How can companies and students collaborate to create attractive new business ideas?
St. Andrew's University and welzo Co., Ltd. will host a talk session on April 2 at Venture Café Fukuoka to share the results of their 15-week industry-academia collaboration, detailing how Gen Z students conceptualized future business ideas.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 1, 2026 at 21:00
- 🔍 Collected: April 1, 2026 at 16:47
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 21, 2026 at 11:21 (474h 34m after Collected)
St. Andrew's University (Izumi Campus, Osaka Abeno Campus; President: Mizuhiko Nakano) and welzo Co., Ltd., an innovation company creating value in lifestyle (Headquarters: Hakata-ku, Fukuoka City; President & CEO: Yoshifumi Kanao), will hold a talk session titled "How can companies and students collaborate to create attractive new business ideas?" on Thursday, April 2, 2026, at Venture Café Fukuoka.
This session is based on the "PBL Application I (Problem-Solving Class)" conducted at the Faculty of Business Design, St. Andrew's University, in the fall semester of 2025. It dissects the real process of creating a "new core business for 10 years in the future" that welzo Co., Ltd., aiming to be an innovation company in agriculture and horticulture, should undertake. Looking back at this practical 15-week program, speakers will talk frankly about what was born by building a "co-creative relationship" between Generation Z students and the company.
Beyond the "Teaching and Being Taught" Relationship, Drawing the World One Step Ahead Together.
In this program, conducted as an industry-academia collaboration project between the Faculty of Business Design at St. Andrew's University and welzo Co., Ltd., students have envisioned the future 10 years from now in welzo's business domains such as agriculture and horticulture. In March 2026, the "welzo Award" was presented to the most outstanding project, and the winning team made a direct presentation to the President and CEO. How did the "seeds of new business" that surpass existing frameworks emerge? In this session, we will share the reality of practice where future-oriented corporate business and education intersect.
■ Talk Session Overview
Date & Time: Thursday, April 2, 2026, 17:00-17:50
Venue: Venture Café Fukuoka (ONE FUKUOKA BLDG. 6F, 1-11-1 Tenjin, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture)
Format: Talk session + networking (in-person)
Target Audience: Entrepreneurs, local business operators, government officials, students, creators, etc.
Application: https://community.venturecafefukuoka.org/sessions/342
■ Participating Companies and Speakers
Professor Katsutoshi Fujita
Specially Appointed Professor, Faculty of Business Design, St. Andrew's University / PBL Application Course Leader
Professor Katsutoshi Fujita
After working at Sumitomo Corporation and Accenture, he obtained a Master of Business Administration from the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University in the US in 2004. Since 2005, he has served as a marketing and business development executive at IT companies. After becoming independent in 2010, he founded Project Initiative Co., Ltd. He has been a specially appointed professor at the Faculty of Business Design, St. Andrew's University, since 2019.
This session is based on the "PBL Application I (Problem-Solving Class)" conducted at the Faculty of Business Design, St. Andrew's University, in the fall semester of 2025. It dissects the real process of creating a "new core business for 10 years in the future" that welzo Co., Ltd., aiming to be an innovation company in agriculture and horticulture, should undertake. Looking back at this practical 15-week program, speakers will talk frankly about what was born by building a "co-creative relationship" between Generation Z students and the company.
Beyond the "Teaching and Being Taught" Relationship, Drawing the World One Step Ahead Together.
In this program, conducted as an industry-academia collaboration project between the Faculty of Business Design at St. Andrew's University and welzo Co., Ltd., students have envisioned the future 10 years from now in welzo's business domains such as agriculture and horticulture. In March 2026, the "welzo Award" was presented to the most outstanding project, and the winning team made a direct presentation to the President and CEO. How did the "seeds of new business" that surpass existing frameworks emerge? In this session, we will share the reality of practice where future-oriented corporate business and education intersect.
■ Talk Session Overview
Date & Time: Thursday, April 2, 2026, 17:00-17:50
Venue: Venture Café Fukuoka (ONE FUKUOKA BLDG. 6F, 1-11-1 Tenjin, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture)
Format: Talk session + networking (in-person)
Target Audience: Entrepreneurs, local business operators, government officials, students, creators, etc.
Application: https://community.venturecafefukuoka.org/sessions/342
■ Participating Companies and Speakers
Professor Katsutoshi Fujita
Specially Appointed Professor, Faculty of Business Design, St. Andrew's University / PBL Application Course Leader
Professor Katsutoshi Fujita
After working at Sumitomo Corporation and Accenture, he obtained a Master of Business Administration from the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management at Claremont Graduate University in the US in 2004. Since 2005, he has served as a marketing and business development executive at IT companies. After becoming independent in 2010, he founded Project Initiative Co., Ltd. He has been a specially appointed professor at the Faculty of Business Design, St. Andrew's University, since 2019.