GCV Powerlist 2016: Hiroshi Saijou, Yamaha

There is a cool video of a robot riding a Yamaha motorcycle on YouTube. But whereas even a few years ago there would have been heavy use of computer-generated images to show this, now it is a reality.

The Motobot humanoid robot that can ride an unmodified motorcycle autonomously is one of two internal projects developed by Japan-based vehicles company Yamaha Motor’s new corporate venturing unit over the past year.

Hiroshi Saijou, the CEO and managing director at Yamaha Motor Ventures & Lab in Silicon Valley, said the other internal project developed was VasP (Vehicle as Probe), an internet-of-things visualisation of microenvironmental information captured by any kind of vehicle.

While such projects are focused on vehicles, Yamaha Motor’s background of disruptive shifts – it started out as a musical instruments maker of keyboards – means its tagline is “exploring new Yamaha as value creator for the world”, according to Saijou.

He said its other achievement and highlights over the past year were establishing Yamaha Motor Ventures & Lab in Silicon Valley (YMVSV), California, with a “great team” and direct reporting to Yamaha Motor’s top management. This team includes George Kellerman, Amish Parashar and Jay Onda, and Saijou is expecting to increase its size.

YMVSV has led four investments, two disclosed as PrecisionHawk and Veniam, and was looking to do another four to six in seed, A and B rounds across robotics, connected service and industrial automation sectors.

He is also developing a funding mechanism either off the balance sheet or through a dedicated fund as well as start Yamaha Motor Business Accelerator to incubate businesses from ideas, Saijou said.

This might mean a change in deal completion. Saijou said that although “our decision-making authority is by top management committee at Yamaha Motor [it does] mean we could encourage our top management to explore for uncertain but potential opportunity”.

Quoting Yamaha Motor’s founder, he added: “Action is the best way to learn, so let’s explore rather than research. In the business world today, so many people are obsessed with figures. They become fixated on the numbers of the minute and without them are too afraid to do any real work. But in fact, every situation is in flux from moment to moment, developing with a natural flow. Unless one reads that flow, it is impossible to start out in a new field of business.”

Prior to founding YMVSV, Saijou was a division manager at Yamaha Motor’s US office, where he led exploratory efforts in Silicon Valley. He started his career at Yamaha Motor in Japan where he worked for almost two decades on a broad array of surface mount technology and robotics in addition to new business development.

Saijou earned a software engineering degree from Kyushu University.