Building a Resourced Society
with

SSX

20 Keywords to Help Get Us There© 2020 Dentsu Inc., Dentsu InstituteBuilding a Resourced Society with SSX

Social System Transformation (SSX) refers to fundamental changes in the way society
operates when organizations of all kinds harness Digital Transformation (DX).
The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented crisis that has exposed the vulnerability of our current social systems.
To address our heritage of unresolved problems unique to Japan, as well as the issues we must tackle as part of the
global community, we must first learn to distinguish between “true waste,” which makes no one happy, and the＊“usefulness of the useless,” which creates resilience. People across all segments of society must join hands indeveloping the skills and resources for the road ahead. We have compiled keywords that express 20 concepts andperspectives needed to help get us there. These keywords describe the essential features of SSX primarily from theviewpoint of Japan. However, they share much in common with societies worldwide.
＊

Words from Zhuangzi, a philosopher and a father of Taoism, meaning, “Things that initially seem useless in reality serve an important purpose.”Transformation must happen on four levels.
Global1, 2 , 3, 4, 5

N a ti o n a l

6, 7, 8, 9, 10

O rg a n i z a ti o n a l a n d i n d i v i d u a l

11,12 ,13 ,14 ,15

P s y c h o l o gi c a l

16,17, 18 , 19, 20

We chose 20 keywords—5 on each level—
to describe this transformation.

Next Crisis

Green Recovery

Global Food System

10 Billion /100 Birthdays

Ethics ofTechnology

Society’s Optimum
Safety Factor

Government as
a Platform

Regional
Centralization

From Household
to Individual

Talent Market
Rebalancing

Digital Triathlete

Work Diet

Buffer Organizations

Inclusion and Mixing

Socially VirtuousBusiness

From Anxiety
to Understanding

Priority ResetTolerance and Respect

Natural Contributors

Do What You Can

The DX has been useful during the current
COVID-19 crisis, but what would have
happened in the case of cyberwar,
a pandemic of computer viruses? A “next crisis”
mentality—anticipation of an array of possible
crises, not only health risks from the “nextcorona,” but also disaster, war, famine—will be
crucial in the coming era.

Next Crisis

While the current health crisis has led toeconomic recession, it has also reduced
atmospheric pollution, producing news
reports of the “We can see the Himalayas
from India” variety. The Green Recovery is theconcept of trying to sustain such positivechanges and rein in climate change even as
we restart socioeconomic activity. It is a corecomponent of economic recovery policies
announced by several European countries,
which have begun to implement them with thehelp of businesses, NGOs, and otherGreen Recovery

stakeholders.

Since March 2020, various countries haveinstituted export restrictions on agricultural andanimal products. In response, the FAO, WHO, and
WTO issued a joint statement expressing concernthat such measures would lead to global
insecurity. The OECD identifies a “triple challenge”
for global food systems: providing food security
and nutrition to a growing population, ensuring the
livelihoods of people working along the foodchain, and ensuring the environmental
sustainability of the food sector. While the current
crisis has had a minor impact on Japan, Japan’scalorie-based food self-sufficiency rate in fiscal
2019 was a low 38%.* Japan should consider thisGlobal Food System

issue from both the global and national
perspectives in preparation for future crises.
* Japan Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, thefood self-sufficiency ratio and index of food self-sufficiency
potential FY 2019.

The world population is projected to reachnearly 10 billion by 2050. Meanwhile, many
countries will experience population aging.
Given the rise of the 100-year life,* thesecountries will start redesigning medical andlong-term care systems and reconstructing theways people work and study. In Japan, where
the population is shrinking as it grows older,
values about where and how to live will also
probably change. Longevity will become a life
value. Issues of depopulation and aging areglobally shared, and solutions tested in Japan,
where the challenges are more advanced, will
attract attention.

10 Billion / 100 Birthdays* Term put forward in The 100-Year Life: Living andWorking in an Age of Longevity (Bloomsbury Business) byLondon Business School professors Lynda Gratton and
Andrew J. Scott.

Technology is changing more quickly, raisings
concerns that our recognition and discussionof its ethical problems will fall behind. Take AI,
that panacea of technologies. Cases of racialAIand gender discrimination stemming frombiases in algorithms and data are now being
reported. It is crucial that we scrutinize newtechnologies from many perspectives,
including the social, ethical, and legal, and that
we foster a society-wide ability to imagine

Ethics of Technology

scenarios of the future they could enable.

Safety factor, a term used in structural
engineering, is a ratio used to express therelationship between the maximum load
anticipated for a system and the load thatwould break said system. Resources discarded
as “useless” before the COVID-19 crisis
included backup resources needed to beadequately prepared for emergencies. In
searching for the optimum safety factor forsociety, concepts such as durability andSociety’s Optimum Safety Factor

reliability are as important as efficiency.

DX presents new possibilities for government
agencies to update their infrastructure
and rapidly meet diversifying needs. Anotherdesired change is open innovation in the public
sector, a process of building platforms that
integrate central and local government
systems and collaborating with citizens,businesses, NPOs, and other stakeholders in

Government
as a Platformthe creation of public value.

The crisis has shown us that, by interfacingwith citizens and cooperating closely with thenational government, local governments play
an important role in making COVID-19
measures more effective. More and more
people work and live in different communities,
or interact with people of other communities incontexts outside of home life and tourism.
Communities’ needs from their government arealso diverse. Instead of one-size-fits-all
decentralization, Japanese towns andcommunities of the future need a consolidation

Regional Centralizationof functions and authorities suitable forpursuing diverse forms of self-governance.

In Japan, government systems are designed
around the household as the basic unit ofmanagement. As family models diversify,
however, it is getting harder to determine
conditions in the home at the household level.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Japanese
government distributed special cash paymentsof 100,000 yen to individuals. However, because
eligibility for receiving the payments was
restricted to the head of each household, theprogram created problems for people withdomestic challenges. Given today’s preference

From Household
to Individual

for moving government services online, it isexpected that the government will start using
digital IDs in their systems and switch toindividuals as the unit of management.

The COVID-19 crisis and ensuing economic
recession has created an imbalance in thelabor market. At the same time that many
people have been laid off or lost their jobs, theburden of essential workers and labor
shortages in fields that cannot switch toremote work have deepened. Addressing thesedrastic structural changes will requiredeveloping social systems that quickly match
human resource demand to supply in
conjunction with safety nets that alleviate

Talent Market Rebalancing

people’s employment concerns.

The Wharton School, a business school in theUS, states that business leaders need the skillsof a “digital triathlete”* to succeed indigitalizing their organizations. They present a
three-part model for leaders of culturaltransformation: the “strategist” stays ahead of
emerging trends, the “innovator” disrupts thestatus quo and moves the organization toward
its future vision, and the “driver” organizes
people to ensure that the vision is executed
across the organization.

Digital Triathlete* As described in the article “Being a Digital Leader Has
Never Been More Urgent” on Knowledge@Wharton,an online publication of the Wharton School.

DX has the potential to make people andorganizations more agile. The first step in DX is
to take inventory of existing work processes
and unflinchingly eliminate waste. Robots and
AI

AI

AI

AI

AI

AI

AI

AI

AI can then be used to reduce labor, freeing up
resources for people and the organization.
Those extra resources can then be deployed
for things like creating new value andaddressing unexpected risks. After all, don’t
people want to work in satisfying or meaningful

Work Dietjobs that robots and AI cannot do?

Reduced intermediate cost is a well-recognizedbenefit of the rigorous pursuit of efficiency.
However, for addressing new social challenges,
there is growing recognition of the need forintermediary activities—work that fills thespace between organizations. The public andprivate sectors and individuals together should
consider supporting the activities of NPOs andother entities that leverage this in-between
space for the creation of new public value.

Buffer Organizations

More is needed to promote diversity andinclusion, as the Black Lives Matter movement
has shown. Mixing goes beyond the modest
stance of inclusion, which has connotations of“embracing” and “accepting,” and emphasizes
an active and disorderly gathering of diverse
people. Societies where organizations havedeep hierarchies reveal their vulnerabilities in
unstable conditions. Now more than ever,mixing is needed to shift organizations toward

Inclusion and Mixing

synergetic teams.

As the SDGs and other initiatives to solve
social problems gain attention, there is rising
expectation of the role of companies in usingbusiness to contribute to the public interest.
Considering what is good for different
stakeholders instead of purely pursuing profit
can be considered an act of building social
virtue. As with virtuous people, society

Socially VirtuousBusinessneeds—and welcomes—virtuous companies.

The COVID-19 pandemic and widespreadrecognition of the limits of medicine haveturned up the dial on people’s anxiety. The
sources of angst are many: from schools
closing, to staying at home and businessclosures, to unconvincing and poorly executed
public policies, to amplification by the media,
to intolerance of other people. This widespread,compound anxiety is hard to shake. Revivingsocial and economic activity will require

From Anxiety
to Understanding

soothing each of these sources of anxiety andtransforming them into understanding.

The current crisis has shown many people that
fundamental aspects of society once
considered immutable can abruptly change.
It has also spawned a deep, heartfelt
realization that nothing is more important thanprotecting oneself and one’s family. This desire
to prioritize simple happiness will become anengine that drives transformation of social
systems previously thought unchangeable,
including ways of working, educational

Priority Resetsystems, customs and conventions.

It has become clear that society cannot
properly function if we do not work together
with people of different values and ways ofthinking. Combatting COVID-19 is just top of
the list. What is needed is mental andemotional spaciousness to accept the factother people are different from oneself andthat some things do not go as one likes. Also,
discrimination and division are born fromignorance. Efforts to update one’s knowledge inorder to understand the personal history andreasoning behind what other people say and toTolerance and Respect

stay in dialogue with an attitude of respect will
become increasingly important.

We use this term to refer to people who feel noreservations about wanting to use their skills
for others, and feel fulfilled when they do.
There are many among younger generations.
A Dentsu Institute survey* produced heartening
results showing that more people in the
18-to-29 than in the 30-and-over age groupwant to use their information, skills and time
for their community or society.

Natural Contributors* Awareness and behavior survey during “Stay Home
Week.”

Japan has a long history of slow change driven
by top-down orders and uniform consensus.
But speed is an essential element in thetransition to a new society. Saicho, a Japanese
Buddhist monk who lived in the early 9th
century, said, “Shining light into a corner isitself a national treasure.” In other words, wheneach does their best, the whole is better for it.
Since we will never reach perfect consensus,
Japanese people today are called to stop the
self-limiting thoughts based on a lack of

Do What You Can

precedence and to think and act on thechallenges in front of them.

Building a Resourced Society with SSX
20 Keywords to Help Get Us There
Aki Kimura Akira Hoshina Fumito Nitto
Kazutaka Kobashi Koki Yoshida Masaya Taniguchi
Nanae Ishikawa Sayuri Nakagawa Seiko Yamazaki
Takashi Chiba Taro Magome Yuna Takemura© 2020 Dentsu Inc., Dentsu Institute. All rights reserved.