Reflecting the past five days, I realize that I have had many opportunities to speak in a variety of occasions. Some are in English and others are in Japanese. Some of them I knew in advance (that I am expected to speak) and others “cold call” which I am called to speak on the spot.

As interactive discussion is much more a norm today, few are “prepared” in that I know I am to speak.  Even the ones I knew I would be asked to speak need some spontaneity and comments which fit the occasion right then and there.

Not only the public speaking, but also interviewing, Q & A, making comments go a long way to develop communication capability.  The key is the frequency.  The more you do it, the better you will be.  If you avoid the occasion, you will never be able to develop the skill.

I sometimes wonder why people do not make the use of  every possible opportunity for public speaking and expression, regardless of the language and/or the format.  It is one of these things  which require practice.  You cannot practice unless you try.  It is an “ILLUSION” that one day you wake up, you are able to speak very well.

It is the type of skill that you practice day in and day out.  Everybody can do it if taken seriously and done with discipline.   Take every chance you have to speak up. Make it a rule to speak up at least once in front of many people. It will go a long way.

The topic includes
·         Knowledge sharing between young academics and business leaders and on how best to plan a career given the uncertainty facing Japan in the 21st century.
·         The role of the university as a ‘hub’ for innovation and knowledge sharing in both the academic and business worlds, covering not just the discovery of new ideas, concepts and products, but also the dissemination of these ideas among the wider public.

Programme consists of   I. Workshop Session, II. Panel Discussion, and III. Free Discussion session.

I will serve as a moderator for the Panel featuring  Davos “Global Shapers Community” x St.Gallen “Leaders of Tomorrow”, and panelists are:
Gen Miyazawa              – Yahoo, Founder & CEO of Cirius Technology

Yusuke Matsuda           – Founder & CEO of Teach For Japan

Ken Ogata                      – Research Fellow of Cambridge University

As I often wrote on this blog,  I see many young people from different countries express, share and debate on issues at the international conferences.  I want Japanese young people to get exposed to such  opportunities and thus feel very privileged to serve as a moderator.

Application  Deadline is tomorrow, May 17, at 9:00 p.m.  So please apply ASAP if you are interested.  For Application form etc. here is the link. Here is more information of the event＝＞May Festival Special Event

In fact, at the play, I was totally amazed at the way the horse is handled by three men?  (now that I think of it, I am not sure whether it was three or four).  I do not remember the story that well.

The movie, in particular, its photography (I am not sure this is the  term used)  was magnificent.  The way the story was developed was very impressive.    I do not recall whether the play had the same story line or not and my guess is that the story in the play was somewhat simplified.

Anyway, it was a great discovery that the play and movie are two different forms of art and each has a lot of beauty in its own way.  The story is beautiful..    Joey  is such a beautiful horse!

Based upon the lessons learned from last year, I explained the project as real & fact-based as possible, i.e. I explained one has almost collapsed due to the lack of capabilities, and another not going as planned, etc.  I also explained the one which has come to my attention as potential project using KMD capabilities, but has not been designed yet.

I also asked students who are interested in applying for my project to hand in 1-page form in English, responding to the following three questions.  (These questions are NOT MECE, and thus they need not be answered individually.)  The questions are 1) Why I am interested in the project 2) What I want to get from the project  and 3) How I can contribute to the project.

The reasons behind these questions are to match their expectation and what I can offer through my project as closely as possible.  I have decided to try this idea because issues arise when the expectations do not match the delivery at various seminars AND my last year’s experience at KMD.  Last year, the first year for me at KMD, I was not quite sure how to go about designing project and recruiting students, so I tried to get many without making the expectations or content of the project clear (as a matter of fact, I did not know then) and the students had no idea about what I could do, as I was new at KMD.  The gap between the two caused some disappointment, I am sure, on the part of the students.

As for the form in English, I made it clear that English is a MUST for my project, as my activities and interests go beyond Japan.  So  I thought it would be better to make it clear from the beginning.  I also felt the urgent need to encourage young Japanese to get exposed themselves to the world so that they could assess their own potential and capability against the young people overseas.  I realize that many Japanese shy away once they hear that English is required, but I do not think you can go on avoiding English if you are interested in becoming a global media innovator, which is what KMD tries to develop.  I see English simply as the medium for communication and broken English is fine as long as the communication is accomplished.

I am planning to interview the students who are interested, so that both of us share understanding of what we are getting into.  It is rather strange that the relationship of faculty with student goes one way and not quite both ways, but when it comes to the sharing of understanding, I believe we are equal.  i.e. Students assess the faculty as the faculty assess the students.

This is the trial (which is a critical part of any new endeavor) and I sincerely hope it will lead to something useful.  Without trial and error, nothing starts.  I think it is a part of fun for the new place and new institution.  We will see how it goes.

Mr. Yokoyama gave us a comprehensive overview of the food security issues, under the title of Changing World Food Market and Challenges in the Context of Food Security.  As we listened to his lecture, I could not but think how food security should be considered in the political, economic and social contexts and how inter-related and complex it is. Food is the necessity for our survival and thus food security is of  critical importance  for all of us.

What impressed me was that the food security issue needs to be considered and dealt with not as a domestic issue, but as global agenda.  I just came back from African Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where agricultural reform and transformation was discussed. As  I realize that many Sub-Sahara Africa is now faced with the hunger, the food security issue which was a bit far and distant  has become much more immediate issue for me.

Q & A with Mr. Yokoyama helped us understand the diverse views of the issue and the difficulty to resolve the issue, at the same time.

We then had ice-breaking game with 21 participants (one was absent) for the second term of GAS2012.  Mr. Yokoyama, Ms. Kobayashi and myself joined the game.  We tried a  different game from the one we used for the First term (we tried this one for the first time), and it was fun.

I then shared my impression of St. Gallen Symposium at St. Gallen, Switzerland and of African Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, followed by some questions from the participants.

We then moved on to our get-together where I talked with many more people, going from one table to another.   I am very much looking forward to the exciting and stimulating discussion.

  Two conferences were full of new encounters, discoveries and experiences.  Both offered me a tremendous opportunity to interact with the leaders in a variety of fields from policy makers, business, academia and NGOs, representing different parts of the world.  (It was quite different from the typical US & Asian groups I often interact.)  I met and worked with many distinguished groups of people including those from the next generation taking over the helm soon, heard many interesting stories and views reflecting different perspectives and debated/discussed with them on solutions to the global issues which are becoming even more complex and inter-related.  It was sometimes too stimulating that I almost ended up with headache with too many new ideas and views. (In fact, I had a headache, probably because of the weather change and high elevation of Addis.)

   Europe (at St, Gallen Symposium) is geographically away from Japan and the complexity of the issues around EU, Euro and elections in various countries is sometimes difficult to understand and grasp from Japan.  In that sense, being at St. Gallen and listening/meeting with many European leaders discussing the issues at hand was a very interesting and eye-opening experience.   Africa is even farther away (at least for me) as my only exposure to Africa was the business trip to  South Africa over a decade ago.  I had no sense of the issues in Africa, and the fact that there are 54 countries in  Africa makes it difficult to think of “Africa” as if it faces the same issue. (It is true that there are some common factors across the board, but the differences of regions and of countries are very large.)  Talking with people from Africa has been very interesting and enlightening one for me, as I knew almost nothing about the Continent. 

  I felt that the  two days at St. Gallen felt like a week as it was full of interesting and stimulating activiites, and the three days in Addis was the same. I had difficulty recalling my impressions I had at St. Gallen now that my immediate impressions are from Africa.   Seeing the poverty in Ethiopia has made me think that Asia and Japan had been there as well and made me wonder how we have been able to get out of the poverty level.  (I asked several people this question. )  I also thought that freedom of speech and democratic election which we had taken for granted are not necessarily given. Many basic foundations such as primary education is needed to build the country. Infrastructure such as clean water, sewage, electricity, & telecommunication needs to be built before (or simultaneously) the economic transformation takes shape. 

  I also thought that there are many people who seem to share similar ideas and there are many opportunties for collaboration.  I thought it would be great if young people in Japan could get exposed to the groups working on the similar ideas and activities as it would  scale up the activities to make something tangible happen. 

   I felt that English communication capability is a MUST for the exposure and collaboration.  If you can express your views clearly and are willing to share and discuss with others in English (even broken English is fine), your world  would expand tremendously.  The comment made by the student sitting next to me at St. Gallen came back to me.  He said “I am going to make a comment even if it may not be that great, because I have not had an opportunity to express my view in front of so many people.”  I myself made some comment which  turned out to be rather off at Addis, but am glad that I did.   This is the spirit all of us need. We need to speak up and  express our views.  Probably we need to SHOUT! (as Dan Isenberg asked us to do, at this morning’s session.  He said, “”We need to Shout, because if we whisper, nobody would listen!)

In the afternoon, I went to the 1-1 session with Gorden Brown.  One-on-one is the format I like a lot as you see people very close and can feel the presence of the person.  Gorden Brown was powerful & passionate about global agenda, with great sense of humor and many short stories to get  his message across.  I felt  the significance of  experiences and expertise of the world-class leaders like Gordon Brown,  but what impressed me most was his continued passion about the agenda (in his case, education among others) he feels so critical for the world.   You can feel it when you see the person so close.

I then went to the session on Job Creation.  I have been overwhelmed with the importance of the issue, in particular, the employment for the youth, and found the interactive session quite helpful for my task of serving as one of the disucussion leaders on the third day.  Many issues such as the possibility of developing manufacturing as considerable employment, potential of transforming agriculture and developing housing/construction were discussed.   Though it was the interesting session, I felt that so many issues are inter-related, and of scale beyond my imagination (we are talking about millions of unemployed people and the number is increasing quickly!) .  It was a good learning opportunity.

I had a brief meeting with the WEF staff about the future of GAC and stayed briefly at the plenary panel by the heads of several African states on leadership.  I was sorry that I would  miss the Cultural Soirre hosted by the leaders of Ethiopia, but decided to go back to the hotel to get some rest.  When I turned on TV in my room, I saw the live telecast of the plenary session on leadership, followed by the presentation of the Social Entrepreneurs Award in Africa.

WEF has focused very much on Social Entrepreneurship in recent years and I think it is great that the social entrepreneurs get some attention from the wider community.

The third and the final day of the Forum on Africa began with the bright sun.  I was feeling fine and ready to have an exciting discussion on 3E-N with Dan Isenberg.   It was the workshop style session and went very well.  Friday (last day) morning at 9:00 a.m. is NOT exactly the ideal time to get many participants, but we had quite a few and the discussion was very lively.

The way Dan facilitated the session was great as everyone got engaged quickly.  Though the issue of 3E-N, i.e. Education-Entrepreneurship-Employment-Nexus is challenging one as I have found out over the past two days,  we had some specific actions laid out.  I was fortunate to serve as one of the discussion leaders and enjoyed the session myself very much.  I also learned the way to facilitate the engaging discussion in the workshop.

So it has been five days of new experiences, new learning, and some health challenges in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.  It has been an eye-opening experience in many aspects.

By then, I noticed that I had not been feeling well.  I had been very careful about drinking water, no vegetables etc. but I lost appetite (which is very usual for me) for few days.  Probably the fact that I have been on the road over a week and that the unusually cold weather yesterday did it to my body.  I had a fever and my whole body (headache and other parts) ached.  So  I canceled the two other sessions I was invited to that evening.

I was so cold that I had to take out the blanket. I could not think of any better way to recover other than getting some good rest, so I went to bed around 7:00 p.m.

It worked!  As I got up this morning, my fever was down and I felt fine.  The bright sun cheered me up, too. So there I was at the breakfast meeting, and opening plenary which began with the opening remarks by Prof. Klaus Schwab and the panel with co-chairs of the Forum.

I also visited the mobile clinic at the venue and got some medicine.  (It was a relief that the MD said nothing serious, though it was a bit of challenge to explain my symptoms and answer his questions in English!)   I hear that quite a few people have flu and stomach problem, probably from the changing weather.  One day it is warm, and the next day it is so cold!

I now realize it is physical stamina that is required to operate globally.  When you are not feeling well, all your positive thinking and will to do something new (even meeting with new people) goes away quickly.

I was invited to the private meeting entitled “Connecting Africa through Talent Mobility” where some 20 people, including the Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia, leaders of MNCs in charge of Africa and others, discussed the issue.

As I have been involved with the Talent Mobility Council for the past several years, but have no direct experience in Africa, I found the session very informative and interesting.  I was struck by the multitude of issues around talent & human capital in Africa.  Talent & human capital has both positive and negative sides to it, in that they often come with many headaches and frustrations, but that human capital is the key and offers great potential for the long term economic growth and sustainable society.

Discussion ranged from the need and difficulty of Public-Private partnerships, the issue of losing highly educated people, and the need for the basic education and technical/vocational training in addition to the high advanced skill development.

The discussion was enlightening as there were quite a few frank comments, new initiatives, and the possibility of collaboration at different levels no matter how hard it might be. I trust the meeting served as a starting point to continue relationships, share good practices and continue a journey to resolve the key issue in Africa.

I personally found the session very informative and inspiring as I really did not know  much about the state in Africa in my past involvement in Talent Mobility Council.  Being in the country, talking with local people and trying to make sense of what you see is always an exciting experience., though it is rather short.  I am very fortunate to be given this opportunity.

 I was struck by the poverty I saw at many sections of the city, contrasted with the section where the diplomatic headquarters and other municipal buildings are located.  I was very impressed with the fact that Ethiopia has a rich history, has unique geographical features (with some unique trees etc.) and seems to have abundant resources available.  At the same time, I saw many people carrying leaves and woods from the mountains,  together with many donkeys doing the same.   

 I asked my guide what needs to be done to promote economic development, and his response was education.  He said that young people go out of the country to get high education and do not come back.  I have seen some other countries where the trend gets reversed and the youth starts building the country.   I am sure we will be discussing many of these issues at the World Economic Forum on Africa starting tomorrow.

  Though it seemed that the rainy season already started (I heard from the British man who had been here since Saturday that it rained every single day!), we were very lucky as we escaped the rain and downpour in a matter of minutes. (After we finished walking around the Merkato, the downpour started to flood many places!)   It was a day which I had never experienced before.