As in the past few years, we had team building for incoming students at Takao Waku waku village. As I had Nikkei seminar in the evening of Sept. 21, I joined the group early on Sept. 22. My role is to demonstrate how to put harness for the high elements as last year.
I left home quite early to make it to Takao at 8:45 a.m. I had refresher course to recall how to put harness myself (after a year!) before I can demonstrate. I introduced myself to students as a person whose job is demonstration of harness. (Some of the incoming students thought I was one of the members of the team building exercise!)
It is always fun to see the incoming class with excitement and their energy every year. In addition to that, I was given an opportunity to try the high elements myself this year. I asked one of the student teams to let me join and after I served as one of the members of the Belay team to support a challenger, it was my turn to be a challenger.
I wanted to try relatively easier one among several high elements, and to avoid the one which required a delicate balance. I managed to climb to the plate (not sure whether this is the right term or not) up high, without looking down. (I was afraid that I might be scared if I looked down!) The last step required quite a bit of effort as it was a big step and I was already gasping for air by the time I got there. I managed to stand on the plate (not sure how far up it was) and with short break, I jumped off to the hanging net. It was a lot of fun as I felt so “high”, thanks to the support the Belay team gave me.
It was a hot and humid day, but it was definitely worth going to Takao. Now I am ready to welcome the class of 2011! It is the great time of the year to welcome new group of students and we all make a new beginning.
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.
