embodies DX measures with the power of AI, are now available to the public.

“Backcasting Sprint” has now been adopted by SAPPORO HOLDINGS LTD. (hereafter SAPPORO HD) and in terms of initiative with SAPPORO HD, approx. 80 business themes were produced and 16 prototypes were created during five-month program.

This program utilizes the backcasting method, which is a mainstream method overseas, to produce discontinuous business themes of the future. It gives shape to the first step of business development in the era of VUCA (*1) in which it is difficult to predict the future, by providing integrated support from the creation of business themes through co-creation type workshops, creation of prototypes to verification of business feasibility.

Through this initiative, approx. 80 business themes were produced and 16 prototypes were created during five-month program. In the future, we aim to contribute to SAPPORO HD’s initiatives for developing new businesses through various support based on this program, including assistance for study on embodiment of the business themes created. Customers of ExaWizards include representative companies of finance/insurance, manufacturer/industrial goods, consumer products, health care, telecommunications/infrastructure, energy, human resource, distribution service, and exaBase Sprint has already been adopted by several leading companies.

*1 VUCA: An acronym for Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity, and stands for unpredictable situation changing with dizzying speed.

☑︎ More advance results possible through cooperation with “exaBase DX Assessment & Learning”
SAPPORO HD has introduced ”exaBase DX Assessment & Learning” Group wide as DX/IT human resource training program with the aim of “transforming all employees into DX human resources” and as for this initiative, members of the program were selected using the assessment function of this service. By assigning members with high innovative skill and knowledge utilizing the assessment, not only result creation of advanced level as well as nurturing of an intrapreneur will be possible but improved ROI (*2) on creation of innovation can be expected.

Through offering of innovative program “exaBase Sprint” in which three aspects of AI, design, and strategy are harmonized to the public, ExaWizards will assist more companies that work on enterprise transformation including SAPPORO HD in creation of discontinuous innovation.

*2: An acronym for Return On Investment and stands for indicator that shows the amount of profit gained through the cost spent

☑︎ Outline of each program of “exaBase Sprint”
About “BackCasting Sprint”
Draws non-linear future such as society, everyday life, as well as changes in sense of values in 10 years’ time as a design fiction and creates new business themes.

While general foresight programs only draw design fiction, Backcasting Sprint enables embodiment of business theme and its details. In addition, it provides comprehensive support from verification of business feasibility by consultants to implementation of AI by AI engineers.

The program is implemented in the following steps.

Step1. Gathering of future material
Consensus-building of business domain and gathering of materials such as macro trends used in the Sprint for the maximization of the result.
Step2. Sprint
A five-day Sprint to draft business themes and to create prototypes that incorporates uncertainty.
Step3. Assessment of business feasibility
Embodiment of business proposition and assessment of business feasibility, development of system/road map.

About “AX Sprint”
A program contained in the work shop that gives shape to DX measures for various corporate activities such as improvement of customer experience and business improvement, etc. using ExaWizards’ unique AI card is implemented in the following steps.

Step1. Designing and preparation of the program
Designing of the program and discussion of the theme for the maximization of the result by adjusting to situation of individual issues.
Step2. Sprint
A three-day Sprint to embody DX measures through practicing Design thinking and utilizing AI.
Step3. Assessment
Development of a road map based on assessment and priority ranking of the measures.

☑︎ Comment
Rina Omata: DX Planning department, DX/IT Headquarters, SAPPORO HOLDINGS LTD.
We held the “Backcasting Sprint” for development of business of SAPPORO Group in a new field. After organizing hypotheses of fields to work on in the first half of the five-month period of the initiative, we quickly selected and assigned 11 members from each group company by utilizing the assessment result and implemented an idea generation workshop in the latter half. In addition to group works that were held three times, all members have voluntary worked to find signal of the future from media articles and we were able to obtain distinctive themes of more quantity and quality than we assumed. Such themes incorporate uncertainty that we were not able to imagine as an extension of existing field and take advantage of the characteristics of “Backcasting Sprint”.

☑︎ About “exaBase Sprint”
exaBase Sprint is a co-creation type program including workshops that enables embodiment of strategy and measures required for enterprise transformation and provides support to progress toward discontinuous innovation. We are now offering “Backcasting Sprint” program, which creates discontinuous business themes of the future and “AX Sprint” program, which realizes both embodiment of DX measures and DX human resource training to the public.
URL: https://exawizards.com/exabase/sprint

* exaBase and Backcasting Sprint is registered trademark of ExaWizards.

【Company profile of ExaWizards, Inc.】
Company name: ExaWizards Corporation
Location: 21F, Shiodome Sumitomo Building, 1-9-2 Higashi-Shinbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Representative: Makoto Haruta, President and Representative Director
Business: Industrial innovation and resolution of social issues through the development of services utilizing AI
URL: https://exawizards.com/en/

<Contact for public relations>
E-mail address of the Public Relations Division of ExaWizards Inc.: publicrelations@exwzd.com