Dialogue with Ikujiro Nonaka: An Event at a Gathering of the UCB-UCLA Alumni Association

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Ikujiro Nonaka is one of Japan’s most influential ‘gurus’ on innovation.  He is a highly regarded international scholar and someone I also greatly respect.  Professor Nonaka has written many wonderful books (in Japanese and in English), and among them are some of my favorites.  Included among these books are “The Essence of Defeat”, “The Essence of Innovation”, “The Etiquette of Innovation” and “Virtuous-Based Management”.  His ability to conduct research and analysis, and then find the “essence” of a thing is truly amazing.

Moreover, Professor Nonaka does not just look, in his books and talks, at the analysis and know-how that forms the foundation of the average business school, but rather he strives to delve into the essence of a thing as well as delve into “leadership” and shared philosophy which exposes the humanity at the root of all. Specifically, Professor Nonaka looks at the importance of phronesis as proposed by Aristotle.  He could even be characterized as Japan’s Peter Drucker.  And in reality, he is the First Distinguished Drucker Scholar in Residence at the Drucker School of Management, Claremont Graduate University.

We had previously had some discussions, and we have worked together on various projects in his role as the head of the University of California at Berkeley (UCB) Japan Alumni Association and mine as the head of the UCLA Japan Alumni Association (in Japanese).

One of our projects that came to fruition is our dialogue on “Japanese Innovation in the Aftermath of the 3.11 Disaster ? What Will It Take?” which was held on July 1st.  This event was well attended by a lively audience.  The event started from 6:30 in the evening and the reception continued on until 10:00 pm.  Unfortunately Professor Nonaka had to leave early because he had to leave for Dalian the next day. 

The Hitotsubashi Business Review has recently put out a special feature entitled Thoughts on Ikujiro Nonaka: Frontiers of Knowledge Management (in Japanese) in its Summer Issue.

I started out by setting the tone for the first 30 minutes and reiterated the themes that I have talked about on this site at length.  For example, how both the strengths and the weaknesses of Japan have been laid open to the world in the aftermath of the events of 3.11 (Ref. 1, 2) .

Professor Nonaka has also coauthored a paper The Wise Leader with Hirotaka Takeuchi that was just published in the May issue of the Harvard Business Review.  (Professor Takeuchi launched the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy at Hitotsubashi University 10 years ago and last year returned to Harvard.)  Anyway we launched into our dialogue for 30 minutes which was followed by a 60-minute Q&A session.  All in all, it was a hugely intellectually stimulating evening.

Professor Nonaka and myself both strongly stressed the importance of, not knowledge, but rather the spirit that one can garner from liberal arts, philosophical and communal values as well as wisdom and experience gained through practical application, actions and evaluations.

At the same time, the July issue of Voice (in Japanese) had a special feature on “The Kan Administration, the Essence of Defeat”, and Professor Nonaka lead off with an article entitled “Non-Reality-Based Politicians are Destroying Our Country”.  Professor Nonaka noted during the talk that sales of his book The Essence of Defeat have jumped since 3.11.

Our dialogue should eventually be available for all to see via video and I will let you all know when it is posted.

I received a number of messages via Twitter and email from participants, and someone also talked about this event in their blog (in Japanese).

Afterwards, I was able to enjoy drinks with Mr. Kobayashi who is the originator of “This is Liberal Arts: Summer Course 2011” that was conceived in Boston last year, and his friend Mr. Kano, Mr. Yasui and Mr. Yokoyama who is a UCLA alumni.

After spending several fulfilling hours with everyone, a truly productive day came to an end.

 

 

“This is Liberal Arts: Summer Course 2011” by Harvard College students

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I noted in previous blog articles (Ref 1 in Japanese) that the number of students from Japanese going to top universities in the United States is dropping which caused quite a stir. This drop is a fact but it is different from the problem that the youth of today do not want to venture into the outside world. 

I have pointed this out a countless number of times (Ref. 1 2) and explained the reasons why. I look forward to picking up this topic for further discussion at a later time. 

I think you all know from the contents of this site that I make as much effort as possible to interact with the Japanese youth when I go abroad.  As you know, I get together with a lot of youth who are engaged in research in Boston, primarily in Harvard and MIT. 

The planning of this summer course on the liberal arts started as part of these interactions when Ryosuke Kobayashi, who was a sophomore at Harvard College last year came to the realization that liberal arts education is extremely important and he felt the need to convey this importance to Japanese high school students.

We discussed how to concretely get this message across in the course of emails and meetings when he visited Japan, and finally an actual course entitled “This is Liberal Arts: Summer School 2011” will be offered for one week at the end of August from the 20th to the 27th.

The main sponsor is Impact Japan which was launched last year.  The Summer Camp receives support from many individuals and groups. This Summer Camp will be attended by 25 students from Harvard, 30 students from Japanese universities and target approximately 80 high school students.  You can take a look here for more information. 

We are looking for highly motivated high school students to join us.

The Camp is scheduled to be held at GRIPS which I am affiliated with and other locations around Roppongi.

We are currently putting together what promises to be a great curriculum that will address the questions such as “why the liberal arts?” and “what are the liberal arts?” and more.

All in all, it should be a very enjoyable experience.

 

An Invitation to a Dialogue with Professor Ikujiro Nonaka

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The University of California (UC) is system of universities with 10 campuses located throughout the state of California and it is one of the leading university systems in the United States. The schools in Berkeley and Los Angeles have the largest numbers of Japanese alumni. 

How would you like to attend a conversation between myself and Professor Ikujiro Nonaka on the topic of “Japanese Innovation in the Aftermath of the Recent Disaster ? What Will It Take?” sponsored by the joint secretariat of the UCLA Japan Alumni Association and UC Berkeley Japan Alumni. This Dialogue will be held on July 1st from 6:30 pm at the Tokyo 21c Club.

You do not need to be a member of the UC alumni association.  I would really love to have a chance to meet and talk with everyone and anyone who follows this blog.

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The 4th Berkeley Arena of Wisdom

“Japanese Innovation in the Aftermath of the Recent Disaster ? What Will It Take?”

UC Berkeley Japan Alumni Chairman: Ikujiro Nonaka

UCLA Japan Alumni Chairman: Kiyoshi Kurokawa

 

■ Date: July 1st, 2011 (Fri) 6:３0 PM to 9：30 PM

■ Location: Tokyo 21c Club （Shin-Marunouchi Bldg 10F)

■ Fee: UCB・UCLA members 3,000 yen （Food included but beverages separate）

            UCB・UCLA non-members 4,000 yen （Food included but beverages separate）

Professors Nonaka and Kurokawa will both participate in the reception to be held after the seminar. （Drinks are to be paid for at the time of receipt.）

■ The language of the Dialogue will be Japanese in principle with an accompanying PowerPoint presentation in English (however, questions in English are more than welcomed).

■ RSVP (deadline for registration): Please fill out the registration form by June 28th.

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A summary of this upcoming event.

●    The 4th Berkeley Arena of Wisdom will be jointly sponsored by the UCLA and Berkeley Alumni Associations.

●    We asked the alumni chairmen to host Kiyoshi Kurokawa who is a past Professor of Medicine at UCLA and Ikujiro Nonaka who is the Fuji-Xerox Professor of Knowledge at Berkeley and these two individuals are internationally recognized scholars in the area of innovation.

●    We will be able to become better acquainted with SECI model as proposed by Professor Nonaka, based on spirals formed by tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge if there are substantial contributions to the creation of science and technology policies through the use of state funds on one hand and innovation by well-positioned corporations which are sitting on a wealth of R&D. 

●    Japan will be unable to rebuild in the wake of the recent  disaster without innovation. The secretariat of the alumni association aims to expand the Berkeley Arena of Wisdom through this talk on Japanese innovation in the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami by the two guests. 

●    The two speakers have made their views known in the media on the overwhelming scale of the local disaster and problems surrounding leadership. The events surrounding the Fukushima nuclear reactor have made it clear that the concepts of “phronesis” as espoused by Professor Nonaka and "out-of-the-box" thinking by Professor Kurokawa as extremely relevant to the issues related to leadership in a knowledge-based society.

●    The two speakers plan on keeping their remarks brief with each speaker talking for about 30 minutes while raising and commenting on important issues. The hope is that the talk can develop into a deep discussion with attendees (however, all should be warned that given Professor Kurokawa’s love of a good debate who knows what could develop!!)

●    The language of the Talk will be in Japanese (but we may switch to English on occasion to accommodate inquiries from attendees).

●    A reception with food will be held after the seminar which will allow time for attendees to talk and get to know each other.  However, drinks are not included and should be paid for at the time of receipt. 

●    All funds collected for the seminar will be donated to disaster relief for the victims of the Tohoku Earthquake.

Mavericks Moving into New Frontiers

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I departed from Kuala Lumpur and arrived at Narita early on the morning of the 17th. 

The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST） has entered in the final stage of preparations to be certified as an official graduate school.  Meetings of the executive committee were held on the 16th and 17th.  I was unable to effectively participate in because the teleconferencing connection from Kuala Lumpur was bad and the connection wasn’t much better during the final morning session on the 17th after I returned to Tokyo. So unfortunately my input during these meetings was minimal.

OIST may very well become an international research facility that leads us into a new era. This type of approach qualifies as “going rogue” in Japan, but the OIST represents a hugely important project as we move into the future. This endeavor is, without question, deserving of our support.

I sat down in the afternoon for a talk with Dr. Robert W. Conn, CEO of the Kavli Foundation, Hitoshi Murayama of the IPMU at the University of Tokyo (which is a global research institute in the real sense of the word) and a few others. Dr. Murayama (Ref. 1) is one of only a handful of truly global leaders in opening new science frontiers. The IPMU is an institute which has become well known throughout the world over the past several year for its superior and, one could even say, unique approach, and has received the global “stamp of approval.” Dr. Murayama also gave a presentation at TEDxTokyo2010. 

Drs. Kalvi  and Conn are true “mavericks.” They had just met ten days before with President Obama at the White House with the 2010 Kavli Laureates. 

Dr. Conn and I crossed paths at UCLA and he often reads this blog. We are kindred spirits and our conversations are quickly became very lively. Since the mission of the Kalvi Foundation is to provide backup for leading university research labs around the world and support research in the areas of space, nanoscience, and neuroscience, we had plenty to talk about. I really hope that we can work together here in Japan. 

Dr. Maruyama is cut from the same mold as Joi Ito, the newly appointed head of the MIT Media Lab, whom I introduced on this blog, and I was pleased to be able to engage him, as he happened to be in Tokyo, in stimulating conversation.

I really hope that we can also send more graduate students from Japan to the Media Lab.

Murayama-san and Ito-san are both Japanese mavericks of the global world. I think it is essential for the revitalization of Japan, that we see more of these mavericks in Japan.

 

Geneve; Todai President Council at the WEF Head Quarter -1

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The President Council of Todai is held in early June annually.  This year’s meeting, by the invitation of Professor Klaus Schwab, our member and also the Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF, popular as the Davos Meeting), was set at the WEF Head Quarter (HQ) in Geneva.  By the way, last year’s meeting was held in New York City.

As I landed in Geneva via Paris, I found the weather cold and rainy.  After a short break, I headed to Cologny, one of the most prestigious area in Geneva where the WEF HQ is located, and as I gazed at the mountains across the lake, behind the UN and other buildings, I noticed them covered with new snow.  I was told that the weather was very hot only last week, like 30℃/86?.  It was a pity.

I enjoyed reunions with many friends working at the WEF HQ, having lunch together, talking about the agenda.  So many young people from various backgrounds, various nationalities are working here.  There were several Japanese, too.  Most of them, including the Japanese, are here temporarily for some years, as a part of their career paths, but the work presents them opportunities to get in touch with the leaders of the world, making friends, and expanding networks.

The next day was a national holiday here, and most of the places were closed.  However, the reception at the WEF HQ from the evening was full and cheerful with the presence of President Hamada of Todai, the Council members, and OB/OG of Todai working in Geneva and its adjacent areas.  There I met Dr Suwa, introduced several years ago by Dr. Ito.  He is a graduate of Todai, Department of Science, earned Master’s degree at Duke University, PhD at Princeton University, and taught in Rwanda for about 3 years.  Dr Suwa is currently working at the World Meteorological Organization and hopes to return to Rwanda to teach after his term at WMO is over.  I introduced him to President Hamada right away.  I also had the pleasure of greeting HE Suganuma, the Ambassador of Japan to Swiss.  Here in Geneva, many are related to governmental organizations, so I had opportunities to meet many friends (though most of them were much younger than I….)

In the evening, I had dinner with the Council members at the Hotel.  Professor Kobayashi  (Ref.1) the head of Japan team at CERN was of course invited, too.  I was seated next to Mr Bill Emmott and we talked mostly over Fukushima.  I think many of you know him.  He was the head of Tokyo office and then editor of the Economist, and authored many books on Japan (please search at Amazon).  I understand that he is recently writing on Italy.

There were lots of topics to talk about; Japan after 3.11, how journalisms or scientists should be, businesses, politices….. I felt that concerns and attentions to Japan are high after 3.11.

Mr. Emmott told me that he plans to visit Tokyo in June.

 

Drs Iiyoshi and Ishikura of the Open Education

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The weather was beautiful on May 31st, and from 8am, I gave a speech to a group of young legislators of Democratic Party and Liberal Democratic Party focusing on the 3.11 disaster under the title “What’s Now, a Step to Take” (Ref.1). The meeting was held at a conference room of the Office building of the House of Representatives (Syugiin Kaikan).  We had a good discussion, but on the other hand, since there was an imminemt issue of non-confidence motion of Prime Minister Kan, I felt uneasiness in the air.

I am deeply concerned about the state of our nation and wish to do whatever I can.
 
From 10 am, I ran a meeting at Ministry of Health, and I arrived late at a meeting over lunch with Drs Yoko Ishikuara (photo is here also) and Toru Iiyoshi (Ref.1) on the role of Open Education in Japan and the trend of education in the world.  Our table was outdoors, faced a cozy garden, with bright sunshine, so we very much enjoyed passing of the time.  I felt urge to start a new project, a new move.  I hear that Dr Ishikura is starting her new work aggressively at Keio University.

Then, I went on to join in a board meeting of an educational institution which I am part of.  The relations between education reform and conventional power is difficult anywhere.

In the evening, after a brief stop at my home, I headed to Haneda to take a flight to Paris that will take off shortly after midnight.  By coincidence, Mr. Tsuchiya, who takes charge of Japan program at the Davos meeting, was on the same flight.  We are both visiting the headquarter of the World Economic Forum in Geneva.

It was a busy day, but with the help of the nice lunch time with Ishikura-san and Iiyoshi-san, I managed to take off in a good spirit, boarding on the night flight to Paris departing at 0:35 am, June 1st.

 

AIESEC Convention

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I have reported to you on AIESEC for a number of times in my web site.

The day after I returned from St Gallen, I participated in the convention of AIESEC (Ref.1)(Ref.2 in Japanese).  I was inivited to give a keynote speech.  Thank you for inviting me.

For the details of the convention please check the AIESEC web site.

I would like all of you to know that you are all great and I enjoyed very much the enthusiasm in the air.

About 200 students and several OBs/OGs gathered. I enjoyed the whole afternoon having conversations with them.

The highlights of this event were the presentations by the 3 students from overseas who were engaged in internships in Japan, and 3 Japanese students who experienced 2 months’ activities at overseas.  They were selected from a large number of candidates.
 
The Japanese students had their internships at India, Brazil, and Philippines.  First, they started with Japanese common sense in their minds, but soon encountered many setbacks due to misunderstandings, went through difficult times in trying to find ways around, had to think hard to get out of the troubles, fight and go over the troubles.  They also met wonderful people… Each student had their own, very moving “monogatari (stories)” to tell.  I was very moved to see how much a person can grow in such a short period of time.  Such experience will definitely broaden their perspectives, and strongly impact the way they choose their future careers and over come challenges they will face.
 
The same goes with the 3 international interns, too.  I heard many truly moving “stories” about the difficulties Japanese host students or enterprises (smaller ones) had in arranging the interns’ visit to Japan, or how many wonderful changes took place in both visiting students and receiving companies

Some report about this event on blogs such as this one.  (in Japanese)

By the way, the best award went to Mr. Ryo Takahashi, a student in my class at Keio SFC.  He talked about his story in India.

At the reception  “Ichinokura”, a leading Sake brewery in Sendai, which won the top award for a company which accepted a student from China, the company winner, offered its brand barrel of Sake liquor to remind us the great disaster of Tohoku and we all enjoyed the wonderful Sake.

By seeing such wonderful youths, I felt from the bottom of my heart that Japanese students are treasures to offer and connect Japan to the world, and likewise, international students are important treasures to Japan.

I recommend all Japanese enterprises to host more student interns from overseas.  You will never know how much their wonderful experiences in Japan will contribute to the PR and business of your company in this global world.

On the other hand, professors at universities will easily recognize that AIESEC is wonderful educational opportunities if they just see how much the Japanese students will learn and mature through such internship activities.  Japanese companies should not hesitate to give more support to such programs.

For the Japanese society as a whole, one of the most important things to do for the future of Japan is to aggressively participate and promote such activities and support the youths.

 

Dragon Cherry Blossoms Continues to Fight; “Encourage Students to Take Leave of Absence from School”

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The Dragon Cherry Blossoms which I have been reporting you every now and then was launched in action 3 years ago in December when they visited me finding out my massage from my blog postings; 　I advised them to take a leave of absence from school and go to Dhaka. My Saisyo seemed to have made up his mind right on the spot to take a leave. As they were leaving my room, I could see that everyone got my message feeling pretty confident about their next step..  After this, things started to move rapidly, and Mr Miyoshi with others organized Japanese side of the team, and later they created GCMP.

Overcoming many hardships along the process over almost two years, Dragon Cherryblossom made a big impact which quickly spread throughout Japan.  I am very happy about this.
 
I assume that you have already heard about the book written by Mr. Saisyo; “Go Forward, Go Forward, Go Forward” (in Japanese).  Here, I would like to introduce the book to you again.  I can see from his book that at the site, they are encountered with many difficulties.  Of course, there would have been hurdles of different kinds continuing his studies in Waseda University, too, had Mr Saisho stayed at the Univertsity not taking the leave..

However, this is only a beginning, and I can assure them that they will be challenged by many unexpected “barriers” before they succeed in expanding this project or even changing the society a bit.

Mr. Saisyo, you are very diligent in pursuit of your dream and have shown the ability to get people involved.  Many youths see you as their “role model”.  However, I have to say to you that harder times are yet to come, but remember that I am always on your side and willing to support you just like many others do….
 
By the way, in connection with the “Encourage Youths of Taking a Leave of Absence from School”  which I so many times urge in this web site, I would like to call your attention to the fact that many private universities charge “fees” such as “tuitions” even while the students are on “the leave” ? which is unimaginable policy for educational institutions.

However, the good news is that at the Meiji University, with strong actions on the students’ side, University Admisnitration decided to significantly reduce the amount of fee they charge to students during the period of leave.  I am very, very, pleased.  I would like to ask the university administration to make the amount they charged (during absence) part of the tuition due after their return to university.

I urge other private universities to follow the example of Meiji University.  To students, I urge you to unite and petition to the universities.

For it is about your right to build your future.

 

See-D Contest, The Final Presentations

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We have been working for a year on this See-D contest activities (Ref.1, 2, 3)

As described in the announcement, our theme this time was “East Timor”.  This event was for the final presentation of this year’s contest (twitter here).  We could see how both the student teams and professional teams worked hard for the development of their ideas　to workable prototypes.  This event was held at GRIPS on Sunday, as its final presentation.

The participants worked hard and went through many hardships and presented their fruits.   Many comments and advises were given to each project, which they, in return, had to respond to.  I assume that it will take an extensive time to achieve successful deployment, perhaps even very difficult, too, but I am certain that what they are going through will now be a good experience for them.

I hope and expect that each participant make this experience an opportunity for their further development, in developing their views and engeagements to the global world.

 

Fukuzawa Yukichi Memorial School (Juku) of Civilization; Enjoying Dialogues With the Youths

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（Photos by Mr. Nobuyuki Aoki of the Change-the-World ）

Fukuzawa Yukichi (Fukuzawa is the family name) is a leader of the modern Japan, one of the persons I respect very much.

If you search by the key word ‘Fukuzawa Yukichi’, in this web site, you will find several postings on him.  I summarized some of them into my book review “Vision of Fukuzawa Yukichi; His Insights Into the Future at Time of Chaos”  (in Japanese).

I was invited to a gathering named “leadership” in the “Fukuzawa Bunmei (Civilization) Juku”, a Juku (literally meaning cram/private school) named after Fukuzawa Yukichi, the founder of Keio University.  The program was hosted by Professo Jiro Tamura .

About half of the Juku-class were students, the rest were young people with jobs, but what struck me as a pleasant surprise was that about half of them was women.

The video of the session is presented in u-stream.

I discussed with them in schemes of; the ‘3.11’ and subsequent crises of today, how to see Japan’s response and background, and the need of leaders with global vision.  Participants discussed in a group at some intervals, and raised me questions.

I always enjoy talking with youths very much.