On Friday, August 27, I went to attend a seminar by Prof. Michael Sandel at Academy Hills. His “Justice” lecture series has been one of the most popular series at Harvard and it has been made open to the public. His book is also a big seller (I had heard that over 300,000 copies of the Japanese translation of the book have been sold.) Though I have seen bits and pieces of his seminar on TV and the Internet, I had not seen an entire two-hour seminar. So I was very much looking forward to it, even though it was the fourth day after I came back, which is usually the day the jet lag hits. But I managed to keep myself awake! How could I not
He began with some casual comments on the Red Sox, following an introduction by Mr. Hayakawa, the organizer of the seminar. He then went on to discuss briefly the three schools of thought from philosophy about society and justice. He kept engaging the audience along the way by asking for yes or no votes to various questions. His style of calling on people, making the difference in views explicit, and getting people to argue back and forth was very impressive. He sometimes went back to the three schools of thought as originally stated, to make it easier for the audience to understand where we stand.
His summary, about fairness, freedom and the acceptance of restraint, reflecting the three schools of thought described at the beginning, as well as the implications for the use of marketing and technology was very inspiring, not only in its content, but also in the way it has been delivered. Though I suffered from the jet lag briefly and went blank, it was such a great way to spend Friday evening.
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.
