VWX
Veterans with Experience and Expertise

It is obvious that Japan's economic growth bottleneck is the structural problem of population decline, declining birthrate and aging population, and the accompanying decrease in the working-age population (population aged 15 to 64, labor force). With these issues, "increase in quantity" by increasing the number of workers and employment rate and "improvement in quality" by improving productivity are both considered important in order to minimize the impact of labor force decline on economic growth. One of the most likely growth potentials for volume is the participation of older people in the labor market.

As the working-age population continues to decline, the number of workers is expected to be dropped sharply from

63.76 million in 2015 to 60.46 million in 2020, then to 55.61 million in 2030 if the current labor force participation rate remains unchanged. In order to overcome this negative trend in the labor force (or the number of workers), it is important to build a society where everyone can play an active role. Since the number of elderly people is increasing, more active participation/involvement is expected (the labor force population aged 15 to 64 is declining while the labor force population aged 65 and over is increasing). On the other hand, the employment rate of those aged 65 and over is only 22.3% (2016) while 65.9% (2013) of the elderly have a desire to work even after the age of 65. It is obvious that elderly who wants to work but not work is prominent in the population aged 65 and over.

In order to mitigate the impact of labor force decrease on economic growth due to declining birthrate and aging population and total population downtrend, it is often referred that it is important to "increase quantity" by increasing labor force participation rate and "improve quality" by improving productivity.

"Work-Life Balance (harmony between work and life)" would be inevitable for "improvement of quality". It is important for all men and women of all ages to be able to develop various activities such as work, family life, community life, and personal self-development in the balance they desire. In 2007, the government published both "Work-Life Balance Charter" and "Action Guidelines for Promoting Work-Life Balance". The charter states that a society, where work and life are in harmony, is "Each citizen works with a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment, achieves personal work goals, at home and in the community, at each stage of life such as parenting period and middle/senior ages". It is also said that "a society where various ways of life can be selected and realized according to the needs". Similarly, "improving quality" would require "innovation". "Innovation" would not be limited to technological innovation, but it could create new value and bring major social changes by incorporating new ideas/approaches that are completely different from the past. To this end, it would be no exaggeration to say that the conventional ideas and efforts that are an extension of the system are not sufficient, and that it is most important to create an environment in which the abilities of the underlying people can be maximized.

(Quote: Work Style Master)

I decided to start a business with the hope that I could contribute to solve the issues I’ve felt every day with utilizing my experience in Global Pharma for more than 30 years.

The challenges I had were (1) awareness and execution of "compliance" peculiar to the pharmaceutical business and (2) a decrease in the labor force due to declining/low birthrate and aging population/society that will become more apparent in the future.

For patients and their families, the impact of prescription drugs on their daily lives is significant. At the same time, society's perspective on the pharma business model, in which taxes are used through the drug pricing system, is getting stricter. Also, changes in the pharmaceutical business environment are intensifying. In addition, with the enforcement of the Promotional Information Provision Activity guideline by MHLW, the quality of promotional activities should be more cautious.

Companies in the pharmaceutical business are fully aware of the importance of "Compliance". They would allocate appropriate resources (sometimes with dedicated “Compliance” person/departments) so that the quality of promotional activities are ensured as being compliant. With said that, I assume that more and more companies are seeing the opportunities in cost structure (labor costs/fixed), required time/money to develop compliance specialists and how to be updated from industry viewpoints.

I also understand that the operations related to compliance differ among the companies while I feel that awareness/mind-set, operation/execution, principles/rules etc. in the aspect of compliance in the pharmaceutical industry wouldn’t be different so much depending on the size of company, what products are promoted etc.

If we can provide high-quality services in a unified manner and make them variable costs from fixed costs, it would increase management discretion. Also, if we can build operations as the industry standard, the services can be used at a lower cost which might lead to a discussion for the needs of compliance resources separately (MRs, Field managers can judge by themselves and act compliantly, which is the best way I believe, without consultation).

Next challenge is the reduction of the labor force. Declining/low birthrate and aging population/society in Japan are progressing dramatically rapidly. I feel everyday that how we can secure Japan's competitiveness.

At the same time, the retirement age/initiation of pension payments are getting older. There are growing voices “how long do we have to work?”. On the other hand, I heard many times from seniors who are turning 60 (retirement age) that I want to work if I can work, but it doesn't have to be full-time… I just want to have a contact with the society and do jobs with motivations (I feel that way too).

In Japan, where an aging society is advancing, it will get more important that each career can be easily/flexibly designed by each individual (regardless of age (60 or more) which are set by society). Desires for work (i.e., Jobs, Time, Location, Motivation, Involvement etc.) will be more focused. Through our business model, we can contribute to supporting the self-fulfillment of motivated and capable workers as well.

By the way, the company name is VWX (= Veterans with Experience & Expertise). Veterans are the protagonists in our business model. The alphabet starts with ABC and ends with XYZ. I feel that the end point of the career can be shortly before XYZ (→ VWX). I hope that the company can provide such a platform where all the veterans with experience and expertise can design their career easily by themselves.