Consultants for Japan eVTOL Industry

Akihabara News (Tokyo) — A boutique consulting firm named Globe+ing, established last March, is emerging as a key player within Japan’s eVTOL industry.

There are about fifty employees in the company, and it includes consultants focused on strategy and digital transformation. Among these is a team with wide knowledge of domestic and overseas eVTOLs.

Keisuke Yasukochi, a Globe+ing consultant who is currently seconded as business development officer for eVTOL-maker SkyDrive, told Akihabara News in a recent interview, “This market will kick off soon and that’s why we’re already into the market, supporting some of the eVTOL companies.”

He adds, “I don’t think it’s too early. We are at the right stage… We are getting a lot of contracts from companies that want to get into this market.”

Masaki Ota, another member of Globe+ing’s advanced air mobility team, asserts that “we have the strategy-building as well as the big picture knowledge.”

So far, there’s little sign that other consulting firms in Japan following their lead.

“To be honest, I don’t think there are any competitors that are really serious about the eVTOL market,” says Yasukochi.

Yasukochi explains that his role at SkyDrive is to assist them in areas such as developing their business strategies, branding, and overseas marketing.

Globe+ing’s core offering to its clients is to provide them with market intelligence, to help them achieve sales, and to introduce them to potential strategic partners.

Ota observes that “for Japan to get a stake in this field, many companies have to collaborate with each other. It’s not going to be one single company that is going to take out vertically every segment.”

Japanese companies need to think carefully about which particular fields within the eVTOL industry they will focus on, and the slice of the market they will aim for. No one knows for certain where the real “profit pool” will be found.

Ota also notes that a major task for Globe+ing at this early stage is to assist larger companies with their internal decision-making.

“This is a very new business to them and they have to build understanding within each of their companies. That itself is a very big challenge to resolve, and that’s an area which we are helping out on,” he says.

Asked about what they see as the single biggest challenge going forward for Japan’s eVTOL industry, the Globe+ing consultants cite the crucial importance of building general public acceptance, convincing people that the social and economic benefits of urban air mobility are worth its costs, such as having multiple vehicles flying over the skies of major cities.

Unless the Japanese government and the business community make serious efforts to convince the wary public on this score, it could become a factor causing Japan to lag behind the global industry.