COCOO Wins Excellence Award in the Mid-Sized and SME Category at the Career Ownership Management Award 2026

COCOO Corp., which supports social digital transformation through its “talent × digital” business, announced that it has won the Excellence Award in the mid-sized and small and medium-sized enterprise category at the Career Ownership Management Award 2026. The award recognizes companies that promote “career ownership management,” helping working individuals grow autonomously while achieving sustainable corporate value creation. The name COCOO reflects the company’s commitment that each individual should act with the strong ownership mindset of a chief operating officer. To embody its mission, “Each person creates the company. Each person creates the future,” COCOO has introduced an internally developed philosophy training program. The program is designed to help employees actively connect their own life plans with the company’s philosophy, rather than passively receiving values from the organization. Judges praised COCOO for implementing company-wide philosophy training that connects each employee’s life design with the company’s philosophy and draws out a strong sense of ownership. The program supports employees step by step in verbalizing their “My Purpose,” exploring their WILL, and connecting it with the company’s mission, vision, and values. The judges also noted that the initiative serves as a meaningful foundation for supporting women who are seeking to build careers from inexperienced backgrounds. High satisfaction with dialogue with supervisors, high satisfaction with direct managers, and the creation of employee-led projects were cited as reasons for the award. COCOO’s philosophy training is a three-year, story-based program conducted once a year for all employees. In the first year, employees identify and verbalize their WILL, or desired way of being. In the second year, they set habits to realize that WILL. In the third year, they align their own mission, vision, and values with the company’s MVV to deepen their sense of ownership. The program is fully developed in-house under the leadership of the executive officer and CHRO, and participation is mandatory for all employees, achieving a 100% attendance rate. As a result, employee satisfaction survey items such as satisfaction with direct supervisors and the existence of a culture that enables strong ownership have consistently exceeded company targets. As employees have connected the company philosophy with their own lives, COCOO has fostered an organizational culture in which people respect one another’s WILL and involve others in creating the future. Employee-initiated and employee-led projects, including the LGBTQ & Ally community “SOLA” and an internal DX promotion project, have emerged one after another, directly contributing to autonomous organizational management. Executive Officer and CHRO Mamiko Aoyama commented that in the AI era, what humans need is the power to act: the ability to keep thinking and acting independently, grounded in communication skills and hospitality that only humans can demonstrate. COCOO’s philosophy training is a highly practical program that visualizes this motivation and builds a mechanism with colleagues to carry it through. The company will continue to develop and produce talent who sincerely enjoy life and work, deliver maximum added value to customers, and contribute to society. Since its founding in 2019, COCOO has worked on DX support for companies and local governments, as well as the development of DX talent. With the purpose of “creating a society where diversity and inclusion are the norm through the power of digital technology,” the company promotes the success of diverse talent. As its first step, COCOO has focused on advancing women’s participation by hiring motivated women from other industries who want to build digital careers despite having no prior experience, then training them as DX professionals through its own programs. Women account for 82% of its approximately 900 employees, many of whom support corporate DX. COCOO has received numerous awards related to women’s empowerment and diversity and inclusion, including second place in the corporate ranking of Forbes JAPAN WOMEN AWARD 2023. Under its long-term management plan VISION2030, established in 2023, COCOO focuses on diversity and inclusion, regional revitalization, and business alliances, aiming to become the No. 1 company for producing DX talent and to help create a society where Japan’s productivity improves and everyone can work vibrantly.