Reasons for deliberately collaborating with external parties on tasks that could be done by ourselves

I'm Sakon, and I often find myself involved in projects with a large number of stakeholders.

In small teams, work is often carried out only amongst themselves.
While there's nothing inherently wrong with it, from a certain perspective, it's possible that it led to missed opportunities.

Nomura Kogeisha is a company that works with many partner companies and external parties, including those involved in construction.
I myself have had many experiences working in teams with people outside the company.

This time, I'd like to share what I've learned from those experiences about the meaning of "building teams with external partners."

 

Partnering with external parties is often done when "we can't do it on our own."

If it's a job we can handle ourselves, we'll start by doing it ourselves. That's natural.
Conversely, there are many cases where companies only seek help from external parties when they need expertise or resources that they lack themselves.

In fact, we sometimes receive inquiries from corporate clients who say, "We want to give back to our local community, but we don't know how."
In such situations, instead of trying to find the answer on our own, we collaborate with external experts as needed, forming teams to consider the entire process together.

Based on these experiences, I think that collaborating with external parties is often perceived as "a way to supplement what we lack."

 

The reason for partnering with external parties is not just because "we don't have enough."

However, that's not the only reason to partner with external parties.

Sometimes, we intentionally bring in outside help for tasks that we could do ourselves.
Even among designers, people have different ways of thinking and working.
When external designers join the team, it creates a sense of tension, for better or worse, among the in-house designers, who may feel that they too will be compared to them.

I believe that these kinds of stimuli sometimes lead to the incorporation of ideas and perspectives that we wouldn't have come up with on our own.

In other words, I think there's a slight difference between simply outsourcing work and actually building a team together.

 

We ourselves also sought external help for tasks that we could do ourselves.

In a park renovation project I was involved in, we used a slightly unconventional approach to team building.
This job involves not only creating spaces, but also supporting business concepts, design and construction, and subsequent revitalization and operation.

In that project, we first reached out to external design and engineering professionals, and after securing the work, we added internal members to the team.

We have members within Nomura Co., Ltd. who are capable of handling design and planning. It wasn't a job that could only be accomplished by outsourcing.

Nevertheless, having external designers join the same project provided an opportunity to bring in ideas and perspectives that we might not have come up with on our own. I think it was a positive stimulus.

As a result, this project became a success story. And the relationships with the people we worked with didn't end with just that project.

We continue to work together as external advisors, addressing inquiries and other issues from local businesses.
Teaming up with external partners not only helped with a single project, but also led to an expansion of my work opportunities afterward.

 

Partnering with external parties is also one of our company's options.

We deliberately choose to work on tasks we could do ourselves with the help of external parties.

This isn't simply about delegating tasks; it's also an opportunity to incorporate new perspectives into our own work processes and ways of thinking.

Even for tasks that we've decided can be done internally, there might be potential for expansion by collaborating with external partners.

Let's try changing the usual way we build a team.

Having such options available could lead to further career opportunities.