Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-06-24)

31

PHOTOGRAPHS

BY

SHIHO

FUKADA

FOR

BLOOMBERG

BUSINESSWEEK

a presentation,andthe1,400proposals last year

included everything from faster manufactur-

ing techniques to better ways to organize trash

bins. Presenters face off, with each side making a

one-minute speech. Employees use an app to bet

Will on the idea they back, with an upside limit

of 200,000 Will (about $1,800) for each battle.

The side attracting the most support wins, with

victors receiving the wagers made by losers. The

beaten team might revise its idea and return to the

fray, using feedback from Chief Executive Officer

Kazuma Sekiya, who watches the battles and com-

mentsonalltheideas.Abouta dozenbattlesare

helddaily,andthemostpopularonescanattract

wagersinthehundredsofthousandsofdollars. If

that sounds over the top, at least one winner in the

past was probably worth it: an internal policing sys-

tem to catch intellectual property violations.

Naito, who studied law, trained as an accoun-

tant in his first job at a large milk producer, where

he became interested in organizational manage-

ment. At Disco, he worked on ways to improve

productivity until Sekiya told him to take inspira-

tion from video games: “He wanted a system like

inFinalFantasyorDragonQuestthatwouldmake

workfunbutalsostrengthenthecompany.”The

mostimportant element Naito borrowed from the

gamerworldwastheideaofscoringeverything

inthesame waygamesrewardhighscores,to

re-create the spirit of fun and competition.

The company’s latest experiment is an internal

crowdfunding platform where anyone can pitch

THEBOTTOMLINE: Disco’sexperimentwithcapitalism-on-

steroids has boosted margins and won government accolades. Yet

no other company has adopted the approach.

business ideas. Colleagues who back a project with

Will may, if it works out, earn a return one day. It’s

a fast way to test concepts, as initiatives that attract

funding are a good indicator of promising ideas,

Naito says. Or sometimes it’s just about pride: One

project that attracted funding was to buy ad space

ata professionalbaseballstadiuminHiroshima,

hometoDisco’smainfactory,formarketingpur-

poses.About 400 workers pooled $140,000 of their

own bonus money—or about $350 each—for the priv-

ilege to see their company’s logo after work, even

though the impact on the company’s bottom line

seems doubtful at best. �Yuji Nakamura and Yuki

Furukawa, with Jason Clenfield

▲ Naito and the

Disco app