Revitalising Rural Towns

Students engaged in revitalizing rural towns.

The ‘Think ENA’ project by Professor Hoe Chin Goi at NUCB Business School in Nagoya uses Design Thinking to create business ideas for local companies and residents in Ena City in Japan, a small city struggling economically due to an exodus of its younger population to larger cities. International students from ESADE Business School in Spain worked with city representatives, residents, and staff from Kawakamiya Co. Ltd, a local company specializing in producing chestnut cakes to create business models through collaboration with local farmers to achieve economic and social outcomes.  The students were also involved in a project highlighting the importance of maintaining local handicrafts by working on their own designs for Ena ‘noren’, a traditional split curtain commonly seen hanging in doorways of small businesses.

+How can you bring multiple stakeholders together to develop impactful projects?