Providing information and communications technology (ICT) services for the entire KADOKAWA Group, the iconic Japanese media conglomerate, KADOKAWA Connected, Inc. is receiving the Japan Country Award for its adoption of Slack as part of its digital transformation (DX) initiative across the organization—enabling KADOKAWA to continue to supply fans with everything from books and feature films to anime and video games.
To help drive Slack adoption, KADOKAWA Connected organized internal education sessions and, playing to its strengths, created a guidebook in the form of manga, a Japanese graphic novel. Called “The Complete Use Guide of ICT Tools,” the manga provides a high-level overview of Slack and outlines the importance of DX in a uniquely relatable way.
With Slack at the center of its internal communication tools, KADOKAWA Connected has expedited communication and increased efficiencies. For example, in the fall of 2019, Akira Yoshino won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. When Yoshino cited “The Chemical History of a Candle,” a series of lectures given by scientist Michael Faraday, as the catalyst that sparked his interest in the field, KADOKAWA turned to Slack to kick off an emergency reprint. The Nobel Prize was announced on October 9, and by noon the next day more than 100 people had collaborated in Slack to reprint as quickly as possible.
Inspired by the possibilities of such an impactful platform, KADOKAWA Connected will work to adopt Slack across 50 KADOKAWA Group companies, replacing decades-old legacy processes with a modern tool that will not only increase productivity but help the company publish Japan’s most compelling content (manga included).
