I came back to British Columbia after two weeks back in Japan. As usual, I stopped over at the Whole Foods at Park Royal Shopping Center on my way from Vancouver airport to Whistler. The Whole Foods is my favorite grocery store and I also go to the one in Manhattan whenever I am in NYC. In fact, my patronage for the store goes back all the way to Boston when I was a Doctoral student at Harvard Business School and went to Bread and Circus–grocery store which later became a part of the Whole Foods, I believe- for grocery shopping!
The one in Vancouver always strikes me as such a pleasant and lively place. People who shop there seem to be having fun and I am always overwhelmed by the variety, quality and freshness of the food they have there. I love grocery stores anyway and prefer browsing the grocery stores than shopping for apparel etc.
I am particularly fascinated by the Whole Foods type of places as they display food so attractive! I make it a rule that I go there when I am full(not hungry), as I get tempted to buy everything there if I go with empty stomach. EVERYTHING looks SO GOOD!
So this afternoon, the stop over at the Park Royal and walk around near the Whole Foods store where people have lunch, coffee etc. in the sun get me into the vacation and fun mode. It was also a beautiful summer day so that people looked happy. I had a casual talk with mother and daughter driving and stopping next to me at the traffic light. We agreed that summer is finally here!
I found that the month of July had the average highest temperature in Whistler, BC at 19 .6, compared with 26.1 last year and 22.4 in 2009. So thus far it has been unusually cold. But summer seems to be now in full swing and it is time to have fun! (In addition to have fun outside, I participated in the board meeting via telephone phone for three hours now!) Nature and technology are two key words for now.
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.
