Today (Feb. 20) I went to visit my parents who live in Yokohama. Last time (February 6) I visited them, we were busy talking about my trip to Davos, 70th birthday of my late husband,etc., and I completely forgot about my Dad’s accordion. So this time, I made sure I asked him to play it for me.
I had known that my Dad won the third prize when he was in highschool and my Mom had told me that he played well. But I never had a chance to hear him play. He did not play for several decades, until he managed to buy the used accordion (very fancy one) while I was in the U.S. studying. I had seen very nice Excelsior accordion in their living room lately, and I asked him to play.
He played several songs –chanson and Latin–that I am very familiar with. It was wonderful to hear the live accordion and it was obvious that he was having fun. I loved music and I felt how wonderful for 89-year old to play accordion and enjoy it! He encouraged me to start it myself and let me hold his accordion. I am not sure when I would get around to do it myself, but I thought it would be wonderful to play the instrument.
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.
