In the afternoon of the second day at Davos this year (January 27, 2011), I participated in the session entitled “Yes is More” by the architect from Denmark. It was a very inspiring session as the architect discussed the concept of ”Hedonistic Sustainability,” i.e., one example is the innovative building of a ski slope on top of the factory in Copenhagen! After his presentation, interesting Q & A session followed in which he talked about hundreds of failed projects (i.e. the ones not selected in the competition) and about dozen successful ones. It clearly showed that innovation accompanies so many failures (not the other way round)
The last plenary was the special session with Bill Clinton, together with Professor Klaus Schwab. Bill Clinton was here last year promoting the activities to support Haiti right after the earthquake. Every time I hear him speak, I am always impressed how good a speaker he is and find his style very attractive and appealing. His talk covered a wide range starting from Haiti to U.S. politics and Tunisia etc. I particulalry liked his advice to young leaders (which he said he had repeated many times) to “Do something” rather than just talk about the problems and issues.
I then went to Japan Night which had a big turnout, Korean Night where I ran into one of ICS alumni (she works for the Korean Federation of Business which hosted the reception) and then onto the Indonesia Reception where I met with the Minister of Trade Mari Pangestu. More from the ground tomorrow.
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.
