Plus W Completes Tailor-Made, Hands-On PM Talent Development Program “Bootcamp Series ～Project Management～” for Morinaga Milk Industry; Second Cohort Also Begins in April 2026

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April 28, 2026

— In the second cohort, taking on the challenge of expanding both the curriculum and participant follow-up content —

Plus W Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Wakako Sakurai; hereinafter “Plus W”), recognizing the importance of DX talent development in achieving the “Morinaga Milk Group 10-Year Vision” of Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Yoichi Onuki; hereinafter “Morinaga Milk”), regarded the cultivation of project management professionals (hereinafter “PM talent”) as an urgent priority. Working alongside the company in a hands-on support structure, Plus W delivered “Bootcamp Series ～Project Management～,” a tailor-made, practical PM talent development program based on Morinaga Milk’s real projects. A second cohort will also begin in April 2026, taking on the challenge of expanding the curriculum and evolving the program so that employees can participate and produce results regardless of prior DX experience.

Background: Toward Developing Project Management Talent

In advancing DX, developing PM talent who can lead projects to success has become an urgent priority for many companies. Since fiscal 2025, Plus W has built a project management talent development framework for employees responsible for driving Morinaga Milk’s DX. This framework is delivered as a trinity development ecosystem of “hands-on lectures, hands-on accompaniment, and follow-up.”

・Hands-on lectures: “Bootcamp Series ～Project Management～,” in which frontline PM professionals teach directly, using real on-site projects as material
・Hands-on accompaniment: OJT through accompaniment on individual projects
・Follow-up: Practical exercises such as case studies based on real projects

The PM talent development framework through the Bootcamp Series

At the core of this framework is the bootcamp program. This program invites frontline PM professionals who oversee large-scale projects to serve as instructors, and—using the very projects that each Morinaga employee is actually responsible for as material—delivers hands-on lessons ranging from the fundamentals of project management to real-project sparring sessions drawing on the instructors’ know-how and experience. An overview of the program is as follows.

Overview and Results of Bootcamp 2025

Period: April 24 – June 18, 2025, held weekly

Participants: Four members selected from the IT Reform Promotion Department, spanning a wide range from junior to mid-level employees

Instructor: A DX specialist who oversaw large-scale projects at a major operating company

Curriculum: Eight sessions in total (including the final presentation). An outline of each session’s theme is as follows.
Session 1: The role of project management and building the project structure
Session 2: Current-state analysis and frameworks for requirements definition
Session 3: Practicing requirements definition and improving CX (customer experience)
Session 4: Vendor selection strategy and preparing RFIs and RFPs
Session 5: Drafting the project plan and preparing for kickoff
Session 6: The essence and practical methods of vendor management
Session 7: Individual consultations / problem-solving with the instructor (sparring)
Session 8: Final presentation and discussion of project plans

Format:
A hybrid format combining in-person and online sessions
Using an online whiteboard for homework and workshop output, with real-time feedback from the instructor and shared learning output among participants (see diagram)
Individual follow-up and sparring for each member by the instructor and tutors toward the final presentation

Real projects used as material:
・A data utilization project introducing a data analytics platform in the marketing domain
・A project to renew various hardware devices in light of OS support deadlines
・A project to examine and drive the migration of the database platform
・A project to digitize paper forms at production sites

Participants’ voices and subsequent results:
“Being able to review the project I am in charge of as the subject matter and spar with the instructor was extremely educational.”
“I strongly felt that the instructors were highly skilled and provided attentive, hands-on support.”
“I gained many realizations about things I needed to do but hadn’t done, and things I hadn’t noticed.”

Every participant rated the program as “highly satisfying.”

After graduating, participants produced concrete results, including:

・Growth in their stance and mindset as project management professionals
・Steady issue management and quality management (improvements in QCD) on projects requiring highly demanding schedule management
・Careful project planning and requirements definition from the upstream phases of newly assigned projects

They also received positive feedback from their supervisors.

Commemorative photo from the Bootcamp 2025 main training

Output and feedback using an online whiteboard

In addition, a follow-up training was held from February to March 2026.
Case studies were created based on the real challenges that arose in Morinaga Milk’s actual projects. On the day of the session, participants engaged in thorough discussions with the instructor on how they, as PM talent, would resolve realistic, practice-oriented issues.
Specifically, they learned practical know-how such as the stance to take when approaching the testing and migration phases that determine a project’s final deliverable quality, the importance of the upstream phases, and how to face the challenges that arise at each site.

Follow-Up Training Overview

Period: February – March 2026

Themes:
・Pre-assignment: Each graduate reflects on their project management activities, with feedback from the instructor
・Follow-up lecture: Case studies using Morinaga Milk’s real projects
・Post-assignment: Each member sets growth goals as PM talent, with feedback

Commemorative photo after the follow-up training

Overview of the Fiscal 2026 “Bootcamp Series ～Project Management～”

This fiscal year, building on the previous year’s results and lessons learned, we will further expand the curriculum and advance the program so that even those with no DX experience can take part.

Period: April to late July 2026 (planned)
* Expanding on the previous year’s program, 10 sessions in total are planned

Participants: Four members selected from the IT Reform Promotion Department, spanning a wide range from junior to mid-level employees

Instructor: A DX specialist who oversaw large-scale projects at a major operating company

Format:
A hybrid format combining in-person and online sessions
Using an online whiteboard for homework and workshop output, with real-time feedback from the instructor and shared learning output among participants (see diagram)
Individual follow-up and sparring for each member by the instructor and tutors toward the final presentation
A “question box” available at any time during the program period

Output through the program:
・A revised draft of the project plan for the participant’s own project
・A growth action plan as PM talent for this fiscal year

New Challenges in “Bootcamp 2026”

1. Expanding the curriculum to directly address on-site challenges
We will continue to provide in-depth lectures on the upstream phases that determine project quality. At the same time, in light of differences in each member’s experience, we will expand and add lectures on the downstream phases—such as “testing” and “migration”—that commonly become obstacles in many projects, bringing the total to 10 sessions.

We have redesigned the curriculum with a stronger focus on producing real, practical results, reflecting the phases that participants actually face in their real projects.

2. Expanding follow-up content outside of lectures, and building mechanisms usable even by those without DX experience
・A question box to resolve worries and questions that arise between sessions
・Guidebooks and handbooks for those without DX experience
・Onboarding and follow-up interviews in the early stages of the program

Through these measures, we aim for bootcamp participants to steadily build DX understanding and produce output.

The guidebooks and handbooks are also planned as assets that can be deployed horizontally as common frameworks and tools within Morinaga Milk.

Future Outlook

Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Ltd. — Digital Management Promotion Department, PM Training Lead

Toward achieving the “Morinaga Milk Group 10-Year Vision” formulated in 2019, the Morinaga Milk Group is continuously advancing DX initiatives that leverage digital technology in order to further strengthen its management foundation.
To steadily translate DX into results, project management capability—going beyond merely introducing systems to accurately grasping current issues and deriving optimal solutions while involving stakeholders—is indispensable, and we position the development of the PM talent at its core as one of our key management priorities.
Plus W’s PM training is a practical program based on our own actual DX projects, and we believe it holds great value in that participants learn in a way directly connected to their own work and can translate that learning into on-site results.
By continuing this training in fiscal 2026 and beyond, we aim not only to improve individual PM skills but also to embed a common language and standard approach to project management within the company, strengthening the organizational foundation needed to reliably connect DX investment to results.
Going forward, we will foster a virtuous cycle in which the PM talent we develop take on the next projects and mentor those who follow, building a structure that can autonomously accelerate DX across the entire Morinaga Milk Group.

Plus W Inc. — DX Business Division, Principal, Yosuke Murai

A defining feature of the practical, education-oriented programs Plus W provides is that, rather than textbook-style lectures, they distill into the classroom the know-how of frontline specialists and the crucial points of real projects, and—through sparring between instructors and participants using real projects as material—place emphasis on strengthening the “heart, technique, and body” that produce results in actual practice. Another strength is that instructors who come to understand each company’s culture, behavioral habits, and project circumstances through the lectures then provide hands-on support on the subsequent real projects, offering a talent-development cycle that embeds and internalizes learning until it can be used not just as knowledge but in real work.

At Morinaga Milk, the team deeply resonated with the aims of this program, and co-creating a distinctive, Morinaga-style program together with the secretariat led to solid results from the very first year. This year as well, we will continue to support improvements in project management quality at the organizational level and contribute to the company’s sustainable business transformation and DX advancement.

Company Overview

<Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Ltd.>
President & CEO: Yoichi Onuki
Headquarters: 1-5-2 Higashi-Shimbashi, Minato-ku, Tokyo
Established: September 1917
URL: https://www.morinagamilk.co.jp/

<Plus W Inc.>
President & CEO: Wakako Sakurai
Headquarters: 8th Floor, 25 SY Building, 6-23-2 Jingumae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Established: May 2020
URL: https://www.plusw.co.jp/

About Plus W’s Businesses

Plus W operates the following five business areas.

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