Global Corporate Venturing Rising Stars Awards 2016: Runa Kobayashi

There are two approaches to resolving a strategic threat. Spend a lot on buying a fix in the short term, while try to improve the innovation capabilities to avoid it happening again in the longer term.

For Japan’s largest media group, Nikkei, the acquisition of news provider Financial Times from UK-based education provider Pearson, last year helped solve the shorter-term need.

Runa Kobayashi, senior manager of its US subsidiary, Nikkei America, is helping with the latter. Heading up a digital business department, Kobayashi is looking to develop its nascent corporate venturing unit, create a new business, globalise the current Nikkei business lines and research media and technology trends.

In its coverage of the transaction The Economist news service, also sold by Pearson, said Nikkei’s digital subscribers made up 16% of the 2.7m circulation of its flagship publication, versus 70% for the FT, which shows how pressing the need for action had become.

As Ken Doctor noted in a NiemanLab piece, based on the estimated operating income of the FT Group, Nikkei paid a multiple 43 times its target’s operating income.

Being late in innovation can be relatively expensive. Kobayashi’s experience in venture will help. A former associate at Silicon Valley-based Fenox Venture Capital until March last year, Kobayashi was there when it closed its latest fund with Innotech, a Japanese semiconductor enterprise.

Fenox’s media experience, however, blossomed with its second fund, which was raised with Media Japan before Fenox opened to outside limited partners for its third fund in 2013. That year it also set up the IMJ Fenox joint venture with the IMJ web and mobile group.