NEWONE Inc. was founded in 2017 with corporate training as its core business. The corporate training business deals with approximately 200 companies annually, mainly major corporations, and in 2023 launched a new consulting business.
Representative Director and President Shuhei Kanbayashi joined Shake Inc. after consulting experience at Accenture Inc. Through launching the corporate training business, he noticed what could be called a distorted relationship between organizations and individuals. Based on the idea that “the relationship between individuals and organizations will significantly change in the future,” NEWONE Inc. was born as a spin-off from Shake Inc. The company aims for not only its customers but also its own employees to work with high engagement. We interviewed the company about its style of continuing to challenge new things in this rapidly changing era, as hidden in the company name.
Shuhei Kanbayashi
After graduating from Osaka University’s School of Human Sciences, joined Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Engaged in BPR consulting for government agencies, privatization strategy formulation for independent administrative agencies, and large-scale system development/implementation projects. In 2002, joined Shake Inc. Launched the corporate training business and developed training programs from new graduates to managers as head of product development. Conducted facilitation for new graduates to management and HR/organizational consulting. From 2015, became Representative Director of Shake Inc. Achieved record sales and profits for 3 consecutive years including the previous year. In September 2017, founded NEWONE Inc. to provide engagement-enhancing support, aiming to lead the future of working styles.
Founded NEWONE Inc. leading the era of changing individual-organization relationships
——Could you tell us how you became independent?
At my first company, Accenture, I did consulting work. There, I often thought, “No matter how good a strategy is, nothing changes unless people’s mindset is engaged.” I graduated from Accenture in 2002 and joined Shake Inc.
At Shake Inc., I launched the corporate training business and mainly provided training for new graduates and younger employees. However, all training at every company had a strong element of “fitting people into organizations,” and I felt doubts about how individuals were deeply subordinated to organizations. Especially in recent years, with work style reform and concepts like life shift for the 100-year-life era emerging, I thought the relationship between individuals and organizations would change significantly.
So in 2017, spinning off from Shake Inc., I founded NEWONE Inc. with the catchphrase “A new relationship between individuals and organizations.”
——After spinning off, did your training content change?
How new graduates progress work, report-communicate-consult, etc., haven’t changed much between past and present, so we didn’t significantly revise training. What we changed most was training for management layers like section chief, manager, and department head.
While there are many parts where things don’t progress smoothly without giving subordinates orders, in today’s era we need to proceed with diversity-conscious support-style work. To make this understood, we significantly revised management training.
——In addition to the corporate training business, you launched a consulting business in 2023.
Yes. Training is important, of course, but rather than just waiting for people to change, changing systems is also extremely important. We launched it to be able to support both system and personnel aspects.
The keyword for working with high engagement is “visualization”
——Could you tell us again about your business?
We mainly have two divisions, corporate training and consulting, aimed at organizational and human resource development, plus an HR Tech business complementing the two. The corporate training business has many large corporate customers, with about 200 transactions annually.
Currently, we have 58 full-time employees. Including contractors and contract employees, about 100 people are with us. About 40 of those are in the corporate training business, creating training programs as well as internal training and sales activities to capture customer needs.
——You want to strengthen the consulting business further. Could you tell us about the talent you seek?
Until now, we’ve operated with only the corporate training business, but last year launched the consulting business and have been gathering people. Going forward, we want to strengthen the consulting business and increase consulting members.
What we want in HR strategy mainly has two points. First, people with some consulting skills who don’t break our culture. Until now, with the corporate training business as our core, serious and approachable people have gathered. But to do consulting, in addition to approachability, the skill to face upper-level issues becomes necessary. Those who fit our cultivated culture to some extent while also having consulting skills are ideal.
Second, people with awareness of embodying working with high engagement. We must embody the chain: individuals and organizations are equal, work isn’t forced but done with enthusiasm, and that energy connects to company performance. Even when teaching customers in the corporate training business, it’s not persuasive if we can’t realize it in our own company. We want people with awareness of embodying this stance.
——Maintaining engagement is difficult at any company due to mismatches in work content or interpersonal relationships. What are your thoughts on this?
I think there are two cases where engagement becomes low due to feeling mismatched: cases where they really don’t fit the current company, and cases of coincidental factors like happening not to like the boss or not liking the work content.
For example, even if you don’t like the current work itself, if you have a dream like “I want to be XX in the future” and the skills needed for that can be gained in the current work, it may not be a mismatch. If you take a bird’s-eye view of current work and it broadly aligns with the future self you want to be, you can more easily accept it.
——Let me also ask Ms./Mr. Mori who works on-site. Are such mismatch consultations common?
I often hear voices on-site like “I can’t feel the connection between what I want to be in the future and current work.” That’s why visualizing the connection between what you want to become and current work—the so-called career path—through tools like skill maps is important.
Supporting customers from both soft and hard aspects
——Next, let me ask Ms./Mr. Mori who works on-site. Could you tell us your career and specific work?
I worked at a university entrance exam prep school for about 3.5 years from 2012 as a new graduate, then transferred to a major HR services company. After working there for 8 years, I joined NEWONE.
I changed careers from my first company because I thought “I want to increase even one company where workers can shine.” I came to this thinking from working harshly at my first company and joined the major HR services company as a consultant. There I mainly did hard-side consulting like business improvement and internal system creation, but even changing hard aspects doesn’t easily take root. Realizing that “people can’t work vibrantly unless we care for both hard and soft aspects,” I decided to transfer to NEWONE, which handles both.
——Please tell us the specific work content.
Currently, I’m working on a project creating career paths and skill maps for major IT companies. By using them for 1-on-1 meetings or visualizing skills that can be acquired in the future, we aim to enhance employee engagement. The main counterpart is HR, but since career maps differ by department like sales and development, it’s important to advance projects while talking with each department’s counterparts.
Also, I’m participating in an organizational reform project for a major automotive company. After analyzing engagement surveys done in one division, we identify issues together with section chief layer members on-site and support translating solutions to the field. This project also integrates with the corporate training business, incorporating training on “how to praise” to enable smooth communication with employees.
——How many projects do manager-layer people handle?
At our current scale, the minimum unit has me doing everything from sales to project execution. Often 1-2 members are assigned per project.
As mentioned, it’s not something completed alone—coordination with other departments is also important. Those with the mindset “as long as my own numbers are good, it’s OK” may not fit.
——You mentioned incorporating remote work. What’s your work style?
To take communication with members inside and outside the department, the whole company has decided on at least 2 office days per week. The remaining 3 days allow remote or office work choice. Among consulting members, some are stationed at customer sites once a week.
Many other consulting firms adopt full remote, but those without experience or with little experience find it hard to ask people around. Mental health issues or difficulty onboarding often occur. Meanwhile, we create onboarding plans to fit both work and culture, and devise our 2 office days per week rule and lunch/drinking party subsidies to enhance employee engagement.
The thoughts embedded in NEWONE
——Let me ask President Kanbayashi. Could you tell us again the meaning embedded in the company name “NEWONE”?
When NEWONE was founded, concepts like “100-year-life era” and “life shift” were emerging, and I felt it was a timing of major change in individual-organization relationships. Precisely in that midst, I wanted to keep running at the head of the world, notice things others aren’t doing, and create new value. With the thought “new XX,” I named the company.
——Let me ask Ms./Mr. Mori who works on-site. Please give a message to those who want to work together going forward.
At my previous job, I did similar consulting work, but literally only consulting. Without icebreakers, I’d just logically advance meetings, or trust hadn’t been built with customers at the consulting proposal stage. However, after joining NEWONE and doing not just consulting but also training, I’ve been able to translate training experience into consulting work, like how to create a “place” for changing people. Through that experience, I feel my “human skills” have greatly improved—drawing real thoughts from on-site customers and quickly building trust relationships.
——Training business experience connects to consulting work.
That’s right. We don’t just organize internal systems and mechanisms but also focus on “people” themselves, running alongside toward a good direction. We want to continue being an organization that can do such consulting.
[Interview Postscript]
President Kanbayashi’s words “changing the relationship between individuals and organizations” embedded deep insights held since his Accenture days. The approach of integrating “skills to move people’s hearts” cultivated in training business with consulting, enhancing engagement from both systems and personnel sides, is the company’s greatest strength.
During the interview, seeing on-site members say their “human skills greatly improved” made me realize that the philosophy is embodied at the practical level. There are touches throughout to foster psychological safety, like dialogue-focused onboarding systems. For those who genuinely want to run at the head of the world and create a society where workers can shine as themselves, this is the best running partner. Even your own work style is sublimated into a “persuasive model”—come taste the privilege of continuously creating new value here.
ConsulNext / Senior Consultant
Masahito Tsukada
NEWONE Inc. Company Information
| Company Name | NEWONE Inc. |
|---|---|
| Location | 105-0001, Toranomon 36 Mori Bldg. 9F, 3-4-7 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo |
| Directors | Kenichiro Kasai, Yuko Sawano |
| Advisors | Akihito Shimazu, Kennosuke Tanaka, Yuichiro Ishihara, Mamiya Ogata, Toshimitsu Sowa, Akira Kitai |
| Auditor | Shinichi Urushiyama, Representative of Urushiyama Partners Tax Corporation |
| Business Overview | HR/Organizational Consulting, Human Resource Development/Organizational Development, HR Skill Enhancement, HR Tech |
