Our CEO, Tetsuro Kondo (Charlie), started the Business Model Diagram Production Committee, a volunteer group for diagramming business models as a team. It is the earliest form of what is now ZUKAI.

A slide from the time: "What is the Business Model Diagram Production Committee? A volunteer group for diagramming business models as a team."

How it began

In November 2017, Kondo published "10 business models that impressed me in the second half of 2017" (in Japanese) on note. It lined up the mechanics of several businesses in diagrams of the same format. The article was widely read, and a plan to turn it into a book followed.

The book was to carry 100 diagrams. That was more than one person could draw, so he called for collaborators on Twitter and Facebook. More than 80% of the people who joined were people he had not known before.

What kind of group

The first gathering was on December 23, 2017, with three people. From there, members were recruited through three briefing sessions, held at Half Half, a shared office in Koishikawa, Tokyo. About 90 people in total came to the first two. The biweekly meetings began after the first briefing.

  • First: January 6, 2018 (just under 50 people came)
  • Second: January 27, 2018 (14 people gathered for the committee meeting that evening, from an advertising agency, a securities firm, a ministry, a consulting firm, an NPO, and writers and designers)
  • Third: March 3, 2018 (just under 30 people came; this one was mainly for designers)

Only people who had attended a briefing could join the committee. As of April 2018, about 40 people were split into five teams, meeting once every two weeks to work on the diagrams. The goal was to diagram and publish 100 business models.

A slide from the time, "Three features of the group": about 40 members, a meeting every two weeks, and 100 diagrams as the outcome.

The members' jobs varied widely: advertising, NPOs, securities, management consulting, trading companies, real estate, government ministries, IT, architecture, accounting, design and more.

A slide from the time, "Who takes part?", listing many industries and positions such as advertising agencies, NPOs, securities, trading companies, real estate, ministries, IT, architects, accountants and UI designers.

People could choose from three ways of taking part: "team members," who join in making the diagrams; "observers," who join the biweekly meetings; and "partners," who join the online group. They could move between these later if they wished.

A slide from the time showing a table of the three ways of taking part (team member, observer, partner) by degree of involvement.

What came next

The 100 diagrams made by the committee became the book Business Model 2.0 Visual Guide (KADOKAWA) in September 2018. The committee was renamed the Business Diagram Lab in the same month, and ZUKAI in March 2020.

Overview