Facility management in which “people” play a central role in enhancing regional power. The thoughts of a planner who embodies the mission of the PPP Division

Miki Mori has been managing public facilities since 2005. At NOMURA, which specializes in space design, layout, I have been leading the facility management work of public-private collaboration. Mori has achieved a management style in which “people play the leading role.” We take a closer look at PPP project efforts over the past 18 years.

Leading public-private partnership projects: managing cultural facilities and participating in new project competitions

Mori is a planning director in the PPP section of the Business Production Headquarters' Public-Private Partnership Project Development Department. PPP is a scheme in which public and private parties collaborate to provide public services. It is a system that aims to improve efficiency and quality by utilizing private capital and know-how, and is also called public-private partnership. Mori has been involved in PPP projects since 2005 and has been responsible for the management of public cultural facilities.

Mori: ``The main business of the PPP Division is the management of public cultural facilities.Currently, we operate 17 facilities across the country, with over 200 staff in total.At the head office, we have a staff of 12 who manage and manage the operations. We are doing support work.

Our mission is to provide services that are welcomed by visitors and local residents through facility management. At the same time, we aim to partner with the local government that installs the facility and contribute to resolving issues in the facility and the region."

In 2022, the PPP Division to which Mori belongs will be placed under the Business Production Division, and we are also taking on the challenge of expanding into new areas.

Mori: ``Recently, our customers are not only local governments but also private companies.We have also begun to provide solutions that support not only operation but also the pre-construction stages of facility construction, such as financing and proposing new services. We are also expanding the types of facilities we operate.Currently, we are mainly operating museums, but in the future we would like to expand to various areas such as libraries.''

Mori says that in competitions, there are more opportunities to collaborate with other departments in order to create new value.

Mori: “Since 2021, our company has been focusing on social good activities, and in collaboration with our in-house social good team, we are proposing inclusive participation experience programs.Recently, we have also been working on initiatives ranging from facility design to operation. The number of PFI (Private Finance Initiative) projects that are entirely produced by private companies is increasing, and collaboration with displays design teams is becoming increasingly important."

There have been cases where NOMURA has been successful because it allows each department within the company to work together and work as one team.

Mori: ``​ ​The Hamamatsu Science Museum, for which we were contracted to undertake everything from facility renovation design to operation using the DBO method (*), was a very difficult project that took only one and a half years from schematic design to completion, but we were very pleased with displays design and management plan. Because the events were carried out in parallel, we were able to reflect the opinions of the prospective organizers in displays design.

I am still involved in the operation as a person in charge of the head office, but I have a fondness for the facility that I was involved with from the planning stage. At Hamamatsu Science Museum, we aim to create a place where children can independently think about things while trying out various things. Therefore, there was a time when we had to make various adjustments after the museum opened, but the staff members are working every day to make the best use of displays and to make them even better."

What Mori valued in the PPP project was the voices of visitors and staff.

Mori: ``Our company is a professional displays company, but in order to make the facility better, we believe that the perspectives of visitors and the staff who work on site every day are very important.Hamamatsu Science Museum will open next year. We are planning to update displays displays 2020, but the staff will take the initiative to improve the original concept based on customer movements and past activities in the four years since the museum opened. We are making plans to improve displays and create new displays in order to achieve this goal.

We listen to the voices of customers and staff and reflect them in the next displays. I believe that being able to grow the facility while passing the baton from designer to staff is a unique strength of NOMURA, which has pursued the revitalization of spaces."

Incorporating a marketing perspective into cultural facilities and making it the cornerstone of PPP

As a student, Mori studied at the Department of Aesthetics and Art and visited museums both in Japan and abroad. After graduating, I was planning to work at a house builder, but by chance I learned about NOMURA.

Mori: ``The reason I decided to work at NOMURA was when I accompanied a friend to a company information session.I looked at the company information and was interested in the work, but I was impressed by the enthusiasm and enthusiasm of all the employees. What made the atmosphere even more impressive was that they were recruiting women for sales positions, which was unusual at the time.I remember thinking that this was a company where women could also play an active role.''

In 1989, Mori joined the company as the company's first female sales representative. As a salesperson, I was in charge of displays for major manufacturers for about five years, and when I transferred to the Institute for Culture and Environment, a think tank of NOMURA, I changed to a planner position.

Mori: “I started working with cultural facilities after I became a planner.I feel that my experience as a planner has connected me to my current job.At that time, my main responsibility was displays planning for cultural facilities. However, I also helped with the basic concept and business plan when establishing a museum.

In addition to examining the functions and social role of museums, I also gained experience in research work. In our research work, we conducted joint research with museums and evaluated how visitors use displays, striving to understand the gap between the sender's feelings and the needs of museum visitors. I think it was a valuable experience for me, as I learned that just making small changes to displays can dramatically change the reactions of visitors."

In 2002, he also took on the challenge of full-scale marketing research. It is said that this was an unusual initiative for a cultural facility at the time.

Mori: “We conducted an awareness survey not only among museum visitors but also among people who had never visited the museum, and realized that the values sought by senders and visitors are often different.For example, people with small children and As a result, the purpose of using the museum and the viewpoints differed from those who did not.Until then, I had not been able to clearly imagine what kind of people would visit the museum and what they were looking for.

By hearing real voices and conducting large-scale surveys, the image of visitors changes completely. I think that experience has had a big influence on my current work."

The following year, the designated manager system for public facilities came into effect, and the company started with the designated management of Nagasaki Museum of History and Culture, which opened in the fall of 2005, as well as Saga Prefectural Space Science Museum and Aomori Prefectural Misawa Aerospace Science Museum. Mori transferred to the then PPP Development Center in the summer of 2005.

Mori: ``Until then, our work had been up to the opening of the facility, but at the PPP Development Center, we were dealing with many things for the first time, such as preparing for the opening and operating the facility.In the beginning, we were just trying to figure out how to proceed with the help of the facility's staff and internal members. I went.”

The main character is “people”—By collaborating with local volunteers, the number of annual visitors has increased by 100,000 in five years

▲ Observation of pollen at the Tama Rokuto Science Museum “Shizen Lab”. Staff and volunteers support the operation.

There is one piece of work in the PPP project that left a particular impression on Mori. That happened when I was involved in the management of the Tama Rokuto Science Museum, which was renovated in 2013.

Mori: “We were tasked with renovating displays at the Tama Rokuto Science Museum, which has been open for about 20 years.Our mission was to consider what kind of facility we wanted it to be, and to create a space to make it a reality. The emphasis was on creating a place where people can interact.The main character is not displays equipment, but the people.We wanted to make the facility a stage where the staff and volunteers could play an active role, and the local people could play an active role. That's what I thought."

The museum has been renovated with the concept of "Try it out, Participate in it, and Have a conversation." Operations began with the aim of making the facility a hub for the region, bringing people together and creating something. As a result, in five years, the number of annual visitors has increased by approximately 100,000 compared to before the renovation.

Mori: ` `The success factor is people.First of all, the efforts of the staff.The staff built a lab where we can conduct experiments and observations while interacting with visitors.We collaborate with local research institutes, universities, companies, etc. We hold various displays and experiential events.

Also, the power of local volunteers cannot be overlooked. When it first started operating, it was a group of about 60 people, but as the local community started to work together to make the science museum more exciting, the group grew to a maximum of 150 people, from children to adults. A new management style has been created in which staff and volunteers work together. Thanks to this, I feel like the facility has become a place where I can make new discoveries and try new things every time I visit. We have created a science museum that can grow through dialogue with visitors and local residents."

Mori says that the company's unique mindset has contributed to the success of the museum and other operations.

Mori: “At our facilities, there are many cases in which former employees of NOMURA are in charge.Some of them are former sales or production staff, and some of them are new to cultural facilities. They are taking the initiative in making sure that people have fun and how to improve the facilities.

Looking at things like this, I strongly believe that our employees have a deep-rooted desire to not only create things, but also to provide better services to customers and create new value. At the same time, I feel that the facility has been able to grow because the staff and local people who run the facility sympathize with this mindset."

We want to be a company that creates new value without being bound by conventional frameworks.

▲ Head office members (some) involved in facility management business. A small team of elite people supports the operation of 17 theaters nationwide.

In 2023, Mori will have been involved in PPP projects for 18 years. Looking back on the past, we are emphasizing that we have entered an era in which new value is required.

Mori: “In recent years, PFI operations have been increasing in PPP projects, and I feel that there is a need for facilities that can create new value.As a company, we are leveraging our experience in design, construction, and operation, while also applying a wide range of unprecedented perspectives. From now on, I would like to develop new value by not only strengthening the cooperative system that goes beyond internal departments, but also by reaching out to partner companies that share the same values. By the way.”

Mori also says that he wants to be someone who can create new value. Continue as follows.

Mori: “Cultural facilities in the future are expected to take on forms that are not bound by conventional frameworks, and we want to be the ones who create new value there, not anyone else.When the opportunity arises, we want to be the ones who create new value. I want to be ready to jump in and form a team with a variety of people.I want to continue to help create things that have never existed before in various regions.''

NOMURA has pursued the possibilities of space with the management philosophy of ``We contribute to the creation of a rich human environment by creating new value based on respect for humanity.'' For the past 18 years, we have been working through PPP projects to connect people, communities, culture, and the environment, all of which lead to social good. How will the relationship between people and space change in the future? Forests hold the key to this.

*The contents are as of December 2023.