The official opening of the 41st Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum began with the opening remarks by Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab in the evening of the first day, January 26. He discussed the reasons behind this year’s topic of “Shared Norms for the New Reality” and also commented on his impression of the first day of ”Micro level optimism and Macro level pessimism.” Co-Chair of the Annual Meetin shared their view of the meeting. This year’s co-chairs include Mr. Yorihiko Kojima, chairman of the Mitsubishi Corporation. It has been a while since the Japanese serves as the Co-Chair of the Annual Meeting and I am quite proud of the fact.
The President Medevedez of Russia then made an opening address, covering the terrorist attach at the Moscow airport to the detailed explanation of the reforms taking place in Russia. Afterwards, the dinner for the members of the Global Agenda Councils was held at one of the hotels. The special guests were Dr. Lawrence Summers and Dr. Amy Chua whose latest book “Battled Hymn of Tiger Mother” had made many headlines. After short remarks by the special guests (It was the first time I heard Dr. Summers discuss topics other than economy etc. , and I found his casual style quite entertaining), we had discussion at our table, not necessarily directly related to the topic. The long day which started at 6:30 a.m. ended at little after 10:00 p.m. at night.
The second day began with the private brainstorming session on Global Mobility of Talent. I was one of the discussion leaders and we brainstormed as to the action items. As always, brainstorming sessions were fun (despite early in the morning.) It was nice to work with people that I have worked over the past few years including Premier Jean Charest of Quebec. He is so inspiring that we all wanted him to come to talk to our policy makers! I spent the rest of the morning listening to President Yudhoyono of Indonesia (partially) and to President Nicolas Sarkozy of France who argued for keeping the Euro alive.
This was all followed by a lunch hosted by Infosys. Panelists include people from IDEO, Salesforce.com, Syngenta, ex McKinsey and Infosys. The discussion covered the transformation taking place in the past decade or so around the values and the role of the corporation in the face of emerging markets, technology and social media such as Facebook. I realized again the major transformation in the way we think about our relationships, empowering people and the values etc.
Yoko Ishikura is a Professor at Hitotsubashi University ICS in the Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy in Japan. She has held positions as a professor at the School of International Politics, Economics and Business of Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo, as a consultant at McKinsey and Company Inc. Japan and a visiting professor at Darden School.
Professor Ishikura is a consultant to a number of multinational companies and has been a frequent speaker at management conferences, seminars, and workshops throughout the world. She was a member of the Regulatory Reform Committee for the Japanese government and the International Competitiveness Commission for METI. She is currently a Forum Fellow of the World Economic Forum.
She is the author of Strategic Shift from OR choices to AND paradigm, Building Core Skills of Organization , and the co-author of the following publications: Managing Diversity in the 21st Century, Strategy for Cluster Initiatives in Japan , and Building a Career to the World Class Professionals – all in Japanese. Her books in English include: Asian Advantage, Hitotsubashi on Knowledge Management and Trust and Antitrust in Asian Business Alliances.
Professor Ishikura’s current research interests are focused on global competition, innovation, and knowledge management. She received her BA from Sophia University in Tokyo, Japan; MBA from Darden School, University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia; and DBA from Harvard Business School.
