On Saturday, February 6, we had the second session of Global Agenda Seminar at Academy Hills. In the first part of the general session, I introduced two approaches to problem solving–1) breaking down major item into smaller pieces using MECE etc. and 2)starting from the ideal state and going backward, using the topic we discussed at the first session, “Low presence of Japan in the world”. Then I asked two ICS students to share their topic and their approach (each using one of the two approaches) (All done in English)
We then began breakout group discussion session where each participant explained his/her topic to the group and had some discussion. Then we came back to the general session in which I asked two participants to present their topics. We had quite a few questions related to the topic, approach, data source etc. I find Questions are very helpful to improve understanding of all of us. (Thus I encourage questions.)
After the break, we had Prof. Heizo Takenaka of the GAS advisory board to give us his impression of the Annual Meeting 2010 in Davos. (his speech in English as well) He discussed the origin of the World Economic Forum (this year marks 40th anniversary) and its three major functions he sees it perform:
1) It is a good opportunity to identify the global trend of agenda and debate.
He said that this year’s outlook was “cautiously optimistic”, compared with last year when all was so pessimistic. During his remarks related to global economic outlook, he talked about the panel moderated by Martin Wolf of the Financial Times. You can watch the webcast of this session from the WEF website. He also mentioned the debate today including the “new capitalism” ” regulation”" new key currency” pointed out by President Sarkozy of France, debated by Larry Summers of the U.S. etc.
2) Davos plays a significant role in country’s IR. This year was “year of Asian countries” and represented very well by political leaders of Asian economies including delegations from S. Korea, China and India. Unfortunately, PM Hatoyama canceled his appearance at the last minute.
3) Numerous “private”"informal”"bi-lateral” meetings held in “backyard” of Davos play significant role as they provide very useful face-to-face contact with experts in different fields. In addition to the meetings open to media, etc., there are many of them taking place in Davos.
His session ended with Q & A, whose topics range from Asian community, role of Japanese media and role of Japan(”Gateway” is his concept.)
After the session, we had informal get-together at Roppongi Hills Club. We were fortunate to have three guest speakers of the series –Ms. Moriya of UNHCR, Mr. Yamagishi of WWF Japan and Ms. Doi of HRW with us.) I had a very good time interacting with participants and I hope they did too.
This morning, I went to Aikido class after two weeks. (I missed last Sunday’s class as I was out of the country.) It was gusty and with the window open at the studio, I did not sweat as much as I usually do. However, it was refreshing as I had to concentrate on moves.
In the afternoon, I went to visit my parents. My mother is getting weak and has somewhat lost appetite lately. My father is doing a great job taking care of her, but is worried. Both of them are in their 80s and the recent freezing weather is quite tough for them.
In order to cheer them up and have something sweet for desert, I decided to make pancake from scratch. I bought flour, baking powder, fresh cream etc. and made several pancakes last night. I was ready with pancakes and Swiss chocolate when I visited them this evening. I told them about Annual Meeting 2010 in Davos, people I met, what I did, etc. etc. We then had dinner together. Dinner was completed with pancakes with strawberries and fresh cream.
I think pancakes were fluffy and fine, but I microwaved too long, only to find it lost fluffiness and got a bit hard. But my parents said that it was fine. Next time, I am determined to make better pancakes.
It was relaxing and refreshing Sunday. (Now I am just about to fall asleep!)
February 7th,2010
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These two weeks have been very busy for me, as I went to Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos for 5 days (i.e. no weekend to speak of), spent two days on the plane (though I got good sleep!) and went straight to meetings, classes, seminars, etc. at ICS in Tokyo. This morning we had the second Global Agenda Seminar session, followed by informal get-together. We continued with English and started exploring the topics. We also had Prof. Heizo Takenaka as guest speaker, who shared his impression of the Annual Meeting last week. (He went on to attend another important meeting in Spain.)
The informal get-together was very relaxing and fun, as I got to talk with some of the participants of Global Agenda Seminar. I am having so much fun, interacting with the young people. It gives me so much energy!
Problem Solving course at ICS is coming to an end soon. (We have one more class session next week and the final exam.) Hiroshi Kanno and I finished one-on-one feedback session (half an hour each for student) with all the students. It was a good opportunity to talk with the students about their cases, questions, concerns etc. In my case, with some students, I discussed career prospect etc.
It requires energy to review each student’s activities in the course (group project, individual assignment, class participation, etc. ) and discuss with them. We want to give feedback about their performance in the course and sometimes, and we want to make constructive suggestions. It also provides great opportunity to find out how they perceive the tools, etc. introduced in the course, design of the class sessions, and what kind of improvement we can make for the next year.
As we have 56 students in total, each of us spent 7-8 hours for the sessions altogether. I find it very useful and helpful for us to improve the course. Now we can enjoy the weekend!
Five-day-Forum ended on Sunday, January 31 in Davos, Switzerland. I have written about the sessions I attended in Davos etc. but there are several things that have made strong impression on me this time.
As I reflect back on the Annual Meeting 2010, I cannot but think that we are indeed in the different ERA. There has definitely been a shift from the West to the East and from the financial-market driven capitalism to the new (not yet defined) capitalism. The shift from export-driven economic development to the domestic market-driven development is required, though it is still not clear whether this leads to the re-balancing often cited.
Several issues which concern majority of the industrialized countries include jobs and relatively limited prospect of the domestic consumption recovery. There is no question that the main concern of the people throughout the world, in particular, the developed world, is job. Despite the strong growth in the fourth quarter, the industrialized countries have suffered from the high unemployment rate, which has affected how people feel about the economy and the future.
I am particularly intrigued by the issue of jobs, as I have been involved with the Talent Mobility project encompasses not only mobility of people with high skills and job creation on the global scale, but also innovation, as the talent forms the foundation for innovation, main driver of the economic growth. It is also very much related to the education. I have learned a lot about the talent mobility over the past year or so, through my involvement of the project, and we have unique and specific recommendation on this issue.
There is no question that the world today is very much inter-connected and the issue whether job creation, climate change, health care requires multi-stakeholder collaboration and coordination. At the same time, administration in each country needs to address the issues on the domestic front. Achieving the result through multi-stakeholder collaboration and global coordination requires enormous efforts. At the same time, the speed is critical. How do we resolve these issues is quite an overwhelming question to me.
I have also realized the strong presence and potential of the emerging economies, in particular, China and India. They are young country with huge population and huge potential for growth. They have also learned how to play the game in the global arena. They are much more confident than few years ago, and they act that way, against the U.S. and EU countries. Can we expect the world which is more balanced in terms of economic development, quality of life and the innovation potential? My answer at present is Yes, but it requires quite an effort for every one of us.
One of the lessons I felt quite strongly in Davos 2010 is the importance of real experience and of the communication capability. In order to feel the pulse of the world at this type of the Forum and make your presence felt, you need to have some experience. The world is changing quickly and the experience and impression several years ago does not help much in feeling the pace and magnitude of change in power shift etc. You need to be at these Forum (not necessarily just Davos) to get the sense of where the world is going, what topics are now debated. You also need to express your views to join the debate. I cannot but feel the critical importance of not only the de facto global language of English, but also of the need to know the facts and to have your own view.
Regrettably, I do NOT think there is awareness of these keen needs in Japan. We are falling behind the world which is changing so quickly. I am hopeful that my effort in running the Global Agenda Seminar series and writing blogs/tweet may somewhat help the situation, but we need massive effort if we want Japan to re-join the world as a nation with unique presence.
Compared with the 15 below zero temperature in Davos, Switzerland, even the cold day with snow yesterday in Tokyo feels warm. When I walked to the station yesterday morning at 5:50 a.m., I felt so warm! I suppose everything is relative and it depends on your reference point.
As I was in Switzerland for five days or so where it was ten below zero (in fact, it felt warm when it snowed as it was around zero when it snowed!), I seem to have developed the resistance against cold weather. I recall the first year I was in Boston, I was always cold as my body was not prepared for the type of weather there. I was always cold even with down vest and down coat! My friend from Ottawa, on the other hand, said that it was not cold at all and he always wore something quite thin. I suppose evertying is relative.
I find the scene in Tokyo so dull, with little energy when I came back from overseas. I suppose this is another example of your reference point. If you are in Japan and not exposed to how much energy you see in emerging economies, for example, you feel the state in Japan as normal. What you use as the frame of reference plays a significant role.
Today was a LONG day starting at 6:30 a.m. at the office. We had the presentation by the students for the Problem Solving course. In two separate groups, several students presented their proposal in 10 minutes to their own decision maker. The rest of the students asked questions, made comments, as if they were the decision maker. I felt there was quite a bit of learning. We have one more separate session this Friday and the last session a week from today for the wrap-up.
I then had a meeting to discuss Global Agenda Seminar this Saturday. We discussed what we would cover, how we proceed in details. (Preparation is the key to move things smoothly.)
We also learned how to use Docomo Blackberry for the communication in the closed GAS network.
I then introduced my elective course Competitiveness which is scheduled to be offered in April and May to the class of 2009. I shared my experience of running into Prof. M. Porter who originally designed the course in Davos. I am very honored to be involved in teaching this course from 2002, as I feel this is such a cutting edge issue now we are grappled with. We are trying several new attempts this year such as holding the Forum with young people involved in Social agenda and also having a guest speaker from EU Tokyo office when we discuss European integration. I am personally fascinated by the content and direction of this course and hope many students will sign up.
Last thing on today’s schedule was my seminar with four first year students. We have had difficulty finding the time slot to meet. But we finally made it at 6:45 p.m. or so. We read some summaries of the sessions at Davos, including Social media, Future of Employment, Next global crisis and Art, design and digital media. We had very interesting and stimulating discussion around the use of social media. We explored the potential of using social media for various purposes, and also the new skill required to make the best use of social media, and the need for the new educational system to develop the individual ability to think through and make judgment, instead of just acquiring knowledge. It will be quite a challenge to accomplish these tasks, but at the same time, we are blessed with huge potential. How to make the best of the new technology is the critical task ahead of us.
The 15-hour long day ended at 9:00 p.m.
I left Davos early Sunday morning, only to wait at Zurich airport over three hours due to snow and ice. We were sitting on the plane ready to take off, when the captain announced that it would take over one hour for the runway to be cleaned of ice/snow and the plane get de-iced. (I hope this is the right term for it.)
By the time we finally took off (there were many planes like ours waiting), it was three hour late. The good thing was that they served drinks and snack, so we were not too irritated! During the flight, however, I slept over 6 hours (I caught up on my sleep because I slept average of 5 hours or less while in Davos) and got back to Tokyo with 3 hour delay.
As I had a meeting scheduled first thing in the afternoon, I jumped onto the taxi to head back to Tokyo. I heard from the driver that it would snow tonight in Tokyo! As I told him that I just got back from Zurich and the flight was delayed due to snow, he said ” You must have brought the snow!”
I made it to the meeting and had five one-on-one feedback sessions with students.
Here I am back home unpacked, getting ready for the class tomorrow morning. I just noticed that it is snowing out. Probably I DID bring the cold weather to Tokyo!
February 1st,2010
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Day 4 at Davos (my last as I am leaving early on Sunday) started with the breakfast meeting with the members of the Talent Mobility group (whom we did the Workspace session yesterday morning with) to decide on what to do next for our project. There were some 15 of us (I am the only Japanese in the group.) As we have worked together on the project over the past year or so, our meeting is very effective and efficient. I am very excited about the next steps. It was held at the restaurant at the hotel high above the hill, the view was so pretty. (I will post the photo once I get software installed on my PC.)
The major plenary session in the morning was Global Economic Outlook Martin Wolf of the Financial Times moderated. Panelists included ministers/government officials of various countries including France, U.S. and Japan together with the top management of financial institutions from Europe, China and India. Conclusions I have gathered from the panel included 1) The world economy has been on the recovery, and yet it is still very fragile. Early exit from the stimulus could be a problem. 2) No consensus as to the new capitalism. Coordinated actions are needed for the regulatory reform of financial industries, and 3) Re-balancing of the world economy requires considerable effort and time and messy. I was also struck by the concern of the people regarding employment and the political issue the administrations are faced with in respective countries. I also realized that the speed is most critical in today’s world, for the political decisions.
The plenary was followed by the 2010 World Cup kick off. Then I attended the session in Studio entitled “Hacker’s mind”. It was the first time I attended the session in Studio and found it fascinating. Hacker’s mind is important for invention, innovation and incredible “out of box” thinking required to resolve some of the global issues such as global health and climate change.
In the evening, the concert was held by the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. They played two pieces by Beethoven and I enjoyed it very much. It was quite a change from rather serious note which had prevailed up until then. The concert was followed by Gala Soiree. As it was organized by the South Africa, we had drinks from South Africa etc. After the cocketail at the big hall, address by the President of South Africa, we danced to the rock music by the band. Rock, we did! I had so much fun, dancing away the night.
The Gala Soiree went on until the early hours of the morning. (I am at the Congress Center, waiting for the limousine bus to the Zurich airport at 7:00 a.m., and it is deserted!) After all, I enjoyed the 40th Annual Meeting in Davos.
After I was finished with facilitating the Workspace session in the morning of the third day at Davos, I felt quite relieved and decided to go to the sessions I am interested in.
First I went to the lunch panel sponsored by Infosys. The title of the panel was “Social Network vs. CEO”. The room was overflown with so many people interested in the topic. The panelists included top management of Cisco, Manpower, Reuter, Infosys and the INSEAD professor. The discussion was very lively and the message I heard from the panelists was positive. The takeaway for me was the huge potential that social network medium including Facebook, Twitter and You Tube etc. brings to the corporations, as they empower individuals wherever to express, share, and contribute information and knowledge. It is true that we have negative side of the social network media, but overall, the message was focusing on the positive side of it and great potential we have just touched upon.
In the afternoon, I went back to the Congress hall where I ran into Prof. Michael Porter of Harvard. We talked briefly about the current status, how we found the annual meeting, etc. Then I went to participate in the Harvard University ideaslab facilitated by John Maeda. I participated in the group discussing the role of private enterprise in healthcare. The other groups included the U.S. health care, evidence based perspective of health care, health care reform in Mexico and the community buildup project in health care in Africa. In ideaslab, everybody participates and the high energy level is maintained. I had fun participating.
The day ended with going from one reception to another, meeting with old friends, enjoying wine (I was off the hook!) and enjoying good food. I did not go to the one starting after 11:00 p.m., and hit the sack, after 4-hour sleep night! It was a full day.
