Q: How has the pandemic changed business?
What are the changes that are going to reshape the future of business?

The speed of decision making has been accelerated, shifting into a higher gear. Changes in consumer trends and their purchasing behavior have become faster, and both the scope and speed of executive decision making in corporate management has grown. But all the key changes that have occurred or are occurring during the health crisis have been long in the making. Signs of these changes, including the growing influence of the core values of the millennial generation, which are driving the trend toward carbon neutrality and digital transformation (DX), were evident before the pandemic. The crisis has only accelerated these changes.

Take medical representatives (MRs), for instance. They used to focus their sales efforts on visiting doctors as frequently as possible and building close ties with them. But opportunities to pursue this approach as a way to immediately generate sales have decreased sharply. One factor behind this change is a generational shift among doctors. More importantly, however, a larger number of busy doctors now view time spent on meeting MRs as time wasted. This has inspired MRs to focus their sales efforts more on their core role, which is to supply valuable pharmaceutical information to their customers in a proper and efficient manner. This change has made it much more important for MRs to make effective use of digital technologies.

In corporate management, companies are now required to have an accurate understanding of the implications of changes that are occurring. They need to be able to detect early signs of changes in the tide as they appear and respond quickly to such changes through effective and proactive marketing efforts. At the same time, it is also vital for companies to have clear ideas about their core missions and strategic goals and take effective action to realize their own vision for the future. From this point of view, it is clearly crucial for companies to have a medium- to long-term management vision that is not tethered to the need for short-term responses to the changing situation. The same is true with governance of a nation. We see growing disparities in national power due to differences in the quality of their future visions and in the speed and accuracy of decision making.

Q: What do these changes mean for businesspeople?

People also need to have good ideas about how things will change in the coming years and know what information is necessary for obtaining such ideas. They must be clear about how the values of industries, companies, society and themselves should be defined and also about their own roles. It is crucial for businesspeople to act on the assumption that changes that transcend the scope of their current knowledge and experience may take place and seek to know and understand diverse viewpoints. By securing more opportunities to explore diverse possibilities, people can enhance their ability to cope with the unknown. It is vital for businesspeople to acquire the ability to learn to understand what is happening and how to respond to it, instead of learning to accumulate knowledge. From this point of view, WBS, which attracts students with widely different sets of knowledge and experience from around the world, can provide an excellent environment for business emergence.

Q: What are the competitive advantages of WBS?

Although I’m only a novice professor, I would like to cite five advantages of the school. First of all, WBS is a hub of diversity with many students with diverse backgrounds from all over the world. Being immersed in such a learning environment offers a precious experience that could be useful for career development. People who have studied together and eaten at the same table together could become lifetime friends. Friendship knows no borders.

Secondly, WBS offers a valuable opportunity to study in Japan. As a technologically advanced nation, Japan still boasts a competitive manufacturing sector. In the cyber world, U.S.-based GAFA (the four tech giants of Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple) have become overwhelming leaders. But the convergence of the virtual and real worlds in the manufacturing sector will offer great new business opportunities. In Japan, you can see what is happening on the front line of this revolution. At the same time, Japan is on the leading edge of efforts to tackle various transformative changes that are going to happen in widening areas around the world, including the rapid aging of society and low birthrates. Observing how Japan is dealing with these social challenges will help people in many other countries tackle the same challenges in the coming years.

Another advantage of studying in Japan is the relatively lower living costs and tuition than those in many other industrial nations due to a prolonged deflationary trend in this country.

The fourth advantage is an environment conducive to starting new businesses. Japan is quite friendly to entrepreneurs, with many WBC graduates having launched their own businesses. I’ve heard that there have been cases in which WBS alumni have teamed up to start up a new business. You can also start a business while working for another company as a side or second job.

Lastly, WBS has a flat and open learning environment. There are many subcultures on campus and students can find many ways to enjoy their time here.

Q: What are the reasons for your involvement in startups?

Tomohiro Fukuzawa, chief executive officer of SkyDrive Inc., a Tokyo-based flying car startup, visited Kazunari Uchida, one of WBS’s celebrity professors, to seek his advice for his business. But Mr. Uchida referred Mr. Fukuzawa to me, saying I would be better suited to advise him. I receive requests from various startups to advise and help them as a mentor. As I talked with Mr. Fukuzawa several times, I was deeply impressed by his grand future vision and strong passion. When I decide whether I want to support a startup, the key question is whether I can sympathize with the vision of the entrepreneur. It makes me happy to help boost a company’s chances of success with my expertise in corporate management.

Shinya Kobayashi, the founder of Farmnote Inc., a startup that uses Internet of Things (IoT) technology to support dairy and stock farming businesses, has a management philosophy that places great importance on contributing to building a sustainable and abundant future for the world and helping people find better ways to live. I sympathize with his desire to ensure that children in the future will also enjoy the scents of the earth he experienced when he was a child. It is wonderful to see young people making all-out efforts to realize their own dreams.

It is rare that a past success helps people open up a new future. I hope WBS students will be bold enough to seek change and move straight ahead toward opening up a new future.

Ms. Xiaodi Wang, a second-year student of Waseda Business School’s International MBA Program, first learned Japanese at an early age by watching video cassettes of “Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon,” the Japanese anime television series. Her father, who was working in Japan at the time on a temporary assignment, gave them to her. Born in Dalian, China, Wang came to Japan alone at the age of 16 to study at a Japanese high school. As she hit athe language barrier, she dropped out of the school and started upgrading her Japanese skills at a language school. She landed a job at a Chinese tech giant and worked in the entertainment department of the company’s Japanese unit. She later left the company due to family circumstances. She is now studying at WBS at her own expense.

Wang attended Professor Sugita’s summer course. “WBS has many professors who have worked as executives at globally famous companies. Prof. Sugita is one of them and usually it is almost impossible even to make an appointment with him. I was really lucky to have an opportunity to learn directly from him,” she said.

“In his case method classes, we learned a lot about key cutting-edge business management issues, such as how to identify core challenges for a business, detect signs of important changes, the importance of timing for launching new business projects, and how to move away from the ‘red ocean.’ (the highly competitive existing market space, where industry boundaries are defined, as opposed to ‘blue ocean,’ the unknown market space, which is unexplored and untainted by competition). We studied how successful innovations occur in new kinds of business that have few past examples to learn from. We learned that large Japanese companies, which traditionally have been slow to make management decisions, are finally changing. It was quite exciting to have face-to-face discussions with a senior executive at a major Internet company during Prof. Sugita’s class.”

“Many of the students at WBS are enrolled in the school under MBA programs of their companies. Excellent and highly motivated students from all over the world are studying at the school. Unlike students at universities, people learning at WBS are widely different in age. Some are fresh from college while others belong to the generation of my parents. I really enjoy learning at WBS among students who respect each other and are kind of friendly rivals,” she said with a smile.

“As I discuss various topics and career plans with people with different backgrounds and opinions in remote drinking sessions, I feel my perspective is expanding. My parents financed my university tuition, but I’m using my own money to study at WBS. I feel really happy that I have learned the great joy of studying.”

While she has not decided the theme of her master’s thesis, Wang plans to delve into factors behind both successful and unsuccessful cases of Japanese business investment in China. “WBS helps students acquire a bird’s eye view of corporate management. We also learn how a company’s investment impacts its corporate value,” she added. She has yet to decide on her career course after graduation, but she is interested in getting involved in an investment project to help young entrepreneurs realize their dreams.

Jun Kawahara, one of the Japanese students enrolled in the seminar taught by Professor Sugita, started his professional career as a public servant. Not fully satisfied with his job in government, he went on to acquire a U.S. Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license. After working as an auditor at a major accounting firm, he took the job of M&A adviser at a financial advisory firm. He also has a stint in Britain under his belt. He has taken a one-year leave from work and is studying at WBS at his own expense.

After acquiring an MBA, Kawahara intends to return to the team he belonged to before taking leave. Why did he decide to take an MBA course at WBS to expand the scope of his knowledge about corporate management?

“Three reasons. I’m a professional in accounting and finance. But the job of M&A adviser is, so to speak, mixed martial arts in the world of business. To become a better M&A adviser, you need to have the whole gamut of knowledge about business, including knowledge concerning business models, business strategy, startups and new trends like digital transformation (DX). I wanted to expand the scope of expertise in business through intensive learning. Learning at WBS also allows you to develop a useful network of professional contacts through interactions with not only a faculty including many outstanding professors but also with excellent students from various industries. You cannot afford to make a serious mistake in real business but you have many opportunities to learn from mistakes in tackling various challenges at WBS.”

Kawahara says he is just one of the many highly motivated students at WBS who have made the tough decision to take leave from their business and take on a new challenge to upgrade their capabilities and skill sets for their future, 10 or 20 years down the road.

“I considered acquiring an MBA overseas but decided against it because I’m the father of two small children. I was also concerned about the risk of being unable to travel abroad due to the pandemic,” he says. He considered other universities in Japan but chose WBS because it is the only school offering a one-year MBA program.

During an interview to select students for the seminar taught by Professor Sugita, Kawahara asked Sugita what he wanted from his students. The answer was “stimulus.” Both Sugita and Kawahara are employed by a major firm although their employers and positions within the company are different.

“Face-to-face discussions with Professor Sugita are extremely valuable and really help me upgrade my skill set. Whatever question I ask him, he gives a quick and proper answer based on a perspective new to me.”

There are many things to learn from Sugita, who is on the front lines of business management and has in-depth knowledge about a broad range of areas, personal ties with many CEOs, unwavering passion for all kinds of challenges, and a candid personality. Students of his seminar, which is focused on new businesses, are learning about transformative changes likely to occur in the business world in the next two decades, including DX. The theme fits in well with Kawahara’s career plan.

Nearly half of the required subjects (core subjects) Kawahara has chosen are for foreign students conducted in English. These classes help him build up a network of international connections and polish his English language skills. Kawahara is away from the hurly-burly of business life for one year and learning new knowledge and skills at WBS while enjoying “the luxury of visiting a library during the daytime.”

“WBS offers many face-to-face classes under strict rules for preventing infections as well as a wide array of high-quality remote classes. Unlike many other Japanese universities, WBS is located in central Tokyo. But both living costs and tuition in Japan are relatively lower than in Western industrial nations,” he says.

At the end of the interview, Kawahara stressed that WBS offers great advantages for foreign students wishing to learn about cutting-edge businesses in Japan.