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The 2000-2001 JEMBA and CHEMBA Commencement
Address
Tokyo, Japan
Glen S. Fukushima President & CEO, Cadence
Design Systems, Japan
Immediate Past President, American Chamber
of Commerce in Japan
Chairman Sekizawa, President Miyataki,
Dean McClain, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, and graduates
of the JEMBA (Japan-focused Master of Business Administration) and
CHEMBA (China-focused Master of Business Administration) programs
of JAIMS (the Japan-America Institute of Management Science).
I am indeed honored to be invited today to present
the Commencement Address at this ceremony to celebrate the graduation
of 18 students from the JEMBA program and five students from the
CHEMBA program. Let me begin by offering my heartfelt congratulations
to all 23 graduates.
You should all feel enormously proud of your
accomplishments-first, being accepted into your respective programs,
and second, having successfully completed the intensive 15-month
programs provided through the unique partnership between JAIMS and
the University of Hawaii at Manoa, College of Business Administration.
The programs are ideally suited to prepare you
for the world of global business in the 21st century. Both programs
consist of an intensive 12-month curriculum, completed this year
on July 27, of core MBA courses, rigorous business language instruction
in Japanese or Mandarin, and advanced courses in international business
that focus on Japan or China. This was followed by a three-month
internship, this year from August 27 to November 9, where you have
had the opportunity to apply the business knowledge and language
skills learned in the classroom to real-world intercultural business
environments in Tokyo, Shanghai, Seattle, and Honolulu. You are
assembled in Tokyo today upon having submitted your internship reports
to your faculty advisers.
The JEMBA and CHEMBA programs have combined
the three elements that I believe are essential for you to become
global leaders in your respective fields-first, intellectual knowledge,
analytical skills, and conceptual tools for business; second, foreign
language fluency and sensitivity to and understanding of foreign
cultures; and third, intensive real-world business experience in
a global setting. But these are necessary, not sufficient, conditions
for you to attain your professional goals.
As someone who has been involved in cross-cultural
and intercultural engagements for much of my 52 years in a variety
of professions-academia, journalism, law, government, and business-I
would like to share with you some of the lessons I've learned in
the hope that they may be of some use to you as you embark upon
your careers in the exciting field of global management. In the
interest of time, I will limit myself to 10 issues that I believe
may have particular relevance to your future roles as global managers.
The first observation is that learning
is an unending quest. Although the JEMBA and CHEMBA programs have
provided you an excellent educational foundation, the facts that
you learned in the programs will almost certainly be overtaken by
events. For instance, when I was a student at the Harvard Business
School in the late 1970s, few would have predicted that 10 years
later, in 1989, the Berlin Wall would fall, leading to the collapse
of the Soviet Union and to the end of the Cold War, or that by the
mid-1990s practically all global business executives would be communicating
using the Internet and electronic mail, or that in the 21st century
information technology would become a critical element of most companies'
corporate strategy. This is why mastering facts alone is inadequate.
This is why concepts, theories, analytical tools, "critical thinking,"
and learning how to think and how to learn are so important in order
not only to keep abreast of changes in the world but to know how
to deal effectively with these changes. This is why you cannot allow
yourself to be satisfied with the facts you have learned in school
or rest complacently on your past laurels. You need always to remain
intellectually curious and actively seek out new ideas, new learning,
and new ways of looking at the world.
The second observation is that the only constant
in business is change. This can be seen on the global
level, as in China's recent accession to the WTO (World Trade Organization)
and the changes that will bring to the global trading system. I
was in Beijing just last week, and I can tell you that there is
enormously impressive progress taking place there on a number of
fronts-economic, political, social-all of which are bound to accelerate
as China prepares for the Olympic Games in 2008. On the regional
level, APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum), NAFTA (North
American Free Trade Agreement), FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas),
and the EU (European Union) are creating significant changes that
are affecting the conduct of business. On the national level, the
U.S. Telecommunications Act of 1996, for instance, has led to a
transformation of the U.S. telecommunications industry, so much
so that the "old" AT&T now looks radically different from when I
worked there just a few short years ago-between 1990 and 1998-whether
one looks at AT&T the services company, Lucent Technologies the
equipment manufacturer, or NCR the computer company-which until
1996 were all part of the "old" AT&T. This is why you should always
remain flexible and resilient, and receptive to change-whether on
the global, regional, national, organizational, or individual level.
The third observation is that success in business
requires not only intellectual understanding but appropriate, timely,
and effective action. During my work as a management
consultant leading the Japan operations of Arthur D. Little, I saw
numerous companies that were impressively successful in formulating
elegant strategies but were utterly incapable of translating them
into action. One of the most refreshing and important aphorisms
I've run across in business is one attributed to Percy Barnevik,
former CEO of ABB (Asea Brown Boveri), the Swiss-Swedish multinational
corporation: "Strategy is execution!" This is why, although theories
and concepts are important, as I indicated before, you always need
to test them in the real world and not be satisfied with merely
having formulated a plan or strategy. After all, actions and results
in the real world are what count.
The fourth observation is that the boundaries
between industries are starting to blur. Is IBM a computer manufacturer
or a service provider? Is General Electric a manufacturing company
or a financial services company? Is Amazon.com an on-line bookstore
or an on-line department store? The blurring of industry boundaries
means that what one learns in one industry can often have applicability
to another industry. For example, Mari Matsunaga, who was a central
contributor to the phenomenally successful "i-mode" mobile Internet
service in Japan, came to NTT DoCoMo not from a telecommunications
background but from the publishing industry. Similar analogies might
come to mind in the case of John Scully at Apple or Lou Gerstner
at IBM. The implication here is that virtually any quality work
experience you have can be valuable to you as your personal asset,
even if you are moving across industry lines. I have found in my
own work, for instance, that I have been able to apply profitably
my experience in AT&T (in telecommunications) and Arthur D. Little
(in management consulting) to my current job of leading the Japan
operations of Cadence Design Systems, the world's leading supplier
of software for EDA, or electronic design automation.
The fifth observation is that there is much
that the public sector can learn from the private
sector, and vice versa. I know that most of you are interested
in working in a global business, but I would encourage you, if you
have the opportunity, to experience work in the public sector as
well-whether in federal, state, or local government, or in NPOs
(non-profit organizations). (I am pleased to note here that one
of the CHEMBA students wrote that she aspired in the future to be
the U.S. Ambassador to China.) The five years I spent in Washington,
D.C. at the Office of the United States Trade Representative, as
well as the five years as Vice President and two years as President
of the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, were invaluable experiences
for me to understand the larger social and political framework in
which companies operate. The importance of the public sector, especially
the role of government, appeared to be receding since the end of
the Cold War, but the events of September 11 have dramatically illustrated
the continuing importance of the public sector in dealing with global
political, cultural, and military issues, areas in which the private
sector usually has less direct ability to influence.
The sixth observation is that the global
and cultural dimensions of business merit much more
attention than they have at present. All of you are fortunate, through
the JEMBA and CHEMA programs, to have acquired an excellent foundation
in this area. Despite the widespread use of English as the international
language of business and despite the diffusion of Western concepts
and forms of business-whether in accounting rules, disclosure requirements,
or corporate governance-the fact is that most people in the world
do not speak English, nor have they adopted the so-called "Anglo-American"
form of capitalism. Whether on the macro level of understanding
Islamic fundamentalism or the micro level of how to exchange business
cards in Japan, understanding and dealing with cultural differences
is key to success in global business. All too often, American business
people fall into the trap of ethnocentrism, a scourge you will find
yourself battling against, as I have throughout my own career.
The seventh observation, related to the above,
is that the acquisition of foreign language fluency
can be important for success in global business. By learning another
language well, one can both absorb and convey new ideas and information,
often inaccessible in one's own native tongue. In addition to providing
a medium of communication, languages can open up a whole new world
of concepts and ways of looking at the world. It can also help to
better understand one's own native language and culture-their characteristics
and uniqueness. Although I studied Spanish in elementary school,
French in high school, and German and Japanese in college, I cannot
claim to be a linguist. However, studying these languages has taught
me about the diversity of thought processes, logic, and conceptualization
represented by each of these underlying cultures-the Spanish, French,
German, Japanese, and, by comparison, the American. Like learning
itself, foreign language acquisition is a never-ending quest, one
which I urge all of you to continue to pursue, even if your linguistic
skills are already highly developed.
The eighth observation is the need to effectively
manage a diverse workforce. One of the consequences
of globalization is that the labor force has become increasingly
mobile and diverse-that is, there is no longer a necessary identity
between the citizenship of the worker, the nationality of the company
in which he or she works, and the geographic location of work. For
instance, one of the most high-profile business executives in Japan
today is Carlos Ghosn, a Brazilian citizen of Lebanese ancestry,
educated in France and now the CEO of Nissan, a Japanese automotive
company headquartered in Tokyo but with significant French capital
infusion. And my company, headquartered in Silicon Valley, has a
tremendous diversity of talent from around the world. In her recent
study entitled Silicon Valley's New Immigrant Entrepreneurs, University
of California at Berkeley professor AnnaLee Saxenian writes: "Silicon
Valley is the home of the integrated circuit, or IC-but when local
technologists claim that 'Silicon Valley is built on ICs' they refer
not to chips, but to Indian and Chinese engineers." As global managers,
you will almost certainly find that being able to effectively manage
a diverse workforce-not only in nationality but in citizenship,
ethnicity, race, gender, religion, age, etc.-will be essential to
your success.
This subject of workforce mobility and diversity
is a subject dear to my heart, for several reasons. First, for many
years I have been in the position of seeking high-caliber individuals
to hire to join me in my organization-whether at my former law firm,
USTR, AT&T, Arthur D. Little, the American Chamber of Commerce in
Japan, or in my current company, Cadence Design Systems. Second,
whether in the United States or Japan-or any country, for that matter-what
has become known as "the war for talent" has been escalating in
recent years. A book published this year by the Harvard Business
School Press entitled The War for Talent, based on a study originally
released by McKinsey & Co. in 1997, is based on the following theme:
"How strong is your talent pool? The answer will determine your
company's long-term success." Just as all of you have joined this
"war for talent" among employers eager to hire you and secure your
talents, you, as global managers, will soon be in the position of
seeking out talented individuals to help achieve your organization's
goals, whether in the private sector or public sector. Identifying,
hiring, training, developing, motivating, and retaining these high-caliber
people will be a top priority for you as global managers.
A third reason for my interest in this subject
of human resources and talent is that my wife, Sakie, after obtaining
her MBA from Stanford in 1987 and working for three years as a strategy
management consultant at Bain & Co., joined Korn/Ferry International,
the world's largest executive search firm. She currently leads the
Japan operations of the firm and for the past six years has been
a member of its board of directors in the Los Angeles corporate
headquarters. Her job focuses on assisting multinational corporations-primarily
American and European, but increasingly Japanese as well-to identify
and recruit highly qualified individuals to assume senior executive-level
positions, primarily in Japan. She has seen dramatic changes in
the Japanese labor market during her 10 years in the search profession,
but one constant is that all of her clients are engaged intensively
in the "war for talent." What she finds is that the ascriptive traits
of job candidates are becoming less relevant, as organizations increasingly
realize that, in order to be competitive, they need to hire the
most capable individuals for the job regardless of nationality,
citizenship, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, age, etc. What this
means is that, even in a country like Japan, we are starting to
see diversity in corporate leadership-that is, CEOs and other leaders
emerging who do not fit the traditional stereotype of the 60-plus-year-old
Japanese male who has worked in one organization for his entire
career.
The ninth observation is that you should not
be afraid to take risks, innovate, and
challenge the status quo. Akio Morita and Masaru Ibuka
of Sony, Andy Grove of Intel, Steve Jobs of Apple, Bill Gates of
Microsoft, Masayoshi Son of Softbank, Michael Dell of Dell Computers,
etc., etc.-none of these individuals succeeded by following in the
established footsteps of their elders. They all innovated-they took
enormous risks and challenged the orthodox ways of doing things.
It is often pointed out that one of the reasons that venture capital
has not developed to a significant level in Japan is that this is
a risk-averse culture where a single failure may stigmatize an individual
forever. The dynamism of Silicon Valley, by contrast, is in part
due to a culture where venture capitalists would often prefer to
fund an entrepreneur who has tried and failed than one who hasn't
tried at all, since the former has presumably learned from his or
her past failures. One obviously needs to be prudent and study the
market before plunging into a new enterprise, but the rewards of
taking intelligent risks can be enormous. You probably know the
story of Fred Smith. As an undergraduate at Yale College, he wrote
a paper proposing a business case of an overnight package delivery
service. His professor gave him a "C," saying that the idea would
never work. Ignoring this, Smith went on to create Federal Express,
the successful multi-million dollar enterprise that also stimulated
the creation of several competitors and thus spawned a whole new
industry.
The tenth and final observation is that the
determination to succeed in business needs to be tempered by a sense
of balance and perspective about the
role of business in society, including the responsibilities of an
enterprise to its stakeholders. These would include the employees,
shareholders, partners, customers, suppliers, and community at large.
Adhering to health and safety standards, labor laws, and environmental
regulations; contributing to the community; and dealing ethically
with all parties-in essence, being a "good corporate citizen" is
essential. Important also is knowing the limits of "the market."
The market is a truly remarkable mechanism for resource allocation,
but-Milton Friedman notwithstanding-it is not always perfect.
In addition to the organizational level of the
enterprise, each of you as individual global managers will need
to establish your own personal code of conduct, especially as you
work in environments where the laws, regulations, social practices,
and business conduct may not be consistent across countries.
The need for a sense of balance also refers
to the balance between work and recreation, between the office and
the home, between work and one's family, between work and one's
personal life, and so on. In other words, being successful global
managers is a laudable goal, but one needs to be aware of the potential
of personal sacrifices that may be required to attain certain professional
goals. In this sense, having a clear set of personal priorities
can help in making conscious tradeoffs and maintaining a sense of
balance and perspective. Being insufficiently conscious of these
issues can lead to conflicts in one's family and personal relationships,
or even lead to serious psychological or physical consequences.
We all know of hyper-active "Type A" managers who would not have
"burned out" on their job had they paced themselves more carefully
and been more conscious of their priorities and tradeoffs.
I have briefly offered ten "observations," based
on my own experience, which I hope may be of some help to you as
you embark on your new careers. You have an exciting time ahead
of you. Although the world economy is in a comparative lull at present,
most observers predict that by this time next year the U.S. economy
will have begun its recovery. Having just returned yesterday from
the United States, I can tell you that the U.S. stock market has
already reacted positively to the recent news from Afghanistan and
to the preliminary finding that the American Airlines plane crash
in New York City earlier this week was most likely caused not by
a terrorist act but by pilot error or a mechanical failure of some
kind.
In the global markets of the 21st century, business
opportunities are boundless. With hard work, focus, creativity,
resourcefulness, commitment, determination, and a little luck, you
should all do well. The JEMBA and CHEMBA programs have certainly
equipped you with an excellent advantage in your pursuit of global
business success.
Let me conclude my address with a quotation
from Peter Drucker, the management guru who, at the age of 92, just
wrote an article for the November 3rd issue of the Economist entitled
"The Next Society: A Survey of the Near Future":
Following the information revolution, once again
we see the emergence of new institutions and new theories. . . .
All this suggests that the greatest changes are almost certainly
still ahead of us. We can also be sure that the society of 2030
will be very different from that of today, and that it will bear
little resemblance to that predicted by today's best-selling futurists.
It will not be dominated or even shaped by information technology.
IT will, of course, be important, but it will be only one of several
important new technologies. The central feature of the next society,
as of its predecessors, will be new institutions and new theories,
ideologies, and problems.
I prepared most of my remarks for today before
reading Drucker's article, which I read yesterday in the airplane
returning to Tokyo from San Francisco. But I'm pleased that his
views and mine are largely consistent. I think Drucker would agree
that for those entering the global marketplace today, among the
important factors to keep in mind are (1) learning
as an unending quest, (2) change as a constant, (3)
action as a crucial check on theory, (4) industry
boundaries as blurring, (5) the public sector
as a complement to the private sector, (6) global
and cultural dimensions of business as critical, (7)
foreign language acquisition as important, (8) workforce
diversity as a key trend, (9) intelligent risk-taking
as essential, and (10) a sense of balance and perspective
as indispensable.
Again, congratulations on successfully completing
the JEMBA and CHEMBA programs. And best of luck in your new endeavors.
I urge you to be bold, be ambitious, and be demanding. Set high
standards for yourself and those who work with you. And may all
of you be successful beyond your wildest dreams in attaining your
personal and professional goals and aspirations!
Thank you, and good luck!
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