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Hitotsubashi ICS Reveals
Secrets of Knowledge Management
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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
Hawaii College of Business. Featured were Hitotsubashi University
Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy (ICS) professors
Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi.
To begin the forum, Nonaka presented an overview
of his dialectic approach to knowledge management. Nonaka’s
approach involves combining diverse and often contradictory
knowledge to create higher states of knowledge and skills into
an ideal synthesis.
Takeuchi followed Nonaka by elaborating on
the dialectic approach and giving examples of its use in
Japanese and U.S. organizations.
Takeuchi himself, a living example of a dialectic synthesis with
deep roots in both Japan and the United States, shed light on
the contrasting nature of both cultures in terms of knowledge
management. |
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Dr. Ikujiro Nonaka |
“[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 you convert that and share it with your employees so that that
knowledge is shared in your guts?”
Following the 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.
Nonaka is the first Xerox Distinguished Professor
of Knowledge at the University of California at Berkeley 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. Recently, he gave a 15-minute lecture on knowledge
management to the Emperor and Empress of Japan; he is the first
professor of management to have this honor.
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.
Extending
Our Thinking, Extending Our Reach:
A Message from JAIMS President Glenn Miyataki
Reverend Daiun Iba, a former Fujitsu employee who came
to study at JAIMS, left the business world to become a Buddhist monk
in Japan (Kouya-san, shingon-shu). For several years now, he has
had many relations with the Sri Lanka Buddhist world and, as he conveyed
to me, “My style is of a kind of international Buddhist priest.
I have no boundary in this world. The whole of the Earth is my temple.” With
this philosophy, Reverend Iba visited JAIMS recently and shared his
vision and inspiration of sending a cadre of Sri Lankan monks to
JAIMS over the next few years for management training. This core
of monks would then help to develop a management school in the monastery
in Sri Lanka. The thought of being a part of a movement to bring
management education into the sacred world of Buddhist monks will
certainly test and extend our thinking and reach. It’s an adventure
JAIMS welcomes as we promote intercultural management education into
every corner of the world.
This challenge to reach many cultures is
an impetus for JAIMS to embrace universal concepts such as the “creative
class” and “knowledge
creation.” In his book, The Rise of the Creative Class,
author Richard Florida refers to the “creative class” as
those who work in such industries as biosciences, computer technology,
or art. Referring to this group as the “super-creative
core,” he
surmises that they now exceed more than 10 percent of the working
population in the U.S., and when those in the financial and legal
industries are included, this core approximates about 30 percent
of the working population. This core of workers has the skills
necessary to infuse creativity into the culture and economies
of everyday life
and will define the new structure of society. JAIMS will design
its curricula with creative thinking and extending knowledge
to ensure
that its graduates will be at the forefront of challenges in
the knowledge-based economy.
Another key concept advanced by Dr. Ikujiro Nonaka
and Dr. Hirotaka Takeuchi of the Hitotsubashi Graduate School of
International Corporate
Strategy in Tokyo is “knowledge creation.” Their involvement
with JAIMS over the past decade urges the creation of new knowledge
through “tacit knowledge,” (i.e., knowledge that resides
in experience, wisdom, and intuition) along with “explicit
knowledge,” (i.e., knowledge that reflects facts, information,
and data.) Their insight of synthesizing intuition and facts creates
knowledge that addresses the myriad of problems facing organizations
today.
Nonaka and Takeuchi recently expanded their knowledge
creation concept to include a “dialectical management” theory
that manages “paradoxes.” This
theory helps leaders deal with complex situations and problems
in an environment full of paradoxes. How would one provide empowerment
while seeking control; risk failure while encouraging risks for
success;
expect disciplined behavior while fostering initiative; and seek
positive outcomes while experiencing negative results at the same
time? Their approach explains the need for dialogue and synthesis
as a way of addressing such contradictions. The JAIMS curriculum
incorporates these concepts, challenging our students’ thinking
as they learn to manage the paradoxes in the business world.
Knowledge creation and dialectical management also
involve extending our reach via e-learning. “The Next Level
of e-Learning” was
the theme at an Oxford University-sponsored forum in January 2004
in which JAIMS was a co-sponsor
with the Oxford Internet Institute, Microsoft, and the United Kingdom (UK)
Department of Education. The forum assessed the merits of the first
generation of e-learning
while testing the merits of moving the second generation of e-learning into
international markets. JAIMS is planning to harness these concepts
to extend our thinking and
extending our reach to those who may rely upon this form of delivery to acquire
education, especially in different cultures.
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(left to right) Doris Naisbitt, John Naisbitt, Bill Dutton, and Glenn Miyataki at Oxford University
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Author of Megatrends, John
Naisbitt, who participated in the forum, encouraged JAIMS to extend
our notion of “cross-culture” into
the content and pedagogy of e-learning programs, an effort not usually
found in most of
the current
generation of e-learning programs. JAIMS believes that infusing cultural
dimensions into e-learning programs will result in more people utilizing
distance education
to improve their quality of life. This is another challenge JAIMS faces today. Naisbitt and JAIMS are planning to convene an executive
roundtable in Hawaii early next year on “future mindsets.” Naisbitt
will be sharing his thought processes on how he acquires his insights
on various megatrends
and cross-trends
that he communicates so clearly as future mindsets.
The opportunities for JAIMS are enriching and apparent.
Linking these concepts with creative individuals, curricula improvements,
technological changes,
and new teaching methodologies will further ensure that JAIMS continues
to extend
its thinking and extends its reach… as far as Sri Lanka.
Aloha and malama pono,
Glenn K. Miyataki
President, JAIMS
Yukio Matsuyama Lends Insight
on Current Issues in Japan
On February 20, 2004, JAIMS held a special invitation-only
open house featuring former Asahi Shimbun editor Yukio Matsuyama.
Brandishing his sharp insight into the trends and people of Japan,
Matsuyama discussed the current issues of Japan amongst a crowd of
local business leaders and JEMBA and CHEMBA students.
Since he first visited Honolulu in 1961, Matsuyama has seen a dramatic
change in the U.S. perception of Japan and even more in the influence
both cultures have had on one another. From the exchange of popular
culture to the significant import of politics and business practices,
Matsuyama has seen far more instances of change than he would have
dared imagine over forty years ago.
However, not all change is brought about externally.
Matsuyama notes that some changes come about not just because of
U.S. influence but
because of Japan’s economic hardship. Most notably, Japanese
companies’ policy of lifetime employment has made a turn against
tradition and has taken to laying off workers. In turn, more Japanese
employees are shunning traditional career values and choosing to
change jobs more frequently.
“When we enjoyed stability and prosperity, we
preferred the status quo to any drastic change,” Matsuyama
said, “but recently
more and more Japanese have come to realize that we have to accept
the changes from the traditional ways of doing things in order
to survive.”
Even deep-rooted beliefs in the roles of women seem
to be changing. Traditionally Japanese women have been shunned from
positions of
authority, but according to Matsuyama, even this seems to be changing.
There is now a paradigm shift lead by new gender equality and employment
laws and more women taking positions of high authority–unthinkable
just a few years back. “The more women are educated, the more they
are frustrated [with traditional views],” he said.
As cultures mingle and the world grows even smaller, says Matsuyama,
both Japan and the United States must look beyond standard government
to government and business to business relationships between nations.
“I don’t believe it will ever be possible
to make lasting happy relations between nations only through exchange
of technology, trade,
or financial affiliations…” he said, “what is
now badly needed is not more material or technological relations
but
more opportunities to promote mutual understanding.”
A graduate from Tokyo University's law department
in 1953, Matsuyama is the former Chair of the Editorial Board of
the Asahi Shimbun and
former Distinguished Visiting Professor at Harvard University.
Matsuyama is considered one of the leading authorities on U.S.-Japan
relations
and has written several books on Japanese and American societies
and cultures in both Japanese and English. He has also served on
the board of several advisory committees at such institutions as
Harvard University, the Monterey Institute of International Affairs,
and the International University of Japan. Awards include the Japan
Society, N.Y. Award (1996), The Best Man of the Year (Japan Career
Women’s Association, 1987), Ishibashi Tanzan Prize (1986),
and the Japan Press Club Prize (1978).
Audrey Hong Li on Chinese
Law
For U.S. businesses, China can often be a mysterious
and daunting market especially with the rapidly growing legal landscape
evolving just within the past 20 years. Audrey Hong Li, partner at
Shu Jin Law Firm, clarified recent developments on foreign investment
and dispute resolution in China. The discussion was held on February
23 at JAIMS with the China-focused MBA students.
With over 12 years of practical legal experience in
the field, Hong Li covered the history of foreign investment in China
and cited recent
developments in regulations that suggest that now is an opportune
time to enter China. Foreign operations will become more streamlined,
and mergers and acquisitions, both domestic and cross border, will
become enormous, she said.
With her seven years of experience at the China International
Economic & Trade
Arbitration Commission (CIETAC), Hong Li expounded on the intricacies
of dispute resolution and the significant considerations one needs
for arbitrating before CIETAC. She also discussed CIETAC developments
in domain name dispute resolution and financial dispute arbitration
rules.
Audrey Hong Li is a Chinese lawyer based in Shanghai
with more than 12 years practical legal experience in international
arbitration,
foreign direct investment and international trade, and corporate
transactions. She is a partner of Shu Jin Law Firm and was nominated
as Young Leaders Forum 2003 Fellow by the national committee on
United
States-China Relations. Previously, Hong Li worked at the China
International Economic & Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC) then was a partner
at Concord & Partners, a top five Chinese law firm in Beijing
and Shenzhen. She received an LL.M in corporate law from New York
University Law School in May 2002, in addition to an LL.M in international
economic law from Wuhan University Law School in 1997.
JAIMS to be Featured on China
Television
A Shanghai TV cameraman films the CHEMBA class. |
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Soon
over 200 million people in China will be introduced to JAIMS
in their homes. Through the efforts of CMC Consulting Group
Inc., the Documentary Channel of Shanghai TV sent a crew to
feature JAIMS as part of a three-episode documentary entitled “Hawai‘i’s
China Connection.”
The documentary,
which will air in June, will present a Chinese perspective
of Hawai‘i businesses to viewers in Shanghai.
JAIMS President Glenn Miyataki, who was interviewed
for the piece, believed it was a positive experience for both
the Shanghai TV crew and JAIMS.
“The crew was very excited about the story
they are doing on JAIMS and were very impressed with our place
and our students,” Miyataki said.
Pacific Business News covered the television
shoot in their February 27, 2004 edition complete with photos
of JAIMS students. |
An Inspiring Commencement for
the ICMP Fall 2003 Class
On January
7, the Intercultural Management Program (ICMP) fall 2003 class
held their commencement ceremony to mark the end of their studies
at JAIMS. Twenty-five students from six different countries
graduated amongst a room of host families and friends.
The commencement speaker was Dr. Richard Halverson,
Jr., the president and CEO of Guide.Net and a former instructor
at JAIMS.
“Whatever your motivations for coming to
JAIMS,” Halverson said to the graduates, “with
what you’ve learned here, the future is yours.”
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Lina Tan receives the Student Choice Award.
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Dr. Glenn Miyataki, JAIMS president, presented awards
for the previous day’s business competitions. First place for
the President’s Business Plan competition went to Heui Suk
(Julia) Ko. Second place went to Lina Tan and third went to Ken Ukai.
First place for the President’s Business Research competition
went to the team of Ken Hagiwara, Tomoaki Sawada, and Lina Tan. Second
place went to Yutaka Saito and Akiko Takahashi; and third went to
Ivanhoe Bene and Dung Viet Nguyen.
The recipients of the Funika Scholarship were Ivanhoe
Bene, and Rona Puntawe. Lina Tan was awarded with both the Francis A. Wong Award for Leadership and the Students’ Choice Award.
Tan then gave a heartfelt student address to thank her fellow
graduates, the JAIMS faculty and staff, and her host family.
Known for her uplifting personality and leadership
qualities, Tan left her fellow graduates with final words of inspiration.
“
With courage we can all be instruments of enlightenment and change.”
While some ICMP graduates immediately resumed their
careers, others continued on to complete the Business Exchange Program
(BEP) where
they interned in the U.S. for two months.
The Beginning of U.S.-Japan
Relations: A Visual History by Shigeru Miyagawa
Last December, professor Shigeru Miyagawa of MIT spoke
to Intercultural Management Program (ICMP) students on the visual
depiction of Commodore Matthew Perry’s historical trip to Japan
in 1853. This lecture session was held in conjunction with the multimedia
exhibit Black Ships and Samurai: Commodore Perry and the Opening
of Japan which Miyagawa helped to create along with MIT historian
John Dower.
“We were curious about thinking of history,
not from a textual point of view but from a visual point of view,” Miyagawa
said, as he presented images he and his staff had collected from
various
institutions
over the past two years.
The exhibit consisted of daguerreotype photographs,
paintings, sketches, and lithographs representing the differing perspectives
of the United
States and Japan during Perry’s endeavor to open trade between
the two countries.
Miyagawa highlighted Japanese artists’ depictions of Perry
as a stereotypical Western man with a big nose and hairy face, though
Perry had no such features. As Miyagawa noted, Japanese artists increasingly
demonized Perry’s image as time went on.
Miyagawa also showcased the “The Black Ship Scroll” in
the exhibit presented on interactive displays complete with translated
stories and anecdotes related to Perry’s visit.
“We’re always seeing foreign cultures through
our own screens—our
own filters—and that’s something that’s really
important to understand,” Miyagawa said.
The lecture session was held at the East-West Center
where the free exhibit was featured until December 7, 2003. For more
information
visit http://www.jaims.org/blackships/.
Shigeru Miyagawa is Professor of Linguistics at MIT,
where he also holds the Chair, Kochi-Manjiro Professor of Japanese
Language and
Culture. He is co-creator of the multimedia traveling exhibit,
Black Ships and Samurai: Commodore Perry and the Opening of Japan,
and
is the creator of StarFestival, a digital curriculum on Japanese
culture and history. He is the winner of numerous awards for his
pioneering work in educational technology, including “Best
of Show” by MacWorld magazine and the “Highest Rating” by
MacAddict magazine. In 2002, Converge magazine selected him as one
of the twenty “Shapers of the Future.”
New Bloggers Log On to JAIMS.org
There is a new set of bloggers on the JAIMS Web site. The bloggers
are part of the ICMP 2004 spring communications team and will be
documenting their JAIMS experience using this online journal. They
are Hiroki Maruyama, Akihiko Ota, Teruhiko Suga, and Mayumi Yahata.
All four bloggers come from Japan and come from various professions:
•Akihiko Ota: Team Leader, Global Establishment Services – American
Express International, Inc.
•Hiroki Maruyama: Sales Staff, Financial Group, Sales Dept. – Fujitsu
Limited.
•Mayumi Yahata: Systems Engineer – TIS Inc.
•Teruhiko Suga: Assistant Manager, Prototype Sec. No. 1, Vehicle Prototype
Works Dept. – Isuzu Motors, Ltd.
Visit: http://www.jaims.org/blogs/.
The New JAIMS Television Commercial
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JAIMS recently filmed a new television commercial
to begin airing in February on local Hawai‘i television.
JAIMS appreciates the time and effort of current
students Mark Masutomi, Heath Barlow, Noah Han, and Melody
Yapson for their starring roles. Special thanks also goes to
alumnus, Suzanne Nakano (JEMBA-8), for committing several hours
to the project.
The commercial will run for a year on KHON 2
in Hawaii and is linked on the JAIMS Web site. |
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"We're JAIMS!" |
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