Why Enterprise Redefinition Matters in the AI Era: An Interview with VURA’s Founder in KEIDO
On September 29, 2026, KEIDO, a media platform for business leaders, published an interview with Naoki Kadowaki, Representative Director, President & CEO of VURA Capital Innovation Holdings Inc.
The interview explores the thinking behind VURA—from its founding purpose to organizations where people and AI work together, and the changing responsibilities of business leaders.
Our Purpose: To Bring Happiness to People Around the World
VURA began with a simple aspiration: to bring happiness to people around the world. Our mission is to increase the number of enterprises that continuously create future value.
Enterprises bring together technology, people, and capital to deliver new value to society. Expanding an enterprise’s possibilities can also expand the choices available to its employees, customers, and future generations.
Kadowaki founded VURA after gaining experience in manufacturing at Sony, spending approximately 20 years working on enterprise transformation at IBM, and serving as CEO of a private equity portfolio company. Connecting business, technology, and capital—and taking an active role in management—is the foundation of VURA’s approach.
Beyond Efficiency: What Future Will We Create?
AI is making knowledge, analysis, and optimization more widely accessible. Operational efficiency remains important, but enterprises must also ask what they intend to achieve with these capabilities.
Whom will they serve, and what value will they deliver? How can their accumulated technology and experience contribute to new businesses? What kind of enterprise do they want to become?
VURA’s approach to enterprise redefinition connects these questions to management decisions and execution. Through investment and active involvement in management, we seek to develop each enterprise’s potential and create new future value.
Toward Management Where People and AI Create the Future Together
The interview also explores how to build organizations that treat AI as a partner in their work.
As AI takes on more decisions and processes, people must clearly define objectives and value criteria. They must establish budgets, authority, and stopping conditions, while overseeing the AI system as a whole. In the interview, Kadowaki describes this approach as “Human-on-the-Loop Management.”
He also discusses “Brain Capital Management,” which treats human intention, the ability to formulate questions, creativity, sensibility, and experience as essential forms of capital. We want the time and capacity freed up by AI to give people more opportunities to gain new experiences and define their next challenges.
Work That Matters from the Perspective of the Future
A question at the heart of Kadowaki’s management decisions is: “Will this work matter when viewed from the future?”
Can it expand human potential? Can it leave value for future generations? Can it bring greater happiness to people around the world?
Guided by these questions, VURA works alongside enterprises, takes action within their management teams, and seeks to increase the number of enterprises that continuously create future value.
The full interview also explores Kadowaki’s early ambition to become a business leader and how time with his family inspires new ideas.
Publication: KEIDOPublication date: September 29, 2026Article title (English translation): Redefining Enterprise Value in the AI Era: Toward Management Where People and AI Create the Future Together
Comments