We aim to go global with the industrial self-flying drone business—through the cooperative work with people from different cultural backgrounds.

Q.Why did your company decide to take on interns? What did you aim to achieve?

Spiral is a start-up company. Since its establishment in 2016, we have been engaged in the development of an indoor drone autonomous flight system that are safe, reliable and easy-to-operate. Our autonomous drones can fly without a GPS signal but they are made without Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) technology-- our unique technology and well-established know-how to apply it to the drone hardware make it possible. The major targets of our services are the construction supervision of the large-scale building sites, such as commercial buildings and stadiums, site management in the civil engineering and construction fields of tunnels and other underground facilities, as well as the manufacturing industry that makes large-scale products, such as vessels, airplanes, and other hardware. We aim to develop a multinational team with a view to going global with the autonomous driving drone business and updating the technology framework. We applied for this internship program with the aims of deepen our insight through collaboration with the interns. Also, we hope the experience will foster a global mindset in the company, as well as a framework for global cooperation to achieve a better business environment. We expected to make it a foothold to expanding globally as an engineering company.

We created a work environment where they can maximize their skills their expertise and skills in technology development. Also, we supported them in daily lives to include communication in Japan.

Q.What kind of internship did you run? What difficulties did you face and how did you resolve them?

Ali studies in the university about robotic control engineering and the application of image processing technology of flying objects . Olivier has work experience in embedded system development of software and hardware at a drone service company he worked previously in the US. They were both advanced professionals with the skills that perfectly matched our requirements. We asked Ali to take part in the foundation program and Olivier to join in new development projects. When we offered technical instructions, we explained thoroughly and concisely through verbal and nonverbal communication, such as showing drawings and hands-on operations to make them understand perfectly. The effort surely helped us overcome the language barriers. The collaborative working with the interns went well in the company, but we faced a problem on a personal note; some problems happened at a condominium where they lived, and we had to help them overcome it. We made steady progress in trying to get them used to life in Japan by trying many things, such as dining out after work to communicate closely with them and creating a simple guidance manual for living in Japan and location map of nearby grocery stores and drugstores.

The experience fostered a global mindset and an attempt to go global -- we were all united by the shared goal of developing new technology.

Q.Comparing before and after the internship, what effects did it have on you, your employees, or your organization?

Ali and Olivier were highly competent engineers to think on their feet. They contributed largely to the promotion of our business and technology development. Also, we were able to learn from them about what we need to prepare and concern when accepting employee from abroad. We have a lot of space to improve our English and overall communication skills—this experience cause improvement in awareness and action among the employees. We were very lucky to host two interns in the same period. There was a great advantage in many ways; their feelings of isolation and anxiety of working abroad were eased up by having a fellow colleague in the same position. They would support and gave advice with each other. Also, it became natural for us to communicate in English ,so we could recognize the reason of miscommunication as self issues ,not to blame on English handicap. This helped us become more responsible for their mistakes and most importantly, we realized --the most important thing is to show respect for the people from different cultural background and be willing to listen to their side; just advancing language skills doesn't have any meaning. Our internship experiences came to be a great step towards the goal of turning the company into a practical IT solution provider that consists of professional teams from a variety of cultural backgrounds.