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GHIT's Behind-the-Scenes Role

Today, my focus is on raising the value of the now-established GHIT brand. The brand is essential to fundraising, to promoting product development that maximizes Japanese innovation, and to attracting top talent to GHIT. And brand is much more than, for example, design — I believe that the organization’s vision and mission, its business model and governance mechanisms, what the organization (and even individual staff) says and does, and what people experience at events held by the Fund all become a part of GHIT’s brand.

Since GHIT is, ultimately, an organization that invests in product development, the leading role belongs to the researchers and medical professionals who conduct product development, as well as the people who participate in the clinical trials. We as the investor should not take center stage, but rather remain behind the scenes, supporting researchers and development partners. The GHIT Fund's ability to function as a mechanism to spark open innovation and to act as a hub, connecting research and networks, is needed both in Japan and overseas.

Effective branding and brand promotion creates a virtuous cycle — supporting the people who work behind the scenes, capturing results, and actively disseminating information in a way that builds trust with GHIT's funders and sponsors — ultimately winning additional support that the Fund can allocate to its partners.

A Small Team with a Big Impact

Since GHIT is a small organization of about 15 people, demands for speed, quality, and workload on staff are high. GHIT is a nonprofit organization, but we are very similar to a company in how we work. Because our projects cross borders, project management is the foundation of everything, and marketing ideas are absolutely necessary for forming a strategy for and undertaking communication, urging action, and understanding the needs and thinking of our stakeholders. These are generally thought to be weak points for nonprofit organizations, but GHIT wants to wipe out that image. I would like us to be an organization that can continue to make a large impact with a small and select staff, and marketing is critical to that goal.

However, our ability to have an impact with these select few is only possible because we are supported by many people at home and abroad. We could not have made it this far without assistance from the people supporting GHIT day and night, not only with investment but also back-office operations and event management. Those partnerships must be treated with the utmost care.

GHIT’s True Appeal

A major part of GHIT’s appeal lies in its business model, but, for both fundraising and product development, partnerships between Japanese and organizations overseas are the foundation for impact. Rather than focusing only on Japan, I always advocate for a global perspective. When staff members hear high-level discussions taking place between among the diverse leaders on our Council and Board of Directors the global context for, and importance of, our work is further reinforced.

Additionally, because GHIT is a public–private partnership, different cultures and ways of thinking about operations and collaboration intersect. Creativity, diversity, and a new sense of values are born at those intersections. That's the true value of public–private partnerships.

Shine Light Where There Is None

One of the reasons I wanted to work in this field comes from an experience I had during a graduate school internship at the United Nations Children's Fund in India, in the Mumbai field office. At the time, I was in charge of research related to care and support for pediatric HIV patients. One day, at a large hospital where about 200 patients with HIV came every day, a grandfather brought his two granddaughters to the hospital. Their father and mother had died of AIDS, and the grandfather was looking after the sisters. The younger, four-year-old sister was infected with HIV, but she did not know why she was at the hospital or why she had to continue taking medicine.

I heard many stories like this, and I was shocked by the magnitude of influence that infectious diseases have on people’s lives and society. Those people are socially vulnerable, and the support they receive is not sufficient. I have witnessed many occasions where society passed such people over completely. This is not limited to HIV; many of the tropical diseases that GHIT tackles have similar circumstances.

It is an honor to be part of an organization like GHIT, where it is possible to contribute, along with our partners, to improving the lives of vulnerable people around the world.

The affiliations and positions listed in this interview are at the time of publication of the interview in 2017.