“Business Standardization” is the #1 Management Challenge—Why Companies That Ignore Personalization Are Quietly Sinking

The results of the “Survey on Corporate Management Challenges” conducted by Teikoku Databank between January and February 2026 have been released. What was the most frequently cited challenge in the “Business Reform/DX” category? It was neither AI nor cloud, but “business standardization” at 58.3% (Source: Teikoku Databank, “Survey on Corporate Management Challenges (2026)”).

Personalized operations, departmental silos, and the “you have to ask that person to know” state—if you proceed with DX while leaving these unaddressed, it is like building a castle on sand. In this article, I would like to face this invisible management risk called “personalization” head-on.

The other truth behind the 90.2% for “Human Resource Strengthening”

In the same survey, “human resource strengthening” was the overwhelming #1 at 90.2% out of all 31 items. “We don't have enough people,” “We want good talent”—these are the earnest voices of management.

However, stop here and think for a moment. Is there really a shortage of “people”? Or is there a shortage of “work organization”?

In my conversations with SME owners, I have seen the same scene repeatedly: “Tasks that don't need to be done are still being performed,” “Work that could be outsourced has become personalized,” “Labor costs are being spent on tasks that could be replaced by AI.” These cases are actually not rare.

According to a survey by Miroku Jyoho Service, 50.0% of accounting staff at SMEs cite “personalization of work” as their biggest concern (Source: Miroku Jyoho Service, “Survey on Work Styles & Practical Difficulties of Accounting Staff”). This is followed by “complexity of work” at 43.1% and “high volume of work” at 32.0%. Since this is the situation in accounting alone, if you include general affairs, sales administration, and order management, the “landmines” of personalization must be buried everywhere in the company.

Three steps to “organize work” before “hiring more people”

According to a survey by Tokyo Shoko Research, the use of generative AI is limited to 25% of all companies. Limited to SMEs, it is 23.4%, which is about a 20-point gap from the 43.3% of large companies (Source: Tokyo Shoko Research, “Generative AI Utilization Survey”).

On the other hand, the BPO (Business Process Outsourcing) market reached 507.86 billion yen in fiscal year 2024, a 4.0% increase from the previous year, and continues to expand (Source: Yano Research Institute, “Survey on the BPO Market (2025)”). It is said that its spread to mid-sized and small enterprises is also accelerating.

In other words, the options other than “hiring more people” are definitely increasing. However, SMEs are not yet utilizing them sufficiently.

So, where should you start? I recommend thinking in the following three steps.

• Step 1: “Visualization” of work—List who is doing what and how much time they are spending on it

• Step 2: “Sorting” of work—Determine whether the work “should be hired for,” “should be outsourced,” or “should be replaced by AI”

• Step 3: “Redesign” of work—Standardize and create manuals to build a system where anyone can produce the same quality

If you try to “just hire someone” without taking these three steps, the personalized work will be passed on to the new hire as is, leading to a vicious cycle where both the teacher and the learner are exhausted.

In fact, 55.1% of SMEs that do not promote AI utilization cite “lack of specialized personnel to promote it” as the reason. 43.8% answered that they “cannot evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of using it.” Isn't this a reflection of the state where “it's not that AI is difficult, but that the company's own work is not organized, so they don't know where to put AI”?

The cost of ignoring personalization vs. the cost of organizing

“I'm too busy to organize my work right now.” Many managers say this. I understand how you feel.

However, the cost of ignoring personalization is definitely accumulating, even if it is invisible. The confusion of handover when a veteran employee leaves. The daily grind where work that only specific people can do becomes a bottleneck. The repetition of new hires not growing and quitting after three months.

On the other hand, if you organize and standardize your work, you can see the parts that can be outsourced. You can also identify tasks that can be automated by AI. Above all, you will be able to distinguish between “work that really requires hiring people” and “work that can be solved by systems.”

I believe that the fact that “business standardization” was the highest at 58.3% in the Teikoku Databank survey is a sign that many companies have finally begun to realize this fact. If you break down the 90.2% figure for “human resource strengthening,” isn't a significant portion of it “challenges that can be solved by changing the structure of work”?

Summary: Reversing “I can't organize because I'm busy”

What I want to convey today is simple.

The solution to labor shortages is not just “hiring more people.” “Organizing work and creating the optimal combination of hiring, outsourcing, and AI.” I believe this is the most cost-effective investment for SME management in 2026.

“But I don't know where to start.” That is the job of us at ShakeHands to answer. From organizing work to AI training and designing outsourcing for administrative tasks, we walk alongside you with the theme of “organizing before hiring.”

First, try to think of one task in your company that “cannot run without that person.” Just by standardizing that one task, the landscape of your company should begin to change.

ShakeHands LLC

A business partner that organizes labor shortages from the structure
Not enough people.
But “hiring” is not always the right answer.
ShakeHands LLC is a partner that faces the labor shortages and business expansion of SMEs, organizes the options for hiring, outsourcing, and AI utilization, and designs the optimal approach.
We do not propose to sell, but think together about choices as management decisions.