TEAMLAB - A COLLABORATION

BY MATT ILAG, MIKA LLAVE, JOSE BUENAVENTURA, BEA JAVATE, DAENA BIGCAS

With a purpose driven by passion,
Toshiyuki Inoko founded
teamLAB.
teamLAB was created for people to
share their creativity with the world
and offer new experiences.
At the same time, it enabled various
people to learn and create new things
through experimentation.
establishment, customer base, projects,
and robust of teamLAB.
During the internet boom in the mid-
1990s, Inoko took advantage of the
opportunity and officially established
teamLAB
One day, Inoko and his four-man team
worked with Shiseido in Ginza, Tokyo and
this project helped flourish their business.
teamLaAB believed that there was more
freedom with regard to space where their
work is installed and that the experience
they bring to the masses is immersive in
the sense that they are able to achieve
multiple-sensory interaction.
The business flourished over the past
decade and continues to grow, however,
there are a few obstacles they may
encounter.

The idea of art in digital form was not Later on, they were recognized for their
easily accepted and understood by art installations by international
most and this greatly affected the businesses.

Another challenge is the need for

THE JOURNEY
TOWARDS CREATIVITY:
HOW TEAMLAB
NAVIGATES THROUGH
CHALLENGES AND
ADVERSITIES
Despite the increase of employees in teamLab due to
their international recognition, they would be
approaching a new set of challenges as well. One of
these challenges is maintaining their passion for the
digital arts. Because of the increase in employees to
four hundred, a fear originated amongst the founders
of teamLab that they might eventually lose their
passion for creating digital art because of the effort
needed to manage the company.
organization. Collaboration is becoming a
bigger need in the process of ideation for
teamLab due to its big size. And according
to Toshiyuki Inoko, founder of teamLab, it
would be possible to reorganize the
company’s structure to provide a proper
collaborative flow of ideas, but at the risk of
ruining the creative processes of employees
and causing a creative paradox; a desire to
create new ideas but at the same time, have
a rejection of it. For instance, they may end
up attempting to create innovative ideas
without thinking of its feasibility, while
others may keep limiting their imagination
into creating their project by focusing too
much on the technicality behind it.
HOW CAN I PLAN THIS PROJECT TO MAKE
THIS EXPERIENCE HAPPEN?” THAT’S THE
WAY WE CREATE THINGS BY EVOLVING
AND ADAPTING OUR PAST IDEAS TO
MAKE IT BETTER.

DAISUKE SAKAI
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 WE WANTED TO CREATE DIGITAL
ARTWORKS THAT WERE INNOVATIVE,
AND CHANGED PEOPLE’S MINDS AND
VALUES.

TOSHIYUKI INOKO

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STRATEGY WITHIN CREATIVITY:
WELCOME TO TEAMLAB'S VALUE PROPOSITION
TeamLab’s value proposition consists of values integrating technology that serves the arts. Their
outlook of developing products that “look like art” for the business to succeed really drove them to
success. Within this success also are key strategic elements that make use of technology to create an
altogether new experience. Other key elements are as follows:

CREATIVE PROCESS AS BEING AN UNDEFINED CATALYSTS

THE COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE
TeamLab made sure that it will be
difficult for their competitors to
imitate and “experience” their art
than a new technology. This element
is driven by the question: “How can I
plan this project to make this
experience happen?” TeamLab made
this happen by (1) discussing with all
the people such as engineers,
designers, and project managers in
generating ideas about the project,
(2) using a lot of senses in terms of
thinking about what feels good and
experiencing of target audience
which is the main goal in this
matter, and (3) use new technology
to make their goal happen.
implemented no partitions so people
INTERNET AS A TOOL TO BROADEN ITS REACH
Teamlab did not believe in having a marketing team, instead, they believed that a strong
presence on the Internet advantageous. All their projects featured on social media and
YouTube is their branding strategy reinforced. This is how they made use of the
Internet to broaden their audience.
MIX OF EXHIBITOR,
DESIGNER, ENGINEER,
ARTIST
Part of TeamLab’s success is making
sure all employees are encouraged
to be creative and innovative.
FLAT ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURE
TeamLab made a diverse team
composed of young talents with an
average age of around 30 years old.
The team is also composed of
different nationalities and among
these are from China, Korea, France
and Brazil. This system created
minimal hierarchy that made it
easier for the people to collaborate
and interact. This structure also
have to talk and interact with each
other.
Another element of TeamLab’s
success is that employees are
designated for all activities other
than designing or programming.
Project managers are also in charge
of gathering all information for the
projects, disseminating to team
members, managing costing and
pricing, and etc. These are all key
players to contributing success at
delivering a certain project.
CO-CREATION
TeamLab made a highly
collaborative creative process that
allowed new ideas to arise from the
cross-pollination of technical
insights from all kinds of different
areas. All projects are also made
available to every employee through
the chat system technology. This
system enabled training of new
recruits possible by giving them a
mentor to guide them throughout.

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 ONWARDS AND UPWARDS
FUTURE PLANS AND CHALLENGES THAT TEAMLAB MAY FACE

The company of teamLAB grew from a matter of five members to approximately four
hundred collaborators within a decade. Since the company practices a flat
organizational structure, everyone’s opinion is heard and members are free to work on
any project they pleased. However, this structure may affect the collaboration among
the growing members in the long run. The team would need to put more effort and
efficiency to work on a project altogether, or even create a new organizational
structure to implement to have more diverse personalities in the company. Also, they
may experience increased digital or technical difficulties given that they are foregoing
the traditional art methods for a modern, 21st century approach.

In order to better manage the growing number of collaborators, systems and processes
must be effectively implemented. This may create a creative disorder within the team
because of the new procedure they need to follow. This may be avoided by hiring
catalysts to efficiently bridge the organizational management and the creative spark.
Possible technical difficulties might be avoided by having multiple test-runs and not
fully relying on technology. Traditional methods would still be one of the most reliable
methods so, they should not completely let go of it.

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 EDITOR'S NOTE
This issue would not be possible without the hard work of the following
people behind it:
Daena Mikaela Bigcas, Jose Angelo Buenaventura, David Matthew Ilag, Ma. Cielito Bianca Javate, Mika Llave
Group: Seventeen - DECSC Section E

And of course, to the following sources whom without which this issue might
not have been conceived:
Farhoomand, A. Creativity in design: experimenting and innovating at TeamLab Japan.
(2015). The Asia Case Research Centre, The University of Hong Kong.

teamLab Borderless museum [image]. (n.d.). Retrieved from

http://www.designgallerist.com/blog/exploring-teamlab-borderless-a-digital-art-
museum-in-tokyo-japan/ .

Saito, Seiichi. Toshiyuki Inoko [image]. (2018, August 29). Retrieved from https://pen-
online.com/arts/the-vision-of-toshiyuki-inoko-a-founder-of-teamlab/.

LAB BULLETIN REFERENCES