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 involved in the management of public facilities since 2005. At NOMURA, which specializes in spatial design, layout, she has led the management of public-private partnership facilities. Miki has realized a management style that puts "people at the center." We will take a closer look at her 18 years of PPP project efforts.

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, we have been focusing on social good activities, and in collaboration with our in-house social good team, we are proposing inclusive participation experience programs. In addition, recently, there has been an increase in PFI (Private Finance Initiative) projects in which private companies are responsible for the total production of facilities from design to operation, and collaboration with the displays design team is becoming increasingly important."

There are also cases where success was possible precisely because NOMURA is able to collaborate with each department within the company and work as One Team.

Mori: "The Hamamatsu Science Museum, for which we were entrusted with everything from facility renovation design to operation using the DBO method (※), was an extremely challenging project, taking just a year and a half from schematic design to completion. However, because displays design and operation plan were carried out in parallel, we were able to reflect the opinions of the intended operators in displays design.

Even now, I am involved in operations as a person in charge at the head office, but I feel a strong attachment to a facility that I was involved in from the planning stage. At Hamamatsu Science Museum, we aim to create a space where children can think independently while trying out various things. Therefore, after the opening, there was a period when various adjustments had to be made, but the staff made good use of displays and are working hard every day to make them even better."

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

Mori: "Our company is professional in displays, but to make a facility even better, we think the perspectives of visitors and the staff who work hard on the ground every day are very important. Hamamatsu Science Museum is planning to renew its displays next year, and the staff are taking the lead in planning improvements to displays displays new displays to better realize the original concept, based on visitor movements and past activities over the four years since the museum opened.

We listen to the opinions of our customers and staff and incorporate them into our next displays. We believe that the ability to grow the facility while passing the baton from designer to staff is a strength unique to NOMURA, which has always pursued spatial revitalization."

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

During his student days, Mori studied at the Department of Aesthetics and Art and visited art museums in Japan and abroad. After graduation, he planned to work for a house manufacturer, but by chance he learned about NOMURA Ltd.

Mori: "I first applied to NOMURA Ltd. when I accompanied a friend to a company information session. I was interested in the work content after looking at the company guide, but what impressed me even more was the enthusiasm of the employees and the lively atmosphere. What's more, they were recruiting women for sales positions, which was rare at the time. I remember thinking that this was a company where women could thrive."

Mori joined the company as its first female sales representative in 1989. After working in sales for about five years, including at displays for major manufacturers, she moved to the Cultural Environment Research Institute, NOMURA 's think tank, and then switched to a planning position.

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

In addition to examining the functions and social roles of museums, I also experienced research work. In my research, I worked with museums on collaborative research and evaluated how visitors used displays, striving to understand the gap between the sender's intentions and the needs of visitors. I learned that simply changing a small part of displays can dramatically change the reaction of visitors, which I think was a valuable experience."

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: "This project involved renewing displays at Tama Rokuto Science Museum, which opened about 20 years ago. Our mission was to consider what kind of facility we wanted it to be, and create the space to make that a reality. What we focused on was creating a space where people could interact with each other. The main focus was not on displays, but on the people. We wanted to create a facility where staff and volunteers would play key roles, and where local people could play an active role."

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 key to our success is people. First of all, it's the efforts of our staff. They've built a lab where we can conduct experiments and observations while interacting with visitors. We collaborate with local research institutes, universities, and companies to hold a variety of displays and experience-based 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: "It's not rare for former employees of NOMURA, Ltd. to be in charge of the facilities we manage. Some are former sales or production staff, and some are new to working in a cultural facility, but they take the initiative in thinking about how to make the visitors enjoy themselves and how to improve the facility.

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 projects have become more common in PPP projects, and I feel that there is a demand for facilities that can create new value. Our company needs to take advantage of our track record in design, construction, and operation while also incorporating a wide range of new perspectives. Going forward, we would like to develop new value by not only strengthening our cooperation system across departments within the company, but also reaching out to partner companies that share the same values."

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 are based on respect for people and contribute to creating a rich human environment by creating new value." For the past 18 years, the company has been working to connect "people," "regions," "culture," and "environment," which also contributes to social good, through its PPP business. 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.