leadership – Page 31 – Kiyoshi Kurokawa.com

From World Knowledge Forum, Seoul

Posted on 2008/10/182014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

Following last year I came to Seoul by the invitation of 9th World Knowledge Forum (From 14th October to 16th October).

The forum started with the address of President Roh Moo-hyun (Photo 1) and the Guest list was very special. I met Mr. Aho from Finland as well, and after hearing his speech I thought that he was a political leader there also. There was a live discussion on Television with New York on the financial crisis and creeping world recession which originated in Wall Street. Richard Branson of Virgin Airline also made stage appearance on Television.

Photo 1: Address by South Korean President Roh, to right Mr. Ahern, former prime minister of Ireland, Mr. Aho, former president of Finland

Dr. Komiyama, president of Tokyo University also participated. He made a great impression of presence as he talked and appeared in quite a number of occasions. As you know, he is the top of “academia” in Japan. Looking from abroad, I feel that Japan’s presence is low, so we must send out information in every possible ways.

From my point of view, 80s was ‘Japan Bashing’ as it was bubble era, 90s was ‘Japan Passing’ because the bubbles burst, Internet era of 21st century started with ‘Japan Nothing’ and currently it is ‘Japan Missing’. In other words, though Japan is world’s second largest economy, it says too little about what it wants to do, does not express clear opinions even if asked, does not respond to invitations, and even if it did, fails to speak up.

Many people (It is said more than 3.000 people have participated in 3 days) from South Korea had participated but I feel even if such kind of conference is held in Japan very few people will take part in it. Why is it so? Think about it.

I was also introduced to Ms. Shinae Chun, Women’s Bureau Director of US Department of Labor. She went to America after graduating from Korean university. In Chicago she took part in social activities to organize the Asian communities. Having such background probably helped her for being appointed by Washington. Her husband also went to America after completing higher education in Korea. He is a PhD of engineering.

Photo 2: With Ms. Chun, Women’s Bureau Director of US Department of Labor. On extreme right her husband, third person from the right Ms. Kim (mentioned below) of Appletreetales publications.

Sponsor was Maeil Business News. The evening reception was sponsored by Seoul city on 15th and by Gyeonggi Province on 16th. The mayor and governor of respective cities were present and gave the address. On 15th, a Japanese Pianist popular also by Korean TV dramas, Mr. Yuki Kumamoto, Korean violinist, Ms. Michelle Kim, active in NY Philharmonic, (Early this year, the NY Philharmonic made a historic visit to North Korea. This was supported by a Japanese lady Yoko Nagae Ceschina residing in Italy). Then a fashion show by Mr. Andre Kim on the 16th. They were enchanting.

Photo 3 to 5: Reception (Mr.Kuramoto is little blur due to the lights from the top. Sorry.)

By the way, Dr. Ishikura and I co-authored a book “Sekaikyu kyaria no tsukurikata (How to make world class career)" and recently the Korean version of the book was published from Appletreetales. I met Ms. Okhee Kim (in the photograph), the president of the publishing company who studied at the University of Sacred Heart, and was interviewed by Ms. Chung of Maeil Business News.

Photo 6: From right Ms. Kim, Dr. Ishikura, myself (holding the book, looking pretty in pink) and Ms. Chung.

I partcipitated in the following 3 panels.

1. Outlook: India 2009: Another Opportunity or Bubble (Photo 7)

2. Outlook: ASEAN+East Asia 2009: The New Collaborative Model

3. Future Energy

It is great that I always meet new people and see old friends here. Dr. Ishikura who participated last year was on 3 or 4 panels this year. I was in the same panel with Mr. Muhammad Lutfi, chief of Indonesia investment coordinating board (BKPM). Although he is a young person bit less than 40 years, I thought he was very brilliant. I happened to hear his lectures for about 30 minutes somewhere at some other time, but it was very impressive suggesting his talent as a great leader. I say his future is very promising.

Photo 7: From right Mr. H Jha, one of the VPs of Tata Steel, Mr. D Johnston, Ex-director of bureau of OECD and Dr. D Bangalore from Stanford University.

“Taking Risks”: What do Young People Want to Do in the Coming Era?

Posted on 2008/10/162014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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A radical symposium titled "Taking Risks" was organized by Professor Shuzo Fujimura of MOT, or the Graduate School of Innovation Management at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. I thought that it would be difficult for young people to attend an event held during the day on a weekday, but was happy to see many graduate students there.

Speakers besides myself were Mr. Kazutaka Muraguchi, a venture capitalist at Nippon Technology Venture Partners, Mr. Kazuhiko Toyama who is former chief operating officer of the Industrial Revitalization Corporation of Japan and author of "Kaisha wa atama kara kusaru (Companies Rot from the Top)," and Mr. Yukio Sakamoto, President of Elpida Memory. Each of us is considered a "dissenter" in our own field. I guess our speeches were pretty extreme. Some Japanese blogs are describing what the symposium was like. It was quite radical, but I think that’s just fine.

Even at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, I heard that 70 percent of graduate students want to work for large companies. It was a bit sad that I couldn’t feel their desire to explore the world while they are young. Is it that inward-looking man and outward-looking woman dichotomy again?

American youth seem to have a strong interest in making contributions to the world and society through programs like the "Peace Corps" or "Teasch for America"(Wikipedia). These organizations are on the top 10 list of "Ideal Undergraduate Employers," where US undergraduates dream of working. They are recognized as career paths that nurture leadership skills. It would be good to think about this in Japan too.

Unfortunately, the number of Japanese students studying in the US is also on the decline.

Alexandria Library, Global Health and Patient University

Posted on 2008/10/152014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Bibliotheca Alexandria is said to be the oldest library in the world (B.C. 300 to 400 era). It was an open academy which gathered various acquaintances and scholars from across the world (of those days) and made them interact with each other (What an insight to recognize it’s true value!). Having been reconstructed six years ago, it is now rapidly growing as digital library including wonderful activities. Nowadays, young generation is making full use of it under the excellent leadership of Mr. Ismail Serageldin.

Lectures and panels were held at the United Nations University at Aoyama on October 4th in memory of the 1st anniversary of the set up of the library’s Japanese Web site. Dr. Helal, Minister of Higher Education and Science of Egypt, Mr. Serageldin and the Ambassador His Excellency Abdelnasser were present for the ceremony. Since I was acting as a director, I addressed the ceremony. Dr. Takahashi, the first director had also participated in the panel.

In the afternoon, there was a follow up meeting of the Health Systems of Global Health, proposed by Japan in the Lake Toya G8 summit. Excellent members gathered with Mr. Keizo Takemi as the head, and we will work to shape the system’s foundation before handing it over to Italy which will be acting as the host of G8 summit to be conducted next year.

In the midcourse, there was a session called "Patient University" (the link is in Japanese) organized by our NPO, Health Policy Institute, Japan, focusing on GE HealthCare and NGOs assisting the patients. I also expressed my greetings and talked about "Why NGO has grown?" Such a common process will support "civil activities." Thank you all for your hard work.

It was a long Saturday.

From Tianjin, kungfu master and international star Jet Li takes action

Posted on 2008/10/022014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I’m a Jet Li fan and often watch his movies on planes and television (I must admit that I haven’t been to a theater for almost ten years now).

His films move at brisk, quick-cut pace and are filled with hard-hitting excitement. It’s hard to describe, but they’re so much fun to watch. Lately he’s also been starring in many mainland Chinese pictures like "the Monkey King" which I’ve seen on tv.

The martial arts star has set up an NGO called "One Foundation" and is addressing problems in China and the world.

He is energetically persuading many individuals and businesses around the world to join in and get involved in charity projects to help victims of the recent Sichuan earthquake, alleviate poverty and economic disparity, and solve problems in education. He wants everyone to participate and expand it into a big movement.

In Tianjin I met One Foundation staff members. They’re young, but passionate and bursting with energy. When I parted with them I told them, "Say hello to my master." I am very impressed how the foundation is thinking very big.

It’s the same idea that I have repeatedly emphasized on this blog. In this world of globalization, each person can take action based on individual ability and mutual trust. And because this new world is connected and flattening, each action will have the power to enable and empower others (See page 5 of my opening keynote at the G8 Environment Ministers’ meeting).

Jet Li is participating in this New Champions conference too. On September 28th, there was an interview session with him. I found time and sat in. At first I was a bit surprised to see that he is much smaller in person than on screen. But his passion and ambitions are big. He took all kinds of questions and energetically answered them one after another. He repeatedly emphasized that "transparency and governance" are key in his projects and operations. He said that even if he makes mistakes he wants to take one small action at a time for the world. It was a wonderful session that communicated his great depth of feelings. He wants to get everyone to think about what they can do and join hands to make a difference.

If everybody does a little bit, it can solve global problems of the world.

To London, for the GLOBE planning committee

Posted on 2008/09/162014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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2 weeks ago, I received a FAX from Mr. Morley, the Minister of Environment of Mr. Blair’s regime, whom I have introduced before. He wanted me to participate in the planning meeting of GLOBE, to be held in London on September 8.

I therefore reached London on the 8th morning via Paris, went to the hotel, changed in just 30 minutes and left for the meeting. I was a bit late and joined the conference at 10:20. The meeting was held in the Thatcher Room of Portcullis House, House of Commons which is a part of British parliament. After the announcement of resignation by the Prime Minister, the representative of Japan and Member of the House, Mr. Yoshio Yatsu decided not to participate in the meeting.

Photo 1 Photograph of participants, Mr. Morley, Member of the house in white shirt (in the center), to his right Mr. Gardiner, Member of the house. Some participants returned to their countries in the half way.

Photo 2 The venue of meeting, a new building immediate right to Big Ben (It is not seen here)

Photo 3 Mr. Tokumaru from the Ministry of the Environment

It is necessary to investigate the policies as well as approach to the "Land utilization, Forest conservation, Biodiversity, Ecosystem" which is actually very difficult. As Mr. Barry Gardiner, a member of the House of Great Britain, was in-charge and delivered a speech in the beginning followed by a series of serious discussions by about 15 participants. I think it will be a significant step if we find out the way to focus the policy from domestic to global. It may take a while, but it is very good if such discussions go ahead in a meaningful form in years to come. It is a global and very important subject but does not move forward easily.

Photo 4 At the reception, Mr. Gardiner, Member of the House, Mr. Nishigahiro, Minister to Great Britain.

The reception was organized at "The Goring Hotel", a small but sophisticated hotel which is common in London.

After staying for 24 hours in London, next morning, I am leaving for Swiss. I will send next column from there.

Executive personnel management- simple questions from an outsider?

Posted on 2008/08/222014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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I was interviewed by Nihon Keizai Shinbun for a column called "Airspace violation". It is an interview report and aims to have a person present open questions about things other than his/her profession. Although I had several themes in my mind, I decided to talk about personnel management of enterprises. The article appeared in the morning edition page 5 on Aug. 4th, 2008, under the heading of " ‘Tenures’ are not appropriate for executives. Decide according to their performance and actual results." The article is as follows. Gist of my remarks are in the quotation marks.

■ We understand that you have doubts about "Tenure" of business executives?
"I hear that there are many enterprises which have customs or byelaws that set presidents’ tenure as 2 terms of 4 years or 3 terms of 6 years. But does it make any sense? I hardly think that the governance of Japanese enterprises so far was good enough just because they have a tenure system. "

■Current trend is to shorten the tenure of top managements of large industries. Along the trend, many enterprises are shortening the term of office of CEO from 2 conventional years to 1 year.
"If manager’s term of office is set short, he/she won’t consider the business on long term scales. Suppose some problem occurs during the tenure. I suspect that it will not be solved by he/her but will be transferred to their successor." "Same things happen in governments as well as universities, the field where I come from. As government officials are replaced one after another the problems go on passing to the successors. Since tenure of deans and president of university is short, talent training cannot be planned from long term perspectives."

■On the other hand, there are adverse effects if the tenure is prolonged and also criticisms about "problems caused by aged people".
"For ‘problems caused by aged people’, you can simply set young presidents in their 40s. Then even after serving for 10 years, his/her age will still be below 60. There are some cases, like Sharp or Hotel Okura, which had presidents in their 40s. However, in large industries in Japan, the number of young managers is still very small. What is required of a leader is; vision, ability of conveying the vision to the other people, intellectual and physical strength, and strong faith. Age is irrelevant. Younger talents should be selected." "Nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that ‘long term control’ is always no good. There are many founders of corporations in Japan, like Mr. Akio Morita of Sony, who demonstrated wonderful management skills for a long period of time. There may be many employed managers who can achieve excellent results in their long term tenure."

■Problem is not the short or long length of tenure?
"The point is not to set tenure but to build a mechanism so that the ability and achievement of a manager is evaluated objectively and in case any problem arises, the mechanism must work to have him removed immediately. But how many Japanese enterprises actually have such structure functioning? If a company can not have a person to retire till completion of his customary tenure we must say that governance does not exist."

■One more word, please.
Once you become a professor, you will be safe till retirement. This is also strange.

■A word from the interviewer.
How should we select and evaluate the heads of management? It is a very important issue connecting to the base of enterprise governance. There are cases where external reporters or external directors participate in selection of the succeeding director but such advanced examples are yet very few. How do Japanese managers answer to those simple questions about executives raised by Dr. Kurokawa? (Editing committee, Yoshiyuki Miyata）

I expect there will be various opinions, points regarding the contents of this article. Although I spoke for a long time they had to summarize it in a little space. Anyway, pushing theory of your own is useless in this era of global economy, especially if it is the world’s second great economic nation. It is a matter of credibility of a business, a nation. In this information age, governance with transparency is the basis of company’s worth. Not limited to enterprise, everything is transparent from the world even if you tried to hide. And here lies the challenges of "Flat age".

Some of the arguments about this article have appeared at Nikkei Net PLUS. You are able to read them by registration (free). What do you think?

Again from New Delhi

Posted on 2008/08/122014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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Here I am in New Delhi for the second time in this year(Refer 1, 2 ). Following last year, purpose of the visit is for the Health and Welfare Minister Advisory Council meeting lead by Jeffrey Sachs as before. The meeting was held for 2 days. On the second day, face to face discussion between us and Dr. Ramadoss, Minister of Health and Welfare, and advisory committee was held for about 3 hours. The minister replied clearly to the comments and questions one by one. I felt that he had a clear recognition and plans for the problems. You can see the report contents on the website.

The results of health services in the regions of India (rural area and slum area) for these 3 years are emerging clearly. Also, it is expected that the budget for the health service will be increased along with the economic growth. Medical expenses in India are 1% of GDP. It is extremely rare and it is an exceptional country. I expect that the services will be improved even though there are lot of problems. But the success is still far away. I think this medical policies for rural areas in India should be more referred to by developing countries.

Dr. Hara at Health Policy Institute Japan, accompanied me as it was in last year. We invited my friend Ashok Khosla, President of "Club of Rome" and Dr. Sunil Chacko (whom I introduced earlier) to dinner, and we had a wonderful time together (photo 1). Also, it was a great pleasure to have an opportunity to meet Mr. Oscar Fernandes, the Minister of Labor through the introduction by Dr. Chacko and Dr. Mishra, Pro-Vice Chancellor of Indira Gandhi Naitonal Open University (photo 2). It was 10 o’clock in the evening, yet still lots of people were waiting to see him and his work was not over yet at all. He is such a person, they say.

Photo1　Dr. Khosla (in the center) with Dr. Chacko and Dr. Hara

Photo2　From the right with Dr. Mishra, Dr. Chacko and Minister Fernandos

To medical students from Asia: Cheers for young people and 3 speeches

Posted on 2008/08/012014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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There is a gathering of medical students from Asia known as AMSC (Asian Medical Students Conference). This conference is held annually, and I was invited for the last 3 years. I enjoy this event every time. I like to be a part of such conference of youth organizations since they are pillars of the future human resource. This was the 29th year and the conference was held at Tokyo. I talked in the closing ceremony. I heared that about 400 students have participated. The point of my speech was the tremendous change that had occurred in these 29 years and about the globalization era. I also talked about on "3 speeches."

The 3 speeches were, the speech given by Steve Jobs at commencement ceremony of Stanford University in the year 2005 (I told the students that "I hope and look forward that this 1 week conference become a "dot" of your career."), speech given by Bill Gates at commencement ceremony of Harvard University in 2007 (It was about recognition of and consciousness for "Inequality" in the world and society.) and the "Last Lecture" of Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon University (About the childhood "Dream." Even if you face many problems, do not forget that you all had a "Dream" to become doctors. Refer 1, 2 ).

You can have a look at these speeches on YouTube. Each one of them is a wonderful speech. The "Last Lecture" of Professor Pausch became a book and Japanese translation was published just a few days ago.

It must have been a lot of work for staff students who organized this conference. It was really a wonderful conference.

“GLOBE Tokyo G8+5 Legislators Forum,” a movement initiated by politicians throughout the world

Posted on 2008/07/012014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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"GLOBE Tokyo G8+5 Legislators Forum" was held in Tokyo on June 28th and 29th. Japan was represented by Mr. Yatsu, the former Minister for Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan. Mr. Morley, the Minister of Environment of Mr. Blair’s regime, presided the 1st session on day 1 (I saw him at the G8 Environment Ministers meeting also), which started off with the greetings by Mr. Fukuda followed by key note speeches by Mr. Blair, the former Prime Minister of England, and Mr. Abe, the former Prime Minister of Japan. Everybody spoke very well.

Photo1　Greetings by Mr. Fukuda with Mr. Blair and Mr. Abe

Photo2　Key note speech by Mr. Blair

Photo3　Mr. Abe

Though this forum was founded in 1989, since after the Earth Summit held in Rio in 1992 it constituted mainly of the nonpartisan congress members of all the countries. Framework for "G8 Gleneagles Climate Change Dialogue" was formed during the Gleneagles Summit held in 2005.

Video messages from the U.S. senators, Mr. McCain, Mr. Obama, Mr. Kerry, and Mr. Snowe were also played. A common theme that their messages held was that "With the new U.S. President, the Parliament, the large-size U.S. corporations, more than 500 U.S. Mayors and U.S. State Governors participating, America will make a historic transformation towards ‘Cap and Trade’ and formation of a ‘Low-carbon Society’." Japan, it seems, is the only country adopting a wait-and-watch policy. It is vital that politics, the government, the corporations as well as the citizens be well-prepared.

Discussions during the forum were highly dynamic.

I had a speech on day 2 (photo4), though it was a bit difficult for me since the session was on forests and biodiversity. I heard the request for a lecture a week before, and considering the fact that my speech was to be interpreted simultaneously in 9 languages so I decided to use the lecture that I had delivered at Kobe as a basic document, prepared a manuscript by including the above mentioned themes and circulated its copies among the interpreters as well the participants (the manuscript contained many errors since I was unable to proofread it sufficiently) before I spoke.

Photo4　My speech on Day 2

Tony Blair and his team reports their outcomes

Posted on 2008/06/282014/10/01 by kiyoshi kurokawa

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On June 27th (Friday), the report "Breaking the Climate Deadlock" prepared by the team that Mr. Tony Blair represents, was presented in Tokyo. Mr. Blair is the first person who put "climate change" in agenda at G8 summit, and also has launched "Gleneagles Process" to tackle this problem. As a leader of the world he continues worldwide lively activities even after retiring from his post as a Prime Minister. I have written about it before, and his purpose this time, I assume, is to announce the results of these activities and to promote them in the G8 summit.

Photo 1　Mr. Tony Blair

Photo 2　With Mr. Blair and His Excellency Ngubane, Ambassador of South Africa

Photo 3　With former prime minister Mr. Abe

On June 28th and 29th, GLOBE International, an activity of legislators of the states in G8+5 will be held. I understand that Mr. Blair is going to give a keynote speech there also.

On the evening of 27th, a reception was organized at British Embassy in Tokyo in which many members of parliament from England were also present. After that, I moved to Roppongi Hills to be a part of the panel with 100 young people and Mr. Miliband, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Miliband is a 42 years old, up-coming star who is expanding the public relation activities by posting information on his personal Blog. The panel was focused mainly on these topics, but unfortunately, the duration was too short i.e. just an hour. I would like more of various programs like this to be organized. You can view the sight of the panel in his Blog.

Photo 4　Mr. Miliband and Moderator, Ms. Edahiro on the panel