As I reflect summers I spent in British Columbia, I cannot but think of the availability of various services enabled by the progress of ICT and various devices. For example, many years ago, I used to roller blade down to 7-11 to pick up Japanese newspaper. 7-11 was the only place that carried the paper in Japanese and I went down (as a daily exercise routine) there by roller blade.
Last few years, I was able to get the news from Japan through various website. In fact, I recall people in Japan were surprised as I found the news of Japan Post Privatization Bill turned down in Japan in a matter of minutes after it happened. (As it was so shocking, I may have written about this incident before.)
Now, I can read the whole newspaper on any one of the devices –PC, iPad or iPhone. I can even sort the type of articles I want by registering ? the area of interest and by setting up Alert.
With ICT becoming so available and accessible, the issue may be limited to the time zone. In fact, I heard the podcast of HBR Ideacast describing how much overlap of working hours is found in the world. It turned out that time zone of Mumbai, India, covers about 70% of the world GDP, while that in the U.S. east coast (I believe) covers about 30%. Best time to plan the teleconferencing if you want to get people throughout the world engaged is noon time in Mumbai, it reported.
If people follow this result, I would NOT have to stay up until midnight to do the teleconferencing!
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.
