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Hitotsubashi ICS Reveals Secrets of Knowledge Management

February 27, 2004


HONOLULU— On February 27, 2004, Hawai‘i professionals, businesses, and organizations gathered at a special forum on knowledge management hosted by JAIMS and the University of Hawai‘i College of Business. Featured were Hitotsubashi University Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy (ICS) professors Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, dean of ICS.

World-renowned in his field, Nonaka presented an overview of his dialectic approach to knowledge management to begin the forum. Nonaka’s dialectic approach involves combining diverse and often contradictory knowledge to create higher states of knowledge and skills into an ideal synthesis.

 

  
Hirotaka Takeuchi, Professor and Dean of Hitotsubashi ICS
Shanghai TV cameraman filming CHEMBA class.
Takeuchi followed Nonaka by elaborating on the dialectic approach and giving examples of its use in Japanese and U.S. organizations. With deep roots in both Japan and the United States, Takeuchi himself is a living example of a dialectic synthesis, able to shed light on the contrasting nature of both cultures in terms of knowledge management.

“ [Japanese] have tons of tacit knowledge but don't know how to articulate it,” Takeuchi said, “A lot of the challenge of the Westerners is the opposite. You have tons of knowledge [in your head], but how do to you convert that and share it with your employees so that that knowledge is shared in your guts?”

Followig his presentation, Takeuchi then facilitated a panel discussion and group brainstorming with the audience. The panel was composed of Hitotsubashi ICS professors Satoshi Akutsu, Yoko Ishikura, Ken Kusunoki, and Emi Osono who each contributed chapters to Takeuchi and Nonaka’s newly published book, Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Management.

The panel and audience discussions focused on Hawai‘i’s future in business and how it can be improved using Nonaka’s dialectic approach to knowledge management. Ideas ranged from finding and utilizing Hawai‘i’s unique and advantageous qualities to transforming its perceived weaknesses into strengths in the global market.

The forum was a special engagement co-presented by JAIMS and the University of Hawaii College of Business in appreciation of the partnership with Hitosubashi ICS, the first national entity in Japan to offer an MBA degree taught exclusively in English.

Business Week voted Takeuchi as one of the top 10 “management-school professors in demand for in-house corporate education programs” in the world. Fortune introduced him as “among the intellectual leaders of the younger, globally-minded generation that is coming to power in Japan” in a two-page featured article on his work on knowledge creation. Prior to joining Hitotsubashi, he taught at the Harvard Business School for seven years. Takeuchi has authored many articles and books including his recent book, Can Japan Compete? which was co-authored by Michael E. Porter.

Nonaka is the first Xerox Distinguished Professor of Knowledge at the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and is also visiting dean and professor at the Center for Knowledge and Innovation Research at the Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration. He has presented his work to the executives of the Nippon Keidanren and is acknowledged to be a leader of the knowledge creation movement.