Value Creation Process

Value

Social Issues We Attempt to Solve

The Current Situation of Japanese SMEs

In Japan, with a declining birth rate, demographic aging, and a shrinking labor force, improving labor productivity will be important to maintain our current standard of living and economic competitiveness. In particular, improving the labor productivity of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)*1, which account for 99.7% of all companies and 65.6% of the total labor force, is critically important. However, the situation has remained stagnant for an extended period of time*2.

Percentage of Japan’s Labor Force Working at SMEs

Trend of Labor Productivity at Japanese Large Companies and SMEs*3

The use of Information technology (IT), or digital transformation (DX), is effective for improving labor productivity as research shows that SMEs that actively invest in IT enjoy higher revenue and ordinary profit margins compared to those that do not*4. However, over 92% of SMEs*5 are not using IT due to reasons such as a shortage of IT personnel and budget constraints.

Effectiveness of IT Investment (DX) in Corporate Financial Performance

State of Initiatives for IT adoption and DX at Japanese SMEs

Underlying this situation are the aging of the management of SMEs supporting Japan’s economy (average age of 62.33 years, with 30.9% being at least 70 years old; as of January 2023)*6, and the lack of successors (in 2019, approximately 40% of management in their 70s did not have successors)*7, which have contributed to delays in decisions on investment in IT. Another possible reason for not being able to embark on digitalization is the difficulty that SMEs face in recruiting IT personnel compared to large companies.

Amid these circumstances, recent changes in external factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic, rising raw material costs, and labor shortages have sapped away the energy of SMEs, further reducing their ability to invest in IT. The IT adoption and DX promotion of SMEs are not merely issues regarding improving the operation efficiency of individual companies. They affect the medium- to long-term competitiveness and sustainability of Japan’s economy as a whole as well as the lives of many people working in SMEs. As such, a nationwide effort is necessary to solve these issues.

  • *1 Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications/Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, “2021 Economic Census for Business Activity”
  • *2 Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, “2023 White Paper on Small and Medium Enterprises in Japan”
  • *3 Labor productivity = amount of added value / number of employees
  • *4 Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, “Current Conditions and Challenges facing Small and Medium Enterprises and Small Businesses”
  • *5 Organization for Small & Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation, JAPAN, “Report for Survey on DX Promotion at Small & Medium Enterprises (2023) ” (October 2023)
  • *6 Japan Finance Corporation, “Progression of the Aging of Managers and Business Succession Problems” (February 2024)
  • *7 Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, “2020 White Paper on Small and Medium Enterprises in Japan”

Taking on the “Black Ocean” Challenge

While many companies provide services for corporate IT adoption and DX, there are currently very few cases of companies comprehensively working to promote IT adoption and improve productivity improvement in SMEs, numbering only in the tens of thousands. This is because many SMEs have little ability to invest in IT and are not used to using IT, not having specialized IT personnel and with many of their executives and employees lacking IT skills. Accordingly, there are a variety of issues unique to SMEs at every stage of IT adoption and use, resulting in a market where business efficiency is extremely poor and it is difficult for new players to enter.
As a result, despite the abundance of customers exceeding 3.3 million SMEs, the market for IT adoption and DX in SMEs is a special market with few companies making full-scale entry; it is a “black ocean.” Therefore, it can be said that there is the potential for major business opportunities if we can overcome the poor efficiency unique to this market by using technology and innovation to provide the rewards of IT adoption and DX to many SMEs.

Our Unique Strengths Contributing to the Improvement of Labor Productivity at SMEs through IT Adoption and DX

Our mission is “making work more fun and creative.” We bring transformation to the work styles of SMEs by providing cloud services centered on business chat, and we go about our business with a strong desire to make work more fun and creative for everyone in the future. This is our core value driver.

To achieve this mission, we are putting in place a flat and efficient organization that is conducive to synergy between functions such as product development and is quick in making decisions. At the same time, we are gathering people who share our mission, sincerely working to create an organization that allows challenges to be undertaken—sometimes beyond the boundaries of one’s work scope or capabilities—with a playful spirit and ownership, based on our shared values.

This is how we develop the business chat that we provide. Our business chat serves as the core of communication within and outside a company, and it is used daily with high frequency by the employees of all occupations of SMEs. We provide our business chat at prices that are affordable even for SMES after thoroughly enhancing useability, narrowing down functions so that they can be fully leveraged by the users of Japanese SMEs not familiar with IT. This allows us to receive an extremely high level of customer satisfaction (service cancellation rate of 0.25%, as of December 31, 2024).

As a result, our product has strong growth potential, with new users increasing at a compound rate through referrals from existing users, growing into a business chat service boasting the highest number of users in Japan*8 and used by 914,000 companies (as of the end of March 2025). It is a major driving force for our Group’s value creation and competitive advantage.

With this business chat as a business platform specializing in promoting DX at SMEs, we provide customers with services that help solve issues faced by SMEs. By offering our services in an easy-to-understand and seamless manner through Chatwork, which has an impressive number of users and user contact points, we are recommending services that are helpful in solving frontline issues—even at SMEs without IT specialists—and creating environments where our services are introduced to produce results.

We are currently taking on the challenge of using this business platform to provide business process as a service (BPaaS), an innovative service that allows SMEs, which often face issues with labor shortages and introducing IT, to easily benefit from IT adoption and DX.

  • *8 According to a survey of monthly active users (MAUs) conducted in April 2024 by Nielsen NetView and Nielsen Mobile NetView; 41 applicable services selected by kubell Co., Ltd., including Chatwork, Microsoft Teams, Slack, LINE WORKS, and Skype; as of March 31, 2025

The Superiority and Strength of Our Management Capital for Value Creation

Management Capital Superiority and Strength in Value Creation
Manufacturing Capital
  • Highly reliable cloud infrastructure (Amazon Web Services, etc.) that provides high stability for systems and services
  • High level of information security specifications and safety required for business infrastructure
  • IT development environment with high productivity
Intellectual Capital
  • Knowledge built from a customer base of more than 930,000 companies and 7.75 million IDs (as of the end of June 2025) as one of the largest business chats in Japan
  • Deep understanding about the frontline IT usage environment and needs of SMEs as well as the operations of each industry
  • Product development capabilities that balance ease of use and functionality at a high level, with a focus on users from SMEs
  • DX promotion platform that supports DX of SMEs using Chatwork as the foundation
  • Unique expertise that achieves the new service of BPaaS that allows SMEs—facing issues with labor shortages and difficulties in introducing IT—to easily enjoy the rewards of IT adoption and DX
Human Capital
  • Mission-driven organizational culture that allows challenges to be undertaken (human resources and culture with a high sense of purpose that empathize with our mission, vision, and values)
  • Workplace with diversity (women account for 46% of all employees)
  • Workplace with high development capabilities and abundant growth opportunities for digital personnel in a flat organization with a fast pace of decision making (close proximity between front lines and management)
  • BPaaS crew that supports and achieves the provision of high-quality BPaaS (150 employees, as of December 2024)
Social Capital
  • A huge number of touch points with more than 880,000 companies, centered on SMEs
  • External networks that provide excellent SaaS product development and operation (achieve efficient and speedy product development and update as well as stable operation)
  • Strong relationship with the user community of the business chat Chatwork (contributes to feedback loop for product improvement)

Superiority and Strength of Our Business Model for Value Creation

Superiority and Strength in Business Model
  • Service product boasting high customer satisfaction, focusing on users from SMEs not familiar with IT and thoroughly enhancing useability (service cancellation rate of 0.25%, as of December 31, 2024)
  • Services that are easy to introduce and use, even for SMEs with little ability to invest in IT and without IT specialists (services that can be used intuitively, affordable prices, and robust support)
  • Product (business chat Chatwork) with new users increasing at a compound rate through referrals from existing users
  • Through the above product features, sale and provision of individual IT services to SMEs—traditionally seen as difficult due to poor marketing efficiency—and securing of profitability (product-led growth model)
  • DX promotion platform that provides SMEs without IT specialists with one-stop recommendation of diverse SaaS helpful in solving frontline issues and supports the use of these services, using Chatwork—which has an impressive number of users and user contact points—as the foundation
  • New solution of business process as a service (BPaaS) that offers the rewards of DX to SMEs facing issues with labor shortages and difficulties in leveraging several SaaS, by eliminating tedious tasks associated with the use of SaaS and taking on the entire operation, using the above business platform as the foundation

The kubell Group’s Value Creation Process

We show our Group’s value creation process for taking on the challenge of solving the difficult social issue of improving productivity at Japanese SMEs.
With people who empathize with our mission and a business platform based on Chatwork, which has an impressive number of customer touch points with SMEs, we can widely offer the rewards of IT adoption and DX to SMEs facing issues with labor shortages. This allows us to achieve long-term corporate value enhancement for our Group by contributing toward improving productivity at an overwhelming number of Japanese SMEs.

Value Creation Process to Achieve Our Mission

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