I had lunch with students who took the Strategy course today, Friday, Feb. 3. I promised the students who took the course to have lunch to chat about the course etc. I came back from Switzerland this last Monday and wanted to keep my promise before many students leave the campus. (They have no more classes and some do not come to campus.)
Two students showed up and it was great for me to talk with them. We talked about many things including how they find the courses and projects at KMD, the reasons why I joined KMD, new ideas to engage people in lively discussion, and some plans I have in mind. It is always helpful to find out what they have in mind, to get their reactions to some of the ideas I have etc. (Probably I talked too much. I should be listening more.) I also find out more about their background. We also talked about my impression of Davos–specifically, the Inter-generational divide accelerate by the social media and other ICT means, and the people I met at Davos such as Tim Brown of IDEO and Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook.
Whenever I have this type of occasion, I always feel that they are the ones that will create the better world. It is such an excellent opportunity for me to learn and make new discoveries. It was excellent Friday lunch after tough week!
February 3rd,2012
Off time |
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I was invited to the New Year party of MBAnoWa! this evening. I serve as adviser of this NPO founded by Teppei Tsutsui. As I want to support the young people who are interested in trying to acquire new knowledge and new skills regardless of the geographical locations, I was thrilled to attend the party.
At the party, I had a chance to talk with several people, some of whom I had met at other occasions. It is quite interesting that some of those who already have MBA have either started the business or changed the job.
The other day, I was talking with my friends about designing the seminar series. The question we had was how to measure the effectiveness and/or impact of the educational/career related programs. One of the measures we came up with was how many people begin new career after they go through the program. For example, Global Agenda Seminar 2010 produced quite a few people who either changed the geographical locations (some went to the U.S., India,etc. etc.) and who changed the job.
It shows that they start thinking about their career in a little bit different way after they go through the program. It does NOT necessarily mean that they learned something new, but in many cases, they become aware of their own potential, of the options open to them by interacting with other participants.
I think it is great for young people to get exposed to many more opportunities and career options. I think it is my role and responsibility to let them know that the world is open and accessible to them. It is NO FUN to wake up in the morning and feel that you face another dull, unexciting, unproductive day. Life can be so exciting and so stimulating (sometimes too much so!) if you open yourself to the wide world out there.
These past few days, my friends who support Japan asked me the following question. “Why are the Japanese people so afraid to change?” I sometimes find myself ask the same question. It is true that all of us have fear when we are faced with the situation requiring major change. The typical reaction is “Fight or Flight”. As I come to think of the tendency in japan, however, it almost seems “Wait and see” or “Do not face it.”
As long as you take some action, things do change. Sometimes it may lead us to the state we hoped, but other times it may lead us to the situation we never expected. i.e. There is always a downside risk.
I feel, however, the no action leads to nowhere. In many cases, action leads to hope, as you tend to see some outlet, no matter how small it is. I respect those who do take actions. I do hope that I could continue taking actions myself.
As we all know very well, the jobs are now one of the top priority issues for the world. Jobs not only provide means to lead decent life, but they affect individual’s self-esteem. What we struggle with now is that many countries are faced with high unemployment rate, particularly among the youths, and at the same time, there are so many companies which need people with certain skills to fill the positions.
What makes it difficult is it takes time to develop people with skills required. What makes it even more difficult is that skills required for the 21st century are quite different from those offered by existing educational institutions.
I have been involved with the projects dealing with this issue from different perspectives, and lately it dawned on me that the way we “learn” is also becoming very different. Those of us who lived several decades have learned new knowledge and skills in certain ways–by reading, writing, listening to lectures, watching others use skills, discussing with others etc.
But the way we learn today could be quite different as information is available online, at your fingertips at any time from all over the world. We can simulate, can make prototype rather easily etc. etc. Facing this reality, I myself am not quite sure what exactly is the new way of “learning” and how to do it myself.
One thing I am almost certain is that the way we learn is changing and there is new opportunity and possibility to learn. It seems that we(at least I) are still stuck with the way we have learned and have not quite designed the new way of learning. We have focused so much on education, and new way of doing so. But isn’t the issue more of how we learn and new way of learning?
January 31st,2012
Education |
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While or after you participated in the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, you are often asked the question, “What is your impression of this year’s Davos” or “What is your Davos moment?” It is indeed the question asked at the last plenary chaired by Prof. Klaus Schwab with four Global Shapers and Prof. Yunus.
To me, the Davos 2012 impression was the need for collaboration across generations. Even before I came to Davos, I have felt the Divide between generations in terms of lifestyle we lead and assumptions we make about how we live etc. between those under 30 and those over. Due to the ICT progress in the past decade or so, the digital native(mainly under 30s) and the digital alien(over 30) have different set of assumptions. Digital native take it for granted that they are online and connected all the time, which was impossible in my teenage days! This is quite a big divide and I had felt that this divide is a significant factor.
I felt that my impression of this divide across generations due to the ICT and its importance was confirmed in Davos. I believe that the WEF has initiated the Global Shapers Community this year because it recognizes its importance and wants to make sure that the younger generation is included in Davos. I am convinced that the face-to-face contact (which makes the Davos an unique and wonderful opportunity) may be even more important today when ICT enables us to connect across boundaries of different kinds. Thus having Global Shapers at Davos was very signirficant, thus the Closing Plenary entitled the Future across Generations.
I believe that AM2012 was the attempt to offer opportunities for face-to-face contact across generations and multi-stakeholder collaborations on the global level which used to cover public, private sectors and civil society now needs to cover many generations to make the world a better place. I thought it was the great opportunity for the (older, established) leaders who may not be that familiar with the young groups to get to know them.
Reflecting the conditions in Japan, however, I cannot but feel concerned about the young Japanese generation. Though we have Global Shaper community in Japan, I am concerned that the majority of young Japanese may be increasingly out of touch with the world, while the young generation in the world are becoming more connected. Japan has NOT seen the energy or movement among the young generation to protest and demand more opportunities as the ones found elsewhere. The absence of the energy to demand more opportunities, together with the reluctance to go outside of the country may make the Japanese youth even more isolated from the world trend. This is my concern and I have begun some initiatives to expose the Japanese youth, though with mixed results so far. My Davos moment, however, re-energized me as I believe this is the right way to go.
The fourth day at Davos began with the breakfast meeting at the hotel up on the hill to discuss next steps of Talent Mobility project. The discussion was very useful as it was open and frank. We received many good ideas to move forward.
I then met with a few ladies from Japan to chat about their impressions of Davos this year. I was then interviewed by the WEF staff about the Talent Mobility project. I hope I got my message across. Japan Lunch with two ministers and others followed.
The main event for the fourth day for me was the session entitled “Crossing boundaries with cuisine” with two super chefs–one from Mexico and the other from Japan, which I moderated. As it was the first time to have cooking demonstrations, the preparations were quite complicated. In 45 minutes, two chefs got everything- from equipment to ingredients-ready and the session began. I have never moderated such a session, but it was so much fun.
I was so impressed with the professionalism of the two chefs. The cooked within 20 minutes, while explaining what they are doing in English! The two different ways to cross 
boundaries–one trying to combine what is familiar to the people in the host country with the original recipe and the other trying to convey the original recipe to the people by bringing some original ingredients were interesting contrasts. We tasted the cuisine with people who came to the session. Among them were Professor Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum and Mrs. Schwab.
The fourth day of Davos ended with Brazilian soiree where people enjoyed Brazilian music, food and drinks, in black tie. People look relaxed, enjoying the last night at Davos.
These four days were LONG, starting early in the morning until very late at night, but full of exciting and stimulating sessions, discussions and many encounters. I am so fortunate that I have been given this opportunity not only to participate in such an exciting Forum, but also to get to moderate sessions and actively participate as discussion leader. Several impressions stand out from this year’s Forum, among which is the importance of inter-generational approach. I will think about more on board the flight back home.
The third day (January 27) began with breakfast meeting hosted by Nestle, entitled “Urbanization in the next 50 years-Trends, Challenges and Opportunities”. Four speakers from UN Habitat, OECD, MIT and Mahindra World City gave an interesting talk on the different aspects of urbanization. Various projects underway at MIT were very exciting, in particular, their approach to mobility.
Lunch discussion entitled “Financing Competitiveness” was next on agenda. I moderated the session with 6 discussion leaders representing Malaysia, Russia, and Brazil, and experts from Energy, Environment and Innovation. It was the first time for me to moderate lunch discussion (I had done dinner), and it was a bit of a challenge, as people (including one discussion leader) arrived late and we had to eat as we talked.
The discussion at the tables brought some ideas about new models of financing innovation which is a key to competitiveness, the need for public & private partnership, in addition to the specific needs of different countries. We also discussed briefly about the definition of competitiveness itself.
After lunch, I rushed back to the Congress Center to participate in the ideaslab moderated by Richard Pascale, my friend. It was entitled New Models for health care by the National University of Singapore and I thoroughly enjoyed. It was the first session I was able to participate this year! The format is great, ideas from medicine were intriguing and the discussion very exciting.
I then met with the two chefs for the session on Saturday for rehearsal and went on to Thai Night. It was packed and I thoroughly enjoyed Thai food and meeting with many people. Some of us from Japan had an informal meeting to share our impressions of this year’s conference and to plan next steps. I then hit a few Nightcap receptions before I came back to the hotel around midnight. It was another LONG but exciting day.
The official second day of Annual Meeting 2012 proceeded with e-Philanthropy round table over lunch and the session on Employment for Growth. The round table moderated by Chelsea Clinton with Eric Schmidt among others was very interesting as I had a glimpse of how social media etc. has enabled “philanthropy” make tremendous impact in a short time.
In the afternoon, I was one of the discussion leaders for the session entitled “Employment for Growth” moderated by Prof. Laura Tyson. Six of us representing relevant Global Agenda Councils (GAC) briefly talked to kick off the discussion. I was one of the six and led the discussion at my table which consisted of a diverse group of people representing different countries and different background. I was reminded of the complexity of the solutions as skills & talent mobility issues (which I have been involved) depend upon the context, requiring different type of solutions.
The session ended with report- back from each table followed by the summary comment of the two special guests, one Nobel laureate and the other practitioner. I was interviewed right after the session. It was a great opportunity I thought I could have made better use of. I have something to work more on in the future.
Japan Night was held at the nearby hotel in the evening with many people from Japan. Japan Night almost always attract so many guests and this year is no exception. Unfortunately, I had to leave in the middle to serve as discussion leader at the GAC dinner held at different hotel. Japan Night, however, gave me the opportunity to meet with people from Japan. (This year, I have not attended any session related to Japan as I have so many other things to do!)
GAC dinner gave us the opportunity to identify the issue for 2012 and the role GAC could play in moving forward. As many different councils were represented with diverse interests, it is always tough to distill clear and simple message. I heard, however, quite a few interesting ideas for the future of GAC.
After the dinner, I went to the hotel where McKinsey Nightcap was held among other events. At 11:00 p.m., the cloak room of the hotel was packed with people in long lines! to participate in many events held late at night. I could not miss McKinsey’s Night cap as they usually had great band we can dance to. We danced away and by the time I came back to my hotel, it was the next day, i.e. after midnight! The second official day of Davos was LONG starting from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. !
The dinner on Talent Mobility on the first night went well, I thought, as many good ideas and suggestions were made at different tables. It was nice to see familiar faces such as Premier Jean Charest of Quebec, and others whom I have worked in the past few years on this project. Every time I hear Premier Charest talk about the initiatives in Quebec with passion, I am very impressed and encouraged by his dedication to make it happen. At different tables, how to engage policy makers in encouraging talent mobility when the unemployment rate is high has been discussed.
I thought it was very nice to have two Global shapers & Young Global leaders participate in the table discussion as their views and comments were refreshing. As employment has become such an important issue, we are, indeed, given rare opportunity to make the best use of our work in the past few years and move forward. We will spend more time later to decide on the specific next steps.
I myself felt relieved as my first role of moderating the dinner was over. It is always a challenge to get discussion going and to make sure that people who participate get something out of it.
The second day began with the breakfast meeting organized by Bain & Company. It began at 7:00 a.m., which means I get up 5:00 a.m. and walk in the dark to the hotel where breakfast session was held. We had 3 speakers at the session entitled “The Power of Repeatability”. I find the talk by Sheryl Sandburg, COO of Facebook, very interesting.
I then went to 1-1 session with Michael Porter on Shared Value in Studio. It was nice to see Mike since over a year ago. We talked briefly about CSV and recent activities. During the 30 minute session which is televised, Mike talked about the renewed approach to capitalism and CSV with some examples. I am always so impressed with his passion around the topic, and felt that there have been quite a progress on the topic with many experiments. As I have been very interested in the concept of CSV and have somewhat struggled to get the message across with specific examples, his comment that there have been many experiments, some successful and others not, was encouraging.
The first day of Davos began in deep snow. My day began with meeting with WEF staff to prepare for private dinner tonight on Talent Mobility for Economic Growth. We plan to explain our report on Good Practices which just came out & discuss how to make the best of our activities. We are very excited about the report & also the launch of the repository of Good Practices which is available & accessible for everybody.
I hope we will have good discussion to move forward so that we can make an impact on the important topic of Employment & Growth, which is one of sub themes of Annual Meeting 2012.
The official opening will start in the evening, but there have been many interesting sessions held. I went to the session on “Europe beyond crisis” & also the session on the “Role of CEO in the future enterprise”. Comparison of business & political leaders was very interesting, as I heard comments such as that they can learn from each other, political leaders are trying outdated model of CEO, Chinese political leaders have done very well learning from business leaders,etc.
