User Manual
Take meetings, for example. These days there are many chat tools or cloud services that let you
participate in meetings from remote locations. By using IT, even members who are not on-site can
participate without being restricted by location. We should skillfully use IT in these kinds of places
to change the company culture.
Q: It seems that many Japanese corporations still have a negative opinion about
implementing chat tools for meetings and daily work.
Mr. Nishiwaki: If we start with the negatives, like “it can’t do this” or “that isn’t good,” then we
put constraints on our tools. What I want you to consider is that nowadays, everyone — not only
young people, but people of older generations — routinely uses chat tools when away from the
company. In that case, isn’t it more unnatural not to use chat tools in work?
Some corporations have the opinion that, if they include chat tools in work, then employees will
talk too much about their private lives with one another, but such conversations take place even
without chat tools, don’t they? The conversations people normally have directly will just be done
over chat, so it shouldn’t be that much of a problem.
It’s strange that people use chat tools all the time outside of work, but refuse them at work. That’s
exactly why it’s important to change the culture.
Successfully Reforming Ways of Working Using Skype for
Business
Q: Skype is an example of chat tools available at work. Please tell us some of the advantages
of the Skype for Business service, which your company has released for corporations.
Mr. Nishiwaki: Nowadays, Skype is routinely implemented not only by enterprises but also startup
corporations, and it is used in international conferences and the like. It has spread throughout
the Japanese corporate world and is implemented by over 60 percent of listed corporations. To
encourage its use in corporations, we enabled users to do other work while using the chat tool,
such as working in Microsoft Ofce. We also equipped it with functions for clearer audio and
provided fully extensive security features. But even after all those improvements, I think a big
advantage was the brand recognition that Skype is used all over the world.
Q: What role do you believe Skype for Business can play to help successfully reform the way
people work?
Mr. Nishiwaki: Increased communication speed and improved productivity are the largest merits
of implementing Skype for Business. In conventional ways of working, email played a big role,
but each email requires a series of tasks: You write a document, send it, the recipient reads it,
writes a response, sends it, then you receive the response, and read that. The cycle is long and
very inefcient, and often leads to miscommunication. With chat tools, the exchange can be done
instantly and while looking at one another. The speed and improved productivity make it easier to
work and increase satisfaction, ultimately leading to happier lives.
Skype lets you communicate with people no matter where they are. We no longer care about
location. In other words, “anywhere” is the premise. The person you are talking to might be
working at home or on a park bench, in a regional ofce or an overseas branch, or maybe in a cafe
in Hakodate like me. But where they are doesn’t really matter. I’m sure that, in reality, there is also
the need to make some administrational xes, such as changing company employment rules. In
order to change the culture like that, I think it should be done top-down.
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