From Davos -2

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The 2nd day in Davos was another beautiful day.  I attended the Japan breakfast meeting of GAC (Global Agenda Council).  About 20 people were there including the YGL (Young Global Leaders), and since all were Japanese, our discussion was naturally in Japanese. I was the chairman of this breakfast session, and so seeing that some people were new to the Davos meeting, I first talked in English and pointed out that this Council was the only council in which the participants all spoke Japanese (the majority were Japanese and the rest were American who live in Japan).  Perhaps I surprised them.  But afterwards, I was told how they liked my comments because it served as an ice breaker.  Of course, the main topic at this session was the visit of the Prime Minister on the 29th.

In the afternoon, after several sessions, I went to hear the speeches given by President Yudhoyono of Indonesia and President Sarkozy of France.  Recently, Indonesia is experiencing an 8% economic growth under a democratically elected administration.  The current president and his administration are promoting the decentralization of the government, appointing talents in drastic style.  The ASEAN host of this year, President Yudhoyono delivered a wonderful speech.    Great speeches by great leaders always moves our heart.

I participate in the Governors meeting of big chemical industries annually as a guest and this year it was held in the afternoon.  The discussion is always good here, and it was again stimulating with participants like Mr. Kobayashi of Mitsubishi Chemicals, Mr. Ohyagi of Teijin.  I had the honor of making comments on Shale Oil, ‘Global to Local’ and such.  I learned a lot from talking with the top executives of these industries.
 
In the evening, I browsed through the Japan Night, Korea Night, and Indonesia Night.  The Indonesia Night had the best venue, but to my disappointment, there were not many people present, since it was after 10pm. Japan Night had the largest number of participants.  This was good.

However, I understand that the news of the  S&P reducing Japan’s ratings from AA to AA- caused some stir in Japan.  I commented on this topic a year ago in my blog.  Japanese media did not cover the news much when the S&P declined last time, but I wonder how they will behave this time.  I noticed a short comment by the PM being reported…

I went to bed feeling it difficult to fall asleep.

From Davos -1

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On the morning of the 25th I departed Narita for Zurich via Frankfurt, arriving at Davos late at night.

On the 26th, I participated in the early morning sessions. The IdeasLab is always interesting and thought-provocative, so I participated in the session of ‘Design for the New Reality’.  Here, Dr. Yoko Ishikura, Dr. Kohei Nishiyama (he was the discussion leader of the ‘Product Design’ panel), and Professor Toshiko Mori of Harvard University (at ‘Scarcity-driven design’) were the participants from Japan.  As for myself, I joined the discussion with Adam Bly because it seemed interesting and I have had discussions with him on ‘Innovation’ for several years at GAC. Dr. Bly is apparently developing quite an interesting new domain.  It is both stimulating and enjoyable to join in a panel based on presentations with higher perspectives.

Please visit Dr. Ishikura’s blog also.

I participated in several sessions, as well as the closing event of the day, the GAC dinner.  The majority of the people had participated in recent Dubai meeting so we had good conversation.  Lawrence Summers and Amy Chua were the two super special guests.  Please refer to Wikipedia for their backgrounds.  I assume you all know Mr. Lawrence Summers.  He is currently a professor at Yale University.  Ms. Amy Chua published a book early this year that has become a trendy, if not controversial topic.  These two guests made our discussion so interesting.  It was a privilege to be able to exchange a few words personally with Ms. Chua after the dinner.
 
The title of her book is: ‘Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother’.  She writes about raising her two daughters as a Chinese mother. Her opinions and actions triggered quite a discussion among her readers.

Ms. Chua writes about the rules that children are ‘not supposed to, not allowed to’ do.
? attend a sleepover
? have a playdate
? be in a school play
? complain about not being in a school play
? watch TV or play computer games
? choose their own extracurricular activities
? get any grade less than an A
? not be the No. 1 student in every subject except gym and drama
? play any instrument other than the piano or violin
? not play the piano or violin
There are more important rules.  I haven’t read the book yet, but she said, ‘In a sense, it’s like a Jewish mother of 20 years ago’.  She is quite a personality.

No wonder people have a lot to say about her rules.

?

Vabel Conference, Mr. Kim, a Pari Pari Worker

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Sunday afternoon, the Vabel Conference was held at GRIPS. The organizer was Mr. Kim, an energetic young man whom I wrote about in my recent blog posting.　

The audience was mostly students.  The speakers, Mr. Nanjo, Dr. Ishikura, Ms. Hayashi, Dr. Saito, myself, and Dr. Mogi were all experienced speakers.  Since most of the participants were young, everything they talked was full of energy and very moving.  Dr. Yoko Ishikura explains this in detail in her blog, so please take a look.

Presentations and Q&As – everything was in English.  Somebody wrote on twitter:（#vabel ） ‘I felt it strange at first that they spoke English in spite of almost all of the participants being Japanese, but eventually I got used to it.’  Yes, getting used to it, and acquiring the right atmosphere is important.

There were some twists and turns, some mishaps, as Mr. Kim was creating this idea and working on it all by himself.  However, at any rate, we all did it.  Ustream, however, did not work properly as I anticipated, which was a pity.  Since I belong to GRIPS, I was helping him as the host to develop programs, coordinate with the speakers, give advice, and arrange for the venue.  So it was a great relief to me that all the guests and audience seemed to enjoy the conference.

I would like to thank several staff members at GRIPS for their great support in making this conference a success. It was a very lively afternoon.

Regardning the word Pari Pari:  it’s meaning is explained in this article.  Enjoy!

A Debate on Education at The 2nd anniversary of The Commons 30 Fund Created by Mr. Shibusawa and His Friends

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Late in the afternoon, on January 19th, after giving a lecture at my Keio SFC course (which I intend to write about later), I joined a panel (in Japanese) at the 2nd anniversary of the Commons 30 Fund (in Japanese) founded by my friend, Mr. Ken Shibusawa.

The panel was hosted by Mr. Shibusawa and I was supposed to have a dialogue with Mr. Kenichi Fukuhara, the CFO of Benesse and the head office manager of Corporate Communication (I knew this much beforehand….)   Then, I discovered that the theme was education.  Just the right topic for me!

Mr. Fukuhara showed slides titled ‘Escape from Galapagos Island’.  His intention was to deliver a strong message that Japanese education was also changing to a Galapagos.  Quite shocking!  Then, the topic shifted to ‘the insular mindset of Japanese youth’, which is popular these days.

Given his message, I responded by saying ‘it is not the youth which has problems, but the generation of their parents, and the older’ (Ref.1, 2) (Ref.3, 4 in Japanese). 

I have been focusing on this message for 1-2 months.

This provoking panel is uploaded on UStream.  I feel a bit embarrassed to show this to you, but the future of the youth comes first.

The key, always, is to see the essence within the big picture.

P.S.  I already found some blogs (Ref.1,2 all sites are in Japanese) reporting on this event.  、　、Their comments made me happy.

 

Why Not Go to the OIST Symposium and Challenge?

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OIST (Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology) is located in the scenic Onna-son village of Okinawa. It was established as a new science and research institute. Now, it is steering its way to become a graduate school.

Construction is steadily in progress, and beautiful buildings are gradually starting to emerge, implying the overall picture of the campus.  At the conference hall by the sea, many Symposiums are being held, gathering top level scientists of the world.

Why don’t you join?

This is an invitation to one of such opportunities.  It takes place during your spring vacation, March 14th to 18th.  To come all you have to do is submit an essay of 500 words in English by January 31st. Essays should be submitted online.

This is an English essay contest for undergraduate and graduate (master’s course) students. The applicants must be residing in Japan, majoring in science and technology. The title given for the essay is: “A multidisciplinary approach to solving complicated problems in science and technology today: How effective is it?”  The winners will be invited to a workshop in March.  For details please see: http://www.oist.jp/en/news-archive/38-2010/703-essay2011.html 
 
The deadline is rather close, but don’t worry.  Focus, think, organize your ideas, and most importantly, start writing.

OIST has its door wide open for youth with strong motivation.  This is the time for a challenge!

Try to Participate in the St. Gallen Symposium

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There is a beautiful town in Swiss called St. Gallen where the students at St. Gallen Universty organize the annual St. Gallen Symposium.  This year’s schedule is from May 12 to 13. The Symposium is a wonderful opportunity to listen to worldwide leaders and to speak with them in person.  In such a beautiful setting with such opportunity,  I am sure many friends will be made with students of the world.
 
I participated twice (in Japanese)(Ref.1 in English) and still continue to support them.  This program has been around for 40 years and is quite enjoyable.

This year again, they will organize the event.  As usual, the application involves writing an English essay.

Dr. Yoko Ishikura also writes about this in her blog (in Japanese) (Ref.1 in English), so please take a look.
 
Nothing can be achieved unless you try.  Focus, think, and write!  The detail for application is given here.  The deadline is close (Feb.1) but do not worry.
 
I urge you all to put your best effort in and give it a try!
 

A Student Movement to Promote ‘Let’s Study Internationally’, ‘Let’s Experience the World’

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Late last year I reported that the Japanese PhD’s who are actively working in the US and who have begun to grow impatient with their Japanese juniors have started to take action to encourage study abroad. 

Their activities were covered by Mainichi Shinbun, one of the major newspapers in Japan.  This is very encouraging.  After all, the most important thing is to let the most high school students, university students, their families, and the Japanese public know what is happening.  This is one of the very important and basic roles of media.

My message here is: ‘Youth, be ambitious!’.

Kim Haegwan, a ‘Pari Pari’ Worker; The Law of Success 2.0, and Vabel

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Last June, a young student contacted me via e-mail requesting an interview.  He is a Korean born in Japan, and a very active young man who is now on leave from school to travel around the world.

He has been interviewing many famous people and is reporting about it on his web site The Law of Success 2.0.  I find it quite interesting.

More recently, he launched a Japanese blog site (where I learned the Chinese character for his name, Kim Haegwan) and an NPO Vabel.  I have been corresponding with him via e-mails ever since I saw him in London and my interview appears on his web site in English and Japanese.

I think it was in October last year that he asked me to participate in a conference hosted by Vabel in Tokyo.  I agreed, but hadn’t received a reply from him afterwards for some time. One day, I randomly went to Vabel’s web site and was quite surprised to find an announcement for the conference. It’s taking place in Tokyo on January 23rd.

I immediately sent him an inquiry about the details of the conference. I needed to know things like where it was and what the program looked like.  His plan didn’t seem to be able to gather enough people or pay expenses.  We talked over via e-mails, and also had thorough discussions about the project after he returned to Japan in December.  We wanted to be sure that the invited guests would be treated with due respect. I advised him on variety of things, especially since I felt accountable because my name appeared as one of the supporters.

The problem was that he was a very difficult person to convince, a tough character…

Then, after some time, I sent him an e-mail asking how things were going.  He wrote back that he was trying to gather his friends at Waseda University and the University of Tokyo.

Anyway, I am doing my best to satisfy the invited speakers and support Mr. Kim’s hard work with the spirit of; ‘pari pari’ (a Hangeul word for ‘hurry up’).

He is a person of action. He does not detour!  His attitude is not bad for a young person.  Setting high goal makes great dreams realized.

The Vabel conference will take place on January 23rd.  I invite you all to participate.  Registration is free and open.

Design Thinking ? A New Movement of the New Age

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A Happy New Year!

I wish for a more active mood to emerge in Japan for the year of 2011. I strongly expect it to happen….

Over the past two to three years, I’ve noticed the phrase, ‘Design Thinking’ has spread gradually through the world.  How people interpret this word may differ according to each individual, but basically I think it stands for the essence of wisdom for how to address the very complicated issues of the world.

As I have mentioned several times in my blog, today, the word ‘Design’ is not confined to the dimension of objects or shapes only. It also refers to the act of presenting practical solutions to complex problems by taking into account various ideas from diverse viewpoints.  In other words, we should understand it as a process of ‘Design Thinking’.

I feel that this phenomenon is observed in many areas.  For instance; a scientific approach by the Open Systems Science of Dr. Mario Tokoro of Sony , Graduate School of Design at Harvard, the D School at Stanford, or the i.School  at the University of Tokyo

Design Thinking often uses the process of presenting figures to summarize and clarify issues.  The IdeasLab of the World Economic Forum may be one of such examples that are based on these concepts.  I recently had an opportunity to participate in meetings at WEF in Dubai; Global Redesign Summit (Ref.1) and Global Risk Response Network  (Ref.1). Nice visual demonstrations were prepared by Design, Innovation Council and the like, meant to clearly suggest the importance of showing and visualizing complex ideas and issues for better understanding.

Recently, designers have more opportunity to work in business sectors.  I think this is partly because of the trend I described above, combined with various technologies to present information in visual ways based on the rapid progress of digital technologies.  Examples of such designers would include Mr. Ken Okuyama (Ref.1 in Japanese), Mr. Issey Miyake (Ref.1 in Japanese), and Mr. Kashiwa Sato　(Ref.1 in Japanese).
　
Because they are all international designers, always thinking about the essences of the human mind, they naturally acquire visions to respond to today’s need to create ‘Open and Demand-driven Innovation’.

We have been organizing the Global Entrepreneurship Week （GEW） since 2009, and bearing in mind the trend described above, for 2010, we invited a group of youths to do a workshop under the theme ‘ Impact Japan : Design Thinking’ (Ref.1).  This triggered the foundation of our institution, Impact Japan.  Nikkei newspaper put an advertisement article on its December 29th morning issue about the Design Thinking activities that originated in GEW Japan.

I feel the wisdoms of the world working to adapt to the new age.  Now, how will Japan do this year?

AIESEC Training Camp

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Videos of Opening and Closing Session


 


 

This is another posting on AIESEC, an organization that supports international internship s which I wrote about once before.

I was invited to give a speech at their training camp in late December at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Center in Yoyogi.  Over the course of a few days, about 150 people participated.  Supporters from industries included Works Applications; （this is an amazing company, I went to see Mr. Masayuki Makino (Ref.1), the CEO, the other day with Mr. Matsuda of LFA several days before.  I will write more about it in another column.）, Tanaka Precious Metals Group; (the price of gold is likely to keep rising), and GRAPH (this is a fun company, too.)

Everybody was in high spirits.  During the speech I tried to make the audience feel free to ask questions and I think it helped because people asled question after question, so much so that the 80 minute session of Q&A flashed by.  After the Q&A, the audience divided into 3 groups and continued the discussion with the 3 guests from the companies mentioned above.

From the start of the New Year, I will be helping AIESEC begin a project to spread their activities to the world.  This year, about 300 people went abroad for training and about 60 people came to Japan.  I must say that this is a complete mismatch.  Although they expect to increase the number to 400 for the people going abroad and to 100 for the people coming here, this is still far from enough.

I am looking forward to helping AIESEC increase its reach, as well as increasing the total number of exchanges for the year 2011.