Effectively accumulating and distributing research results can lead to global business contributions.
Science Research
Akiko Koike
Research strategy formulation and project management (planning, coordination, management)
I am engaged in the development of new tobacco variants that can serve the needs of diverse consumers in the global market.
While I was a university student, I was involved with research on plant diseases in the Faculty of Agriculture. I had opportunities to handle tobacco plants as research materials, so I became interested in the JT Group and entered this company in 2012. Since then, my work has mainly consisted of research on tobacco plants. In my fourth year here I was relocated to a leading-edge research laboratory that performed botanical research on plants such as rice and corn, where I acquired research skills that could be applied to a wide variety of plants in addition to tobacco plants. After this, I returned to the research laboratory I was originally affiliated with, and took on the challenge of developing variants that focused on a “roasty” flavor and smoking taste which were high demands among consumers, to meet the needs of consumers across the world. Those research results were made into patents and even presented at an international academic conference.
Then, after taking a year and a half of maternity and child care leave, I am now applying the knowledge and experience I have cultivated through my research and development work, and am responsible for formulating research strategies and tactics with the goal of becoming the world's No.1 R&D laboratory.
Accumulating individual research results as organizational knowledge, and converting it into inspiration for the ideas of members.
When I was a research team member, I also worked on visualizing business operations and information, such as documenting experimental techniques as procedures while simultaneously conducting research, and preparing reports on research and development. It may be only obvious, but I believe that expertise and wisdom that has been obtained can lead to reliable business contributions, such as improvements in the productivity of product development and tobacco leaf materials, and the assurance of safety and reliability, only after it has been passed down as organizational knowledge. Research work does not necessarily yield results in short time periods, and may in some cases be long-term endeavors that last for several years. But even if research results do not lead to quick practical application, it is important to incorporate their findings into a pool of organizational knowledge. There have been actual cases where research results put into stock eight years earlier were utilized in the development of new products.
After being transferred to my current team, I have been carefully organizing and stockpiling information and knowledge while raising the liquidity of information throughout the research laboratory, and am engaged in activities to convert it into organizational knowledge. In research it is critical to refer to past knowledge and then combine various types of information to acquire hints in order to proceed. I would be overjoyed if my activities could give inspiration to researchers for new ideas.
I want to act like a builder of bridges to contribute the R&D Group so that we can lead our research results to global market.
Although it is of course important to attain the highest level of specialization as a researcher, I believe that in a corporation it is just as important for each researcher to effectively demonstrate his or her expertise, and to move forward in order to produce results that can lead to further business contribution while having the viewpoint of a business manager. To maximize the research results of the laboratory and formulate research strategies that can lead to further business contributions, coordination with other organizations is essential. That is why I first of all want to play the role of a “suggestion box“ where people from both inside and outside of the research laboratory can casually seek out consultation on their research, and to become a builder of bridges that can further strengthen coordination between organizations. I want to push forward and create even better mechanisms so that the R&D Group can join together as one to reliably produce effective and efficient research results, and pass on those results to the younger generation.